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Reconnecting Communities

How America’s Mayors Are Fighting Back Against Harmful Highways

Mayors across the country are fighting for funds to heal harmful highway expansions. But what does it take to make an application stand out?

October 29, 2024

The People Behind America’s Game-Changing Local Infrastructure Grants

The Biden Administration unlocked unprecedented opportunities for local leaders to build transportation infrastructure without their state governments getting involved — if they could beat out the competition. We talk to three mayors who cracked the code.

October 28, 2024

Reconnecting Communities: Are We There Yet?

Advocates warn: to reconnect communities, you have to listen to them.

October 21, 2024

How Cities Are Getting Creative To Reclaim Public Space for People

Putting in parks and plazas isn't the only way to reimagine "public spaces" around the needs of people, a new report argues — and if we do it right, these projects can be a powerful tool for equity and health.

September 3, 2024

The Biggest Wins — And Disappointments — From the ‘Reconnecting Communities’ Grants

"Until we overhaul our transportation system to redirect the majority of funding into community-oriented infrastructure investments, we will keep failing to meet our equity, climate, and maintenance goals."

March 22, 2024

Mixed Reviews for ‘Reconnecting Communities’ Grants

The Biden Administration funded some very worthy projects, but there were also a few head-scratchers in there.

March 14, 2024

Is the Environmental Racism of the Past Repeating Itself in Buffalo’s Expressway Project?

The construction of the Kensington Expressway devastated a predominantly Black neighborhood in the 1960s. And some advocates fear a new proposal to cap it won't be much better.

Is Detroit ‘Reconnecting Communities,’ or Missing an Opportunity?

Detroit won a $100-million federal grant to study replacing a highway with a boulevard. Some say the plan doesn't go far enough.

November 3, 2023

How a New Program is Helping Small Cities Transform Their Transportation Systems

"We don’t want the infrastructure law to compound our geographic inequalities. We wanted it to be an equalizing moment," said James Anderson of Bloomberg Philanthropies.

August 21, 2023

Study: Two-Thirds of Americans Know Highway Expansions Don’t Cure Traffic

"The public is way ahead of the elected officials, and it's way ahead of the transportation officials in [talking about] the kind of future they want to see."

June 29, 2023