How the Interstate Highway System Devastated US Cities

Highway construction displaced thousands of residents and destroyed vibrant communities. In New Orleans, Clear Avenue was one of the few places where Black people could circulate freely during segregation; a 1969 highway construction demolished 500 houses. After decades, the highway issue gained prominence as roads reached end-of-life and required major renovations. President Biden launched a $2 trillion infrastructure plan with $20 billion for highway demolition and community reconnection. Rochester, New York, began demolition in 2010, removing a 4-kilometer ring road that isolated the city center, demolishing 1,300 houses. The eastern section was covered with a wide avenue, bike lanes, and sidewalks, increasing pedestrian and bicycle traffic by 50% and enabling new construction.

Cities are increasingly willing to invest millions or billions of dollars to demolish highways and replace them with parks, transit hubs, and public spaces. This willingness to undertake such ambitious and controversial projects suggests that highway infrastructure was fundamentally a mistake from the beginning. The demolition of these structures represents an opportunity to 'wipe the slate clean' and create more livable urban environments.

Cities can transform highways into vibrant urban spaces through systematic removal. Rochester, NY replaced its Inner Loop Expressway with Union Street, adding cycling infrastructure and housing. This success required 18 years of planning and community engagement. The Congress for the New Urbanism catalogs endangered highways, with three of ten original candidates successfully removed since 2008. Successful removal requires low traffic volumes, declining population, and strong political will.

Freeway removal is a public urban policy to tear down freeways and convert urban areas to mixed-use developments including parks, residential, and commercial spaces. The intent is to promote smart growth, transit-oriented development, and walkable cities. Two main techniques exist: complete removal and freeway-to-boulevard conversion. Complete removal happens in cities where highways were built through densely populated neighborhoods, often following the 1956 Act. In 2021, Senator Chuck Schumer proposed $10 billion in federal funding for urban highway removal. Freeway-to-boulevard conversion involves demolishing controlled-access highways and rebuilding them as at-grade boulevards with sidewalks, bike lanes, and green spaces. Early examples include New York City's West Side Elevated Highway conversion in 1971 and San Francisco's Embarcadero and Central Freeway conversions after the 1989 earthquake.

Cities worldwide have successfully demolished urban freeways with measurable positive outcomes. Seoul's demolition of the Cheonggyecheon Freeway (170,000 cars daily) revealed a historic river, reducing traffic by nearly half, decreasing air pollution, increasing pedestrian activity, and lowering local temperatures. Similar successes occurred in San Francisco (Embarcadero Freeway), Seattle (Alaskan Way Viaduct), and Portland (Harbor Drive). These cases demonstrate that removing highways can transform urban environments for the better.

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is a planning strategy that concentrates growth near public transit stations to reduce car dependency and promote sustainable urban development. In Northern Virginia, approximately 10% of Fairfax County's land could support TOD and absorb population growth without continuing outward sprawl. This approach addresses transportation as the primary source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by promoting walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income communities with access to reliable transit. Key areas for TOD include Don Loring, Reston, West Falls Church, Seven Corners, and the Richmond Highway corridor. TOD also provides opportunities for updated stormwater control standards and better stream health restoration. The Coalition for Smarter Growth advocates for focusing growth into transit-oriented communities along Metro lines and major commercial corridors, recognizing that sprawl development requires cars for most trips and is fundamentally unsustainable.

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is an urban planning approach that relocates government facilities from valuable transit-adjacent land to enable private residential and commercial development near public transportation, creating walkable communities where residents can access schools, shops, and workplaces within walking distance while reducing car dependency.

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is an urban planning approach that combines vertical and horizontal rail systems (such as elevators and subway/metro lines) to create walkable, mixed-use communities that reduce traffic congestion and promote sustainable urban growth, as exemplified by Bethesda, Maryland's downtown core where residential, retail, and commercial spaces coexist around transit infrastructure.

Transit-Oriented Development combines good land use planning with good transit planning by building rapid transit first and rezoning surrounding areas for high-density mixed-use neighborhoods. North York Center in Toronto exemplifies this: once a typical suburban area, it was redeveloped around an existing subway line with a new station added between existing ones. From 1986 to 2001, subway ridership increased by 84% while car ownership decreased by 16%, transforming it into Toronto's busiest business district outside downtown.

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is an urban planning strategy that concentrates residential, commercial, and employment uses around high-capacity transit stations to maximize accessibility and reduce car dependency; successful TOD implementation requires creating a central plaza or park as a pedestrian connection between transit modes, establishing a gradient of densities from high-density transit hubs to lower-density surrounding areas, and using mixed-use zoning with appropriate land use policies to create walkable, sustainable communities.

While physical fires have subsided, contemporary South Bronx residents face new displacement threats through gentrification. Today's redlined neighborhoods—those historically starved of resources in the 1960s-70s—are now being targeted for development. Residents cannot afford rising rents, face eviction, landlord harassment, and forced displacement, representing a continuation of systemic inequality through different mechanisms.

Developers are moving into the Bronx to tear down and rebuild upscale housing, displacing long-time residents who fought through the fires. The same people who were redlined and neglected for years are now being displaced by gentrification, demonstrating how cycles of urban policy continue to harm minority communities under different names.

The video demonstrates gentrification and housing displacement. Aaron discovers that Reynolds' old network is planning a massive real estate deal involving one of his shell companies and a group of investors with a shady track record. The deal involves buying up a block of low-income housing, evicting everyone, and flipping it into luxury condos. Maya and her team arrive at the downtown office building where the meeting is scheduled to take place, armed with documents Aaron has uncovered. This illustrates how gentrification schemes can displace vulnerable communities and how organized resistance can help prevent such developments.

Gentrification is a socioeconomic process where wealthier populations move into lower-income neighborhoods, driving up property values and rents, which forces original residents to relocate; this phenomenon disproportionately affects urban communities in developing countries like Colombia, where foreign investors can purchase properties at prices that local residents cannot afford, leading to displacement and loss of community.

Gentrification can push residents into specific neighborhoods, creating concentrated poverty. Boston became highly gentrified, making rent the third most expensive in America. This displacement forced people into hoods where they relied on Section 8 housing assistance to survive. The economic pressures of gentrification can contribute to the formation of concentrated poverty areas where gang activity may develop.