Highways are Racist
Please note Buttigieg Says U.S. Will Use Infrastructure Bill to Address Racist Highway Design
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday that his agency will use about $1 billion from President Joe Biden’s public works legislation to remedy racial inequities in U.S. highway design, such as roads that were built to separate predominantly minority neighborhoods from White communities.
“It’s going to vary by community and we have to listen to the community,” Buttigieg said. “Sometimes it really is the case that an overpass went in a certain way that is so harmful that it’s got to come down or maybe be put underground. Other times maybe it’s not that way. Maybe the really important thing is to connect across, to add rather than subtract.”
Good Grief!
There is no question that in the past some highways divided communities and that accentuated economic and racial divisions.
In other cases, the divisions resulted after the Interstate was built. Finally, in some cases, perhaps most cases, there was poor planning.
Regardless, highways have already been constructed and neighborhoods and communities built around them.
I grew up in Danville, Illinois. I-74 was a huge boon for the city. Danville is now a huge bust.
A friend notes that I-83 runs right up the middle of Baltimore to the beltway.
What is Pete supposed to do it about it?
Tear up and remove 15 miles of Interstate and bridges and then where would we build the new one? Run it up in the middle of Roland Park and Ruxton which are the affluent parts of the City of Baltimore? Or would we run I 83 through the west so that some of lower income parts of the city are on the same side of the road as Roland Park and Ruxton?
Infrastructure spending was supposed to repair existing and build new roads, bridges, ports and airports.
It was not designed to move highways for social engineering.
Woke Madness
Liberals are in search of injustices everywhere, even when none exist.
Today we can add “highway are racist” to the every-growing list of racist things like SAT scores, math, grades, and simply being white.
If that sounds preposterous, please note Coca Cola Confirms Training Employees ‘Try To Be Less White’
Meanwhile, Voters Send Messages to Democrats and Republicans: Is Anyone Listening?
The backlash in Virginia and the near miss in New Jersey were enormous warning signs that people are fed up with Woke madness.
Thanks for Tuning In!
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Mish
Clean and safe are terribly important for retail business.
Street people started clustering and filthing-up 18th Street near the Castro district in the evening and at night, driving away the restaurant and bar customers.
Dirty streets, scary people, chain gates on stores can destroy a retail neighborhood. Shopping is an exciting, enjoyable, fanciful experience. Any downer can destroy it; especially for tourists who tend to be cautious in the first place.
I started a tourist bus service that took visitors to many unusual ethnic neighborhoods and let them out to wander around for a short time. The consequence was that the neighborhoods where my buses went and stopped, rapidly began to have thriving retail. Those same neighborhoods soon had walking tours that further enlarged the retail range of stores.
I mentioned street people and other perceived dangerous people, earlier. These are bad for business and businesses close soon after they become a visible problem.
Picture a block with businesses on both sides of the street but 5 of them are empty. There are several dimensions to look at the problem. Retail is about fun and pleasure.
Is the neighborhood dangerous? On a scale of zero where you find graffiti, filth, homeless people and iron security gates to 10 where stores sell candy and flowers; there are outside coffee shops, colorful clothing stores, exciting signage and a store with a line of people outside. What is the number for this neighborhood? Probably close to 10. Does it look dangerous (zero) or fun (ten)?
A neighborhood with a zero rating will not attract desirable foot traffic and will not be opening new retail stores or even keep existing ones alive. Conversely, the street focused on retail fun with abundant customers will find empty stores are rented quickly.
Look at the 3 main differences between a dead street and a vital one:
was destroyed, and the residents were given vouchers for Pruitt-Igoe.
About 20,000 African-American families lost homes when Mill Creek Valley
was declared a slum and destroyed. Interstate 44 toppled more
African-American families from The Hill. https://www.stlmag.com/news/the-color-line-race-in-st.-louis/
I Survived
the Subway
Back home
after 5 days on the road, the last three of which up an hour and a half before
sunrise and out past sunset