About those pesky highways.....

They called it Urban Renewal which was just a codeword for "Negro removal."

- James Baldwin paraphrased

April 10, 2026 - 01:24 UTC

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great opportunity to remind folk if they haven't checked it out already go read THE COLOR OF LAW by Richard Rothstein. Best nonfiction book Ive read in the last decade.
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August Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle helped me understand gentrification process disguised as progress.

The city just re-redeveloped the area depicted in those plays. Had the balls to name a concert arena Wiley Place. That was the street August grew up on. Fine line between honoring and race washing.
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Fuck robert moses in particular.
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Glad to report that this is required content for every AZ Realtor to learn. whether they are getting their first license or renewing.
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Oh wow!!!
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I keep seeing posts about walkable neighborhoods, bike lanes, electric cars…they are trying to justify their gentrification under the guise of environmental friendliness.

They justified the freeways so they could get to the burbs and outta the city by nightfall, away from us, now we gotta go.
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Gentrification happens when you limit development in affluent & White neighborhoods & focus it in economically distressed areas with marginalized folks. What you mentioned isn't them trying to justify gentrification, it's bringing awareness to how poorly designed & unsustainable most of the US is
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Still doing this till this day!
Look up 85 toll Hwy expansion Charlotte NC... this would be the second time in the same neighborhood, a successful historical Black Excellence neighborhood.
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The West End of Boston...a diverse neighborhood but you can't have that!
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syracuse new york, I-81 (splits black neighborhoods from the U in the city, THEN splits native onondaga land a few miles south. incredible.
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We had an opportunity to kinda fix some of this in Austin as a part of the highway is going to be redone. There was a plan to cap the highway and put parks and stuff on top, lessening the divide. But now funding has fallen through and the capping looks unlikely. Oh, and Austin was for a long time
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the only major city losing its Black population (not sure if that's still true or if others have joined us).
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To say any of this "ended" is rather inaccurate. The same thing is happening today, but, especially redlining. A lady had her home appraised 3 times but on the third time had a ⚪ friend put up pictures of his family and her home value magically increased by 30%. Must be all those boot straps 🤷
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