• The return of the parkway

    CNU’s biennial Freeways Without Futures report is out now! In a series of articles, Public Square is exploring common threads from the report. This is article 2.
    Prior to the Interstate era, the landscaped parkway was the predominant way to get in and around cities. Examples from this earlier period, like the Emerald Necklace in Boston, show that parkways can carry substantial traffic and provide a pleasant setting for recreation even as traffic moves...Read more

  • What comes after the highway?

    CNU’s biennial Freeways Without Futures report is out now! In a series of articles, Public Square is exploring common threads from the report. This is article 1.
    It’s no secret that highway builders leveled vibrant communities to make way for many of the roads in our cities today. It’s also no secret that highway builders often targeted communities of color, who typically lacked the resources required to fight back. The disproportionate effects highway...Read more

  • 15 in-city highways that need transformation

    Highway removal offers a path to community revitalization and greater economic development, according to Freeways Without Futures 2021, released June 1.
    A new national report by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) urges the wholesale transformation of 15 of America's worst in-city highways to reknit communities disrupted by highway construction decades ago—and generate economic opportunity. The highways featured in this report for too long have...Read more

  • Syracuse, on White House radar, should oppose highway designation for I-81 teardown

    The replacement for Interstate 81 in the heart of Syracuse should be designed and built on the scale of a city street, giving the city an economic shot in the arm.
    An Interstate 81 that no longer goes through the heart of Syracuse, New York—instead bypassing the city on the current I-481—could be a game-changer that benefits the entire region. Accompanied by good roadway design, facilitated by key political choices, that move has the potential to make the...Read more