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Colorado Aims to Expand a Main Artery, but Beleaguered Neighbors Balk
The New York Times ^ | February 19, 2017 | Julie Turkewitz

Posted on 03/12/2017 7:14:00 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

DENVER — Each morning Yadira Sanchez and her three children awaken to the roar of traffic and the plumes of exhaust that spill from the highway that cuts through their neighborhood.

Now, Ms. Sanchez and her family are confronting a plan to triple the width of this state’s main east-west artery, sending tens of thousands more cars by their door.

Denver was the fastest-growing large city in America in 2015, with a population of nearly 700,000, and the scene of a tech and marijuana boom that has drawn 1,000 new households a month. But as in other cities, its highways have not kept up with development. Many roads are crumbling, leaving officials with decisions that will have lasting effects on the families living nearby, including residents of Elyria-Swansea, a low-income and overwhelmingly Latino community still reeling from the road’s construction back in 1964.

Colorado is one of many states continuing to grapple with the legacy of the 1956 Federal Aid Highway Act, which laid the map for thousands of miles of interstates. It also sent many highways rolling through black, immigrant and low-income urban communities, saddling people from the Bronx to Los Angeles with pollution, disease and blight.

With growing support for infrastructure overhauls across America — President Trump has vowed to “streamline and expedite” road and bridge projects — the expansion here could serve as a harbinger for communities facing similar choices in the months ahead.

The $1.17 billion plan for Colorado’s Interstate 70, which links the airport, downtown and ski resorts to the west, calls for the demolition of 56 homes and 17 businesses. In their place, engineers will lay tolled express lanes available to those who can pay for a faster commute.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: asthma; colorado; construction; denver; elyriaswansea; environment; health; i70; infrastructure; interstates; minorities; pollution; poverty; transportation; viaduct
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1 posted on 03/12/2017 7:14:00 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

>>sending tens of thousands more cars by their door.

So, let me get this straight. If they widen the highway, it will magically spawn more cars? And, of course, women and children hardest hit. Latina women and children!

Internet clickbait site headline writers make more sense than the NYT these days.


2 posted on 03/12/2017 7:18:27 PM PDT by Bryanw92 (If we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had some eggs.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Denver definitely needs highway expansion, no doubt! BUT...widening isn’t the only option. They can build UP, too! Put through way on top, exits to business on bottom. And nobody looses a home or business, or it at least minimizes losses.


3 posted on 03/12/2017 7:19:37 PM PDT by PrairieLady2
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Considering how many miles are involved, demolishing so few homes and business seems to be a miracle.


4 posted on 03/12/2017 7:19:50 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

If hillary won, I WAS going to expand some main arteries.

Same problems in the 5 NY boroughs.

Except graft is probably 10 times worse here, which makes funding huge projects very difficult.


5 posted on 03/12/2017 7:21:46 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
...overwhelmingly Latino community still reeling from the road’s construction back in 1964.

53 years ago? Who writes this stuff??

6 posted on 03/12/2017 7:22:50 PM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
a low-income and overwhelmingly Latino community still reeling from the road’s construction back in 1964.

Pardon?

They have not been able to adjust in over 50 years?

The entire place should be leveled and roads built over where the houses were.

7 posted on 03/12/2017 7:24:46 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Not a Romantic, not a hero worshiper and stop trying to tug my heartstrings. It tickles! (pink bow))
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Is there an attack on highways now? I’ve noticed several articles lately bemoaning freeways going through ‘disadvantaged’ neighborhoods - the same freeways that have been there for 60 years. I suspect a reparations for people who live under bridges plan is being hatched.


8 posted on 03/12/2017 7:26:00 PM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

More media lies.
There is a highway now around Denver which bypasses the entire downtown.
The mistake they made was it is a fairly expensive toll road.
Oh and was a Democrat who had it built and decided it should be a toll road.


9 posted on 03/12/2017 7:32:17 PM PDT by Zathras
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To: blueplum

The road under discussion was built BEFORE THE PEOPLE IN THE ARTICLE WERE BORN. There’s every possibility that that community was not “Latino” prior to the road construction in 1964. Most of the current residents likely moved into that neighborhood to take advantage of the lowered housing & rental costs. They KNEW what they were getting into.


10 posted on 03/12/2017 7:35:19 PM PDT by House Atreides (Send BOTH Hillary & Bill to prison.)
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To: PrairieLady2

Some I70 east of I25 is already elevated.


11 posted on 03/12/2017 7:39:48 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spellcheck. It's too much work to undo the auto wrong word substitution on mobile devices.)
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To: dp0622

R U Robert Moses II ?


12 posted on 03/12/2017 7:42:16 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spellcheck. It's too much work to undo the auto wrong word substitution on mobile devices.)
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To: House Atreides

Colorado sounds Spanish....


13 posted on 03/12/2017 7:45:10 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spellcheck. It's too much work to undo the auto wrong word substitution on mobile devices.)
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To: PrairieLady2

>>Denver definitely needs highway expansion, no doubt! BUT...widening isn’t the only option. They can build UP, too! Put through way on top, exits to business on bottom. And nobody looses a home or business, or it at least minimizes losses.<<

I think since the Prieta Loma quake many places, even those not prone to earthquakes, don’t want to double deck if there are alternatives.

The entire USA is earthquake-prone, just some parts more than other.


14 posted on 03/12/2017 7:46:32 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (Not tired of winning yet!)
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To: Bryanw92

What the heck is the thing with the “marijuana boom” drawing in 1000 new households a month? This has nothing to do with Latinos or any other ethnic group. But it’s pretty depressing when drug production - especially of a drug that keeps the population dumb and docile - turns out to be a state’s major industry.


15 posted on 03/12/2017 7:47:42 PM PDT by livius
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To: dp0622

Ok, here’s a good question:
How are Italians not Latinos?

Hispanics are Spanish speakers
Latino expands same to include Portugese
Why not be inclusive of Italian?
Maybe there should be a grouping of Romancers?


16 posted on 03/12/2017 7:48:56 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spellcheck. It's too much work to undo the auto wrong word substitution on mobile devices.)
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To: Bryanw92
So, let me get this straight. If they widen the highway, it will magically spawn more cars?

Actually, yes. It's called "induced demand." When a road is made better (by adding more lanes, for example), more people who previously found some other way to go (took the bus, used other routes, drove at off-peak times) start to use the expanded road.

That said, if they do nothing, things are guaranteed to get worse. And I-70 through eastern Denver is already a mess; only 6 lanes wide (3 each way), IIRC, and much of it is on an elevated viaduct that has probably passed its useful life span by now, not to mention being visually as ugly as sin. Widening the road, and depressing it below the surface streets, would be a huge improvement not only for people who drive there, but for the unfortunate souls who are stuck living next to it.

17 posted on 03/12/2017 7:50:00 PM PDT by bus man (Loose Lips Sink Ships)
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To: Menehune56

It is amazing that the NYT thinks anyone would take that claim seriously.


18 posted on 03/12/2017 7:51:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both)
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To: Paladin2

Liked what I read about him until I found out he’s the reason the UN is here instead of Philadelphia!!


19 posted on 03/12/2017 7:51:51 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: Bryanw92
Denver. The city that banned real wood fireplaces but legalized pot smoking.

Follow the money.

20 posted on 03/12/2017 7:53:30 PM PDT by Newbomb Turk (Hey Newbomb, where's your brothers ElCamino ?)
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