The City of Erie is facing a particularly contentious issue right now that in some senses demonstrates some of the problems in the Democratic Party. It involves an urban renewal project and the concerns of black citizens who have been ignored for many years by a city government dominated by Democrats.
The McBride Viaduct is a bridge built in the 1930s that crosses over a railroad track. It was constructed because a significant number of people were killed in railroad accidents crossing the railroad tracks at that time. Currently, a significant percentage of the African American community lives on the east side, while their children attend school just over the viaduct. Due to structural issues, the bridge was closed to traffic in 2010, but it has been used nonetheless by pedestrians and cyclists since then. Indeed, the viaduct is used by the children going to and from school, where they can walk on streets where there isn’t much traffic.
The City is determined to tear the viaduct down. The children would be redirected to the bridge on the Bayfront Connector, a high-traffic, fairly high-speed highway where children have been injured and killed. Members of the African American community have been fighting for a decade to keep the viaduct as it is, so that their children will continue to have a safe walking route between their homes and school. There have been numerous demonstrations and marches with the intention of drawing attention to saving the viaduct.
Last November, the voters of Erie elected Democrat Joe Schember as its mayor. On the whole, he’s pretty good in his politics. He is supporting the proposal to decriminalize cannabis, for example. But he is bound and determined to demolish the McBride Viaduct.
On top of this, a study released last year concluded that, on the basis of social and economic data, the worst city for black people to live in in the entire USA is Erie, Pennsylvania.
No major metropolitan area has greater racial inequalities across major social and economic outcome measures than Erie, Pennsylvania. An astounding 47 % of the black populations lives at or below the poverty line, twice the already alarming national poverty rate for black Americans of 23.9 %, and more than four times the white poverty rate in Erie of 11.9 %. The stark differences along racial lines in the city are also well reflected by the deep gap in job prospects between white and black residents. Erie’s overall unemployment rate of 5.8 % is identical to the national rate. However, just 4.0 % of the white labor force is unemployed, while 25 % of the black labor force is.
The city government was alarmed when this report was released, and is making plans to address these problems. Schember was quoted as being “embarrassed and appalled.”
Addressing the deep racial inequality that exists in the community is going to require a lot of work and dedication of the city, county and state governments. However, there is a simple and not very expensive act of goodwill that the City of Erie could do for its black community to show that it cares: Save the McBride Viaduct. For not much more money than it would cost to tear it down, it could be refurbished as a pedestrian bridge and green space (think the Highline in New York City). As has been repeatedly stated particularly since the Alabama Senate election last month, black voters are the backbone of the Democratic Party, and the city’s Democratic government has just been embarrassingly shown up as inadequately addressing the needs of the black community. This is a no-brainer. Yet the city (and certainly the mayor) is determined not to do this.
It’s at this point I feel like donning a tinfoil hat. Is there some kind of conspiracy going on here? Who is going to profit from the demolition of the viaduct, and by how much? I have asked people who are deeply involved in the effort to save the viaduct, and they are asking the same questions. Further, there has never been a public meeting on this topic. So maybe my tinfoil hat is not so misplaced.
The mayor is determined to demolish the viaduct by the spring. However, the opposition has become noisy enough that the New York Times will be sending a reporter to cover the issue, with the potential to draw a whole lot more attention to it.
It’s not over yet.
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