Columnist Tara Wallace stands in front of Polk-Quincy Viaduct project construction in Topeka. She’s studying the effects of earlier urban renewal projects in the community. (Tara Wallace)
My nonprofit, the Lighthouse Therapeutic Community Outreach Foundation, has launched a study to understand the long-term socioeconomic and psychological impacts of displacement caused by the construction of the U.S. Interstate System and urban renewal projects in Topeka during the 1950s and 1960s. This study centers the voices of those most affected, those who lived through the bulldozing of homes, businesses and neighborhoods such as “The Bottoms,” along with those who inherited trauma through broken generational ties and systemic divestment.
The goal of Lighthouse TCOF is to give voice to the experience of displacement. And to plot its impact from a generational perspective. For me as a trauma therapist, it informs the work I do to understand how past traumas contribute to present challenges. Namely, the adverse human health and environmental effects stemming from the original project, as well as subsequent traumatization or retraumatization from the current one.
The Polk-Quincy Viaduct project is billed as a modern infrastructure improvement. But the question must be asked, improvement for whom? The original highway displaced hundreds of families, most of them Black families. Decades later, these same communities face renewed disruption without adequate outreach, input, or compensation.
Even more concerning is that this project is happening during massive rollbacks in funding for social service programs and resources. These cuts directly affect access to mental health services, basic needs and housing support, workforce development, and youth services in already under-resourced neighborhoods. These are the very services needed to repair the damage from past displacement, not just to survive it again.
The environmental, health, and quality of life effects of urban renewal projects are often underestimated or ignored despite federal expectations of accountability. The Polk-Quincy expansion could potentially worsen air quality, limit recreational access, and destroy cultural and historic spaces — many of which remain undocumented or are only now being recognized as sites of generational significance.
Studies show that communities near highways suffer higher rates of asthma, chronic stress, and mental health problems. Add to this the cumulative effects of economic hardship, housing instability, and cultural erasure, and the cost is far greater than any environmental impact statement suggests.
This study seeks to document those effects, not just historically, but as they are still felt today. We are inviting community members and descendants of displaced families to complete a survey and, for those selected, participate in interviews. The data will provide a powerful basis for community-driven policy recommendations, advocacy, and reparative considerations.
This isn’t just research. It is truth-telling. It is an act of justice.
To move forward, we need more than widened roads. We need conciliation, equity, and representation. That means pausing to ask whose voices are missing from urban renewal conversations. It means restoring what was taken through community investment, historical preservation and actual, enforceable protections for those most affected.
The federal government may be cutting resources, but we do not have to cut out the people who have carried the socioeconomic and psychological weight of urban renewal for generations.
We must not repeat the past by forgetting it.
If you or someone you know was affected by Topeka’s urban renewal or the construction of the highway system in the 1950s and 1960s, we invite you to share your story. Participate in the study. Speak truth to power. Help us ensure that progress does not come at the cost of justice, once again.
Tara D. Wallace is a licensed clinician and trauma therapist in Topeka. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.