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Racist Underpass
When Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was explaining how infrastructure is a form of systemic racism, he used an example of underpasses in New York that were constructed in a way to prevent buses “carrying mostly black and Puerto Rican kids” from getting to the beach. He was talking about the Southern State Parkway and Jones Beach.
Yesterday’s New York Post had an interesting article about that. Yes, the underpass is too low for a bus to get through. That much is true. At the time they said the bridges were smaller to keep costs down. Of course, that could just be an excuse to cover up their racist plot.
The other problem with Buttigieg’s claim is that there are lots of ways to get to the beach. Old bus schedules show buses going to Jones Beach. Anyone who wanted to could take a bus from the city to the beach, despite the racist underpasses. As to keeping out the “Blacks and Puerto Ricans,” the highway was built in 1930. At the time less than 5% of the city population was Black and there were virtually no Puerto Ricans in NYC (the “Great Migration” took place after World War II). So, the racial angle on bridge size does not hold up. Despite that, liberals will repeat the talking point because, “You just don’t understand.”
Published in General
I recently read a very thorough debunking of this “racist bridges” hoax. Wish I could find it again.
The woke are either completely ignorant of history or just sloppy in applying the lessons of history to today. They NEVER manage to get anything right. Or do they think noone will check thier facts since the MSM will not do the job? Always count on any example they use being wrong and usually opposite of what they portray it to be.
Of course, but it doesn’t matter. This fake and false systemic racist narrative is pushed and repeated ad nauseum. If you refute it, it is proof that you are racist.
No, they know their audience. Their audience will consume this and internalise it and believe it and if you find any proof that it is wrong then you are a racist telling them lies they KNOW are untrue. The facts or any reality of the situation really does not matter. I wish they did but they do not.
As a former Long Islander, I can attest to having heard the Southern State Parkway overpass/bus story a hundred times. It is received wisdom on LI that Robert Moses – the person building the Southern State and Jones Beach – had the overpasses built too low to accommodate NYC buses. This, supposedly, kept Jones Beach the exclusive province of the middle class. The rich went to the Hamptons and the lower classes didn’t have cars. It’s a great story, but it always struck me as an odd argument. There are lots of other routes to Jones Beach that don’t use the Southern State. Here is a bus route schedule from Queens to Jones Beach from the 1930’s:
And another advertising Jones Beach from Flatbush in Brooklyn:
So what would be the point? Now, it is certainly true that most of the overpasses are low. But cost was a factor. Robert Moses started construction of the project. with virtually no budget. But he had just enough budget to break ground and to hold massive announcements heralding the coming new parkway, beach and park that would be a summer haven for New Yorkers. Then he dared the City to not fund it. He got his money…begrudgingly and only just enough. (Politicians don’t like getting strong armed. ) And trucks were (and still are) prohibited from the Southern State. So it was built just wide and tall enough. No racism needed to account for the overpasses. But for Democrats, facts are unnecessary…especially if they get in the way of a good narrative.
Not disputing the existence of such persons but there must be enough thinking people that this kind of balderdash wouldn’t even be attempted absent cover by media allies. Otherwise what are we doing even discussing anything here?
People don’t really think they feel. It is why the Democrats are so successful. It is all about emoting. Facts to them are just to support the feels and disregarded if they do not. Why do we discuss anything? At this point I am not sure. Maybe to just make us feel better. Just like the left watching the View and emoting makes them feel good.
Yes, I am so ashamed. I have been driving on these obviously racist roads and bridges my entire adult life. Why did I not see it?
These roads and bridges have been pronounced RACIST by our wondrous Secretary of Transportation Pete Butt-a Gig so it must absolutely be so. No one can question his authority. He was appointed by our Supreme Leader Joe Biden and one does not question the motives of our Supreme Leader.
What am I to do, though? I guess I must immediately refrain from driving or even walking on any roads. I am not sure how I going to get around, but the choice between being labeled a damned racist and not using the roads is an easy one. Of course I would be so triggered to be called a racist; I couldn’t bear the thought of it.
So I guess, I will have to let others be racist and let them bring stuff to me, because I must virtue signal my wokeness to the world and not use roads anymore.
The problem I have is that when a Democrat calls something racist, well you have to give it a bit of consideration. I mean we are talking about the champions of slavery, Jim Crow and the KKK so when it comes to racism they are experts and tend to be racist in their hearts so know what it looks like. But maybe because they are all racist all the time they just see it everywhere because they see it through their racist eyes.
More and more I’m thinking that the under-five-second rule really applies. This statement above can be stated and understood in under five second. And it’s powerful.
Likely this—a must read on the topic.
https://www.city-journal.org/buttigieg-remarks-on-robert-moses-oversimplify-history?wallit_nosession=1D
Yes, that was it. I was going to guess City Journal. Thanks!
Tear down his statue!
That’s what I heard when I lived on LI. But as you say, it doesn’t make sense. Trucks and buses are banned from ALL the parkways in the NY metro area, not just the Southern State, and they all have the same low overpasses. So no, I don’t buy it.
And buses are the only way minorities can get around because, as liberals told us with the voter id, minorities can’t figure out how to get a drivers license, or any other form of ID for that matter. But roads are racist and liberals are not?
The Merritt Parkway in CT has similar low bridges. The plan to relieve traffic on US 1 was to have been 3 roads: a parkway for cars only, a truck-only road, and a road paralleling US 1 but bypassing cities. The Merritt and the CT Turnpike (I95) got built, but not the truck road.
The parkway was for leisure travel; the original speed limit was 45 mph and there were picnic tables on the wide grassy verges in some spots. The low bridges were intentional to ensure that future road managers could not route large trucks or buses onto the road. If I remember correctly, personal pickup trucks were once prohibited but that got changed when they became more popular as personal vehicles.
I sometimes take the Merritt just to avoid all the trucks on 95. Does that make me racist?
It seems to me that in 1930 the poor people riding busses to the beach would have been more Italian, German, and Irish immigrants than blacks and Puerto Ricans.
Actually, it makes you anti-racist since I was just hearing about how the trucking industry is a hot bed of racism and sexism. It’s apparently supposed to be a big revelation that most truckers are 50+ and white males.
And think of the glass (cab) ceiling stopping all of those young women who are dying to become long haul truckers.
I first heard this story about fifty years ago. Even then it was easy to debunk. Every ice cream cone, every hot dog served at Jones Beach got there by truck. Of course, trucks can access Jones Beach. Yes, you’d use a slightly different route than the parkway, which as another commenter pointed out, was specifically designed for private cars–that’s why it was called a parkway. They weren’t built to Interstate specifications because the Interstate system was still 25 years in the future.