Tear Up Street of your Choice

[mtburb]

If you had one choice which street you would like seen torn up and why?

I-375, because it is too short.

This was inspired by the "tear down building" thread.

[313WX]

*Peck
*Brooks
*Rolfs PL
*Rondo
*Barry
*Maddelein [[west of Gratiot)
*Anderdon [[north of Mack)
*Eugene
*Fournier
*Terminal

For starters of course.

[Gsgeorge]

I-375 is a great candidate for boulevardication. I'd love to see it removed, raised back to grade level, turned into a boulevard, part of it redeveloped or made into a park. Ala Boston's big dig freeway removal.

While we're on the subject, how about adding more streets that cross the freeways or capping the freeway downtown at I-75 and Woodward.

Some unnecessary streets that I can think of are in Roosevelt Park. Remove the streets, make Vernor go northbound up 16th street, and turn the Park into a big gathering place/venue..... Oh, wait, Phil Cooley's on it already!

[Whitehouse]

The road of progress, cause that always seems to bulldozer the past...

[Johnlodge]

Orchard Lake Road

[mtburb]

The entire lenght of Hamilton in H.P.

[casscorridor]

Hall Road/M-59

[Scottathew]

I agree with the idea for boulevarding I-375. My preferred way to get into downtown is to take Madison.

[Detroitnerd]

I hate the way I-375 makes pedestrians crossing impossible near east of the Ren Cen. Just so stupid, stupid, stupid. Remove it all the way up to I-75 and reunite those Lafayette Park with downtown.

I do note, hopefully, however, that Archer had proposed completing I-375 all the way to the Lodge. Thanks to increasing awareness of what freeways can and cannot do, no sane leader will propose this in the future!

[DetroitPlanner]

I do note, hopefully, however, that Archer had proposed completing I-375 all the way to the Lodge. Thanks to increasing awareness of what freeways can and cannot do, no sane leader will propose this in the future!

I think you're confused. The plan was percipitated by GM in order to get traffic off of Jefferson and provide better access to the pedestrian friendly [[ironic no?) buildings they were going to do next to the Ren Cen. The office market tanked and so went the plan.

About half the roads in Belle Isle can be done away with. Re-establish the bus that brings people to the park.

[Hermod]

I hate the way I-375 makes pedestrians crossing impossible near east of the Ren Cen. Just so stupid, stupid, stupid. Remove it all the way up to I-75 and reunite those Lafayette Park with downtown.

I do note, hopefully, however, that Archer had proposed completing I-375 all the way to the Lodge. Thanks to increasing awareness of what freeways can and cannot do, no sane leader will propose this in the future!

When I worked for the city in 1961, the plans were to connect the Lodge and Chrysler at their southern ends. The Chrysler was designed with few bridges south of Warren to isolate the downtown from "indian country" to the east.

[Gistok]

When I worked for the city in 1961, the plans were to connect the Lodge and Chrysler at their southern ends. The Chrysler was designed with few bridges south of Warren to isolate the downtown from "indian country" to the east.

Hermod, it's funny that you mention isolation via freeway. Living in St. Clair Shores, it too is isolated from all points westward [[Eastpointe & Roseville)... via a moat [[I-94) and city walls [[tall brick wall sound barriers). The only thing missing are city gates at 9, 9 1/2, 10, 10 1/2, 11, 11 1/2 and 12 Mile Rds.... and portcullis [[metal grates) that lower at nightfall....

[Gistok]

I-375 is a great candidate for boulevardication. I'd love to see it removed, raised back to grade level, turned into a boulevard, part of it redeveloped or made into a park. Ala Boston's big dig freeway removal.

Gsgeorge, Boston just put the freeway underground. with a park on top. If they put I-375 at street level... just think of all the traffic congestion it would create for Lafayette Park.

When I go to Belle Isle, I take the Chrysler Fwy to E. Jefferson. If the I-375 portion became a boulevard, it would likely be more congested, and I'd be taking the first left turn thru Lafayette Park I could get to, to get to my destination.

I think that capping the freeway between the interchange and Jefferson would be a better idea. Ditto for parts of the Fisher Fwy. near Woodward.

[DetroitHabitater]

Tear out, BLVD or cap the lodge south of MLK

[Detroitnerd]

I think you're confused.

Yeah, it was a while ago, and I was mistaken.

Here's an interesting and relevant tidbit, though, related to that issue. From more than 10 years ago, a voice of sanity, and just as relevant as ever.

I-375 doesn't work, writes the cofounder ...

I-375 doesn't work, writes the cofounder of Transportation Riders United, Karen Kendrick-Hands, in a Detroit Free Press opinion piece, blasting the Michigan Department of Transportation for the inner beltway's extension proposal, which makes a bad idea even worse. She calls the beltway an example of destroyed transit infrastructure and sacrificed neighborhoods in the name of auto-only access, reflecting the department's obsession with suburban interstate solutions forced on an urban street grid. Asked by General Motors Corporation to improve access to its world headquarters and garages on the riverfront, she writes, the department rushed the belt extension planning without an environmental impact study, analyses of other options or opportunity for public input. Then she cites a better idea, from a long-time cabinet member under previous federal administrations, Republican Casper Weinberger, who said that tearing down freeways and replacing them with boulevards may become one of the great public works endeavors of the 21st Century. That's exactly, she stresses, what we should do with I-375. 8/10/2000 [emphasis added]

[Hermod]

Yeah, it was a while ago, and I was mistaken.

Here's an interesting and relevant tidbit, though, related to that issue. From more than 10 years ago, a voice of sanity, and just as relevant as ever.

I-375 doesn't work, writes the cofounder ...

I-375 doesn't work, writes the cofounder of Transportation Riders United, Karen Kendrick-Hands, in a Detroit Free Press opinion piece, blasting the Michigan Department of Transportation for the inner beltway's extension proposal, which makes a bad idea even worse. She calls the beltway an example of destroyed transit infrastructure and sacrificed neighborhoods in the name of auto-only access, reflecting the department's obsession with suburban interstate solutions forced on an urban street grid. Asked by General Motors Corporation to improve access to its world headquarters and garages on the riverfront, she writes, the department rushed the belt extension planning without an environmental impact study, analyses of other options or opportunity for public input. Then she cites a better idea, from a long-time cabinet member under previous federal administrations, Republican Casper Weinberger, who said that tearing down freeways and replacing them with boulevards may become one of the great public works endeavors of the 21st Century. That's exactly, she stresses, what we should do with I-375. 8/10/2000 [emphasis added]

Detroit's freeways were envisioned and planned long before the suburbs got going. Construction began on the Chrysler when you took Telegraph Road to Toledo, Gratiot to Port Huron, and Woodward to northern Michigan.

Detroit's freeways were planned to get traffic moving from one area to another within the city off of the commercial streets. Davidson, the Lodge, and the Ford were underway with their alignments planned long before Eisenhower proposed the interstate system.

Detroit wanted their freeways to be a part of the interstate system so that they could tap the honeypot of fed interstate money to build them. That is why I-75 meanders around in Oakland county before going up to Mackinac. It comes out of Detroit heading in a direction other than that which I-75 was supposed to go. An efficient I-75 would have incorporated the Southfield Xpwy into I-75 rather than the Chrysler.

While the interstates have benefited suburban growth, they were not designed for that purpose and the urban expressways were not designed for either the interstate system or the suburbs.

The Davidson was the first of the Detroit expressways and the Lodge was the second. Both were designed to keep traffic moving within the city.

[DetroitDad]

Put a light rail line through it, and route other traffic to a new bridge or convert the old rail tunnel in Corktown?

[Ravine]

Woodward, all the way up to Grand Circus Park, because once Hudson's was closed and later imploded-- all of that devastatingly tragic, in my view-- it just wasn't important, anymore.

Nice goddam parade route, though, I suppose.

[Magnatomicflux]

Put a light rail line through it, and route other traffic to a new bridge or convert the old rail tunnel in Corktown?

Canadian Pacific is building a new tunnel.
Just sayin' lol
If a road came thru that tunnel into Windsor...that's the one I want torn up.

[East Detroit]

Piquette Street

Tear that schitt down or move it to the suburbs.
People push keeping old stuff, but then drive their import back to their suburban enclaves and don't really care about the starving people left behind next to empty hulks of garbage.

[iheartthed]

I-375 would be my first choice. My second choice would to get rid of the Fisher. I would route I-75 along I-96 until the I-94 interchange and then route 75 crosstown along 94 then rejoin it with the current path north at the current 94/75 interchange.