Conflict in Cities: Eminent Domain & Interstate Systems in Little Rock, Arkansas

     Just like many cities in the U.S., in the 1940s and 50s after WWII, the Interstate Highway Defense Systems were put into place - a large infrastructure system placed nationwide intended to be able to transport the military that put a lot of people to work. While it did this, it also separated cities and was made possible by eminent domain, the government's right to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation. In the case of Little Rock, Arkansas along with many other cities, the question as to where to place these dehumanizing structures were in the hands of planners and government officials and not by the public. In Little Rock, Arkansas, Interstate-30 goes directly through what would once a thriving business community for African Americans. To put this into context, during the 1950s was the Civil Right Movement where a growing group of Americans spoke out against inequality and injustice. African Americans had been fighting against racial discrimination for centuries, however, during the 1950s, the struggle against racism and segregation entered the mainstream American life. In fact, in 1954 was the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. Well, in 1957, the Little Rock Nine enrolled in Little Rock Central High School where they were initially greeted with the National Guard preventing them from entering the school. You cannot tell me that this is coincidence - Just like in Little Rock, the Interstate Highway System was strategically placed to separate these communities. Still today the wealthy white communities continue to develop to the west of I-30 while the historically black community to the east gets bought up by developers as the houses fall into disrepair. 

     In recent years, I'm saying all of 2004, there have been a couple of pushes for the east to be "revitalized". First with Bill Clinton's presidential library and then again in 2007 with Heifer International's Heifer Village & Urban Farm, and then most recently with a firm I worked for Cromwell Engineers Architects this past year who actually did the engineering for Heifer Village. I as an intern was told to research this area's history as Cromwell was moving their Headquarters to the neighborhood. They have partnered with a local developer and want to bring more housing developments toward the Clinton Airport on the Eastside. I am not sure if their efforts will be positive on the larger picture of Little Rock. I feel like it is another drive for gentrification and will drive the existing community and push them further to the Southside beyond another interstate, I-630, pushing them further away from the city that has several luxury condos popping up everywhere you look. I feel like these developments will just be more luxury condos and there will no longer be any affordable housing in downtown Little Rock.