Kresge grant aims to explore neighborhood restoration in contentious I-375 redevelopment
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/nonpro...-i-375-rebuildThe Kresge Foundation is stepping into a controversial plan to bring Interstate 375 in Detroit up to grade with grants aimed at the spirit of restoring neighborhoods that the expressway's construction destroyed decades ago.
The foundation's aim is to ensure the project goes beyond engineering and includes a reparative approach, incorporating some type of reparations for the harm done to Black residents and businesses cleared to make way for the freeway. The Kresge Foundation has made a $1.85 million planning grant to the Downtown Detroit Partnership that will support further engagement of residents and businesses and create a holistic vision for the project.
It’s the first of several grants Kresge plans to make to the effort and comes amid community pushback on the early design proposed to convert the stretch of below-grade highway in downtown Detroit to a street-level boulevard. “History has shown us time and time again that the investment goals of major infrastructure projects more often prioritize traffic flows, cost and speed of completion over residents, pedestrians and environmentally sustainable built environment concerns,” said Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director, Detroit program for the foundation.
“Detroit now has one shot to begin to reverse the decimation caused by the original I-375 urban renewal project. Getting it right means that affected residents and businesses are fully engaged in planning and feel that their concerns have been considered in MDOT’s final engineering plans."
I just came across this map made by my Professor William H. Bunge probably in the 1960's of where black children were killed by commuters. It seems to apply to the concept of raising the freeway to street level, hoping drivers will slow down, and no pedestrians will get hurt"Another example of Bunge’s cartographic experimentation: a rectangular cartogram when the form was quite rare. An image I clipped from the DGEI’s
“A report to the parents of Detroit on school decentralization” [pdf] "
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found with some other good detroit maps at-
https://indiemaps.com/blog/2010/03/wild-bill-bunge/
Ever drive down Vernier between I-94 and Mack? Nice wide median and three lanes in each direction. This would be the ideal set up for the I-375 boulevard.
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