Helping small and mid-sized communities repair the damage of divisive infrastructure

T4A’s principle to invest in the rest aims to create a complete transportation network, which includes not just building out networks of transit, sidewalks, and bike lanes for safe and affordable transportation options, but also repairing the damage of the car-centric infrastructure that’s already been built. The hundreds of billions of dollars the U.S. has invested in highways has repeatedly and deliberately torn communities apart. Under the guise of “urban renewal,” cities and states built dangerous arterials through Black and low-income communities to divide these neighborhoods from the rest of the city or destroy them entirely. But we don’t have to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can actively work together to restore connection and communities across this divisive infrastructure. 

Though the majority in Congress has moved to essentially kill the popular Reconnecting Communities program by rescinding and taking back more than $2.4 billion for these projects—much of that already awarded to local communities—that does not mean these types of projects cannot move forward. Although costly projects to remove or cap an entire highway or repair the damage of an enormous legacy interstate project will be far more difficult without this program, there are countless ways to use existing federal, state, or local money to quickly make dangerous and divisive roadways safer and more accessible. And implementing a quick-build demonstration project on roads like these can be an important first step toward a more ambitious permanent project.

Smart Growth America’s Community Connectors program seeks to equip small and mid-sized communities to identify, remove, or repair the wounds of divisive infrastructure. This iteration of the program is focused on divisive arterial highways and other dangerous roads that have divided or damaged communities.

This call for applications will support three teams from small to mid-sized cities (between approximately 50,000 and 500,000 in population) to participate in a yearlong cohort (September 2025 – June 2026) for training and support, culminating in the design and implementation of a temporary street safety pilot project to test out permanent changes to reconnect the community.

These joint teams consisting of local government and a community-based organization of some kind will receive in-depth instruction in building safer, complete streets through virtual training, a $25,000 grant to implement a street safety demonstration project, as much as $20,000 in in-kind support from outside engineering experts to support project design, and travel budget for a two-day convening in one of the three cities in fall 2025 for a site visit, walk audit, training, and project design.