Biden administration launches $1 billion effort to correct racist highway designs of the past - The Verge

The Biden administration is launching a $1 billion project to correct racist infrastructure projects from the 20th century. The project will tear down some highways, cap others, and fund greenways to promote cycling and walking.

The Biden administration announced a $1 billion effort to rectify racist infrastructure decisions of the past, such as highways that were built by bulldozing Black communities.

The program, which the Department of Transportation is calling “Reconnecting Communities,” will in some cases tear down highways that were built with the expressed purpose of creating physical barriers between mostly Black and minority communities. Other projects will focus on building new infrastructure, like greenways to promote cycling and walking or transit programs, like rapid bus lines to reconnect communities to urban cores.

“Our focus isn’t about assigning blame. It isn’t about getting caught up in guilt or regret. It is about fixing a problem,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a briefing with reporters. “It is about mending what has been broken, especially when the damage was done through taxpayer dollars.”

Buttigieg traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, Thursday to announce that the department was now accepting applications for the Reconnecting Communities pilot program. Birmingham officials plan on using federal funds from the program to finance a new bus rapid transit system in the city.

The money, which will be spread out over five years, was included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was signed into law by President Joe Biden late last year. Of the $1 billion dedicated to the pilot program, $195 million will be available in 2022, while $50 million will go toward planning activities for communities that may be early in the application process.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/30/23188433/biden-buttigieg-infrastructure-racism-1-billion-dollars

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