What business do freeways have downtown? Planning rhetoric and its impact on communities of color

During the development of the U.S. highway system following the Second World War, a coalition of state highway engineers, local civil and traffic engineers, planning commissioners, planning staff and consultants, elected officials, and business interests promoted highway routes through central cities, arguing that they would connect commercial districts to growing suburban populations and boost downtown businesses. In the California cities of Fresno and Colton, these claims sparked debates over freeway siting with communities of color contesting the notion that highways would benefit local commerce. This comparative study examines how discourse at the time promoted freeway projects as tools for downtown revitalization. Despite differing outcomes in each case, we found striking similarities in decision-making processes. Archival data reveals that routing decisions were not strictly economic but followed motivations that targeted communities of color. Subsequently, freeways did not revitalize the downtowns of the two cities but disproportionately burdened their nonwhite communities. Despite redevelopment efforts and promises, downtowns like those in Colton and Fresno never recovered from the suburbanization of people, jobs, and businesses. Though South Colton was spared from the path of the freeway and West Fresno was not, both continue to face the pervasive impacts of environmental racism and urban decline.