PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Spelled out vertically, in letters ten feet tall on Braddock Avenue on Friday July 21 was the message: NO M-F-X, no to the Mon-Fayette Expressway.  Standing on the opposite side of the street was the Mayor of Braddock as well as representatives of the many community groups opposed to the highway project and about 50 community members who had gathered earlier at the Mayor's Residence for the Goodbye Mon-Fayette party.

Much of the argument against the Mon-Fayette Expressway involves the expense of building a new toll road, especially in an area with such underfunded public transportation. Activists such as the Group Against Smog and Pollution, GASP, feel that the money is being put into road building instead of road maintenance.

Because the expressway will run through towns from Route 68 in West Virginia to Pennsylvania's Monongahela River Valley, the construction will call for the removal of homes, buildings, and natural surroundings that lie in the proposed path of the expressway. Many residents faced with these issues feel that the Mon-Fayette Expressway will do more to hurt them than to help.

[ Read more... | listen to a Rustbelt Radio interview with Braddock Mayor ]