the city was planning on making a recruiting drive to bring African-American professionals to the city. The city's program, and the cross burning polarized the community. People took up strongly held views. Dubuque police had to be summoned to Dubuque's Senior High School at one point because racial tensions almost boiled over into a large fight at the school. Jim Brady, who was mayor at the time, had even gone to the schools in Dubuque to talk about his experiences with racism over the years. When the Guardian Angels arrived in Dubuque, it was felt that their presence would only complicate the matter. Brady flat out told them that if they caused problems he'd have them arrested. The cross burnings and the city's plans had the effect of bringing negative media attention to the city. ABC's 20/20 did a news segment on race relations, which many felt was biased against the city and the people living in it in general. An episode of Donahue featured some of the major personalities in the controversy. The problems also attracted the unwelcome attention of hate groups. One hate group held a parade through the city, which was attended by only a few hundred people. The Ku Klux Klan held a rally in downtown Dubuque. To counter the Klan rally, the city held a free diversity public gathering at Dubuque's Eagle Point Park. In 2007 racial tension have heated up once again after the stabbing of a white male in downtown Dubuque by a group of African-Americans at a party. Traffic improvements In recent years, government bodies from the Federal to the City level have moved to improve the road and highway systems in Dubuque, which have been plagued by problems that resulted from the original design of the roadways throughout the city. US 61/151 One of the first major traffic improvement projects undertaken was to build a US 61/151 elevated highway through the city. Previously, U.S. Highways 61/151 used several downtown roads from Locust Street up to the Wisconsin border. This resulted in a lot of heavy truck traffic on local streets, and was a cause of major congestion. In several stages from 1988 to 1993, a new four-lane divided highway was built through the city of Dubuque. The sections were built from south to north. Most of this new highway was designed as an elevated highway - except for one section near