Third Way: The Historically Racist Background Of Infrastructure
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In April of 2021, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former presidential candidate, stated that “there is racism physically built into” certain highways. While this claim was immediately under fire from conservatives – the same conservatives who believe that teaching critical race theory goes against America’s democracy – it is, in fact, true. Robert Moses, a New York urban planner, is one of its most infamous examples. While he is well known for being the master-builder of mid-20th century New York and for creating many public works facilities that are still around today, the consequences of his creations are less well known or, perhaps, merely swept under the rug.
Moses was responsible for the Southern State Parkway that opened Jones Beach in Long Island to the public. However, he also made the beach inaccessible to public transportation by lowering the height of the overpass. As people of color, minorities, and low-income communities are more likely to use public transportation than white and higher-income families, Moses effectively kept people of color from being able to access Jones Beach. Moses was also responsible for building the Cross-Bronx Expressway and the BQE which divide the boroughs and cut off lower-income neighborhoods from wealthier ones. The increase in these expressways also contributed to higher asthma rates in these low-income and minority communities.
This racist urban planning is not just seen in New York City. In the 1960s, following the Federal Aid Highway Act, the creation of the celebrated interstate highway system tore apart and destroyed communities of color throughout the United States. One glaring example is the Interstate-10 Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans, Louisiana . This freeway cut straight through Claiborne Avenue, a prominent Black neighborhood. It destroyed dozens of Black-owned businesses and subsequently their owners’ finances, as well as claiming the space where children used to play. While the community protested, knowing the cost that this would have on their neighborhood, they were ignored and the expressway was built, destroying the once-vibrant Black community in its path. This vicious history continues to be ever-present as a new, and supposedly improved, infrastructure plan makes its way into Congressional debate.
Biden’s Infrastructure Plan
Decades later, Biden has introduced a $2 trillion infrastructure plan to Congress with a focus on racial equity and advancing economic outcomes. Some initiatives in the plan would address the environmental conditions that have long plagued minority communities, such as water flowing through lead pipes (most notably in Flint, Michigan) and air pollution that disproportionately harms people of color. Another aspect of his plan is a $400 billion investment in home-care workers for elderly and disabled people. These initiatives target lower-income workers, women, and people of color.
Biden’s plan also has several proposals that are aimed directly at the more common definition of infrastructure. His administration hopes to create more affordable housing options for people of color as well as eliminate exclusionary zoning laws. There is also a section aimed at reconnecting neighborhoods that were previously harmed and cut off by transportation and infrastructure projects, such as the Claiborne Avenue neighborhood. Biden’s plan would also ideally advance educational outcomes and infrastructure in minority neighborhoods.
The False Dilemma
Although Biden presented his Infrastructure Bill with good intentions, there are still aspects that can still harm minority communities – the very communities that the bill was created to protect. For instance, Biden’s bill as currently written would allocate $100 billion to upgrading and building new public schools and child care facilities throughout the country. As a racial equity bill, much of this funding would likely be given to schools in minority and low-income neighborhoods to expand their current schools or build new ones.
However, the expansion or creation of schools – which seems like only a good thing on the surface – can pose the same problems as building new highways. Justice High School, a school in Falls Church City County in Northern Virginia, illustrates this dilemma perfectly. While Falls Church is predominantly white with an average household income of more than twice the national average, more than half the students at Justice High School are people of color, and eligible for free or reduced-cost school lunches. The school is currently overpopulated, an issue faced by many schools in minority or low-income neighborhoods. Consequently, they are planning to build a new addition to the school with more classrooms and science labs. However, this expansion would reduce the number of parking spaces to below the county’s legal requirement.
To combat this reduction in parking spaces, Fairfax County school officials have decided to build a new parking lot in Justice Park, a park located near the school. However, this park (as well as the school itself) was built on land originally owned by Black families. Ironically, the Black families sold their land to a school that their children were not even allowed to attend when it was first created. Justice Park is currently used predominantly by lower-income people and families of color who don’t have yards; therefore, the park is only their green space for their children to play. This question of where to build the new parking lot represents the dilemma that lower-income and minority neighborhoods face – by building new infrastructure they inevitably lose an important aspect of their community. The Fairfax NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Chair Lydia Lawrence, who opposes Justice Park being converted into the school’s parking lot, said it best: choosing between a renovated school and a park is not “happening in wealthier areas of the county.” The school officials believe that their only choice is to pave over the park is an example of the logical fallacy “false dilemma” created by racial inequality.
Cautious Implementation
While Biden’s Infrastructure Bill promises to make steps towards racial equity, particularly in terms of infrastructure such as roads, highways, and water, the actual implementation of the program could lead to more situations such as the one that Justice High School is currently facing. Previous infrastructure programs, in far greater numbers than the few discussed in this article, have proven to only benefit certain groups while essentially destroying others. In order for the proposals of Biden’s bill to truly both make reparations towards communities that have been harmed in the past by infrastructure creations, those implementing the plans and the construction must be careful to avoid false dilemmas that ultimately bring greater harm these minority communities.
