On Sunday November 5, 2023, community members and elected officials gathered at the “Wider Won’t Work” rally to push back against the expansion of I-35. Around 300 attendees joined together to call for a project that truly benefits the people of Austin rather than exacerbating existing harms and creating new future harms.

Several elected officials addressed those gathered and called for an improved project, including Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis, Council Member Zo Qadri, Council Member José Velásquez, former Texas House Representative Celia Israel, and U.S. House Representative Greg Casar.

A number of community organizations and neighborhood groups, including Reconnect Austin, co-hosted the event with Rethink35, the primary driver behind the rally. Reconnect Austin’s statement on our decision to co-host the rally reads as follows:

Reconnect Austin has worked for 11 years to improve the I-35 corridor through Austin for the benefit of our community. In that time, we have engaged in good faith with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in pursuit of a project that better served all its stakeholders while not exacerbating past and existing harms. We have spent countless hours meeting with TxDOT, with neighborhood groups, with local elected officials, with community leaders, and with environmental experts all in pursuit of a better project for the future of our city.

We still believe that there is a future for I-35 in Austin that doesn’t exacerbate air, water, and noise pollution, that doesn’t induce traffic, congestion, and sprawl, that doesn’t demolish homes and businesses, and that doesn’t further separate the people of Austin. But the project proposed by TxDOT, as it stands today, does not lead us into that future. Widening I-35 will not solve any of its existing problems and will cost us $4.5 billion and 10 years of construction. It will cost us local businesses and housing. It will cost us a better future.

Reconnect Austin is proud to join Rethink35 and all the organizations co-hosting the “Wider Won’t Work” rally on November 5, 11 am, at Sanchez Elementary (73 San Marcos St, Austin, TX). We will continue to work to improve this project from every angle possible.

For more information about the rally, check out coverage in The Austin Chronicle and KVUE.