Emily presented a story map project that looked at How Omaha’s North Freeway paved the way to inequality and how Omaha is racially segregated. To do this, Emily looked at racism on the frontier and how it was seen in Omaha. She then discussed Redlining and what it is, providing the HOLC map of Omaha. Afterward, Emily discusses road building specifically the North Freeway. She provides background information on the interstage system and why it was implemented. She also discusses freeway revolts and how Omahans reacted to new freeways being built. She ends her project by talking about how people are trying to reconcile what was done.
I enjoyed overall how the story map was set up. It first discusses racism and segregation by focusing on the nation and then narrowing it down to Omaha. I also enjoyed how it gave background information on how the highway wars were in other cities across the nation. I also enjoyed the images throughout the project and how the maps were analyzed. I also liked the slide bar for the various maps and images, especially the one showing how Omaha has changed from 1962 to 1972. Another strength of the project was the inclusion of the reconciliation. I feel it provides the audience with information on what is being done about this currently. A final strength was the use of sources.
One critique I have of the story map is the lack of a conclusion as a way to wrap things up. While I enjoyed the section about reconciliation, I don’t feel it serves the best as a conclusion. Something else that could have been included is how the interstate systems in Omaha still affect Omaha today. It does talk about how it is still seen today, but potentially a census data map of Omaha currently could have helped show how it is still in effect. While I know we looked at Redlining in Omaha in class, I feel the story map could have benefited from it. Another critique I have is of the HOLC map compared to the 1960s census. I feel the colors of the sections should have been the same colors as other HOLC maps where A = green, D = Red, etc. Otherwise, a map key would have been useful. The caption gives what the colors represent for the census map but not for the HOLC map. I don’t feel the project made any claims that it did not support.
Well done Levi!