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Jun 18, 2021 10 tweets 5 min read Read on X
SPECIAL REPORT: Constructed inequality: The lasting repercussions of America's highway system.

nbcnews.com/highways

(1/10) #NBCNewsThreads
During the largest public works program ever attempted in the US, the American interstate highway program demolished homes and bisected communities, driven by the promise of prosperity and jobs.

From 1957-1977, it displaced over 475,000 households and 1,000,000 people.

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In Syracuse, Interstate 81 and a 1.4-mile stretch of raised highway plowed through a community that was home to many Black residents, wiping the 15th Ward off the city’s maps.

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The noisy highway raining down smog depressed property values on the streets below.

State health data shows that asthma-related hospitalizations are twice as high in Syracuse as the county as a whole.

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In New Orleans, an expressway cut through the historically Black neighborhoods of Tremé and the 7th Ward in 1968.

Hundreds of residences and dozens of businesses along the vibrant economic corridor were destroyed.

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Since the expressway’s construction, levels of poverty, violence and negative health outcomes have increased in the New Orleans neighborhood.

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In Los Angeles, the Boyle Heights neighborhood was home to Jews, Japanese Americans, Latinos, Black Americans, Russians and others.

Decades of highway construction cleaved the community, demolishing homes, evicting homeowners and renters, and increasing pollution.

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Before the pandemic, about 2 million vehicles a day, including diesel trucks, traveled on the interchange, spewing exhaust and sickening residents in Boyle Heights and unincorporated East Los Angeles, according to a calculation of 2017 California transportation data.

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Now, the federal gov't and many states/cities are recognizing the harm the highways have caused, and are working to design alternatives.

But in many cases, those plans are reopening old wounds and leading to debates politicians and engineers are struggling to solve.

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The future of what lies ahead in each community varies and, for many, remains uncertain.

But what’s clear is that many residents in each of these neighborhoods are working to ensure the same harm doesn't come to their communities.

nbcnews.com/highways

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More from @NBCNews

Apr 4
Gaza’s universities embodied the ambitions of young Palestinians.

In weeks, the Israeli military destroyed them.
nbcnews.app.link/nLNnEi5VwIb
According to @NBCNews analysis of videos, photos, and interviews with university staff and students, at least 5 of Gaza’s 7 major universities have been destroyed or partially damaged since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

nbcnews.app.link/nLNnEi5VwIb
According to NBC News analysis of videos, photos, and interviews with university staff and students, at least 5 of Gaza’s 7 major universities have been destroyed or partially damaged since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Abdallah Abujaser, a 22-year-old clinical psychology student at Israa University in Gaza, saw a video of his school reduced to rubble on social media.

He says it was like watching his future disappear.

nbcnews.app.link/nLNnEi5VwIb
Image
Read 7 tweets
Feb 7
Last March, Iowa police investigated a bomb threat targeting a junior high school.

They determined that the threat was a hoax.

But a detective from the police department had a theory about its possible inspiration: the ‘Libs of TikTok’ account. nbcnews.com/tech/internet/…
Officers and government officials in four other jurisdictions tell @NBCNews they believe the account has sparked threats in their localities with posts that digitally heckle people such as drag performers, LGBTQ teachers and doctors who treat transgender patients.
.@NBCNews identified 33 instances, starting in November 2020, when people or institutions singled out by ‘Libs of TikTok’ later reported threats.

21 of the 33 incidents were bomb threats, which most commonly targeted schools. nbcnews.com/tech/internet/…
Read 6 tweets
Oct 25, 2023
NEW: A Mississippi mother spent 172 days searching for her adult son, only to learn that he’d been dead all along.

An off-duty officer had run him over less than an hour after he left the house.

Authorities then buried him without notifying his family. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/b…
The last time Bettersten Wade saw her son, Dexter — who suffered from mental illness — was March 5, when he walked away from their home with a friend. She reported him missing to Jackson police nine days later.

nbcnews.app.link/HGhpV3VHbEb
The last time Bettersten Wade saw her son, Dexter — who suffered from mental illness — was March 5, when he walked away from their home with a friend. She reported him missing to Jackson police nine days later.
For months, Bettersten said, she asked police for updates, and officers told her they had no info.

She did her own search, visiting abandoned homes, asking around her neighborhood and posting desperate pleas on Facebook, begging Dexter — or anyone who’d seen him — to call her. Unaware of her son's death, Bettersten pleaded for help on Facebook.
Read 8 tweets
Oct 13, 2023
BREAKING: Hamas intentionally targeted elementary schools in Israel, instructed terrorists to seize hostages, move them into Gaza, and to "kill as many people as possible," maps and documents recovered from the bodies of attackers show. nbcnews.com/news/investiga…
One page labeled “Top Secret” outlines a plan of attack for Kfar Sa’ad, saying “Combat unit 1” is directed to “contain the new Da’at school,” while “Combat unit 2” is to “collect hostages,” “search the Bnei Akiva youth center” and “search the old Da’at school.” One page labeled “Top Secret” outlines a plan of attack for Kfar Sa’ad, saying “Combat unit 1” is directed to “contain the new Da’at school,” while “Combat unit 2” is to “collect hostages,” “search the Bnei Akiva youth center” and “search the old Da’at school.”
Another page labeled “Top Secret Maneuver” describes a plan for Hamas units to secure two sides of Kfar Sa’ad. It says “kills as many as possible” and “capture hostages.” Other orders include surrounding a dining hall and holding hostages in it.
Read 4 tweets
Oct 9, 2023
LIVE UPDATES: ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT

• Israel orders a "full siege" of the Gaza Strip in what officials say will cut off power, food and fuel

• 1,100+ people have been killed in the fighting
nbcnews.com/news/world/liv…
IDF says it has called up at least 300,000 reservists since the Hamas attack. nbcnews.com/news/world/liv…
Former U.S. intelligence and military officers say tactics Hamas used in its attack indicate Iran most likely played a significant role in the Hamas attack on Israel.

Iran's foreign ministry denies that the country was involved.
nbcnews.com/news/world/liv…
Read 26 tweets
Aug 4, 2023
In 2009, Desiree Jennings, the “Flu Shot Cheerleader,” became a media sensation for her story that a vaccine triggered a mysterious disability.

Now, Desiree has a warning for others about the anti-vaccine movement that made her its poster girl:

“Run.” nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d…
The media storm came as the world was in the midst of a different pandemic — a novel H1N1 flu — and anti-vaccine activists were on the hunt for vaccine injury stories.

Jenny McCarthy’s group found her and offered a cure – if she would star in an anti-vaccine documentary.
The support didn’t last long. Desiree was outed as a “fake” by the same media organizations that had credulously reported her story. Generation Rescue stopped calling and left her with an anti-vaccine doctor’s $32,000 bill. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d…
Read 6 tweets

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