How to Fight Freeways and Reconnect Communities
Last month, America Walks teamed up with Congress for the New Urbanism to co-host the Freeway Fighters Network and combat the legacy of the American obsession with highway building. Since its heyday in the 1960s, highway building has displaced over 1 million people–a disproportionate number of them Black and brown Americans. Millions more now live next to these roads, which pollute communities with vehicle exhaust and divide them from adjacent neighborhoods. Given these long-term effects, it’s little surprise that freeway fighting has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. Cities and communities have begun to reckon with the damage highways have caused and implement reparative projects that help heal. But much more work needs to be done.
Join freeway fighters Amy Stelly, Alex Contreras, and Jay Arzu as they share their experiences organizing against building new highways and advocating for connected neighborhoods. They’ll demonstrate what’s possible when we put people before highways.
With every webinar we host, our goal is to provide attendees with new information and knowledge to walk away with and perhaps apply in their own communities and advocacy efforts.
In this webinar we are hoping guests will take with them these learning objectives:
- Articulate a community vision for a neighborhood without the highway
- How to organize your fight against highways and other big roads
- Learning to work with local and state decision-makers and get them to champion a community vision
- How reconnecting communities and stopping highway expansions address environmental justice and equity concerns
Road to Nowhere: How to Fight Freeways and Reconnect Communities
Tune in Wednesday, June 29th, 2022 at 2pm ET to learn about the dark history of American innovation through highway systems and what organizers on the ground are doing to fight back.
Panelists include:
- Amy Stelly, Co-founder of the Claiborne Avenue Alliance
- Alex Contreras, Founder of the Happy City Coalition
- Jay Arzu, PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania School of Design
Watch our previous webinar here:
Like all of our webinars, this will be recorded and available after the fact. But you’ll want to join us in real-time if you can for the opportunity to ask questions of our guests and live-tweet along with us. You’ll also receive ample resources and additional materials if you RSVP.
