Comments by "John Peric" (@johnperic6860) on "GBH News" channel.

  1. Fun fact, when the interstate system was built one of the largest groups fighting against it were residents of rural America. They knew that the interstate, as designed, would kill small town America. They were right of course, but ultimately ignored and forgotten. 1,000,000 people were displaced just to build the interstates, this doesn't take into consideration the displacement caused by the down wind effects, such as the perpetual recession that's consumed small town America.
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  2.  @KingLarbear  No, I'm claiming one million were forced out of their homes and their communities literally wiped off the face of the planet. None of what I'm saying includes... 1.) The tens of millions harmed by interstates bypassing them, interstates have been an integral player in the death of small-town America. 2.) The tens of millions harmed by decreases in property value associated with the construction of the interstate. 3.) The tens of millions harmed by interstates isolating them from the rest of the city via a "wall" of road. This was, in fact, one of the intents of many of the intracity interstates. It doesn't matter if 50 million people benefitted from it (which is questionable); that's not an excuse for destroying millions of lives. That would be a very psychopathic way of thinking. With that said the only groups I can imagine having experienced a net benefit due to interstates are: 1.) Car companies. 2.) Construction companies. 3.) Demolition companies. 4.) Shipping companies.
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  3.  @jamalgibson8139  No, that figure exclusively looks at the number of occupied homes demolished and households displaced. This figure does not consider the displacement caused by downwind economic effects, which likely amounts to several millions or tens of millions in both Urban and Rural communities.
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  4.  @TheNobleFive  Faster connections isn't the problem (please read carefully). The US already had 160,000 miles of paved federal highways built by the 1940s, and 260,000 miles of efficient passenger rail built by the 1920s (more than any country on Earth today). Every town in America with over 1000 people had a rail station. Despite these extant means of rapid transport, small towns continued to grow throughout most of the US (granted at a slower pace than cities) until the 1950s. So again, the problem isn't rapid transit, it's how the rapid transit is done. Railways and federal highways were built along existing trails, and took travelers directly to the center of small towns, where they would then get to purchase goods and services from local stores. Hence why Route 66 is often called the main street of America. Fast-forward to the 1950s and the federal highway defense act is passed, which seeks to expand existing highways and reroute them around (rather than through) small towns. Once the new interstates were rerouted away from the downtowns, people of course stopped driving through downtowns, stopped buying goods and services from said towns, and the towns therefore entered a perpetual recession and their residence of course left (especially the young ones). Mainstreet was replaced with the truck stop. A great example of this is Lordsburg, New Mexico. The town was the historic junction between federal highway 80 (the precursor to interstate defense highway 10) and federal highway 70. At its peak before the rerouting in the 1960s, the town had a population of 3,500 and a median income comparable to the national average. The town's population steadily grew until the I-10 reroute (which shifted traffic half a mile away from downtown). Once this happened, Lordsburg's downtown quickly died as travelers stopped coming in. Since then its median income has plummeted to one third the national average and its population has fallen by nearly 40%. This was a direct result if the I-10 reroute. Other towns which haven't been bypassed by defense highways (to save 2 minutes of driving) have typically continued growing in pace with nationwide birthrates (biggest difference being they don't attract foreign migrants).
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  5.  @robertfetrow4612  "And hundreds of millions of Americans who use those interstates to travel and guess what? Most everyone you claimed was displaced most likely used that interstate highway system." And why does that matter? If I blew up your home and replaced it with a McDonald's, the fact you ate at said McDonald's wouldn't make blowing up your home any better. I don't know what kind of reasoning that is. Most of those displaced by the interstates would be communities that would get little use out of them (e.g. rural communities or dense, walkable communities). And it shouldn't go without mentioning that highways literally existed before the interstate. All the defense highways did was add lanes to existing freeways and reroute traffic around small towns rather than through them. That's LITERALLY all they did. Americans, and those who would be displaced, could've just as easily driven our already extant 160,000 miles of paved highways WITHOUT the interstate Defense highways. "It was the greatest advancement in travel in the USA" No, the greatest advancements in travel were: - The Numbered Highway system, which was completed in 1926 with 160,000 miles of paved highways (this includes roads such as Highway 66, Highway 101, and Highway 80). - The National Rail System, which was completed in 1919, with 260,000 miles of railways and a station in every town with over 1000 people. - The National Air transport system (which is the safest and most efficient means of transport today). The Defense Highway Act only added lanes to 1/4 of the highways already built in the Numbered Highway system, destroyed rural and urban communities, and displaced millions of people.
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  6.  @ronaldsmith6829  "This is another argument that sounds valid on the surface and fails to address the whole issue. The N.H.S. did contribute to the degrading of Small Town America." I didn't say the National Highway System, I said the Federal Interstate Defense Highway system. The original federal highway system was great, with literally no harmful societal side-effects I can think of. It made it so people could safely get across America in a matter of a few days (similar to today) rather than weeks. "However it wasn't the major cause. Yes the N.H.S. did reduce some of the business in small towns, particularly when they were denied an offramp. However what really killed off business in small towns was the growth of Chain Stores like Walmart, Home Depot, etc... Even in the cities, small business is hard put to compete with Chain and Big Box stores. There are studies that have proven Walmart killed every small town and small business within twenty miles everywhere they were built. " No, it definitely was a major cause, even for towns with off-ramps. If a new road diverts traffic from your town, even if there’s an off-ramp, people aren’t going to drive through your town, and if they don’t drive through your town, they can’t see what business is even there and if they can’t see what business is there, they can’t stop to spend their money. Going back to the Lordsburg, NM example, the town didn't begin dying when the closest Walmart was built 80 miles away in 2011, the city began dying the moment the interstate re-route was completed because people began driving past the downtown rather than through it (for obvious reasons). When people stopped driving through downtown THEN chain corporations, such as Mc. Donald’s, Pilot, Hilton, etc., moved in and opened hotels and truck stops. The economies of these small towns along the highways were not sustained by locals but by travelers, and when the interstate re-route was done, it took those travelers away from Lordsburg. This is the case for every small town bypassed by the interstate. Literally, EVERY instance you look at of an interstate by-passing a town’s business district, the town’s business district (and typically the town itself) dies. The rise of major chains in these watering-hole towns is largely an effect of the interstate that only acted as feedback to killing the town. Sorry, if people don’t know your downtown exists, they won’t stop there to use its goods or services.
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  7.  @BIG-Jared  "The highway system isn't what's killing the small town model. It's the long process of industrialization rendering them economically non-competitive." 1.) Industrialization has been happening for 300 years, most American small towns continued growing until the mid-century. 2.) The plateau and the following decline of populations of small towns, especially near or along interstates, literally occurs only a few years after the opening of the interstate reroute. It's a very, very straightforward cause and effect. Small towns on highways are growing > bypass is built > towns stop receiving travelers who buy use their goods and services > businesses close > job opportunity is lost.
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