Washington has a consensus: American infrastructure is overdue for capital improvements and maintenance. The most fervent debates on this topic have focused on how much funding should be allocated. But the most important discussion, even when it comes to hard infrastructure (e.g., rail, bridges, roads, and sidewalks), should be about how funding should be spent.

The 11th Street Bridge Park, slated to break ground this year in Washington, D.C., will offer a pedestrian walkway uniting D.C.’s Capitol Hill/Navy Yard with the historic Anacostia neighborhood. In addition to providing a public performance space, the hope is that the park will also forge a connection between one of the district’s most prosperous areas and one of its poorest neighborhoods, which has been historically overlooked.

With COVID-19 restrictions on events and gatherings beginning to relax, Washington, D.C.’s urban agriculture sector is starting to gradually open back up to the local community.

Largely overlooked in President Biden’s economic recovery and infrastructure plan is a sweeping effort to reconnect communities divided by urban highways. The $20 billion in aid Biden proposed in his American Jobs Plan would be a historic effort to correct the racism in how we built our highway system and lay the groundwork for reinvigorating neighborhoods — such as Anacostia in Southeast Washington — that have suffered for decades because of those decisions.

The upheavals of the past year – the pandemic, recession, protests over racial injustice and a violent insurrection at the Capitol — have laid bare the great fissures in American society. Today we are a nation deeply divided by income, race, and class. Amid calls for healing and justice, President Biden promises to “build back better,” with development that promotes racial and economic equity.

Greenways offer a breath of fresh air, but when planning and building them, leaders must realize their full potential for social and economic impact.

I’ve heard the same refrain from both friends and strangers, over and over, ever since the pandemic hit: “COVID has upended life as I know it. But I’ve found peace along the Detroit Riverfront.”

11th Street Bridge Park has received the green light from the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) to move forward. The project also received positive feedback from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, and will present the project to the full Commission this coming fall.

Check out a few new looks for DC’s planned 11th Street Bridge Park.

The development of new parks and green space can often lead to displacement and gentrification. 11th Street Bridge Park is making a conscious effort to keep lifelong residents of Southeast Washington in place through community land trusts. The community land trusts was implemented as part of the development plan to maintain affordable homes in the surrounding area of the park.