California lawmakers are moving to slash funding for a grant program that aims to reconnect communities divided by freeways, as the legislature and governor work to close a multibillion dollar budget deficit.
In March, Caltrans announced it had selected San Diego as one of three regions to receive funding under its "Reconnecting Communities: Highways to Boulevards" grant program. The money is meant to repair the damage that Southeast San Diego and National City suffered after the construction of Interstate 805, which displaced thousands of families and cut residents off from neighboring communities.
The state's Reconnecting Communities program was originally set to receive $149 million. Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest budget proposal would cut it to $75 million. A counterproposal from state lawmakers released last Wednesday would shrink it further to $50 million, according to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the countywide transportation agency that will administer the grant funds.
"We are monitoring the negotiations closely to see what the final budget includes and what that will mean for this important award," the agency said in a statement.
Caltrans also selected South San Francisco and Arcata to receive money from the grant program. It's still unclear how the program's final funding amount would be divided amongst the three regions.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has its own "Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods" grant program with a similar purpose. California's companion program is meant to help projects in the state compete for those federal dollars by getting them closer to being shovel-ready.
Leslie Reynolds is executive director of Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek, one of three local nonprofits chosen to advise Caltrans and SANDAG on how the funds should be spent. She said the neighborhoods impacted by I-805 suffer from noise and air pollution, which are associated with illnesses such as dementia, asthma and heart disease.
"The devastation has been tremendous on all of these communities divided by these freeways," Reynolds said. "None of these communities had any voice when the freeways were put in."
The Reconnecting Communities program's dwindling budget will likely mean projects will take longer to build and may not compete as well for federal funding.
Reynolds said there is no shortage of projects that could benefit from the grant funding. One proposal is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over I-805 between Chollas View and Mountain View just north of the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA. Groundwork San Diego is developing plans to restore native habitat in the area and connect the bridge via a trail to San Diego Bay.
"There are children who cannot get to the YMCA unless they're driven here because there are no safe routes — no safe routes to schools or to churches or to other gathering places and communities," Reynolds said.
Another proposal for the grant funds is the removal of the 43rd Street on- and off-ramps to I-805, which were intended to be the start of Highway 252. Plans for that freeway were scrapped in the 1980s after a grassroots campaign convinced state officials it was unnecessary and would further divide Southeast San Diego.
The San Diego City Council adopted a community plan in 2015 that called for removing the freeway stub and building a mixed-use neighborhood in its place, though little progress has been made on the proposal since then.
Barry Pollard, executive director of the Urban Collaborative Project, another nonprofit advising officials on the Reconnecting Communities grant, said the potential loss of state funding for Southeast San Diego is disappointing but not surprising.
"These underserved communities — we get targeted (for budget cuts) all the time," Pollard said.
The governor and state lawmakers have until June 15 to adopt a budget that closes an estimated deficit of $27 billion. Environmental advocates have criticized state transportation officials for continuing to fund freeway expansions despite the deficit.
Carter Rubin, director of state transportation advocacy with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said such projects are known to increase greenhouse gas emissions while doing nothing to alleviate congestion. He said the governor and legislature should adopt a budget that reduces emissions and helps communities heal from the damage inflicted by freeways.
"It's easy for state leaders to take an 'all of the above' approach to funding transportation infrastructure when there's a huge budget surplus," Rubin said. "Now that funds are scarce, it will be evident whether state leaders are truly committed to reconnecting communities, or whether they choose to continue dividing them."
