• For Brooklyn: Streets instead of a highway

    As the City of New York is talking about spending $4-8 billion on rebuilding the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE), a pair of new urbanists are proposing that a section of this Interstate be torn down and replaced by city streets. In a guest column for the New York Daily News , architect and urban...Read more

  • Supporting a federal role in highway removal

    Highways to Boulevards campaign organizers and CNU members visited 20 Congressional offices in late October, to discuss two current proposals in Congress that would offer funds for highway removal.
    In July, both houses of Congress took a momentous step toward recognizing and repairing the damage federal highways have inflicted upon urban communities. Congress has proposed not one, but two different federal highways-to-boulevards pilot programs , both of which include a novel provision to open...Read more

  • A new view for Buffalo

    With the governor’s endorsement, CNU’s long-time recommendation to transform Buffalo’s Skyway is closer to reality. The city and state have an opportunity to implement the best ideas from the top proposals.
    The Buffalo Skyway may live up to its name at last. Standing on the stage at One West this week, overlooking the old elevated highway, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced to an enthusiastic gathering that it was time for the Skyway to come down. He posed two questions: Should we do it? C an we do it?...Read more

  • Federal infrastructure bills introduce Highways-to-Boulevards pilots

    A pilot program proposed to fund the study and removal of highways in urban contexts, an idea of great interest to urbanists, has largely flown under the radar.
    Prior to departing Washington for August recess, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works unanimously advanced in a vote of 21-0 the bill S. 2302, America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019 . Others have already looked at the bill’s commitment to further highway spending , its...Read more