Detroit's Broken Street Grid

[Bucket]

Looking at maps [[like this one) of old Detroit - before freeways, Lafayette Park and other megaprojects, it's evident that the street grid once ran largely uninterrupted through the developed parts of the city.

While I'm not an urban planner, I tend to agree with the Jane Jacobs school of thought that an intact street grid made up of short blocks is one of many ingredients of a healthy city as it is conducive to walkability.

So why can't we, the people of Detroit, push for small incremental improvements in our city street grid? Perhaps start by eliminating nonsense like this unnecessary dead end on Russell St. at Canfield:



And why does Columbia Street have to be closed off to traffic at Park? Given the influx of traffic near the stadiums and theater district, seems like it would make more sense to open up the grid to alleviate special event traffic backups.

But the coup de grace for messing up the street grid might be the southwest portion of downtown near the Federal Building and WDIV. Here's a map of a run I took. Notice the crazy route I was forced to take to get from Cobo to Grand Circus Park after making an errant turn north on First from Fort Street. First is closed from Howard to Michigan, even to pedestrians, as is Howard from First to Cass. Second runs from Congress to Lafayette, then dead ends at WDIV, but picks up again for a block and runs to Abbott, then dead ends again. There's zero pedestrian flow, and not surprisingly there's a dearth of street life in the area.



There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of other examples of the broken grid. Some fixable, some not. There are probably more pressing issues facing the city at any given time. But perhaps that very mindset is to blame for the fractured street grid and lack of walkability/navigability in certain parts of the city?

Would love to hear others' thoughts on this.