Yesterday morning I drove from Uptown to Gentilly in less than 10 minutes. Without the Claiborne Expressway, this trip would have taken about twice the time. Not too long ago, my daily commute took me to New Orleans East each morning in about 20-30 minutes. Without the expressway? Good lord, I would have found a new job! I don't think anyone is going to argue that the construction of the interstate altered the Treme and 7th Ward neighborhoods it traverses in an aesthetically displeasing way. I strongly disagree, however, with those who blame it for the more complex combination of troubles that have come to plague those and other non-overpassed areas of the city since then. The more I watch the City's establishment line up in favor of demolishing the overpass, the more suspicious I become.
Tearing down the expressway now 1) Cannot, by itself, magically restore the neighborhood it, admittedly, had some hand in destroying so many years ago. 2) It almost certainly will isolate and destroy the eastern neighborhoods it helped to create. Fittingly, now, like then, the neighborhoods under threat are poorer and less powerful relative to the gentrifying tourist attraction they are being sacrificed to preserve. Which prompts me to ask, again, in whose interest is this project being pushed?
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