Opinion: On National Highway Day, Lady Bird Johnson’s Legacy Beckons Us to Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion

Despite decades of harm the Department of Transportation is pushing a plan to widen the Cross Bronx by adding another highway structure over the Bronx River and Starlight Park doubling down on the already blatant environmental injustice The Cross Bronx Expressway Michael Appleton Mayoral Photography Office When America s environmental first lady Lady Bird Johnson championed the Highway Beautification Act in she understood something fundamental about American infrastructure roads should serve as a conduit for people not just cars Her yearly drives from Texas to Washington D C took her through junkyards filled with abandoned cars and blighted urban spaces a sight that remains familiar to New Yorkers at present Her fight to counter the concrete brutality of highways and preserve the natural ecosystem wasn t just about beautification as numerous suggested but about improving Americans quality of life In the current era as the New York State Department of Transportation pushes to expand the Cross Bronx Expressway it is betraying that vision and the Bronx communities already choking on the highway s litter This National Highway Day urges us to commit to transportation alternatives that nourish Bronx communities instead of poisoning them The great outdoors have long been under attack paved over and trodden via the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act which birthed the nation s interstate system Situated along Interstate the Cross Bronx Expressway is a product of this legacy Under Robert Moses the Cross Bronx carved through working-class neighborhoods of color in the s displacing thousands severing neighborhoods and leaving behind a legacy of asthma heart infection and premature death It remains one of the preponderance congested roadways and toxic polluters in the nation sickening residents along the Bronx River including more than at the adjacent constituents housing complex Bronx River Houses Now despite decades of harm the Department of Transportation is pushing a plan to widen the Cross Bronx by adding another highway structure over the Bronx River and Starlight Park doubling down on the already blatant environmental injustice This cannot happen Instead of expanding the Cross Bronx Expressway a monument to racist urban planning the DOT must follow through with a version of its second safer proposal for the Cross Bronx standard bridge repairs with improvements that the society has long been calling for reducing traffic by rerouting trucks and cars not headed to the area using regional highways And if DOT really wants to center our neighborhood s priorities it will explore options that increase connectivity on the east and west portions of the Cross Bronx move forward with improvements to the th Street Bridge and promotion future-looking solutions like Blue Highways that reduce traffic on local highways Bronx residents have already voiced our concerns we want bridge repairs without expansion We want to reduce traffic not build a new road that will only increase it We want more green space not a new highway that towers over a park where children play on two playgrounds already breathing in too much corruption And we want our neighborhoods reconnected not further severed NYSDOT knows this the agency was a partner in the Reimagine the Cross Bronx Expressway record a community-designed blueprint which outlines real solutions for reducing traffic while improving air quality and green space and reconnecting our neighborhoods But their new proposal does the exact opposite As Lady Bird Johnson knew way back in the s highway beautification wasn t just that it involves much more she announced Clean water clean air clean roadsides and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas To me beautification means our total concern for the physical and human quality we pass on to our children and the future To unnecessarily expand the Cross Bronx Expressway at the expense of clean water clean air and our parks wouldn t just go against her legacy It would endanger our quality of life in the Bronx something which too often hinges on the baseless decisions of people hundreds of miles away with little regard for group input This National Highway Day let s heed the lessons of the past and commit to a healthier safer transportation system that connects our communities while preserving our natural spaces Gov Kathy Hochul and DOT have a choice they can rubber-stamp another highway-sized road and spend taxpayer money to further endanger Bronx communities or halt this expansion conduct a full environmental review of the plan and eventually listen to the Bronx Siddhartha S nchez is the executive director of Bronx River Alliance which works to protect improve and restore the Bronx River corridor Jaqi Cohen is the director of context equity agenda at Tri-State Transportation Campaign which promotes sustainable transportation equitable planning policies and practices and strong communities in the New York City metro area The post Opinion On National Highway Day Lady Bird Johnson s Legacy Beckons Us to Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion appeared first on City Limits