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America's
Historic Areas and Parklands at Risk of Becoming Roadkill
posted
June 27, 2003
This
week as we celebrate our national heritage, the Senate Environment & Public
Works (EPW) Committee will make a brief visit home as staff works on drafting
their proposal for TEA-21 reauthorization.
Under consideration are proposed changes that would significantly weaken
key protections of America's heritage. Laws
were enacted after the Interstate-building boom during the 1960's and '70s which
caused neighborhoods to band together against planned highways through areas
such as New Orleans French Quarter, San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, and the
National Mall. Section 4(f) of the
Department of Transportation Act of 1966 and Section 106 of the Historic
Preservation Act require engineers to avoid damage to historic properties and
parklands. These laws have saved
countless national treasures, downtowns, forts, and tribal lands.
Proposed changes would exempt many highway projects from these laws, nix
requirements to consider every "prudent and feasible alternative" and
protect landmarks, and grant state departments of transportation with
discretionary powers to interpret and apply the federal law.
ACTION
NEEDED:
Write
a Letter to the Editor calling on your Senator to protect our national
treasures
Click
here for a fact sheet on Section 4(f), including protected and
threatened areas
Click
here for more about historic preservation and transportation policy from
the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Sample
letter:
-
Reference
the article by headline and date
-
Keep
the letter short, 250 words
-
Fax
a copy to the office of the Congressional representative you
mention, contact info available at www.congress.org, (EPW fax
numbers below)
-
Include
full contact info so they may verify your identity to print the
letter
Date
To
the Editor:
As
noted in the article [cite 4th of July article] on [date],
this is the time when [residents] are most aware and thankful for our
national heritage. It's
easy to forget our past, and that what we take for granted was hard won.
Preserving the landmarks and landscapes that tell the story of
our history is our responsibility to future generations, but is
increasingly difficult when policy makers have a cavalier attitude
toward the past. Even now,
Congress is considering significant weakening of the laws that protect
historic properties and parklands as the transportation law gets
renewed.
Transportation
facilities such as rail stations and canals traditionally formed the
fabric of our heritage, but that changed when highways became dominant.
The first Interstate highways were built in an era of back room
deals and government knows best, with little planning, public
involvement, or local control over decision making.
In the 1960's, citizens responding to the destruction of cities
and planned highways threatening to destroy treasured areas such as the
National Mall in Washington DC and [name local example], citizens pushed
for new laws that would protect historic areas. As a result, the
provision known as Section 4(f) has helped [area] preserve our identity.
When
[Senator] goes back to Washington, DC to continue work on the
transportation bill, he/she should remember [name a local protected
area], and reject any proposal that would make this area vulnerable to
getting paved over. What
kind of legacy would that be?
Sincerely,
Name
Address
Phone
Email
CONTACT
INFO FOR EPW COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Senator Phone
Fax
AK
Murkowski
(R) 202-224-6665
202-224-5301
CA
Boxer
(D)
202-224-6222
415-956-6701
CO
Allard
(R) 202-224-5941
202-224-6471
CT
Lieberman
(D) 202-224-4041
202-224-9750
DE
Carper
(D)
202-224-2441
202-228-2190
FL
Graham
(D)
202-224-3041
202-224-2237
ID
Crapo
(R)
202-224-6142
202-228-1375
MO
Bond
(R)
202-224-5721
202-224-8149
MT
Baucus
(D)
202-224-2651
202-228-3687
NV
Reid
(D)
202-224-3542
202-224-7327
NY
Clinton
(D)
202-224-4451
202-228-0282
OH
Voinovich
(R) 202-224-3353
202-228-1382
OK
Inhofe
(R)
202-224-4721
202-228-0380
OR
Wyden
(D)
202-224-5244
202-228-2717
RI
Chafee
(R)
202-224-2921
202-228-2853
TX
Cornyn
(R)
202-224-2934
202-228-2856
VA
Warner
(R)
202-224-2023
202-224-6295
VT
Jeffords
(I)
202-224-8832
202-228-0776
WY
Thomas
(R)
202-224-6441
202-224-1724
For
More Information: Contact Andrea Broaddus at the Surface
Transportation Policy Project.
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