Capping The Cross-Bronx: Infrastructure Bill To Be Used To Undo Robert Moses-Era Environmental Racism
Nov. 10, 2021, 9:58 a.m.
“The sins of past development can and must be undone," Senator Chuck Schumer said.
Money from the recently passed $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill is going to be used to launch a project in the East Bronx to put a cap over a two-mile section of the Cross Bronx Expressway.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rep. Ritchie Torrres, and other elected officials gathered at a park overlooking a sunken portion of the Expressway Tuesday to announce the first step—funding for a study on how to best mitigate vehicle pollution responsible for some of the highest asthma rates in the country.
“This expressway, built by Robert Moses, is one of the greatest examples of environmental injustice,” Schumer said, echoing recent remarks made by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The sins of past development can and must be undone.”
The 6.5-mile Cross-Bronx Expressway, a project started in 1948, divides the borough in half. Moses "tore out the hearts of a score of neighborhoods," author Robert Caro wrote of the construction in The Power Broker, and the aftermath has meant "decades of neglect and disinvestment" in the communities.
Schumer expects the $7.5 billion dollars from the bill, along with an additional $5.5 billion from the Build Back Better bill he hopes to pass, will be enough to fund the entire project, which could cut asthma rates in half for more than 250,000 residents living within a two-mile radius of the expressway.
He also hopes once the cap is in place a park will be built on top of that portion of the expressway, something activists have been asking for for years.
“People had thought we lost our marbles, everytime we spoke about this people were like you’re absolutely insane there’s no way the government is going to give you that type of money for this type project,” Nilka Martell the founder of the community group Love In the Bronx, which pushed the idea as far back as 2016, said Tuesday. “So yeah, we lost our marbles and here we are today.”
Read More: Pete Buttigieg Observed Some Highways Have A Racist Past. Here's What That Meant In NYC
Peter Muennig, professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health has been studying the issue for years too, and believes just capping the below grade sections of the roadway will go a long way to reducing asthma for up to 20,000 people over 14 years.
“Just that will, over time, save thousands of lives, and bring huge quality of life benefits to the community,” Muennig said.
And Schumer urgently wants to get the project moving. He cited the delays to the Gateway project under President Trump, who held up that project in the environmental review phase during his entire term.
Schumer feels the funding in the infrastructure bill will be enough to get the project’s study underway within a year, although he couldn’t say when construction might begin.