Hub lands $1.8M to reconnect Chinatown
Area was separated by I-90 in the '60s
The City of Boston was awarded a $1.8 million federal grant to study the feasibility of reconnecting the Chinatown neighborhood, which was separated by the construction of Interstate 90 in the 1960s.
Awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the funding will go toward developing a plan to “connect across the open-cut highway by building an open space for the community” and link the surrounding streets and facilities, a project description states.
Construction of I-90 displaced hundreds of ChineseAmerican families through land seizure and demolition, including removal of the thriving Hudson Street neighborhood, for the installation of a ramp and retaining wall. Roughly 20% of family homes were impacted in the Leather District.
“As a result, Boston’s Chinatown now lacks access to safe and open greenspace, affordable housing and is disproportionately impacted by traffic and unclean air,” a project description states.
“This project is intended to directly address the longstanding physical division in Boston’s historic Chinatown and to repair and enrich the area located between Shawmut Avenue and Washington Street, a disadvantaged community that has been marginalized, underserved and burdened by pollution.”
It would also aim to increase greenery and accessible walking routes, improve safety and take cars off the road, the project description states.
The project’s estimated cost is $2.4 million. The city anticipates air rights created by the connection could be used to create housing and job opportunities for the Chinatown neighborhood, according to USDOT.
U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Stephen Lynch wrote a letter of support to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in October.
The federal lawmakers wrote that land was seized from the neighborhood to make room for both the I-93 Southeast Expressway and the I-90 Massachusetts Turnpike.
“Chinatown is the most polluted neighborhood in Massachusetts as a result of its proximity to these highways,” the letter states, citing research from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The same research was cited in an October letter of support from Boston City Council President Ed Flynn and five other councilors.
“When Chinatown was forcibly cut in two due to the construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike, residents experienced displacement and major pollution that impacted the health of our Chinatown neighbors,” Flynn said in a Tuesday statement.
“I’m proud to support our city in this effort to expand open spaces, improve air quality, and reconnect the two halves of Chinatown that were cut in half by the highway.” Boston’s Chinatown was one of 45 projects awarded a total of $185 million through USDOT’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program.
Established through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this program aims to reconnect communities “that are cut off from opportunity and burdened by past transportation infrastructure decisions,” the feds stated.
The program also awarded $750,720 to commission an overpass study to investigate the flow of traffic in North Adams that would aim to better connect the downtown.