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During a visit to Milwaukee on Wednesday, President Joe Biden sought to bring together complementary issues his administration has emphasized, including rebuilding infrastructure and addressing systemic failures that have left urban and low-income communities in disarray. .
The White House announced $3.3 billion in grants to 42 states under federal jurisdiction. Community and Neighborhood Reconnection Grant Program. According to a White House fact sheet, the funding also includes places “that have been cut off by transportation infrastructure decades ago and have long been overlooked.”
This program is included in the government program Justice40 Initiative40% of the return on federal investments in climate change, clean energy, and affordable housing.Disadvantaged communities marginalized by lack of investment and disproportionately burdened by pollution. ”
Milwaukee will receive $36.6 million for a project to reconstruct 4.2 miles of the city’s Sixth Street Corridor from National Avenue to North Avenue through Milwaukee’s historic district. bronzeville district.
The White House announced two other grants to Wisconsin. For one, he is funding $2 million to explore alternative designs for reconfiguring freeway ramps at downtown Milwaukee’s interstate interchange, with the goal of reconnecting neighborhoods. It’s about throwing. The other would spend $1 million to explore an overpass connecting Perry Street on Madison’s south side to businesses south of the Beltline Highway.
The Community Reconnection Grant Program, funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021, will help undo some of the historic damage caused by urban highways that began in the 1950s and urban renewal programs of the 1960s. It was devised in
“The story of Bronzeville here in Milwaukee is a story we see across the country,” Biden said at the beginning of his 17-minute speech. He talked about how interstate highways, which began in the 1950s, provided “game-changing connectivity” that reshaped how we live, work and travel.
“But instead of uniting communities, these highways have divided communities. These highways have actually torn communities apart,” Biden said. It was a story he observed repeating in cities across the country, including his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
In addition to redlining, a government and bank lending policy that directs homeowners into or away from certain neighborhoods, urban highways “are used to block entire communities, sometimes with the purpose of reinforcing racial segregation.” “We cut them off from opportunities,” Biden said.
And in Milwaukee, the construction of Interstates 94 and 43, which intersect in the neighborhood, took away a “prosperous center” of black-owned commercial and residential life, destroying approximately 20,000 homes and businesses. .
Mr. Biden was introduced by Raynetta “Ray” Hill, executive director of the Business Improvement District, which includes Milwaukee’s Martin Luther King Drive and its historic Bronzeville neighborhood.
After completing his service in the U.S. Navy, Hill said, his grandfather, Lawrence Hill, opened a restaurant in 1949 one block from where the Boys & Girls Club building now stands.
“But due to racist urban renewal policies of the 1960s aimed at suppressing this community, his restaurant was demolished when Sixth Avenue was widened,” Ray Hill said. Told.
She said her grandfather, who is rebuilding a restaurant in an adjacent neighborhood, would be pleased with the plan to help restore the Sixth Street corridor.
“Projects like Complete Sixth Street go beyond infrastructure,” Hill said. “They are a commitment to community, safety, mobility and equity, especially for neighborhoods that have been burdened by historic disinvestment and freeway expansion. Seventy-five years later, I would be proud if my grandfather were still alive. right.”
The Sixth Avenue project plan calls for a “human-centered design” that would include bike lanes and bus lanes, as well as wider sidewalks to encourage pedestrian traffic. Street reconstruction includes traffic-calming features such as narrower roads and fewer travel lanes.
The project also includes infrastructure to prevent sewage from flowing into the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan. Tree canopies, landscaping and other green infrastructure will be added, according to a project summary document from the Milwaukee Department of Public Works. Design work is expected to begin later this year, with construction expected to begin in 2027 and be completed in 2029.
Climate activist Abby Nowinska-Royce, who attended the speech, said that increased pedestrian and bicycle access, transit, and green space mean that “it’s healthier to walk into these spaces.” means,” he said.
“It will bring more people and businesses back to Sixth Avenue, because unfortunately a lot of businesses were unfairly removed during the freeway widening,” Novinska-Royce said in an interview. Told. “This has allowed local businesses to return and people to be safe and healthy.”
Nowinska-Reuss, executive director of the Wisconsin Department of Health and Climate, said she attended Biden’s speech because he signed the Suppressing Inflation Act of 2022, which she called “the largest climate change investment in history.” Projects like the one featured in Milwaukee on Wednesday are “exactly what we need in our communities to improve well-being,” she said.
But at the same time, she expressed concern that another pending project with federal approval is headed in the wrong direction. It is an expansion of what is commonly referred to as Interstate 94. east-west expressway, on Milwaukee’s West Side. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) recently announced that it received the following information: Final federal approval for expansion plan Up to 8 lanes.
While collaboration between environmental and local organizations continues, be against In response to the expansion plan, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation defended the proposal and disputed many of the criticisms.
Nowinska-Reuss said she appreciates Biden’s frank mention of the harm that highway construction did to black communities half a century ago.
“So I was a little concerned that that history was still continuing,” she said. “We need to protect Black, brown, and low-income people in Milwaukee now by not allowing it to grow. So we have great projects like Sixth, but… [Street]To stay true to the values of today’s speech, we really need to stop that expansion. ”
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