highways and freeways connect us and get us to where we need to go traffic notwithstanding of course

but all that concrete came at a heavy human cost entire communities were separated and displaced

most of them black and brown that's what happened in santa monica california during the 1950s

city officials evicted families to build the end of the 10 freeway.

But now, in an act of civic penance, city officials are trying to bring some of those families

back.

I'm Gustavo Ariano.

You're listening to The Times, Daily News from the LA Times.

It's Monday, January 31st, 2022. You're listening to The Times, Daily News from the LA Times.

It's Monday, January 31st, 2022.

Today, we'll talk about Santa Monica's attempt to redress a historical wrong.

It comes at a time where municipalities across the United States are reckoning with the racist actions from the past.

And we'll also talk to a woman whose family was one of many black households that Santa

Monica wants to make right by now.

L.A. Times reporter Liam Dillon covers housing affordability and neighborhood change across

California.

Liam, welcome to the Times.

Thank you so much for having me.

So I know highway construction was long hailed as this important achievement to open up the United States to all Americans, but you recently did a project that explored how all these interstates and tollways and freeways and highways and involved a lot of destructions of communities, especially communities of color.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, you know, when you put the

interstate highway system in and it's now 45,000 miles of roadway, they had to go somewhere. And oftentimes

when planners put them through cities, they put them through particularly black neighborhoods

...