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Equity Aspects of Freeway Routing


TOMIKA!

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6 minutes ago, Big E said:

 

I would consider redeveloping the bayou frontage and helping downtown to be a much bigger priority, and I'm sure the city sees it the same way. It simply makes more economic sense, and going by the Downtown District's plans, that's exactly what they're thinking. Moving the Freeway north would open up that entire area to extensive redevelopment, which is the plan. The Freeway should never have come that far south to begin with, as fare as I'm concerned. Now, I would have, at the least, had I-49 tunnel under the rail yards, to limit the ROW that would be needed. Ideally, I would have tunneled 49 and 10, but I understand the level of expense would probably be too much. But even above ground, I would have moved the freeway north and had it cover the yards themselves. They could build something like this development on the other side of the freeway, closer to downtown.

 

 

Because somebody will "have to get used to it" in some fashion. The area around the freeway had to get used to its existence in its current configuration for decades. Once again, North Freeway, 1-10, and Eastex Freeway have already been there for decades, as have the rail yards themselves, and they aren't going anywhere. People have already "gotten used to" their existence long ago. The city will priority region considerations over the considerations of one neighborhood.


And, this is called Social Injustice. Thank you for making this point so clear. This “gotten used to it” argument is classic and has been used by people in favor of segregation, racist policies, and unequal treatment for generations. 

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32 minutes ago, TOMIKA! said:


And, this is called Social Injustice. Thank you for making this point so clear. This “gotten used to it” argument is classic and has been used by people in favor of segregation, racist policies, and unequal treatment for generations. 

 

Wait, what?

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51 minutes ago, TOMIKA! said:


And, this is called Social Injustice. Thank you for making this point so clear. This “gotten used to it” argument is classic and has been used by people in favor of segregation, racist policies, and unequal treatment for generations. 

 

Social Justice has nothing to do with this. Its economic and physical reality. These roads and railways have been here long before many of the people currently living there were actually born, and they will still be there long after most of them are dead. As long as they fulfill their function in the economy (moving goods and people rapidly on a citywide, regional, and national scale), they will continue to exist. The freeways tore through cities and neighborhoods, yes. That was over fifty years ago. Houston has actually had to deal with that issue less than other major metropolises in America; it grew up around its freeway system rather than having the freeways cut through established neighborhoods in all but the oldest sections of the city; downtown and the surrounding areas. Most of the Freeways were built when Houston as we know it was mostly forests, swamp, and farmland. Look at old pictures of these freeways while they were in their initial development: rolling fields and scattered subdivisions, destined to become inner city neighborhoods are what you would see. These roads are now ingrained in the social and economic fabric of the city: they aren't going anywhere, no matter if the neighborhoods that surround them are rich white neighborhoods, or poor black and Latino ones, or the odd Asian enclave. They are there, and "everyone" (white, black, red or yellow), has "gotten used to them".

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5 hours ago, Big E said:

 

Social Justice has nothing to do with this. Its economic and physical reality. These roads and railways have been here long before many of the people currently living there were actually born, and they will still be there long after most of them are dead. As long as they fulfill their function in the economy (moving goods and people rapidly on a citywide, regional, and national scale), they will continue to exist. The freeways tore through cities and neighborhoods, yes. That was over fifty years ago. Houston has actually had to deal with that issue less than other major metropolises in America; it grew up around its freeway system rather than having the freeways cut through established neighborhoods in all but the oldest sections of the city; downtown and the surrounding areas. Most of the Freeways were built when Houston as we know it was mostly forests, swamp, and farmland. Look at old pictures of these freeways while they were in their initial development: rolling fields and scattered subdivisions, destined to become inner city neighborhoods are what you would see. These roads are now ingrained in the social and economic fabric of the city: they aren't going anywhere, no matter if the neighborhoods that surround them are rich white neighborhoods, or poor black and Latino ones, or the odd Asian enclave. They are there, and "everyone" (white, black, red or yellow), has "gotten used to them".


So, your point is what? Since mistakes were made in the past, we should keep making them again and again. Sounds like flawed reasoning if I’ve ever heard it. Just curious, where do you live? Close to a freeway? 

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2 hours ago, TOMIKA! said:


So, your point is what? Since mistakes were made in the past, we should keep making them again and again. Sounds like flawed reasoning if I’ve ever heard it. Just curious, where do you live? Close to a freeway? 

 

1. Not everyone considers the routing of the freeways a mistake.  In my estimation, the current alignments are fine, barring the downtown ring which I think was poorly designed. 

2. We aren't running a new freeway through half a city. We are rerouting existing ones in way that makes more sense and will actually allow us to undo some of the issues that came with the original routes in the first place. Its a completely different situation to what was done in the 50s and 60s when the freeways went in.

3. No I currently don't live next to a freeway, but I do live around the corner from a major highway. The road noise carries, but its really not all that bad, aside from all the emergency vehicle sirens. In my hometown, my neighborhood was close to a major highway that wasn't quite a freeway, but only because it had no overpasses; four lane divided highways with a wide median, ditches on either side, and frontage roads on either side. Didn't exactly encourage walk-ability and wasn't what urbanists would call a "people scale" road, but it did its job and the only real question that crossed my mind about it was why they didn't just route the Interstate through the route when they put it in. 

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1 hour ago, Luminare said:

 

This is why I recently have liked a quote from Mark Twain:

 

"History doesn't often repeat itself, but it often rhymes."

 

I nearly spent most of last year pondering and thinking about various philosophical concepts. One of them, which I spent the better part of 6 months just thinking about and developing in my head (and through research) lead me to conclude that Postmodernism was basically the 20th century edition of the Reformation. The Reformation kicking off with the fundamental and earth shattering idea that; There is no one single way to communicate with God. Postmodernism kicked off with the fundamental and earth shattering idea that; Everything is relative and there is no one single unifying truth or interpretation to reality. The Reformation, of course, splintered Christianity into multiple factions, which included some very zealot minded strains with some becoming the "Puritans". Same with Postmodernism which splintered various conceptions of realty into multiple factions, which included some very zealot minded strains which today we have come to understand as SJW's. Luckily it seems that, thanks to the internet, we are on the eve of a counter-reformation just like there was The Counter-Reformation of a past era to reestablish a proper equilibrium.

 

I think we are now getting way off topic haha , but thought I share some things I've been contemplating for a long while and continue to look into.

 

That's an interesting way to look at it.  I hope you are right on this.  To complete the off-topic arc and bring it back around, that would mean we should expect a reincarnation of Palladio in the coming century.

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