Highway Removal
Anthony Foxx Wants to Repair the Damage Done By Urban Highways
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is offering a surprisingly honest appraisal of America's history of road construction this week, with a high-profile speaking tour that focuses on the damage that highways caused in black urban neighborhoods.
March 30, 2016
Toronto City Council Blows Its Chance to Transform Downtown
Tearing down Toronto's Gardiner East Expressway would remove a hulking blight from downtown, improve access to the waterfront, open up land for walkable development, and save hundreds of millions of dollars compared to rebuilding the highway.
June 12, 2015
Decision Time for Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway
Toronto is facing a critical decision about the aging elevated Gardiner East Expressway. Will Canada's largest city go ahead with the plan to replace the one-mile-long concrete relic with a surface boulevard and walkable development? Or will it cling to yesterday's infrastructure?
June 3, 2015
Boston Says So Long to the Casey Overpass, a 1950s Highway Relic
This month, Boston is demolishing a monument to 1950s-era car infrastructure: The Casey Overpass, a short elevated road built in 1955 to whisk drivers over the Forest Hills MBTA station in Jamaica Plain without encountering any pesky things like intersections or pedestrians.
May 20, 2015
Dallas Highway Teardown PAC Snags Two Council Seats. Next Up: Runoff
A coalition of Dallas residents trying to build a more walkable, people-friendly city gained some momentum in Tuesday's election, picking up at least two City Council seats. At stake is the potential replacement of a downtown highway segment with mixed-use development and parks. The balance of power in the council now comes down to a June runoff.
May 14, 2015
Dallas Advocates Launch a PAC to Tear Down a Highway
The movement for a more livable, less car-clogged Dallas has legs.
February 11, 2015
Before/After: The 80-Year Leveling of an Oklahoma City Neighborhood
What happened in the last eight decades to Oklahoma City's Core to Shore neighborhood? That's what these two photos compiled by Dustin Akers will have you wondering. The one on the left is from a slideshow by the Oklahoman, shot in 1932. The one on the right is from Google Earth in 2014.
October 15, 2014
Talking Headways Podcast: Crown Prince of Fresh Air
What would you think of a city planner, out ruffling feathers with his bold ideas about density and urbanism -- who commutes to work an hour each way from his ranch way outside the city? Ironic -- or hypocritical? That's the question we wrestle with in our discussion of Brad Buchanan, the head honcho at Denver's Department of Community Planning and Development.
August 19, 2014
Other Cities Look to Tear Down Their Old Highways, But Not Denver
Denver has one of those golden opportunities that many American cities are seizing: An elevated highway that damaged neighborhoods is nearing the end of its life, giving the city an opening to repair the harm.
July 18, 2014
Moving Cars vs. Investing in Places — The Struggle for American Cities
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker and Mayor Tom Barrett are brawling in the press over a proposed highway project -- a fight that exemplifies the enormous rift in America about what transportation policy should accomplish.
July 9, 2014