Interstate 375 to be transformed into street level boulevard

[Gistok]

They can always take the bus

But tailgating is frowned upon on buses!

[Airforceguy]

Kresge grant aims to explore neighborhood restoration in contentious I-375 redevelopment

The 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."

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/nonpro...-i-375-rebuild

[oladub]

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] "
“

found with some other good detroit maps at-
https://indiemaps.com/blog/2010/03/wild-bill-bunge/

[royce]

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.

[royce]

Back in May or earlier this month, MDOT sent me an email saying that they had adjusted the number of lanes on the new boulevard from six to four. MDOT had a community meeting this past Monday that I was not able to attend. Did anyone go? If so, did they just announce the lane changes I mentioned above or did they offer additional information? Let me know.

[Richard]

https://www.wxyz.com/news/mdot-holds...re-information

The last part of that article reads

MDOT says the project remains fluid and community sessions will continue taking place. Start time for construction is expected to be 2025 with the heaviest construction taking place over the following three years.


So it appears as though they are going forward one way or another .

These community meetings are always the same,they say they are about addressing residents concerns but they do what they are going to do anyways,residents were concerned about slamming a freeway through neighborhoods back then,but they still did it.

[royce]

It amazes me that the protesters miss the point in that the freeway needs to either be reconstructed or replaced. MDOT has decided to replace it because it's cheaper. Now, originally the I-375 portion south of Gratiot was going to be eliminated and rebuilt to become a boulevard. Then MDOT came back a few years later and announced that they would eliminate the I-75 Gratiot connector as well. The protesters seen outside of the meeting in the Ch. 7 story are concerned about the reconstruction affecting the businesses in Eastern Market. Rebuilding the Gratiot connector will be a huge project and it will affect getting around Eastern Market. However, if you know the layout of Eastern Market, then you know that there are several entrance and exit points to use during construction. All will be fine.

[K-slice]

That idiot who says getting rid of 375 will cause all businesses in EM to close apparently has no sense for geography. Virtually no one takes 375 to get to EM as it stand now. Almost all traffic comes up or down 75 and gets off at Mack, then drives south into the market. Shows how little value public comment has some times.

[Gistok]

Something to think about... until the RenCen future is determined, it really will put a kink into the I-375 redevelopment plans. If no RenCen... then there's no need for special access to the riverfront that was planned to connect the RenCen with the I-375 Boulevard replacement. The only access that the I-375 Boulevard will need to worry about is access to both East and West Jefferson. All other access to the riverfront can be handled by side streets off of Jefferson going down to the river.

[royce]

Gistok, I think it's still important to have the new boulevard go all the way to Atwater simply because there's no reason for it not to. What happens to the RenCen has nothing to do with the boulevard's placement.

[southen]

Gistok, I think it's still important to have the new boulevard go all the way to Atwater simply because there's no reason for it not to. What happens to the RenCen has nothing to do with the boulevard's placement.

Having it go to Atwater also presents an opportunity for some kind of Riverwalk terminus that allows for more placemaking and programming. That area is already the most popular spot along the riverwalk, nothing wrong with making it easier to get to while expanding offerings.

[royce]

A week ago MDOT held the seventh public session about the project. Is a seventh public session needed? Wouldn't MDOT have enough public feedback by now? Are they just stalling this project with these continued public sessions? They are supposed to start the project in 2025.What gives?

[K-slice]

It's typical government mismanagement. Rather than just taking input, consulting experts, finalizing a design, and executing they need to involve every niche group worried about getting their piece. E.G. Kresgie worried about reparations from the "racist highway".

[southen]

It's typical government mismanagement. Rather than just taking input, consulting experts, finalizing a design, and executing they need to involve every niche group worried about getting their piece. E.G. Kresgie worried about reparations from the "racist highway".

Just so I understand what you are saying, you don't think it is worth exploring if there are any ways to remedy a wrong committed that was targeted at a particular community?

As someone who went to that meeting much of it was looking at the proposals that the DDA recently made regarding the width and pedestrian friendly features of the new boulevard. This is also a project that began before Covid and decided to alter the design post Covid due to the amount of traffic that post pandemic downtown receives. The delay is more from the pivot in design and the demands of residents of Lafayette Park than it is the Kresge Foundation exploring ways to make things equitable.

[Gistok]

I have to agree with Southen. This was planned pre-covid, when traffic for offices downtown was much more than post-covid, and also we don't know what a diminutive RenCen is going to be... since this roadway was supposed to tie into the RenCen. I think some further planning is in order, before they create a roadway for 80K cars daily, when one for only 40K cars daily might be a better fit...

[royce]

Gistok, this project began pre-Covid. Traffic volume may have changed, but you don't need a public forum regarding that. MDOT did reduce the number of lanes from six to four, but that was two community meetings ago. What else is there to talk about? Reparations to right the wrongs of the past is a noble undertaking, but at the same time it's a futile undertaking because you'll never get a consensus on who should get them. In addition, the city did not just take property from home/property owners to make room for freeways. They were compensated. You can debate whether they got fair market value for their properties, but no one was forced to move without some compensation. Finally, not all property owners were minorities. So, where do you begin?

[royce]

I didn't realize that the previous thread on this topic went back to 2014. Obviously, way before Covid.

[mwilbert]

Gistok, this project began pre-Covid. Traffic volume may have changed, but you don't need a public forum regarding that. MDOT did reduce the number of lanes from six to four, but that was two community meetings ago. What else is there to talk about? Reparations to right the wrongs of the past is a noble undertaking, but at the same time it's a futile undertaking because you'll never get a consensus on who should get them. In addition, the city did not just take property from home/property owners to make room for freeways. They were compensated. You can debate whether they got fair market value for their properties, but no one was forced to move without some compensation. Finally, not all property owners were minorities. So, where do you begin?

There are actually a bunch of details to talk about. I believe the reconfiguration is expected to free up something over 30 acres of adjoining land. Where exactly that land gets created. as it depends on the exact road alignment, and what gets done on it is certainly of interest to people. How pedestrian crossings work is of interest.

Whether the community meeting process is a great way to get to closure and a good result on those issues is open to debate, but the issues exist.

I agree with you on the reparations aspect; it's not at all clear to me how that could possibly work. Most of the people who were there have to be dead by now, it's unclear what sort of legally-cognizable damages they suffered, and even more unclear how the design of a road can possibly mitigate them.

Most of what I've seen talked about is some kind of memorialization, and some kind of preferential access to the new land to people who had some kind of stake in the area pre-freeway. The case doesn't seem compelling to me, but obviously other people disagree.

[K-slice]

Just so I understand what you are saying, you don't think it is worth exploring if there are any ways to remedy a wrong committed that was targeted at a particular community?

As someone who went to that meeting much of it was looking at the proposals that the DDA recently made regarding the width and pedestrian friendly features of the new boulevard. This is also a project that began before Covid and decided to alter the design post Covid due to the amount of traffic that post pandemic downtown receives. The delay is more from the pivot in design and the demands of residents of Lafayette Park than it is the Kresge Foundation exploring ways to make things equitable.

No, it's not worth exploring. We need to stop looking back and focus on the future. 375 opened 50 years ago and anyone displaced by was either child at the time or dead. Highest and best use for all the land, no preferantial treatment based arbitrary demographic information. Sell the land to those who will ensure it generates maximum income for the city.

I agree the design is way overbuilt for the need, but we don't need more meetings. The public has given their feedback, MDOT knows what the majority of residents want, and they'll either give it to us or not. Someone at the top just needs to make a decision and get the project moving forward.

[southen]

You act as if taking out a thriving black cultural and commercial district through targeted racism doesn't have a ripple effect over time. If we lived in a time where these things no longer happened I might agree with you but this country has a lovely knack for white washing its' past to "move forward" without ever actually addressing the root issue of the initial atrocity.

Exploring ways, if there even are any, to acknowledge what happened is the most effective way to move forward. How many people before this process became public do you think even knew what happened when 375 was put in and how it was deliberate in its' destruction of a community? Not many.

[Zacha341]

^Yep. There has been a destructive ripple effect.

Many living today experienced direct Jim Crow policies present 'up south', right here in Michigan. I recall for example as a child my parents constrained where to purchase property]

Claiming that racism has NOT impacted communities generationally is as untrue as stating that EVERYTHING is racist.