Editing Urban Renewal Era (section)

== Highways and Displacement ==

Urban renewal's most controversial aspect in Philadelphia, as elsewhere, was highway construction. Planners believed that modern cities required efficient automobile transportation, and federal funds were available for highway construction through the Interstate Highway System. Philadelphia's planners designed an extensive network of expressways that would, in theory, ease commuting and attract economic development. In practice, highway construction destroyed established neighborhoods, displaced thousands of residents, and severed communities with walls of elevated roadway or depressed trenches.<ref name="mohl">{{cite book |last=Mohl |first=Raymond A. |title=The Interstates and the Cities |year=2002 |publisher=Poverty and Race Research Action Council |location=Washington}}</ref>

The Schuylkill Expressway (I-76), completed in sections during the 1950s, cut through neighborhoods along its route. The Delaware Expressway (I-95), under construction from the 1960s into the 1980s, separated neighborhoods from the waterfront and destroyed portions of historic areas. The Vine Street Expressway, long planned but not completed until 1991, was scaled back from original designs due to community opposition. The Cross-town Expressway, which would have destroyed neighborhoods in South Philadelphia and Queen Village, was defeated by community activists in the 1970s after years of conflict. Highway planning revealed the gap between planners' visions and residents' desires.<ref name="weigley"/>