To the Editor,
The article “Adams announces multimillion-dollar grant to improve Cross Bronx Expressway” made references to the highway being “a structure of racism,” a “project rooted in environmental racism,” and one that displaced neighborhoods that were “predominantly Black, brown and immigrant communities.”
While certainly not a thing of beauty, (I grew up a block from it) the notion that the building of the highway was “rooted in racism” is revisionist history. Robert Caro in his definitive biography of Robert Moses, “The Power Broker,” cites the 1950 census in the discussion of one of the most controversial parts of the project through East Tremont. In that census, the racial makeup of the neighborhood was beginning to change, but was still 82% white and largely Jewish with Italian Belmont just to the north. Meanwhile, areas to the west of this stretch, University Heights and Highbridge, were Irish with some Jewish presence in 1950, while Stratton Park, Parkchester and Castle Hill to the east were a mix of Irish, Italian and Jewish.
Most of the African American and Hispanic population of the Bronx in 1950 lived much further south in the borough, far from the actual route. While many of these neighborhoods affected by the highway began to shift their racial makeup soon afterwards, the planning and placement of the highway happened before any large-scale changes, and was not, as some seem to believe, racially motivated.
John Farrell
