During the nation's interstate highway construction boom in the 1950s and '60s, numerous urban neighborhoods were sliced through, often isolating residential areas largely populated by minorities and low-income residents from surrounding communities -- and from economic opportunity.
More than one million people lost their homes, researchers have estimated. Federal transportation officials noted that in the first 20 years after the 1957 Federal Highway Aid Act launched nationwide highway construction, more than 475,000 households were displaced.
Now local and state governments across the nation are exploring ways to undo some of that harm by finding ways to re-link some of those neighborhoods.
On Thursday, California's Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon appointed Assemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat from San Diego, to chair a new Select Committee on Reconnecting Communities.
The federal program will fund planning, design, demolition, and reconstruction of street grids, parks and other infrastructure to reconnect communities divided by transportation infrastructure.
Across the nation, some cities are considering ripping up parts of aging highway systems to make room for open spaces to reconnect once-separated neighborhoods. In California, state officials said they are looking for ways to reconnect neighborhoods by building parks and community spaces along freeways.
In coming months the state's new select committee will hold public informational hearings in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego to discuss how local and national actions damaged communities.
