Full Citation
Title: What Did Interstate Highways Do to Urban Neighborhoods?
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2018
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Abstract: Critical geographers, historians, and journalists have described the mid-century construction of urban Interstate highways as a deliberate effort to spatially marginalize or depopulate poor and racially diverse neighborhoods. But such claims have not been supported by quantitative evidence on highways’ overall effect. We offer the first national-level estimates of highways’ effects on population and housing stock in central cities. Combining an original highway database created from historical road atlases with historical Census and neighborhood assessments conducted for the Federal Housing Administration, we show that Interstate highways built before 1970 reduced population and housing stock by about 15 percent on average since 1960, through these effects varied and have attenuated in recent years. Highways’ effects were felt most in the “redlined" neighborhoods that disproportionately suffered highway construction. Our results show that Interstates were instruments of urban renewal, but their adverse effects largely compounded ongoing losses in central cities.
Url: http://www.nallresearch.com/uploads/7/9/1/7/7917910/urbanhighways.pdf
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Authors: Nall, Clayton; O'Keeffe, Zachary P
Publisher: Stanford University
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization
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