NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The Cross Bronx Expressway could be in line for improvements thanks to President Joe Biden's infrastructure proposal.
"The Cross Bronx has long been the scourge of the south Bronx,” Congressman Ritchie Torres tells WCBS 880’s Steve Burns.
Biden is calling for a $20 billion fund in his infrastructure package to help reconnect communities split in two by highways and Torres says the area around the Cross Bronx is a prime candidate.
"The Cross Bronx Expressway has left in its wake decades of displacement, disinvestment, as well as environmental jeopardies,” Torres said. "The Cross Bronx Expressway both figuratively and literally has been a structure of racism.”
He envisions capping the highway with green space to give fresh air to an area that's been sorely lacking it.
"The Cross Bronx Expressway has condemned the south Bronx to the highest asthma rates in the country," Torres said. "There are children who live near the Cross Bronx Expressway or who attend school nearby and those children are, through no fault of their own, breathing in pollutants that cause chronic disease.”
He plans to meet with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the coming weeks.
"The Cross Bronx Expressway and that pollution it causes shortens and worsens our lives,” Torres said.
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