Think Out Loud

Biden Administration looks at highway expansion through a racial justice lens

By Julie Sabatier (OPB)
April 6, 2021 9:34 p.m. Updated: April 7, 2021 8:43 p.m.

Broadcast: Wednesday, April 7

Interstate 5 runs through the Rose Quarter in Portland, Oregon, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017.

Interstate 5 runs through the Rose Quarter in Portland, Oregon, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017.

Bradley W. Parks / OPB

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Oregonians opposed to the planned expansion of Interstate 5 in Portland’s Rose Quarter are paying close attention to the Biden Administration’s response to a controversial highway expansion in Texas. Federal officials halted the expansion of Interstate 45 in Houston after receiving letters objecting to the project over concerns that it violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As with the Rose Quarter project, opponents of the freeway expansion in Houston argue that it would negatively impact historically African-American neighborhoods.

Bloomberg News reporter Max Reyes has written about the Biden Administration’s approach to highway infrastructure and he joins us to talk about the role of racial justice in that approach.

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