Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Highway Removal

U.S. DOT Wants to Show America How to Heal Divides Left By Urban Highways

By Angie Schmitt | May 5, 2016 | No Comments

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx opened up earlier this spring in a refreshingly personal speech about how highway construction in American cities isolated many neighborhoods — especially black neighborhoods — and cut people off from economic opportunity. Now U.S. DOT is following up with an effort to demonstrate how those wrongs can be righted. Yesterday the agency announced the Every Place […]

Andrew Cuomo, City Builder

By Ben Fried | Apr 12, 2016 | 12 Comments

The headline is no joke. In his sixth year governing the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo is on a bit of a roll when it comes to urban planning and city-based economic development. Cuomo and his administration have announced or budgeted for multiple projects over the past few months that promise to heal urban neighborhoods by repairing the damage inflicted […]

Sheridan Expressway Removal Gets $97 Million Boost in State Budget

By David Meyer | Apr 5, 2016 | 25 Comments

Last week’s Albany budget deal includes $97 million for decommissioning the Sheridan Expressway and transforming it into a surface boulevard. The Sheridan, a short Robert Moses-era highway connecting the Bruckner and Cross-Bronx expressways, cuts South Bronx neighborhoods off from the Bronx River waterfront and its growing network of parks and greenways. Community groups have been advocating for the removal […]

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Vancouver City Council Votes to Erase Last Vestiges of Freeway System

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 28, 2015 | No Comments

Vancouver is famous for not having any freeways within the central city. But highway building got underway before public opposition quashed the freeway system in the early 1970s, and a couple of fragments of the old freeway structure have remained in the form of two short elevated roads. Not for long, however. CBC Canada reports that the Vancouver […]

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500 People Ate Dinner on a Freeway in Akron This Weekend

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 5, 2015 | No Comments

How’s this for a creative reuse of outdated 20th century infrastructure? This weekend, 500 people in Akron, Ohio, sat down and had dinner together on the Innerbelt Freeway. The event, dubbed “500 Plates,” brought together people from all over the city to talk about the future of the Innerbelt. The city is planning to decommission […]

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The Pendulum Swings Away From Highways on the Dallas City Council

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 17, 2015 | No Comments

A runoff election Saturday has solidified who’s in and who’s out of the Dallas City Council. At stake were the future of two highway projects: the construction of the Trinity Toll Road and the removal of I-345 to make way for walkable development. Highway opponents gained ground, though not enough for a majority. Before the election, four of 14 votes […]

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