Infrastructure has historically been designed without neutrality - continuously privileging the privileged and intentionally spoiling opportunities for increased equity or restitution to historically marginalized groups. In many American cities, such as Houston, the residual effects of racist and classist law and policy have been cemented into the organizational structure of infrastructure, yielding continued socio-economic disparities for residents of these communities.
As is the case with many American cities, the cementing of racial and class lines within Houston can be directly traced to the expansion of the highway system amid segregation.
White Flight was aided by infrastructural investments that allowed White communities to live on the outskirts of the city and to bypass and avoid Black communities when traveling.
As racial and class lines were drawn with highways, the investments into these areas also faced visible differences. Red lining maps in conjunction with infrastructural decision making solidified racialized communities within Houston.
As neighborhoods zoned for Black and Brown communities are being blighted economically and socially, the most viable economic uses for these locations places marginalized communities next to waste and hazardous pollution.
Pollution proximity also included that of noise. Often, Black and Brown communities are located in areas where unruly amounts of noise exists as a byproduct of programs like industrial plants, and air travel.
As Black and Brown communities were split by unrelenting highways and their construction, the identity of Black neighborhoods were forever changed.
Additionally, as communities were suffering from being fractured logistically, many residents were displaced as governing jurisdictions favored the construction of new highway systems.
The quality and prevalence of recreational or even necessary items like grocery stores, green spaces, parks and stores dramatically skewed along racial lines. These became solidified as inaccessible with the addition of highways serving as barriers.
As highways disproportionately bifurcated black communities, issues with congestion, noise, and spatial experience impacted these communities.
Identity further became something to surveil as race became connected to and reinforced by space and boundary.
