![]() ![]() Leaders continue to turn to new vehicle lanes to solve the congestion problem. Even so, a 2017 Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC) study found that Bay Area traffic congestion has only increased, going up by 80 percent from 2010-2017. Billions of dollars have been spent to build this infrastructure, along with miles and miles of other interstates, highway connections, and arterial roadways. The San Francisco Bay has five highway bridges and an underwater tube carrying BART trains in each direction in separate tunnels. ![]() A path forward Highway 101 and Interstate 280 separate Hunters Point and Bayview from much of San Francisco. The construction of the Southern Crossing bridge could destroy hundreds of those homes and local businesses, a disproportionate number of which belong to low-income residents of color. ![]() The median home was built in 1966 and is valued at $690K. ![]() Hunters Point and Bayview collectively have 110,200 residents within approximately nine square miles-a population density of 12,762 people per square mile. Route 101 already surround the historically Black neighborhoods of Hunters Point and Bayview on the San Francisco side of the Bay, subjecting them to air pollution and water runoff and cutting them off from the rest of San Francisco. These development patterns have been repeated since the 1950s under the guise of urban renewal. have a documented history of systematically targeting low-income communities of color, wiping them out with highway infrastructure construction. State departments of transportation in the U.S. Without the bridge, the finally completed, roughly two-mile stretch of I-980 ended abruptly at 18th Street, and in the decades that followed, the underused strip became little more than a redundant eyesore.Įvery iteration of the Southern Crossing proposed across nearly eight decades has failed due to costs, environmental concerns, or interference with air flight operations from the nearby but now-decommissioned Naval Air Stations of Treasure Island and Alameda. But notably, never because of the desires of the low-income, historically Black and brown communities on either side of the Bay, as they have always been excluded from the project’s discussion and decision-making process. Voters rejected a bond measure in 1972 that would have paid for the construction of the bridge via a toll increase on existing bridge infrastructure by a three-to-one margin. In 1971, a bill for the construction of the Southern Crossing was passed in the California State Assembly by both houses but vetoed by then-Governor Ronald Reagan, who believed that the citizens of the Bay Area should weigh in on the decision to construct such an expensive and controversial infrastructure project. I-980 separates West Oakland residents from downtown. The vision was to provide East Bay motorists on I-580 and Highway 24 with a direct connection to I-280. As shown above, the “southern crossing” would originate from the east side near Bay Farm Island (fed by a new interstate, I-980), cross to the west side, and land on the San Francisco peninsula in the Bayview neighborhood, at Hunters Point. The proposed bridge would be the fourth bridge to cross the San Francisco Bay, partner to the built “northern crossing” pictured above in yellow. The Southern Crossing is an additional Bay bridge highway crossing that has been proposed over a dozen times since the plan was developed (in 1946) by various departments of California’s state government. Image Source: Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates History of the Southern Crossing The beautiful hillsides of the Bayview residential neighborhood in San Francisco. Even as Reconnecting Communities funds will help Oakland study repairing the damage resulting from the interstate spur rammed through the heart of Oakland to serve as the eastern approach for this never-built bridge, the Southern Crossing shows how past choices continue to haunt the present-and future. The Southern Crossing over the San Francisco Bay, proposed repeatedly over the past 77 years, has been rejected over and over again. | Posted by Grant DuVall | 30 Comments | community connectors, federal funding, reconnecting communities ![]()
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