Posted on Dec 17, 2023
A New Orleans neighborhood confronts the racist legacy of a toxic stretch of highway
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https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/12/17/ [login to see] /a-new-orleans-neighborhood-confronts-the-racist-legacy-of-a-toxic-stretch-of-hig
Aside from a few discarded hypodermic needles on the ground, the Hunter's Field Playground in New Orleans looks almost untouched. It's been open more than nine years, but the brightly-painted red and yellow slides and monkey bars are still sleek and shiny, and the padded rubber ground tiles still feel springy underfoot.
For people who live nearby, it's not a mystery why the equipment is still relatively pristine: Children don't come here to play.
"Because kids are smart," explains Amy Stelly, an artist and urban designer who lives just over a block away on Dumaine Street. "It's the adults who aren't. It's the adults who built the playground under the interstate."
Hunter's Field is wedged directly beneath the elevated roadbeds of the I-10 Claiborne Expressway in the city's 7th Ward.
There are no sounds of laughter or children playing. The constant cuh-clunk, cuh-clunk of the traffic passing overhead makes it difficult to hold a conversation with someone standing next to you.
Aside from a few discarded hypodermic needles on the ground, the Hunter's Field Playground in New Orleans looks almost untouched. It's been open more than nine years, but the brightly-painted red and yellow slides and monkey bars are still sleek and shiny, and the padded rubber ground tiles still feel springy underfoot.
For people who live nearby, it's not a mystery why the equipment is still relatively pristine: Children don't come here to play.
"Because kids are smart," explains Amy Stelly, an artist and urban designer who lives just over a block away on Dumaine Street. "It's the adults who aren't. It's the adults who built the playground under the interstate."
Hunter's Field is wedged directly beneath the elevated roadbeds of the I-10 Claiborne Expressway in the city's 7th Ward.
There are no sounds of laughter or children playing. The constant cuh-clunk, cuh-clunk of the traffic passing overhead makes it difficult to hold a conversation with someone standing next to you.
A New Orleans neighborhood confronts the racist legacy of a toxic stretch of highway
Posted from npr.org
New Orleans
Community
Racism
American History
Legacy
Posted 11 mo ago
Responses: 2
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel good day Brother William, always informational and of the most interesting. Thanks for sharing, have a blessed day!
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How about the rest of the story! As one of the elders here I can remember when a lot of these roads were built. The elevated roads were also praised as being less disruptive of the neighborhoods they transversed. Ground level was declared to be dividing the neighborhoods and denying access to neighbors and local shops that were on the other side of major highways. I also remember sitting in line waiting to transit areas on streets designed generations before and people complaining that attempting to cross those streets was to dangerous for adults and children.
Relocating the elevated in New Orleans will also be a problem considering the water level.
Of course, since covid taught businesses that, even though productivity was effected, the workforce could work from home. That means the skyscraper office buildings that have had occupancy decline can now be converted to other uses.
Relocating the elevated in New Orleans will also be a problem considering the water level.
Of course, since covid taught businesses that, even though productivity was effected, the workforce could work from home. That means the skyscraper office buildings that have had occupancy decline can now be converted to other uses.
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