roadsTaken: Using GIS to Map Historical Highway Displacement in Houston
Presentation Outline:
Houston is known for its web of highways and the traffic that clogs them. A new digital mapping project – “roadsTaken” – uses historical maps, aerials, and archival data to visualize how that web came to be and the people those highways displaced. In 1929, Houston published a city plan which included a map of “Proposed Race Restriction Areas.” The plan laid the groundwork for the area’s freeways and its authors trained the city planner who designed Houston’s urban highways. Those highways would displace over 21,000 Houstonians, 53% of which were Black. Visit https://roadstaken.org to view the research.
About the Speaker, Matt Drwenski:
Matt Drwenski is the GIS Support Specialist at Fondren Library’s GIS/Data Center at Rice University. His current research focuses on the displacement caused by the construction of Houston’s freeway system. Drwenski holds an M.A. in history from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.A. from Rice University. Before joining Rice University staff, he worked for eight years as a public school teacher in Houston.
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