The New York highway that racism built: ‘It does nothing but pollute’

Just south of downtown Syracuse in upstate New York, a stretch of highway has long divided surrounding neighborhoods.

On the east side are large buildings where university students live, well-maintained green spaces, and a wall that blocks the highway from view. On the west side is a predominantly low-income and disinvested Black neighborhood where the pollution from the highway exacerbates many residents’ existing health conditions.

Joquin Paskel has lived on the west side of the Interstate 81 highway his entire life, next to a hulking, elevated section of the interstate known as the viaduct. Like many of his neighbors, he suffers from asthma; Black residents in Syracuse have higher rates of lead exposure and asthma than their white counterparts, according to a recent report by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU).

To Paskel, 28, and the generations of Black Syracuse residents before him, including his parents, the viaduct has become the ultimate symbol of segregation. It “does nothing but pollute”, he said.

Related: ‘We need help’: sewage crisis hits majority-Black town in New York

For years, New York state officials have known that the ageing I-81 viaduct has needed to be radically redeveloped. Most residents and public officials agree that it must be rethought for safety, economic and public health reasons. However, for a neighborhood that has long been disenfranchised, tearing down the highway also means repairing the legacy of injustice done to their community.

Across the US, community organizers have long been fighting to shine a light on the racist urban planning policy that led to highways being built through historically Black neighborhoods.

And now, thanks to a recent gesture of support from the Biden administration, organizers in Syracuse feel there is finally some acknowledgment of the harm I-81 has caused, and new momentum around the idea of tearing it down.

Whatever redevelopment plans emerge, Black Syracuse residents want a say in the process. Advocates say the Biden administration must ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself in terms of displacement and gentrification.

“My vision is to see a better Syracuse,” Paskel said, “to live in a better place where you don’t have to worry about stepping out your door and being shot or breathing dirty air. Something needs to be done, and it has to work out for everyone, not just certain people.”

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The fight to include highways in the national conversation on racial justice goes back decades.

The construction of I-81, along with the rest of America’s highway system, was a part of the federally funded program in the 1950s called “urban renewal”, which targeted formerly redlined, urban Black neighborhoods, labeled “slums’’, for removal. The former 15th ward neighborhood of Syracuse, once a thriving Black community, was the chosen location to build I-81. As a result, dozens of Black homes and businesses were bulldozed.

These infrastructure projects prioritized the needs of (largely white) commuters in the suburbs over the lives of poor Black residents in cities. It wasn’t limited to Syracuse or New York state; across the country, federal estimates show about 1.2 million Americans were displaced by urban renewal. That legacy lives on today: in Portland, Oregon, Black residents call part of the Interstate 5 highway that runs from Washington to California their “Robert E Lee statue”. In New Orleans, the Claiborne Expressway has been dubbed a “racist monument”.

The viaduct in Syracuse, like many other interurban highways built in the early 1960s, has reached the end of its usable life, posing safety concerns for commuters and residents. The pressure on New York state and federal transportation officials to address I-81’s declining usability is mounting; last month, Governor Andrew Cuomo referred to the viaduct as “obsolete and poorly designed”.

In March, when unveiling his $2tn plan to revitalize the country’s infrastructure, Joe Biden specifically mentioned the area affected by I-81 as an example of a neighborhood “cut off by historic investments” that now deserves federal resources. The nod signaled that “reconnecting” the neighborhood around the interstate was compatible with Biden’s other infrastructure goals, such as creating well-paying jobs and lowering greenhouse emissions.

Organizers welcomed the acknowledgment. Syracuse city school district asthma rates are higher than the state average, according to the NYCLU. And local environmentalists have worried about the viaduct’s effect on students at the nearby Dr King elementary school, a historically segregated school where the majority are low-income students of color.

The school, which faces the viaduct, has been exposed to bad air quality and other environmental toxins for decades. And because the highway also poses the risk of lead exposure, the children’s cognitive learning abilities remain at risk.

“Many of these children live and go to school here, and so there will be long-term development symptoms, especially since their lungs don’t develop properly until they’re close to their teenage years,” said Paskel.

He also worries about noise pollution and dust blowing into the school during the reconstruction of the viaduct. Much of the heavy machinery that will be used during the construction process will be fueled by diesel, which could release relatively high greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Interstate 81 project details are still being developed,” said Glenn Blain, a spokesperson with the New York state department of transportation (DOT). “DOT intends to work closely with those who may be impacted by the project as it moves forward.”

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In the last few years, New York transportation officials have been exploring solutions to redevelop I-81.

The state has a $2bn plan to transform the highway, which the Biden administration has signaled support for. Some options that have been considered include rebuilding the viaduct higher and wider to meet federal standards or building a tunnel in the viaduct’s place. But by far the most popular idea is to tear down the viaduct and create a walkable, community street grid; activists say it would help stitch the communities back together.

Not everyone agrees. Some residents – who live in the suburbs but work in downtown Syracuse – believe a walkable grid would alter and extend their commutes. The plan would reroute highway traffic on to Interstate 481, which loops the city’s east side.

But among many local and state officials and residents, including several business owners, support for the walkable grid is widespread.

Their goal is to have the highway torn down and replaced with safer roads and more pedestrian, bike and transit-friendly walkways. They argue this redesign – with tree-lined paths and strict air quality regulations – would be better for the planet and reconnect the east and west side neighborhoods long separated by the viaduct.

The New York DOT studied how constructing a community grid would affect the surrounding environment and found “no adverse cumulative effects related to air quality”; the scope of their analysis included Dr King elementary school.

Redeveloping the viaduct is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”, says Blain, to reconnect neighborhoods and invest in underserved communities. “Since the beginning of this process, DOT has conducted extensive outreach and engagement with the impacted communities and we will continue to do so.”

Organizers believe federal help is on their side – as the Biden administration has placed racial equity and environmental justice at the front and center of its plan to combat the climate crisis.

Lanessa Chaplin, the assistant director of the NYCLU’s Education Policy Center, says Syracuse will test Biden’s commitments to environmental justice.

“Racial and environmental justice is not going to happen just because you removed the viaduct,” said Chaplin, who has been leading the community fight to tear down the viaduct. “You don’t undo about 60 years of environmental racism by just removing it.”

Many residents who support the community grid plan are still worried about potentially being displaced if the redesign ultimately gentrifies the neighborhood.

Advocates say the Biden administration needs to prove its commitments to racial and environmental justice by establishing additional protections – such as rent regulations or a community land trust, which would give residents legal authority over future developments.

“The talks of removing the I-81 viaduct have been ongoing for over a decade, so this community is really exhausted from having this conversation and they’re ready for some change,” Chaplin said.

Paskel and other community activists want the Biden administration to ensure that local and state governments are acting in line with its goals. State officials say federal authorities are working closely with them on the I-81 redevelopment project – and Biden’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has been leading conversations with Syracuse leaders, underscoring the administration’s commitment to repairing the harm interstate development caused in historically Black and brown neighborhoods.

Chaplin said federal and state agencies should establish an interagency working group that includes community members, so they can create a just redevelopment plan together.

“There’s a lot of pressure for the Biden administration to get this right, because it has all the elements that he promised in his address,” Chaplin said. “If it’s done right, what happens in New York will really be a model and the beacon of what can be done for the rest of the nation.”