In the last months of the Obama administration, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has set his sights on reversing the negative effects of transportation infrastructure on underprivileged urban places, reports Sam Ross-Brown this week for The American Prospect.
According to Ross-Brown, Foxx's commitment to reconnecting neighborhoods and communities—including the Every Place Counts Design Challenge, which CNU provided design assistance for—stems from his roots in North Charlotte. From the article:
"Pittsburgh’s Hill District has been at the nexus of African American cultural and economic life for decades. As the Great Migration kicked off after World War I, the neighborhood became a destination for blacks escaping the inequality and violence of the Jim Crow South. Beginning in the 1920s, the area became known as “Little Harlem” and “the Crossroads of the World” for the eclectic jazz clubs and theaters that were essential stops for superstars like Earl Hines, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne."
"It was also home to one of the most prosperous African American communities in the country, boasting dozens of black-owned businesses. “Because of these stories, a lot of people consider the Hill District home,” says Marimba Milliones, president and CEO of the Hill Community Development Corporation. “It was the place where their family connected with the city, where they landed. It was the figurative and literal heart of the city.”
For the full story, read more at The American Prospect.