PROVIDENCE: FREEWAYS & URBAN RENEWAL

Providence, Rhode Island, was devastated by the construction of freeways and "urban renewal," with over 14,000 people displaced. A series of freeway loops divided downtown from the adjacent neighborhoods, while a series of road widenings put large sections of the Providence River underground. In the neighborhood Mount Hope, to the north of the Rhode Island State House, the redlined, primarily African-American section of the neighborhood was entirely demolished and replaced with a USPS distribution center.

From @rhodeislandcollege: "After World War II, the pursuit of renewal through demolition was official policy in the city of Providence. In a 1947 report, The Providence Redevelopment Agency recommended that 11,000 buildings, or 25% of the city’s real estate, be torn down and redeveloped, most of that land along the routes of new highways. Providence historian Lucy Asako Boltz found that between 1949 and 1960, the PRA had forced 14,000 people out of their homes, though official plans called for the eviction of many more. The displaced, many African-Americans who landlords would not rent to, were seldom helped in their search for new housing."