Now is the time to band together

In early September, I spent the better part of two days walking up, over, and around DC-295, to understand how residents navigated a Far Northeast Washington neighborhood that had been bisected by the construction of a freeway in the 1950s. In return, for homes lost and businesses destroyed, residents got three pedestrian bridges to help them get back and forth over the traffic.

After an accident destroyed one of the bridges this summer, community leaders demanded that city officials not only rebuild the bridge, but reinvigorate the area by dramatically reducing the footprint of the artery to reduce air pollution, improve mobility, and restore local ties.

"Unfinished Business East of the River" appeared in the September/October issue of The American Prospect. It is at once a metropolitan transportation saga and the story of one community’s desire to address the historical wrongs in a little-known area in one of the world’s most famous cities. TAP takes a strong interest in the topics that demonstrate how Americans are banding together to reverse racial and environmental inequities, fight climate degradation, and hold powerful political leaders to account.

In the year ahead, I’ll be devoting my energies to exploring the issues facing states and localities—and how people thrive or languish as policymakers reform systems or let them implode. And of course, I will be teaming up with the rest of the TAP team to report on the 2022 midterm elections.

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