Paved A Way: Infrastructure, Policy and Racism in an American City

by Collin Yarbrough

“Acknowledgement is the first step in the journey of unpacking the ways our cities are built with systems of power and erasure. True reconciliation requires acknowledgement and acceptance of past injustice. In that journey, we are only at the beginning.”

Paved A Way tells the stories of five neighborhoods in Dallas and how they were shaped by racism and economic oppression. The communities of North Dallas, Deep Ellum, Little Mexico, Tenth Street, and Fair Park look nothing like what they did during their prime, and author Collin Yarbrough argues that their respective declines were intentional—that their foundations were chipped away over time.

Systemic oppression is not contained within Dallas—it can be found throughout the United States. As Collin Yarbrough writes in his introduction, “Dallas is its own city, and Dallas is every city.” With this book, readers throughout the United States will learn to see how nearby cities were shaped by injustice, and how they can play a role in reversing the process.

Genres: Urbanism

258 pages, Paperback

Published May 16, 2021

Reviews

[Sarah Steinmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful to read to understand the city of Dallas better.

[Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells the stories of five neighborhoods in Dallas and how they were shaped by racism and economic oppression. The communities look nothing like what they did during their prime. Their declines were intentional; their foundations were chipped away over time. The book is an eye-opening look at the various factors that led, and continue to lead, to dissolution of neighborhoods. And it offers solutions to reverse these age-old practices.

[Bill Christman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting little book about the building of modern Dallas. The way the roads went was simply the easiest path, through minority neighborhoods. The examination of the essence of engineering roads and highways through Dallas, and how it was conducted. There is little doubt that the story is the same in most cities in the United States.

The racist past of Dallas is something the city does not want to face. They have always seen themselves as a city of tomorrow. Dealing with yesterday may open up problems that the people, the white people, of Dallas don't want to face or even understand.

Collin Yarbrough is an engineer by trade and that is how he came to this situation. His training led him to find the easiest solutions to problems and ignoring the stories of the community. The problem is than this creates a resentment because communities are not listened to. Yarbrough believes now that design and engineering need to incorporate these stories and that the way to a better future in community relations is through design and engineering. This has some merit, as well as having more minorities enter these fields.

As a Dallas resident this book was fascinating and at times depressing that the old attitudes are still here. I admire the highway system but have seldom thought of where they were built. This book was an eye opener. by the end one begins to think of the future of urban planning, what new transportation needs will need to be planned for and how will the reengineering of a city be conducted. One hopes not with the 'traditional' development planners.

[Chelsea Hopkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can you live in a place your whole life and not know a thing about it?

Yarbrough spends the first half of ‘Paved a Way’ walking us through the histories of five neighborhoods in Dallas, histories completely unknown to me; I alternately seethed and wept as I read about displaced and murdered indigenous people, about the Freedman’s cemetery buried under a highway, about entire communities being forced out of their historic neighborhoods. This should be required reading for every Dallas resident; we need to know what we come from and how we got here.

It is essential that people be familiar with the racism inherent in the development of our city, of structures and systems that we don’t give a second thought unless there’s inconvenient traffic delaying our arrival by 5 minutes. It breaks my heart even further to consider that most of our country was developed with the same disregard for non-white lives and livelihood.

Part 2 of the book gets more “in the weeds” in regard to the question “well what do we do about it?” or, alternatively, “how do we do better going forward?” I’m not involved with infrastructure planning nor do I hold any kind of power of decision-making when it comes to the systems that run our cities and the communities within them, but I do have ears to listen to the voices and histories of others and a desire to honor the lived experiences of those traditionally ignored or swept aside. I hope that we can - together - “pave a way” for a more equitable society where considerations are made for the benefit of all and to the detriment of none.

[Hunter Radecki · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Audiobook]
Interesting listen about infrastructural gentrification and neglect.

Not that I’ve read it yet, but my guess is this book is quite similar to the big book about the big bad Robert Moses - NYC and Long Island’s civil engineering menace of the mid twentieth century widely known for the popular beaches named after him.

What many don’t know is that he wreaked havoc on poor communities and engineered Long Island’s bridges (over/underpasses) such that public transportation (buses) could not bring disadvantaged communities to public beaches - those very same beaches named after him.

This book follows a similar critique, specifically targeting cities in Texas (Dallas in particular). I’m sure this practice occurred across much of the country, and I’m more familiar with Robert Moses because his notoriety exists in my backyard.

My gripe with this book was the hyper liberal notions discussed in certain chapters. My feelings are sort of a dichotomy. It’s my passion to provide as a civil engineer - Ut Prosim as they say at Virginia Tech, but the idea of stolen land and retribution takes weird turns at times, though I’d like to read more and better understand these ideals. The 21st century geopolitical culture is not the imperialist it once was, though it still lives through American international attitudes no doubt. The world’s land has changed hands thousands of times over and has included death and destruction every time. Native Americans are no exception, though I don’t want my perspective to seem negligent. We should champion compassion and empathy, yet the past cannot be changed. We can change our steps forward, but I don’t believe in returning lands to the previous occupiers. I think that misses the end goal and ideal in its entirety.

Rousseau proposed that inequality begins with the ownership of property. There isn’t a system in which our current world can operate without the ownership of land, but that’s how the system currently exists. As engineers, we’re problem solvers. That is the objective I take from this book, despite my disagreements on certain ideas, that the skill of problem solving is something we should all have wired into our brains - sort of similar to how PPP works. When we focus on problem solving, we can find solutions that may create new systems previously unimagined.

PPP is people, planet, & profits. It’s the notion that decisions should be made in balance of the three. You cannot solely focus on one totem, pragmatically at least, to find long term solutions. We see this change in my industry in the practice of LEED buildings. These are buildings that meet certain sustainability criteria. For example, a building’s total Life Cycle Cost could be $100M. That breakdown would be $10M up front, followed by $90M in operations and maintenance. When you build with sustainability in mind (re LEED), your up front cost may be higher, say $15M, but you can significantly reduce the O&M cost, say $65M, bringing down the total Life Cycle Cost from $100M to $85M. These buildings are often more enjoyable to the public when sustainable aspects are included, and they look fantastic. This is a holistic approach that feeds each area of PPP.

Problems (any business decision!!) should factor in all stakeholders, like in PPP, as what’s often (somewhat) best for everyone (compromise at face value) is also best for the individual (specific leg of PPP for example).

[Laura Freeland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a recent quote from the author:

The more we understand the patterns of inequality, the easier it becomes to dismantle it

Although this book is representative of so many American cities, it was especially powerful to read it as a Dallas resident.

I was unaware of much of this history and yet you see the impact today of the past and continued racial inequality. Imagine if every Dallas resident knew our history. I wonder how that would change our perspective of our community.

[Nicholas Gonzalo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great review of how racist infrastructure policies - made worse by the emergence of cars - have systemically destroyed Dallas' historic Black and Brown neighborhoods. It also scratches the surface on how to think about solutions that place more value on history, people, intention and equity. Highly recommend.

[Monica Mullins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book! It’s important. We can do better and Collin helps us examine the past to pave a way to a better future. I have recommended this book to many friends and colleagues. Look at Dallas in a new way.

[Imani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative, and a great start to understanding how racism, inequality, and capitalism speak through architecture + alternative design approaches to combat it. I loved that it focused on Dallas, as a current resident of the city.

[DonE · Rating 5 out of 5]

living in Dallas, this explains a lot about the history of areas I have frequented. sad to understand the ways that strong communities were broken apart by racism and greed. unfortunately it is still happening throughout the city.

[Chelsee Alcantara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m stuck between a 2 & 3– interesting content and short enough to maintain my focus but the time jumps made it hard to read

[Rachel Mumaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the in-depth research to the heartbreaking stories, Paved A Way shines a much-needed light on the long-ignored truths about how Dallas, and all of our cities, grew into what they are today.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and sad and interesting and depressing. A real eye-opener to the systemic racism at play in Dallas during the 20th century as the city was being built

[Erin Curry · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book put together a lot of the stories and history of the legacy of poor planning and racism that i’ve learned about while living here. this book also kind of put me into a career crisis! slay

[Andrew Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent storytelling and research about neighborhoods/communities in Dallas that were carved up and displaced by inner-city highway construction (spoiler: they were not white neighborhoods).

[Edward Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book to read to understand institutional racism through zoning and its effects on Dallas. I interviewed the author; the book and author are very insightful regarding this topic.