• The infrastructure bill’s promise for cities

    To federal government this week adopted a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill (the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ), which is going to pay for a lot of machines moving dirt over the next few years. To what extent will they make better cities? Streets, transit, and other infrastructure...Read more

  • A highway cap in El Paso: False road to equity?

    Editor’s note: As part of Public Square’s coverage of Freeways Without Futures 2021 , we explored briefly when it’s appropriate to cap a highway . We received this response from Sito Negron in El Paso, Texas, where the Texas Department of Transportation is planning a widening of I-10, working with...Read more

  • Vision for livability along an Interstate

    I-494 forms the border between two Minnesota suburbs. A CNU Legacy team created a plan to improve life for economically disadvantaged residents of the area.
    Bloomington and Richfield, Minnesota, are two cities in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region divided by a common highway—Interstate 494. Although both cities include street grids, that network is broken at I-494, which forms the municipal border (Richfield to the north and Bloomington to the south)...Read more

  • Disentangling the Loops

    CNU’s biennial Freeways Without Futures report is out now! Article 5 of a Public Square series covers the transformation of downtown loops, which cordon off central business districts.
    Downtown loop highways are a particularly egregious example of misplaced freeway logic. These overbuilt roads cordon off cities’ central business districts in an effort to ensure every square foot of downtown is accessible via highway. The Downtown Loop in Kansas City, Missouri takes this type of...Read more