Things I would love to see Detroit do to become more urbanized

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February-20-11, 11:05 PM
Brian1979

Things I would love to see Detroit do to become more urbanized

My dream would be to see complete removal of I-375 to connect downtown to Lafayette Park. I-75 tunneled from between Beaubein and Brush all the way to Third Street which is just past the Grand River exit but before the Lodge exit this would connect downtown to midtown and New Center. This would most likely require a complete rebuild of the current I-75/I-375 interchange and I'm not sure if that curve could handle speeds of 55 mph, but I believe it could handle speed higher than the current 25 mph. I just think that the expressways the way they are break up the city, I can't imagine how Detroit was without the expressways when it had 1.8 million people in the city in 1950, of course there were only 3 million or so in the entire metro area at that time, it's around 4.5 million today. Things really need to be done to make Detroit a more attractive city, also I believe Detroit has one of the smaller downtown area's in terms of area, so opening it up to midtown, New Center and Lafayette Park wouldn't be a bad idea, if only this could be done.
February-20-11, 11:07 PM
Hypestyles

if this were undertaken, how would this affect a light rail train going down jefferson and vicinity?
February-20-11, 11:27 PM
Brian1979

I think it would help it a lot, if there was a light rail train there would be less need for parking downtown which would be a good thing. I think with the current setup of I-75 from Brush to Third and I-375 completely it handicaps downtown, it's like your downtown and that's all there is to Detroit that would attract anyone to the city that is. My vision for a Detroit subway or light rail system would be to have a line go out Fort, Michigan, Grand River, Woodward, Gratiot and Jefferson. I like the way Chicago has their system setup with the trains running down the medians of the expressways. I forgot that if I included New Center there would be a need to tunnel I-94 as well, that would probably be easier than I-75 though.
February-20-11, 11:34 PM
dover627

Keep in mind, all of the freeways you reference [[and, btw, i agree that they break up the city) were built right on top of existing neighborhoods that previously connected some of the [[now) disjointed parts of the city. We're probably not going to see a Detroit version of Boston's "big dig", but it certainly is worth thinking about how the landscape/walkability/urban scale of the city would change if we re-worked some of the freeway systems that currently cut up the urban landscape.
February-20-11, 11:51 PM
Brian1979

Wasn't the part of I-75 from the Gratiot exit to 14th part of Vernor Highway? If it was it makes sense since it picks up in front of MCS on the westside and Gratiot on the eastside. It seems like if this was the case Vernor would of made a clean shot across the city. I think it's pretty obvious that it was.
February-21-11, 01:10 AM
DetroitDad

Hey Brian1979, check out this link; The History of Michigan I-375.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian1979

My dream would be to see complete removal of I-375 to connect downtown to Lafayette Park. I-75 tunneled from between Beaubein and Brush all the way to Third Street which is just past the Grand River exit but before the Lodge exit this would connect downtown to midtown and New Center. This would most likely require a complete rebuild of the current I-75/I-375 interchange and I'm not sure if that curve could handle speeds of 55 mph, but I believe it could handle speed higher than the current 25 mph. I just think that the expressways the way they are break up the city, I can't imagine how Detroit was without the expressways when it had 1.8 million people in the city in 1950, of course there were only 3 million or so in the entire metro area at that time, it's around 4.5 million today. Things really need to be done to make Detroit a more attractive city, also I believe Detroit has one of the smaller downtown area's in terms of area, so opening it up to midtown, New Center and Lafayette Park wouldn't be a bad idea, if only this could be done.
February-21-11, 02:35 AM
Brian1979

Quote:

Originally Posted by DetroitDad

Hey Brian1979, check out this link; The History of Michigan I-375.

I knew that I-375 was suppose to be I-75 and hug the river down to SW Detroit. I can't stand the Fisher/Chrysler interchange.
February-21-11, 02:38 AM
DetroitDad

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian1979

I knew that I-375 was suppose to be I-75 and hug the river down to SW Detroit. I can't stand the Fisher/Chrysler interchange.

Yeah. It's interesting that they still want/wanted to expand I-375 recently.
February-21-11, 02:57 AM
Brian1979

Quote:

Originally Posted by DetroitDad

Yeah. It's interesting that they still want/wanted to expand I-375 recently.

It sure is, I consider that entire route useless, the only time I ever use it is if I want to get to I-75 quickly from Jefferson, either that or the Lodge. That expansion of I-375 they wanted to do sounded like a joke, I can't believe they were actually seriously considering doing that.