Ben Magee Analysis by Noah Billig

SLUM CLEARANCE

LEGAL DISTINCTION

1896 Plessy v. Ferguson

This 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. It stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law. Rejecting Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Court ruled that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between whites and blacks did not conflict with the 13th and14th Amendments.

1946 Robert Moses and Urban Renewal The New Yorker lauded Moses’ ultimate contribution to New York, “In the seven years between 1946 and 1954, seven years that were marked by the most intensive public construction in the city’s history, no public improvement of any type-no school or sewer, library or pier, hospital or catch basin- was built by any city agency unless Moses approved its design and location.” Projects spear-headed by Moses, just in this period alone, included the building of the United Nations on the east side of Manhattan, the Belt Parkway and the Cross-Bronx Expressway.

REDLINE DEVELOPMENTS

1954 Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education, now acknowledged as one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, unanimously held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and galvanized the nascent civil rights movement into a full revolution.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

1955 Rosa Parks in Montgomery

Thursday, December 1, 1955, in downtown Montgomery. Rosa Parks paid her fare and sat in an empty seat in the first row of back seats reserved for blacks in the "colored" section. Near the middle of the bus, her row was directly behind the ten seats reserved for white passengers. Blake noted that two or three white passengers were standing, as the front of the bus had filled to capacity. He moved the "colored" section sign behind Parks and demanded that four black people give up their seats in the middle section so that the white passengers could sit. Her refusal to give up her seat based on racial discrimination assisted in the sparking of a cultural shift in civil disobedience for the sake of social and racial justice in America.

LITTLE ROCK: RECLAIMING AND REPAIRING

RACIAL INTEGRATION

1957 Little Rock Nine

END OF SEGREGATION

CONTINUED DIVISION

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. In subsequent years, Congress expanded the act and also passed additional legislation aimed at bringing equality to African Americans, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Separate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas are not at all equal. For example, 58 percent of the students at Roberts Elementary, located in northwest Little Rock, are white, though the district as a whole is just 18 percent white. Roberts was completed in 2010 and has a climbing wall, a state-of-the art computer lab, a chemistry lab, telescopes, high ceilings, natural light, and a cafeteria with a stage and TV screens. Wilson Elementary, 72 percent black, is located in a majority-black neighborhood and, according to a lawsuit filed this year, has failing air conditioning, squirrels that died in the air ducts, and a cafeteria that was closed by the public-health department.

2016 Segregation Persistence

1964 Civil Acts Rights

In a key event of the American Civil Rights Movement, nine black students enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957, testing a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The court had mandated that all public schools in the country be integrated “with all deliberate speed” in its decision related to the groundbreaking case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called in the state National Guard to bar the black students’ entry into the school. Later in the month, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the “Little Rock Nine” into the school, and they started their first full day of classes on September 25.

INTERSTATE TIMELINE In the 1950’s Little Rock began expanding westward with the push of white flight to the suburbs in order to separate themselves from the rest of the urban core.

BEN MAGEE | LARC 3356 | NOAH BILLIG

Passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. This had immediate effects on the growth and development of Little Rock. Specifically, it caused a shift in racial development as infrastructure was planned to be used as the connecter to expansion and sprawl.

OPPORTUNITY MAPPING: COMPOSITE ANALYSIS

The presence of Interstate 630 caused a major shift in racial development within the city of Little Rock from what The Charlotte Model to the Atlanta Model.

CHARLOTTE MODEL

The lightest colored region of the map has been highlighted because it represents one end of the equitable opportunity mapping spectrum. This zone represents inequitable opportunity as the rating system indicates the lightest regions as having the highest wealth, highest rated schools, and highest concentration of grocery stores.

The Charlotte development typology is characterized by a city having stable growth where the populations grow with the city limits, negating sprawl. Governmental entities merge forcing blacks and whites to live and work together in the same school districts. Infrastructure conforms to the people and neighborhoods develop strong sense of community.

ATLANTA MODEL SUBURBS

EQUITABLE OPPORTUNITY GRADIENT

WHITE FLIGHT

INVASIVE INFRASTRUCTURE EXPANSION

CREATION OF INTERSTATE SYSTEM

URBAN CORE

The Atlanta development typology is characterized by a city having unstable populations caused by “white flight” of affluent white residents to the suburbs. The diagram above shows how urban growth is stable initially, but the aggressive expansion and relocation of populations creates a major separation between population densities. To resolve this disconnect, major interstate infrastructure is used as the connector of the two population hemispheres. The implimentation of infrastructure becomes a physical manifestation of the socioeconomic divide within the city and is very hard to reverse.

Highest rated schools, highest wealth, best access to food Moderate school ratings, variety of wealth, medial access to food

The darkest colored region of the map has been highlighted because it represents the other end of the equitable opportunity spectrum. The zone represents inequitable opportunity because it is the area of lowest wealth, lowest rated schools and lowest concentration of grocery stores and restaurants.

Lowest rated schools, lowest wealth, low access to food

The above map is a composite map that is intended to expose opportunity areas within the city of Little Rock. The opportunity is derived from income to poverty ratio, public school ratings, and proximity to restaurants and Supermarket Locations. Essentially, this map is examining whether there is a connection between the geographic locations of impoverished areas, pblic school ratings, and areas outside the supermarket grocery buffers that could be considered food deserts. As the above legend describes, the darkest regions in each map layer still represent the highest poverty, lowest rated public schools and food deserts. Therefore, it could be inferred that any overlapping of these extremities would yield the darkest gradient and could describe a specific zone where two or more of these components are at play. All three components were weighted evenly to avoid any distorted readings. There are specific areas within the city of Little Rock where schools, poverty and inaccessibility all overlap which is therefore not equitable, but furthermore, shows where the greatest opportunity for social and economic reform may occur. Conversely, there are also areas within the city where highest rated schools, high wealth, and ease of food access is present which is equally as inequitable. Overall, Little Rock has specific areas where there is inequitable opportunity, so as a designer and planner it is crucial to understand the surrounding conditions in order to attain an informed design in order to ultimately affect change at a higher level.

URBAN FABRIC: FREEWAY PARK CONTEXT

LITTLE ROCK

SUBURBAN EXPANSION

URBAN DOWNTOWN

I-630 CONNECTER

Passage of the Highway Act allowed construction of the 8th Street Expressway in 1958 that connected the westward suburbs to downtown business district. This proposed expressway later became known as Interstate 630. Early in the construction of the new interstate it became apparent that the new infrastructure artery would have serious implications on the predominately African American 9th Street Business District running parallel to the proposed expressway.

FREEWAY PARK

9T H

I-6

.B US IN ES S

EX PA N

DI S

SI O N

IC T

During a major phase in the construction of I-630, Arkansas Community Organization for Reform Now filed a lawsuit against federal and state highway officials to stop work in Little Rock. They claimed that the Environmental Impact Statement for the project was “not sufficiently detailed to meet the standard of the National Environmental Policy Act, because each impact statement was too ambiguous, too vague, too general, and too conclusionary.” They were successful, but only temporarily, with work resuming on I-630 in 1979. The logos below represent the three major local organizations that actively engaged in the resistance of Interstate 630’s construction.

DOWNTOWN

The existence of the thriving black communities had no influence though, as over the next 27 years the highways’ construction would destroy entire neighborhoods, green space, all while displacing thousands of African Americans and working class white residents.

Interstate 630 was completed in 1985 and has created a socio-economic divide that has yet to be reversed.

SURVEY FINDINGS: HEARING THE PEOPLE

DOWNTOWN

All direct quotations, survey data and statistics have been taken from a 2014 survey conducted by the Clinton School of Public Service in coordination with the Arkansas Community Organization (ACO).

WALKABILITY

The findings were published in “Citizen Perceptions of Little Rock City: Findings from south of I-630” in 2014 by the Clinton Schoolof Public Service. The survey sampled 450 residents living south of Interstate 630, which provides over 95% confidence level for roughly 100,000 residents. The main purpose of the study was to provide both a description and an analysis of the perceptions of citizens who live, have lived, worship, or work in institutions south of Interstate 630

52% of sampled residents south of I-630 do not believe they receive equal levels of service from the city that residents north of the interstate receive 52 % No 21% Yes 27% Unsure

Among the 52% of participants who answered no: 44% of them replied “not rich enough, or live in the wrong neighborhood”

“A recurring theme throughout the findings from residents

38% No 32% Yes 30% Unsure

EMPLOYMENT

E R STAT E 63 0

SOCIAL AMENITY

SOUTH OF I-630

The photo below is an aerial taken around 1979 looking southwest over a major overpass section of Interstate 630 during its construction. The Interstate, highlighted in red, illustrates the divisive condition infrastructure of this scale can create. Furthermore, the lack of community engagment and negation of social infrastructure is readily apparent, as multiple neighborhoods are completely severed from one another.

Rock’ as they feel neglected and undeserved”

PEOPLE AS INFRASTRUCTURE The map below focuses on the urban network of highway infrastructure and the social and cultural infrastructure of major neighborhoods within Little Rock. The massing of neighborhoods allows the devisive nature of highways to be easily seen. Furthermore, the highway network accounts for many edges of the neighborhood boundaries, which may indicate that placement of neighborhood boundaries may be dictated by highway infrastructure. The enclosure or severence created by highways has a major effect on the walkability for residents living within the neighborhoods.

TOP 4 CONCERNS FOR RESIDENTS SOUTH OF I-630

Among the 38% of participants who answered no: 23% of them replied from “personal experience”

1. CRIME / VIOLENCE (26%) 2. ABANDONED HOUSES(12%) 3. STREET REPAIR/UPKEEP(12%)

“South End is never on the schedule unless we petition for it. And I don’t mean just make a simple call. I mean petition”

CAPITOL AREA

RIVER MARKET

4. ENGAGING THE YOUTH(9%)

26% of sampled residents believe the board of directors wouldnot listen to their concerns 26% No 38% Yes 35% Unsure

BUSINESS DISTRICT

south of Interstate 630 is ‘a perceived division within Little

“We try email, phone calls, meetings but still feel like the city officials don’t really hear us”

38% of sampled residents south of I-630 beleive the mayor would not listen to their concerns

NORTH OF I-630

“We need to empower young people in the area with more after school activities, and more teen and youth centers”

Among the 26% of participants who answered no: 18% of them replied from “personal experience”

“Participants frequently stated that the Mayor and City Board only hear those individuals with political or monetary influence. More than one focus group found that even when those entities listen to the requests of the community, in the residents view, nothing appears to get done, or it takes very long to get done”

“Sidewalks and curbs so bad that people are forced to walk in the streets” “Many abandoned houses and lots in our neighborhoods” “Vacant lots not only represent a fire hazard, but they also decrease the value of surrounding properties and are often used as havens for drug users, the homeless, and prostitutes”

SOUTHSIDE MAIN STREET

CENTRAL HIGH

MACARTHUR PARK HISTORIC DISTRICT

DUNBAR SCHOOL DISTRICT WRIGHT AVENUE

GOVERNOR’S MANSION

HANGER HILL

PETTAWAY

MARTIN LUTHER MEADOW KING BROOK

QUAPAW NEIGHBORHOODS

MAJOR HIGHWAYS

INTERSTATE - 630

“And with one surgery they could put in more arteries and they could remove the city’s heart”

HISTORIC PROSPERITY

1951 The 9th Street Business District

This era was marked by prosperity and an area rich in culture and entertainment. Restaurants, social clubs, varied recreation centers, and hotels enriched the social lives of blacks during this era of Little Rock’s history. In fact, the relationships of people, organizations, and businesses created a web that merged the cultural components of black life. Life on 9th Street was very similar to life in a predominantly black society on islands southeast of our country and other majority black populated areas. Racial pride, the freedom to be and live indeed reflected that on the 9th Street. corridor.

URBAN SPRAWL

1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act

With the passage of this act there were massive and swift changes headed to Little Rock. The 8th Street Expressway (now Interstate 630) was the first major interstate systemin Little Rock catalyzed by the passage of this federal act. As mentioned above, this interstate served the primary purpose of connecting affluent white residents in the suburbs to the bustling downtown businesses. However, thousands of residents were overlooked in the construction process of the interstate, essentially wiping a thriving 9th Street Business District off the face of the earth.

RACIAL INTEGRATION

1957 Little Rock Nine

BREAKING GROUND

EXPANDING DIVISION

With major assistance from the passage of the Federal Highway Act, construction of the 8th Street Expressway officially began in 1958. This had immediate and serious implications to hundreds of residents in close proximity to the highway. The claiming of “eminent domain” by the government forced the relocation of hundreds initially, and by the comletion of the highway, thousands of residents in Little Rock.

The above photo is an aerial taken during the construction of a major expansion to Interstate 630. This photo is also very close to the design site, which was the last phase of expansion for the highway. This specific expansion was met with the most amount of resistence by residents, but this battle was short-lived. The red area in the photo begins to illustrate the massive scale of division being created throughout a once thriving and vibrant community.

1958 The 8th Street Expressway Begins

1985 Phases of The Interstate Persist