BY JASON COHEN
As the $1 trillion federal Infrastructure
Bill was approved
last week and is awaiting President
Joe Biden’s signature, NYC
is set to receive the largest funneling
of infrastructure money
in its history.
Among this massive historic
piece of legislation is $7.5 billion
allocated for the RAISE (Rebuilding
American Infrastructure
with Sustainability and
Equity) Grant Program, which
would fund transportation upgrades,
including funds for capping
the Cross Bronx Expressway.
With 300 diesel trucks that
travel on the Cross Bronx Expressway
on a daily basis, the
South Bronx is fi lled with harmful
chemicals, air pollution and
the highest asthma rates in New
York. Recognizing the dangers
of the six-and-a-half-mile road,
lawmakers like Democrats U.S.
Rep. Ritchie Torres and state Assemblywoman
Karines Reyes
are clamoring for the highway
to be capped off.
Now, with the help of Senate
Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer, the ball is fi nally rolling
in the right direction.
On Nov. 9, Schumer, was
joined by Torres, Reyes, NYC
DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman,
activist Nilka Martell,
Columbia Professor Dr. Peter
Muennig, Democratic City
Councilwoman-elect Marjorie
Velazquez and advocates as they
celebrated plans to cap the highway.
“We’re here hit to hit the gas
on a plan to mitigate the harmful
effects of the Cross Bronx
Expressway,” Schumer said at
the press conference. “This expressway
built by Robert Moses
is one of the greatest examples of
environmental injustice. When
it was planned, they didn’t give a
hoot about the community.”
Capping the Cross Bronx
would eliminate 2.5 miles of below
street-level portions of the
thoroughfare and construct
green space making the surrounding
communities healthier
places to live.
A 2018 case study of this proposal,
conducted by academics
at Columbia University’s
Mailman School of Public
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Congressman Ritchie Torres and
other elected offi cials celebrate federal money for the capping of the
Cross Bronx at a Nov. 9 press coference. Photo Jason Cohen
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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, N 6 OV. 12-18, 2021 BTR
Health showed that the
model would improve the
asthma rates, general health
and wellbeing of Bronxites in
the adjacent areas while reducing
Medicaid spending for disease
intervention. Similar projects
have successfully been
adopted in Boston, Seattle and
already in the Bronx with the
pedestrianization of the Sheridan
Expressway.
Schumer said this is the fi rst
step in the process to cap the
highway as studies will be done
within the next year, prior to beginning.
According to Schumer, Moses
— the famed builder who
developed much of the roadway
system in and around NYC —
displaced people when he constructed
the Cross Bronx. Capping
it, however, will create jobs,
bring people together and make
the South Bronx environmentally
safer.
“You can’t undo the highway,
but there are a lot of things that
can be done to protect the community,”
he said.
Torres, who battled asthma
as a child, knows fi rsthand about
the harmful pollutants from the
Cross Bronx.
“We have a historic opportunity
to confront poverty in the air
our children breathe in the South
Bronx,” Torres said.
Like Schumer, the Bronx lawmaker
said the South Bronx continues
to be haunted by the ghost
of Moses. Well, now it is time to finally
turn things around, he said.
“We have to send a message
that clean air is not a privilege,
but a right,” Torres added. “If we
can build back better in the South
Bronx in the poorest congressional
district in America, then we
can build back anywhere.”
The announcement is also
meaningful for Martell, founder
of Loving the Bronx, who has
been championing for the roadway
to be capped since 2016.
“There’s no greater project
in the borough than capping the
Cross Bronx,” she said. “For far
too long we’ve been negatively impacted
by the noise and air pollution
created by the vehicles that
travel on the Cross Bronx Expressway.”
Schumer, Torres support
Cross Bronx capping
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