Transportation projects should connect communities to opportunity, but too often new roads and rail lines have isolated low-income people and devastated the economic prospects of neighborhoods of color. That's why diverse communities in the Twin Cities fought tenaciously to make sure the new $1 billion Green Line creates jobs and business opportunities for residents, links low-income neighborhoods of color to employment centers, and strengthens local businesses along the route....

Like light rail projects from Baltimore to Seattle, the Green Line traverses some of the lowest-income and most diverse communities in its region. These include large Somali and Hmong communities and Rondo, the historic heart of St. Paul's African American community. Rondo is a place emblematic of the economic and social fractures caused by inequitable infrastructure investments. The last major transportation project in the city — I-94, built in the 1960s — cut through the neighborhood, demolishing hundreds of homes and businesses, displacing thousands of residents into a discriminatory housing market, and hurting economic growth to this day....

"People wanted the train to actually stop for them in their neighborhoods and they wanted to use it as a catalyst for economic development," Vanhala said. Community-organizing efforts led to public meetings, packed hearings, a civil rights complaint, and a lawsuit. After three years, the coalition won the stations — and more....

The campaign, which brought together the historic African American community and the newer Asian immigrant communities, also created a model for alliance building across neighborhoods, race, and ethnicity. "We had to build trust among ourselves and the only way we could do that was to talk explicitly about race and the inherent racism within our built environment," Vanhala said.