Senators from Congress like Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen are only a small part of the new federal funding prohect coming in with $2 million for Baltimore City. All with the drive to redevelop the Highway to Nowhere in West Baltimore. Such a highway project had demolished homes, businesses and plenty of 1,500 residents while the construction had been moved 50 years ago.
Fellow Congress members Kweisi Mfume, Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Jamie Raskin, and David Trone (all D-Md.) are also in support of the $2 million federal funding deal to get Baltimore City to redevelop the Highway to Nowhere in West Baltimore
This doomed project destroyed houses and places of work while displacing 1,500 residents, circa the time of its inception beyond 50 years ago. Thanks to Congress, those communities now might have a chance.
Ever since half a century has passed, the structure divided, damaged and scarred such communities, all within Maryland’s 7th Congress District.
So What Will Happen Now With The Federal Funding from Congress?
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Program is the faction providing the funding.
A quick note: the Program itself is an initiative the lawmakers fought to include within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for the betterment of all Americans.
Furthermore, such provisions in the law were changed from the legislation spearheaded by Senator Van Hollen.
Meanwhile, such terms and conditions had also been introduced as a bill by Senator Van Hollen and Senator Cardin, the latter showcasing the legislation in his role as the Chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure in the Senate.
This move in particular had been led by Congressmen Mfume, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, and Trone in the House, along with then-Congressman Anthony Brown. So many Congress Heroes!
The program was designed specifically with the Highway to Nowhere in mind – to reconnect communities isolated and excluded from economic opportunity by past infrastructure decisions.
The announcement arrives after the Senators and Congressmen wrote to Pete Buttigieg in support for the grant application of the funding.
Federal funding is always a positive result that can come from being present with the environment that you are surrounding, for better or worse.