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President Joe Biden’s sprawling $2 trillion infrastructure plan could have extensive implications for the Syracuse community.

The plan, which would be funded over eight years through corporate tax increases, details the proposed spending on our nation’s roads, bridges, internet access, transportation and many areas in between. The plan is a national endeavor, but one $20 billion earmark by the president has direct ties to his old stomping grounds of Syracuse.

The Syracuse community could finally see change regarding the Interstate 81 highway, the product of redlining in New York state. This change is long overdue.

A White House statement on the proposal reads: “Too often, past transportation investments divided communities – like the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans or I-81 in Syracuse.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer quickly pounced on Syracuse’s national attention with his own written statement of support, too. 

“It is wonderful for Syracuse that President Biden listened to us and included the vital I-81 reformation as a poster child for enlightened infrastructure policy,” Schumer said in the statement.

Now, it’s easy to get excited about the possibility of a much-needed redesign funded by the national budget, but this plan is still in its infancy. And, as with all national policy, alterations are a natural expectation, especially with our current Congress.

With such a narrow split between parties, Biden will need every Democrat on his side to steamroll his current plan through Republican opposition. An equally likely scenario, though, is that he will be compelled to work with his GOP counterparts, a move that could leave the final draft looking drastically different. 

Biden has signalled that he’s open to bipartisan negotiations, but with the GOP spending target at less than half of the current proposal, it’s hard to say if that will get anywhere. But GOP opposition isn’t his only problem.

A group of 17 Democratic House members from New York state have also made an ultimatum. The group refuses to support any tax legislation unless the SALT cap is repealed, a provision in former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul that limited the amount high earners could deduct in state and local taxes from their federal return. Democrats largely agree with this stance, though, especially since it disproportionately affects earners in states with high taxes. High-tax states, unsurprisingly, are mostly blue.

Of course, opposition to Biden’s plan is expected, but steamrolling becomes a highly unlikely way forward without full Democratic support. Excitement about changes to I-81 being funded by Biden is understandable, but a lot can change before the plan is passed. 

Luckily, it seems that I-81 will be receiving an update regardless of Biden’s infrastructure proposal. I-81 has been a topic of conversation for years now, representing everything wrong with American highway projects of the past. A past where communities of color were not given a second thought when decisions were made about constructing an interstate that created substantial redlining in the city of Syracuse. 

As a quick aside, redlining is the systemic denial of goods and services based on where a person lives. The practice began in the early 1930s, when the U.S. was facing a housing shortage. The solution was to make it easy for people to move to the new suburbs just outside the city and commute in. 

Unsurprisingly, these new suburbs were designed primarily for white residents. Black residents, on the other hand, were herded into urban housing projects, where the Federal Housing Authority refused to insure mortgages anywhere near these communities. As a result, these neighborhoods were long forgotten by public services and looked down upon by city planners.

The city planners, looking for a way to “cleanse” their cities, used funds granted by the federal government to build highways through these neighborhoods, effectively destroying them to connect the new booming suburbs.

This story is all too familiar to Syracuse with I-81. City officials deemed the 15th Ward, a predominantly Black neighborhood, to be an undesirable area. But by replacing it with a new elevated highway, they could attract the new suburban residents with cars. The closely knit community in the 15th Ward was decimated and forced to move elsewhere, with no remorse or aid from the government.

After decades of reflection, however, it appears as though the new head of our federal Department of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, is open to change for I-81. Or at least that’s what Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh thought, and that’s what compelled him to reach out to Buttigieg back in January.

Walsh’s eye for opportunity paid off.

“Overall it was very encouraging,” Walsh said just weeks later, after pitching the I-81 plan to members of Buttigieg’s staff, Syracuse.com reported. “They see I-81 as a prime candidate for a demonstration on how to do federal transportation projects the right way.”

I have complete confidence that I-81 will see some sort of change in the very soon future. It has drawn the attention of people near and far, all of whom agree that it is worthy of an update. A disgust for the racist history of I-81 has found a way to bring together all levels of government. 

And even if all of those high-ranking names fail somehow, Walsh is working to solve the issue that’s been in discussion for years.

Although Syracuse made a devastating decision by building I-81, it’s reassuring to finally see so many people in power recognize it as such. And so, with a former resident of Syracuse as president and the current mayor championing the cause, the time might finally be upon us to make the necessary changes. 

William Ducott is a sophomore finance, business analytics and economics major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at wtducott@syr.edu.

Published on April 18, 2021 at 11:04 pm