Freeways Without Futures 2021

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 1 Table of Contents

P4 / Introduction P8 / Freeways Without Futures P10 / Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, New York, New York P12 / Claiborne Expressway (I-10), New Orleans, Louisiana P14 / Inner Loop North, Rochester, New York P16 / I-244, Tulsa, Oklahoma P18 / I-275, Tampa, Florida P20 / I-345, Dallas, Texas P22 / I-35, Austin, Texas P24 / I-35, Duluth, Minnesota P26 / I-5, Seattle, Washington P28 / I-81, Syracuse, New York P30 / I-980, Oakland, California P32 / Kensington Expressway, Buffalo, New York P34 / North Loop (I-35/70), Kansas City, Missouri P36 / Scajaquada Expressway, Buffalo, New York P38 / The Great Highway, San Francisco, California P40 / Graduated Campaigns P42 / Conclusion P46 / Further Reading

2 Acknowledgments

The primary author of this document is Cover photo: New development along Ben Crowther, Program Manager at the Rochester, New York’s former Inner Loop Congress for the New Urbanism. Lynn (the right-of-way of the former highway Richards, President and CEO at the is now the grass lots to the right of Union Congress for the New Urbanism, Margaret Street). Credit: Stantec O’Neal, Deputy Director at the Congress for the New Urbanism, Rob Steuteville, Senior Communications Advisor at the Congress for the New Urbanism, and Lauren Mayer, Communications Associate at the Congress for the New Urbanism provided extensive editorial support.

Selections for this report were made by a national advisory committee consisting of:

Nana-Yaw Andoh, Ph.D. candidate, Taubman College of Architecture and Planning, University of Michigan

Norman Garrick, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Connecticut

Elizabeth Macdonald, Professor of Urban Design, University of California, Berkeley

Angie Schmitt, Owner/Principal of 3MPH Planning and author of “Right of Way: Race, Class and the Silent Crisis of Pedestrian Deaths in America”

Gary Toth, Founding Partner, Placemakers Guild

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 3 Introduction

The construction of the federal Interstate system did not come without significant human and social cost. Built directly through cities, these highways and others like them displaced roughly one million people and left behind disjointed neighborhoods suffering the negative environmental and social effects.

Freeways Without Futures tells the through a highway’s construction and stores and shops, or public services story of some of the worst highways residents still live with its effects. and amenities. Some have managed in America; the ones that have left a to combine several of these uses in terrible legacy and incredible hurdles In other places, new inhabitants their reclamation of the freeway for the people who live around them. occupied neighborhoods damaged by space. But it also highlights the resilience highways, as longtime residents who of neighborhood residents, local had the means moved on. After the After the 1989 Loma Prieta government officials, and activists California Division of Highways built earthquake, San Francisco’s fighting to remove these blighting Interstate 5 through Boyle Heights in Embarcadero and Central freeways highways and reconnect their Los Angeles, a significant portion of were damaged beyond safe use. communities. the neighborhood’s Jewish population The city evaluated whether these moved away to the Westside. In highways were necessary and Highway construction demolished their place, a generation of Mexican ultimately decided they were not. Main Streets and forced businesses immigrants seeking inexpensive Traffic disasters were predicted to close, disproportionately in Black housing moved in, inheriting only the when they closed but failed to occur. and brown communities. These small sliver of Hollenbeck Park the Boulevards replaced the freeways highways erased places that remain highway didn’t destroy. instead, opening up the waterfront central to the community, like and uniting neighborhoods. Claiborne Avenue’s tree-lined neutral No matter how people have ground in New Orleans or historic come to live around highways, To date, 18 American cities either have transformed or are committed Black Wall Street in Tulsa. After the they face ongoing negative highway, these areas were no longer to transforming freeways into recognizable; struck by a man-made physical and psychological community assets that provide natural disaster designed to serve the impacts. Highways drive social, economic, and environmental needs of those living elsewhere. disinvestment, create benefits to community members. This number has been accelerating in Unfortunately, some communities in unhealthy and toxic places to the last five years, with two projects the path of these highways unraveled live, and inflict traffic violence completed, four underway, and two to the point of disintegration. When on surrounding communities. more committed. These efforts have Rochester, New York opted to remove drawn the attention and support of its Inner Loop and replace it with Freeways Without Futures tells the the federal government. Under the a boulevard, the community living story of how the people who live Obama administration, the United around the highway was no longer near highways can repair, rebuild, States Department of Transportation the same as the one living there when and reknit their communities by introduced the Every Place Counts the highway was built. Others, such transforming the space these roads Design Challenge, which supported a as New Orleans’ primarily Black occupy into city streets, parks and handful of these efforts with technical Tremé neighborhood, have persevered green spaces, homes and apartments, assistance. The Biden administration

4 Tulsa’s historic Black Wall Street in 1938, razed to make way for I-244. Credit / Tulsa Historical Society & Museum

has made reconnecting the Inside This political momentum, redevelopment communities divided by highways opportunities, potential cost savings, one of its priorities and Congress has and potential to improve access taken the first steps toward a federal Report to opportunity for underserved Highways to Boulevards program by communities. The 2021 Freeways Without Futures introducing the $15b Reconnecting report features 15 highways in Communities Act in April. In each case, supporters have opted American cities that are prime to measure community progress and More support is needed. In cities for a transformation. The people quality of life by a set of metrics other across the country, the injustices who live around them know than travel time: in the built environment that stem that they are problematic. Many from the era of highway building are poorly maintained and have Economic Gains. still support the separation of cities become liabilities instead of assets. by race and class. Today, many of Straightforward solutions exist When the Interstate system and these urban freeways are reaching the to deal with the volume of traffic other state highways first encroached end of their designed lifespans. As they carry. Support for changing on cities, they converted valuable debates at the federal level consider these highways—to invest in new land in the heart of downtowns infrastructure as a cornerstone for transportation infrastructure that and along waterfronts into traffic recovery from COVID-19 and meets multiple community goals—is corridors that produce virtually no Americans are evaluating how to widespread. direct income for local economies. address systematic racism, where Cities that choose to remove or cover To select these highways, CNU do urban highways and their legacy urban freeways have an opportunity convened a national advisory fit? Will we reinvest in and rebuild to reclaim this real estate to serve committee of transportation and these structures, continue to support community needs. Reclaiming the urban design experts with urban highway expansion, and solidify land underneath highways can boost highway removal experience. The the physical barriers that separate and stabilize populations of cities, panel reviewed each submission based and destroy? Or can we envision a providing direct local control of land on a number of criteria: the age and reparative infrastructure program that that can be dedicated to a range of state of the highway, the quality of reknits communities, addresses the housing choices for individuals and alternative boulevard or street design, damage these highways have caused, families, from affordable homes to the feasibility of removal, community and increases access to opportunities workforce housing. Highway removal support for removal, existing for legacy residents? is a once-in-a-generation occasion to FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 5 Claiborne Avenue Alliance supporters spread the message in New Orleans. Credit / Amy Stelly

revitalize downtowns, neighborhoods, a strong public life and contributes to Dismantling Racist and waterfronts and strengthen the civic character of the city. Policies and Actions. local economies. Care must be given to ensure that the legacy residents A Healthy An overwhelming amount of directly benefit from these economic Environment. evidence exists to demonstrate that gains and increased access to highway building was a tool to opportunities. Choosing city streets over freeways perpetuate racial segregation. As A Vibrant Public means leaving behind the hazards early as 1939, the Bureau of Public of highly concentrated vehicle Roads, predecessor to the Federal Realm. exhaust near residences, businesses, Highway Administration, identified and schools. Many urban highway that highway building would facilitate Highways fall flat in this metric, segments run through the densest “slum clearance”, a thinly-veiled with negative rather than positive parts of their cities, exponentially reference to the destruction and outcomes. Few people enjoy walking increasing the number of people displacement of communities of color. underneath a highway, let alone exposed to toxic fumes and Discriminatory lending practices like spending time around it. However, particulates from car and truck traffic. redlining limited where Black and streets and public spaces that are Known health risks from proximity brown residents forcibly moved by dedicated to people, not cars, offer to highways include increased highway projects could live, further members of the community places rates of respiratory ailments and amplifying the disproportionate to relax, shop, and enjoy each other’s cardiovascular illnesses. Extensively effects highway building had on company in public. Places like these overbuilt highway infrastructure these communities. Removing were destroyed to make way for encourages even more driving and highways that still beset the Black freeways. Now, there is opportunity to perpetuates these conditions. This and brown communities who live create a new, vibrant public realm for brief overview does not even take into around them provides an opportunity the communities that bore the brunt account noise or the impact of being to acknowledge the harmful and of highway construction. A city’s stuck in traffic, both of which are destructive actions taken against them public realm exists in its public spaces, health hazards. over the last 70 years and repair the the streets and squares that integrate damage. individual buildings into a coherent urban unit. When properly designed, the space between buildings promotes

6 Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans, before the Claiborne Expressway. Credit / Amy Stelly

The removal of a highway is not a silver bullet for every urban issue, but it is more than a simple transportation or infrastructure problem. It intersects with community health, fiscal responsibility, and equitable urban development. Cities that choose alternatives to highways have decided to prioritize people over vehicles and to address needs that have been underdeveloped in favor of automotive mobility.

Highways to Boulevards projects will not deliver all these benefits unless they are driven by and designed in partnership with the communities who live around these highways. These residents are not only most impacted by the projects, they also live day to day with the ongoing trauma of living in a neighborhood severely damaged by infrastructure projects that do not benefit them. As these 15 projects move forward, it is imperative that state and local agencies make focused investments and develop intentional policies that set up legacy residents who have lived with the highway to thrive once they are no longer burdened by it. FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 7 Freeways Without Futures

Communities across North America are facing a watershed moment in the history of our transportation infrastructure. With cities, citizens, and transportation officials all looking for alternatives to costly highway repair and expansion, these 15 campaigns offer a roadmap to better health, equity, opportunity, and connectivity in every neighborhood, while reversing decades of decline and disinvestment.

8 I-5SEATTLE, WA

Inner Loop I-35DULUTH, MN NorthROCHESTER, NY Kensington and Scajaquada I-81SYRACUSE, NY I-980OAKLAND, CA Expressways BUFFALO, NY Brooklyn-Queens TheSAN FRANCISCO, Great Highway CA ExpresswayNEW YORK, NY

NorthKANSAS CITY,Loop MO (I-35/70)

I-244TULSA, OK

I-345DALLAS, TX Claiborne Expressway (I-10) I-35AUSTIN, TX NEW ORLEANS, LA

I-275TAMPA, FL

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 9 The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway through Brooklyn Heights. Credit / Florin C.

Brooklyn-Queens The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway Expressway (BQE) represents the paradox of famed NEW YORK, NEW YORK highway builder Robert Moses’ legacy.

HIGHWAY TYPE The roads, parks, bridges, and housing Hybrid depressed, cantilevered, and elevated Interstate highway he constructed that reshaped New

YEAR BUILT York City and Long Island to serve 1946-1964 the public resulted in the displacement STAGE OF REMOVAL of thousands of families, destruction Advocates are actively building support to reduce the highway’s impact on of tight-knit neighborhoods, and surrounding communities overall were built at the expense of KEY CHARACTERISTICS The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway links innumerable people and communities Staten Island to the Bronx and has several elevated segments and trenches in need of of color. The BQE is no exception. repair that will require action soon. Residents and transportation experts have Today, as the aging highway crumbles, questioned whether the highway can be rebuilt in ways that have less impact on New York City needs to decide if there’s surrounding neighborhoods or if the road is even necessary. a better way forward.

10 Rendering of a redesigned Brooklyn-Queens Expressway through Brooklyn Heights. Credit / Marc Wouters Studios

The current path of the Brooklyn- While that plan was halted through particular neighborhoods and others Queens Expressway (BQE), at least the efforts by several area organizations, the more wide-sweeping. The Cobble Hill portion in Brooklyn Heights, was built developments also sparked conversations Association has called for a cap over the out of compromise. To the south, Robert about what to do with the remaining trenched part of the highway in their Moses built a tall elevated highway ten miles of the BQE that run through neighborhood. Marc Wouters Studios’ directly through the working-class Red some of the densest parts of Brooklyn has proposed a relatively low cost series Hook neighborhood, separating it from and Queens. of public terraces that would extend the rest of the borough. It then cuts the promenade over a reduced-width a wide trench through Cobble Hill. It is clear that the highway has highway. New York’s Institute for Moses originally intended the highway a detrimental effect on every Public Architecture focused its Fall 2020 to continue straight through Brooklyn neighborhood that it passes through, residency on what could be built in place Heights, but community protests against although some are more seriously of the BQE if the highway was removed this plan prevailed. Instead, the BQE affected than others. In particular, altogether. These are just a handful of the skirted the edge of Brooklyn Heights the wide footprint of the viaducts ideas that grapple with the problematic in its current form as a multi-level through the Navy Yard and Greenpoint BQE. cantilevered roadway that forms an neighborhoods have facilitated the effective wall between Brooklyn and design of auto-centric streets underneath While these plans differ in scope and its waterfront. The popular Brooklyn them that are dangerous for pedestrians scale, they share a single principle: Heights promenade was also built as to cross. The trenched portion in Cobble they all seek to repurpose the space the part of this compromise. Hill can only be crossed at a limited highway occupies in ways that improve number of access points. And the entire the quality of life for residents along the Because the Brooklyn Heights section highway subjects thousands of nearby corridor. As New York City and State is in dire need of repair and immediate residents to the concentrated exhaust of consider what to do with the outdated action, planning for the future of this over 150,000 vehicles per day, many of expressway in Brooklyn Heights, they part of the road has received the majority which are funneled to the BQE to travel should follow this lead and make of attention as of late. In particular, the toll-free Brooklyn and Manhattan sure to prioritize all neighborhoods a plan to temporarily transform the Bridges. along the corridor before they develop Brooklyn Heights promenade into a future plans. The transformation of the highway while the BQE below it was To remedy these issues, a wide variety BQE offers a once-in-a-generation repaired over several years drew a lot of organizations have put forward opportunity to create a more livable of ire and raised questions about how alternate visions for the future of Brooklyn and Queens and should be best to go about rebuilding the road. the BQE, some of them limited to seriously considered. FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 11 Underneath the Claiborne Expressway. Credit / Julia Schlau

Claiborne Expressway When the bulldozers arrived on (Interstate 10) Claiborne Avenue in 1966, they did NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA more than uproot the century-old oak

HIGHWAY TYPE trees that lined its park-like median, Elevated Interstate highway they destroyed a landmark central YEAR BUILT to the Tremé neighborhood’s Black 1966-1968 community. Now, to remedy this STAGE OF REMOVAL Outreach and coalition building — advocates wrong, the Claiborne Avenue Alliance are actively building support for removal has led a renewed effort to take down KEY CHARACTERISTICS The Claiborne Avenue Alliance wants to the expressway, reclaim this historic remove the Claiborne Expressway and recreate the historic tree-lined Claiborne Avenue as a neutral ground for Tremé’s residents, path toward community revitalization. and provide a pathway for community A restored Claiborne Avenue would serve as the backbone for a restored business corridor revitalization. that brings services and jobs back to the Tremé neighborhood.

12 Claiborne Avenue restored., with a bandshell atop the highway’s pylons. Credit / Amy Stelly

Each year during Mardi Gras, thousands strides championing a community and resell it at below market value to of people wind their way underneath vision for a Claiborne Avenue restored. residents is a critical strategy to help the Claiborne Expressway along what Previous studies had emphasized the renters (70% of the community as of used to be Claiborne Avenue’s median. development potential associated the 2010 census) transition to home For these few hours, the grey pavement with the expressway’s removal, which ownership and stay in the neighborhood. of the parking lots below the highway is prompted long-time residents to think Additional strategies, such as incentive transformed back into a gathering space this was another infrastructure project programs that assist residents with home for the community. Tree-lined Claiborne that would benefit someone else, again at maintenance and tax-freezing programs Avenue wasn’t the only focal point the their expense. to relieve the escalating assessments highway deprived residents of. Dozens already driven by short-term rentals, will of Black-owned shops, restaurants, and The Alliance’s plans instead seek to help keep residents in place to enjoy the clubs shuttered in the years following channel the benefits unlocked by taking benefits of a restored Claiborne Avenue. the highway’s construction. down the expressway to serve the members of the current community. Currently, the Alliance is building Fast forward to the present day and First and foremost, it advocates for the support for this vision. It launched those who live and work near the restoration of the median to its former its Paradise Lost|Paradise Found highway are exposed to excessive noise state and restoring the lost tree canopy. poster campaign in January 2020, and harmful pollutants. The highway is This gathering space will serve as the which brought public awareness to now crumbling so hot, dirty runoff pours backbone for a revitalized business the damage caused by the Claiborne into the neighborhoods during rains, corridor that brings goods and services Expressway and the potential for a exacerbating flooding. Furthermore, the back to the neighborhood. There is also brighter future without it. Its work Louisiana State University School of the opportunity to create affordable has even received recognition from Public Health confirmed that pollution housing through infill development and President Joe Biden, who identified from the Interstate has a major impact the rehabilitation of the existing homes the Claiborne Expressway as a prime on the respiratory health of residents, that have fallen into disrepair. example of a highway built at the making their battle with COVID-19 expense of the community around it. harder. All of this is underpinned by policies Mayor LaToya Cantrell and incoming the city can adopt to protect current U.S. Representative Troy Carter have Discussions about removing the residents from being displaced by rising both expressed support for taking down Claiborne Expressway span back over prices once the highway is removed. the expressway and become part of a a decade and since 2017, the Claiborne The early establishment of a community growing consensus that its removal is the Avenue Alliance has made great land trust to acquire available real estate right course of action for Tremé. FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 13 Inner Loop North. Credit / Robert Keck

Inner Loop North Rochester is looking to pick up where it ROCHESTER, NEW YORK left off. In 2017, the City completed its transformation of the eastern portion HIGHWAY TYPE Depressed highway of the Inner Loop into an urban street, YEAR BUILT which has already paid significant 1952-1965 dividends. Now, as the City considers STAGE OF REMOVAL Study and public comment— full or partial what to do with the northern part of removal options are being considered in official studies the Inner Loop, it has the opportunity

KEY CHARACTERISTICS to replicate this success and focus Rochester completed the removal of the Inner Loop East in 2017. It’s looking to build on even more on creating outcomes that success by removing the Inner Loop North. that support a cohesive and inclusive With this project, the City is looking to create community. community assets with an emphasis on green space and a focus on racial equity.

14 Rendering of a restored Franklin Square in place of the Inner Loop (inset: current conditions). Credit / Bergmann

For decades, Rochester’s 2.68-mile Inner All this sets the stage for the Inner findings is residents’ desire for housing Loop acted as a moat between its central Loop North. Rochester is now exploring that better fits neighborhood character business district and adjacent residential options for removal of this part of and different living situations. Four neighborhoods. It presented a major the highway, which runs from I-490 story buildings, full of one- and two- barrier to both walking and biking to to the intersection of Union Street bedroom apartments, don’t address the and from downtown and had become a and Main Street. While the City has needs of all community members, even if liability as much of it fell into disrepair yet to commit to any specific design they include affordable units. Residents and the number of cars traveling on it for the project, it has laid out a set of would rather see a mix of housing types, continued to decline. The Inner Loop guiding principles: it should improve including smaller homes that are often East Transformation Project was the connectivity, increase multi-modal described as ‘missing middle’ housing. City’s first step to address the issues the transportation options, create new green The City and its partners should take Inner Loop has caused. The removal of spaces, and foster opportunities for this into serious consideration as the Inner Loop’s eastern portion was economic and community development they think about creative options for low-hanging fruit, as only 10,500 cars a in surrounding neighborhoods, home affordability and avoiding displacement day drove that part of the highway. to a predominantly Black and brown following removal. population. With a focus on racial equity, The transformation of the Inner Loop the project aims to prevent displacement Rochester’s success with the Inner East has served as a demonstration of existing residents and businesses. Loop East garnered national attention. project for highway removal in other Preliminary concepts estimate around With the removal of the Inner Loop parts of the city. Since the project started 15 acres of land could be reclaimed for North, the city has the opportunity to in 2014, walking increased 50 percent development, along with several acres of once again be at the forefront of the and biking 60 percent in the area. The green space. Highways to Boulevards movement. It city was also able to reclaim 6.5 acres of should lead the way by doing everything land for development by filling in the A group of community members, in its power to listen to residents and highway. The current plan for this land is Hinge Neighbors, is also working incorporate their ideas into the project’s to develop 534 housing units, more than with residents on both sides of the final designs. At the same time, the City half subsidized or below market rate, and Inner Loop to raise awareness about should also explore all the policy tools 152,000 square feet of new commercial the impacts the project will have and it can use to support residents and their space. Work is already underway and communicate local needs and desires to visions. If Rochester follows through on over the first two years the removal the City and its consultants. To gather these commitments, it will be a model project, which cost only $22 million in more information, they’ve launched a for future highway removal projects public funds, generated $229 million in community survey, which has had some prioritizing equity. economic development. telling results. One of their significant

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 15 I-244 through Deep Greenwood. Credit / Daniel Jeffries

Interstate 244 runs directly through InterstateTULSA, OKLAHOMA 244 Tulsa’s Greenwood district, the historic center of the city’s African-American HIGHWAY TYPE Hybrid elevated and at-grade Interstate community once known famously as highway ‘Black Wall Street’. In 1921, a mob of YEAR BUILT white Tulsans, provoked by misleading 1965-1975 newspaper headlines, descended upon STAGE OF REMOVAL Outreach and coalition building — advocates Black Wall Street, killing at least 100 are actively building support for removal people (but likely many more) and KEY CHARACTERISTICS Interstate 244 bisects Tulsa’s Greenwood destroying the 2019 equivalent of district, once home to a thriving Black neighborhood known as Black Wall Street. more than $32m worth of property.

Removing I-244 will increase the connections Greenwood’s Black community quickly between Greenwood’s remaining community assets and the rest of north Tulsa. reestablished itself and returned

Taking down the highway won’t restore Black even more triumphant, only to be Wall Street by itself, but can be part of a larger plan toward community revitalization. razed again decades later by highway builders. 16 Aerial photograph of Greenwood in 1951, with the future path of I-244. Credit / Michael Bates

With the end of legal segregation in the the Greenwood Cultural Center, built with the highway’s removal, can support early 1960s Greenwood’s businesses had in 1980 to celebrate the achievements community efforts to build a new Black experienced a bit of a decline, as Black of Black Wall Street residents and Wall Street. This includes programs spending was no longer concentrated remember the tragedy of the race to help develop new Black-owned exclusively in the district. But it still massacre. businesses and boost existing ones, remained a source of community pride. leveraging the City’s Affordable Housing I-244’s construction put an abrupt end These community assets could serve Trust Fund to create affordable homes to any potential revival. The businesses as the foundation for a revitalized within walking distance, and establishing in the highway’s path closed or relocated Greenwood following the removal of a community land trust to rehabilitate elsewhere, away from their traditional the northern section of I-244 along the vacant lots and abandoned houses in customer bases. In 1942, Greenwood was IDL. The concept is a nascent one, but line with residents’ interests. It will take home to 242 Black-owned businesses the Tulsa Regional Chamber, Historic focused investments and intentional spread over 35 square blocks. The Greenwood District Main Street, and policies like these to rebuild an expanded highway reduced that number to only a other local advocates think it is worth Greenwood district that does justice to handful, most situated on the 100 block exploring. I-244 acts as a physical historic Black Wall Street, while also of Greenwood Avenue, which local barrier between predominantly Black addressing displacement concerns. attorney E.L. Goodwin, Sr. had saved north Tulsa and historic Greenwood through negotiations. Avenue and downtown to the south. This year marks the centennial of the By removing the highway and restoring Tulsa Race Massacre, when Black Wall Today, I-244 in Greenwood forms the street connections, north Tulsans Street was first destroyed. Now would northern part of a series of highways would be able to more easily walk or be a fitting time to carry forward a known as the Inner Dispersal Loop bike downtown, and business owners conversation about I-244’s removal. (IDL) that cordons off downtown in Deep Greenwood would benefit Preliminary investigation suggests it from the rest of Tulsa. Parts of historic from increased traffic. New land would is more than feasible. This one-mile Black Wall Street remain in its shadow, also be available to expand Deep segment of I-244 is hardly essential for including the 100 block of Greenwood Greenwood northward, where it is regional travel and Tulsa has a second Avenue (also known as Deep largely constrained by the presence of loop highway, the Gilcrease Expressway, Greenwood) and a pair of churches (the the highway. only a few miles to the north. The Mt. Zion Baptist Church and Vernon outstanding question is how to best AME Church) that were burned down Of course, the removal of I-244 alone ensure the highway’s removal and a during the race massacre but rebuilt won’t restore Black Wall Street. But subsequent restoration of Greenwood afterward. Just north of the highway is coordinated reparative programs, coupled helps Black Tulsans heal and thrive. FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 17 The interchange of I-275 and I-4. Credit / #blvdtampa

Interstate 275 Like many highway removal TAMPA, FLORIDA campaigns, the push to replace

HIGHWAY TYPE Tampa’s I-275 with a boulevard Hybrid elevated and at-grade Interstate grew out of a proposed highway

YEAR BUILT expansion of the highway. 1962-1964 When the Florida Department STAGE OF REMOVAL of Transportation pitched in Study and public comment— removal is being studied as one possible alternative in official 2016 an unpopular plan to add study lanes and expand the right-of- KEY CHARACTERISTICS The #blvdtampa movement has an ambitious way, it spurred a conversation plan to convert up to 11 miles of I-275 in northern Tampa into a multi-use surface about the highway’s negative boulevard that provides public transit in one of the country’s most underserved areas. effects on the neighborhoods The Hillsborough County Metropolitan it passes through and whether Planning Organization has committed to studying the removal of I-275 as part of its long-range plan. it actually provides the most efficient way to travel. 18 Proposed cross-section of a boulevard replacing I-275 (above), with current cross-section of I-275 (below). Credit / #blvdtampa

In many ways, the Florida Department limits. Since the Interstate isn’t operating local context and change accordingly so of Transportation’s (FDOT) original as a throughway (its intended purpose), that the density built around it gradually $6b expansion plan for I-275 replicated could another type of street handle increases as it approaches downtown. its past transgressions. To widen the traffic and achieve other community road, FDOT needed to seize around goals at the same time? The Tampa region is already taking the 400 properties and of the residents who initial steps needed for the boulevard would have been displaced, nearly 80 #blvdtampa and its allies have set out plan to become reality through percent were Black or Latino. Fifty- to prove the benefits the city could reap incremental endeavors to update its four years earlier, FDOT did the same by transforming up to 11 miles of I-275 transportation networks. In 2022, thing when building the highway. The in northern Tampa into a multiway Hillsborough County voters expect construction of I-275 did incalculable boulevard, a type of landscaped street to vote again on a ballot measure that damage to Tampa’s rich ethnic and that separates through traffic from would fund additional transit routes with historic neighborhoods, including Ybor local traffic and creates an engaging faster service, which overwhelmingly City and Central Park. pedestrian realm. Because I-275’s right- passed in 2018 but was struck down of-way is so large, the opportunity exists by the Florida Supreme Court on a Under intense criticism, FDOT backed to fit public transit into its footprint, controversial technicality. off its expansion plans and has decided either in the form of light commuter rail, instead to add lanes within the existing bus rapid transit, or a modern streetcar, Most significantly, in 2019 the right-of-way. But by then Tampa further reducing the need for trips by car. Hillsborough County Metropolitan residents had already begun to consider Planning Organization committed to whether the highway’s useful life was The transformation of I-275 into a study transforming the highway into a coming to an end, particularly as the boulevard also prepares Tampa for boulevard as part of its long-range plan. city looked to update its transportation future sustainable growth. A boulevard What once was seen as a fringe idea system for the 21st century. along this route provides Tampa a new has built momentum and spread around urban spine that links its residential Tampa Bay. Neighboring St. Petersburg Enter Josh Frank, one of the founders neighborhoods with downtown. Mayor Rick Kriseman has said that his of the #blvdtampa movement, which The removal of the highway would city should explore removing I-175, envisions a future for Tampa without reclaim 36 acres of developable land which separates downtown from nearby I-275. Frank examined traffic patterns in neighborhoods that are some of the neighborhoods. In this context, the along I-275 and saw that the majority most protected in Tampa from rising transformation of I-275 has become of vehicles that travel it have both local sea-levels. With a flexible boulevard as part of a larger effort to improve origins and destinations within city design, the new street can be sensitive to transportation options across Tampa Bay.

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 19 I-345. Credit / Kelsey Shoemaker

For nearly a decade, local advocacy InterstateDALLAS, TEXAS 345 group A New Dallas has repeatedly demonstrated the enormous benefits HIGHWAY TYPE Elevated Interstate highway of removing I-345 to the Texas YEAR BUILT Department of Transportation 1973 (TxDOT). And TxDOT appears STAGE OF REMOVAL Study and public comment — removal is willing to listen. As the official being studied as one possible alternative in official study feasibility study for I-345 moves into

KEY CHARACTERISTICS its final stages, a street network option Local advocacy group A New Dallas has shown the removal of I-345 as a path towards remains on the table, supported by a more connected and accessible Dallas. TxDOT’s own 2016 CityMAP plan. The upside of removal is enormous—up to 375 acres of land could be reclaimed and I-345 has all the characteristics of a redeveloped for homes, transit, schools, and parks. highway prime for removal. The Texas Department of Transportation is now reviewing removal as a possible option in its feasibility study for I-345.

20 Rendering of a boulevard replacing I-345. Credit / TxDOT

This 1.4-mile stretch of highway forms The removal of I-345 can also bring revenues to neighborhood stabilization an imposing concrete barrier that much needed housing to the Dallas and equitable development programs divides the city’s historic Deep Ellum market. At the moment, the I-345 in areas of need where displacement neighborhood from downtown and has corridor is defined primarily by is a concern. This will help ensure that spawned vacant lots and disinvestment empty parking lots and undeveloped residents will not only have access to along its path. Back in 2013, residents land because the highway is such a newly built affordable housing, but also Patrick Kennedy and Brandon Hancock disamenity. But its transformation into a that they are able to remain in their recognized the highway had become mixed-income, mixed-use neighborhood current homes if they so desire, ideally a liability and together, they founded would open up more opportunities to with opportunities for renters to build the group A New Dallas. Since then, build affordable housing and improve equity. the group has demonstrated the social, the quality of life for Dallas residents. economic, and environmental benefits A New Dallas has since grown into TxDOT is expected to make a decision for a Dallas without I-345. The Coalition for a New Dallas, about a preferred alternative sometime a non-profit and Political Action this year. While other options may It wasn’t long before TxDOT began Committee composed of a broad and mitigate the negative effects of the to take notice and agreed to further diverse group of advocates and civic highway, for The Coalition for a New investigate what I-345’s removal might leaders. This group has since brought Dallas there’s only one clear winner: the mean for Dallas. In 2016, it unveiled the in Toole Design Group to take a fresh removal of I-345 and its replacement Dallas CityMAP plan, which confirmed look at the CityMAP plan in order to with a robust newtork of urban that the effects of removing I-345 improve design options and demonstrate boulevards. Dallas is already making would be overwhelmingly positive. The feasibility. investments to transform itself from removal of the elevated highway would an auto-centric city to one that is more open up 375 acres of urban land for As plans are put in place for the livable, including the expansion of its development—with the potential for highway’s removal, The Coalition for subway system that will traverse the walkable urban blocks and quality public a New Dallas thinks that it’s critical I-345 corridor. If TxDOT does its part spaces. The complete removal, a public for the city to take steps to combat and removes I-345, this will become investment estimated to cost between displacement that could result from such a coordinated effort to make Dallas a $100-$500m, would generate at least a serious improvement. The coalition city where all its residents can enjoy $2.5b in new property value, supporting proposes a variety of value capture and the benefits of jobs and basic services— both the city’s tax base and a growing equitable development strategies where housing, transit, schools, parks, and economy as the resulting development the land values are expected to be the retail—available within a short distance. would also create 39,000 new jobs. highest and diverting some projected FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 21 Rendering of an expanded I-35. Credit / TxDOT

Everyone in Austin agrees that InterstateAUSTIN, TEXAS 35 Interstate 35 doesn’t work. The highway was built to act as a chasm between HIGHWAY TYPE Hybrid elevated and at-grade Interstate downtown and communities of color highway

YEAR BUILT in East Austin, and is the city’s most 1962 dangerous corridor for pedestrians. It is STAGE OF REMOVAL clear that in its current form I-35 serves Study and public comment — capping is being studied as one possible alternative in official no one particularly well and as the study, while other advocates are building support for removal Texas Department of Transportation KEY CHARACTERISTICS (TxDOT) considers what to do The Texas Department of Transportation is proposing a massive expansion of I-35 through next, Austin residents have begun Austin to as many as 20 lanes. questioning whether there’s a better Local groups, including Reconnect Austin, Rethink35, and the Downtown Austin solution than simply rebuilding and Alliance, have proposed other solutions that reduce the highway’s impacts on neighborhoods, provide mobility choice and expanding the highway. safety, and achieve community goals.

22 View of I-35 from E. 5th Street, looking east. Credit / Reconnect Austin

Rendering of E. 5th Street without I-35. Credit / Reconnect Austin

Proposed plan for East Avenue Parkway. Credit / Reconnect Austin

TxDOT is adamant that there is for the overly-wide frontage roads that automobile dependency, and induced only one solution for I-35’s woes: a facilitate cars getting on and off the sprawl as to why I-35 should be $4.9b highway expansion to up to 20 highway. Through the combination of removed. All three of these coalitions lanes. This proposal hinges on traffic capping the highway, shrinking the recognize I-35 in its current form as a forecasts that opponents say consistently street on top of it to a more fitting liability for Austin and seek different overestimates actual levels. A growing size, and eliminating frontage roads, ways to create assets along the corridor number of people realize that highway Reconnect Austin’s plans reclaim over that provide community benefits. expansion induces even more demand 130 acres of land for development, of for driving, which quickly fills up the which 24.4 acres would be directly As TxDOT considers what to do with newly-created capacity and leaves adjacent to downtown. The opportunity I-35, it needs to stop thinking about the congestion as bad or worse. To learn this to reclaim this land and create an highway in a vacuum and instead should lesson, TxDOT needs to look no further affordable housing supply, immediately focus on how its investments can achieve than Houston, where traffic on the Katy adjacent to jobs, would reduce the multiple goals simultaneously. Austin’s Freeway, expanded up to 26 lanes in number of commuters on the road. citizens have made clear their desires for 2008, has only gotten worse since it was the future of transportation and it is not widened. Other groups in the area are also more highway building. On the 2020 thinking about how to change I-35. In ballot, Austinites voted overwhelmingly So what else can be done for I-35? 2019, the Urban Land Institute report to fund Project Connect, a $7.1b Local advocacy group Reconnect Austin for the Downtown Austin Alliance initiative to greatly expand the city’s has long pushed for a solution that proposed caps at several key locations public transit, and to invest $460m in keeps I-35 within its current footprint, to create blocks-long park spaces, walking, bicycling, and safer streets. depresses 3.4 miles of it (from Holly similar to the Klyde Warren Park in Project Connect is also notable in that Street to Airport Boulevard), and Dallas. Another group, Rethink35, its budget includes $300 million in covers it with a cap. On top of the proposes removing 8 miles of I-35 anti-displacement funds and so provides cap, Reconnect Austin proposes a new altogether and replacing it with a a template for keeping residents in boulevard consistent with Austin’s Great boulevard that includes regional trains, place when infrastructure investments Streets Master Plan, which includes bus lanes, protected bicycle lanes, increase a neighborhood’s amenities, like generous space for pedestrians, cyclists, and wide sidewalks and incorporates a highway cap. With I-35, TxDOT’s and dedicated transit lanes. anti-displacement measures for nearby should follow Project Connect’s lead and communities. Inspired by previous make sure its actions work in concert Reconnect Austin’s plan has a lot of freeway removals, Rethink35 points with Austin’s own plans for its future. merit. It separates local traffic from toward climate change, traffic crashes, through traffic, eliminating the need FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 23 I-35. Credit / Duluth Waterfront Collective

In Duluth, the 1,569-mile long I-35 InterstateDULUTH, MINNESOTA 35 comes to its northern terminus. It ends unceremoniously at a four-way HIGHWAY TYPE At-grade Interstate highway intersection, but not before it bisects

YEAR BUILT Duluth’s downtown and separates it 1967-1991 from its Lake Superior waterfront. STAGE OF REMOVAL A coalition of residents, the Duluth Outreach and coalition building — advocates are actively building support for removal Waterfront Collective, is seeking to KEY CHARACTERISTICS restore this connection and create a Duluth is the second smallest community to be included in a Freeways Without Futures report more vibrant city center by replacing and a poignant reminder that highway building doesn’t only damage big cities. the highway with a street that integrates The Duluth Waterfront Collective, the coalition seeking to remove I-35, has made downtown and the waterfront. The community engagement its priority, long before any official planning process has started. work of this coalition offers a valuable The removal of I-35 will reintegrate Duluth’s popular Canal Park with the rest of the city. lesson: highway building can be just as damaging for small cities too.

24 Rendering of a parkway to replace I-35. Credit / Duluth Waterfront Collective

A highway that consumes nearly 20% limits local travel to and from Canal reclaims 20 acres of land from the of all space in Duluth’s downtown, Park, with the result that few of the highway that can be developed in ways is extremely at odds with the city’s park’s visitors make their way into that alleviate considerable housing population of 85,618 people. Residents Duluth’s downtown and spend money concerns and provide entrepreneurial recognized this from the start. After there. Uphill from downtown is Duluth’s opportunities for members of the the initial portion of the highway Central Hillside neighborhood, which community. It’s a catalytic opportunity was built through West Duluth and is one of the city’s most diverse. It has to revitalize Duluth’s downtown and Lincoln Park, residents formed the a high number of residents living in help the city fund services for residents Citizens for Integration of Highway poverty, many of whom do not own by increasing its tax base. The Duluth and Environment in an attempt to steer cars. The presence of I-35 limits their Waterfront Collective has estimated the highway’s path as it approached enjoyment of the waterfront as well. that the removal of properties to make downtown. The group ultimately way for I-35 has cost the city over $3.5 thwarted a plan to build the highway As a replacement for the highway, the million in lost tax revenue each year directly along the waterfront, preserving Duluth Waterfront Collective envisions since construction started in 1967. that natural asset, but were unsuccessful a new parkway that condenses I-35 in keeping the freeway out of the city’s and Railroad Street, but would only Most importantly, the Duluth downtown entirely. increase through travel times by a few Waterfront Collective stresses that its minutes. The parkway is planned to be proposed plans are a ‘living concept’, Current conditions make it very much more accessible to pedestrians which it updates based upon feedback it appealing to remove the portion of I-35 and cyclists, with wide sidewalks lined receives from the community. The group that runs through downtown, which by trees and a new cross-city recreation has taken to conducting the outreach the Duluth Waterfront Collective trail. It’s current iteration calls for typically undertaken by planning advocates for. Traffic on the highway is dedicated space for bus rapid transit, agencies, hosting monthly meetings to incredibly light for an Interstate, totaling and includes a rail corridor for the local discuss the proposal with community only 32,000 trips per day. Meanwhile, tourist excursion train and potential members and stakeholders. From this the Canal Park neighborhood and future transit options. In the center engagement, the Duluth Waterfront the preserved green space along the of the parkway, a landscaped median Collective will have assembled a waterfront have become some of the will provide even more green space in community vision for what a great most visited places in Minnesota, yet addition to capturing stormwater from downtown should be, which they can much of the Duluth community is the hillside and floodwater from the lake. present to the Minnesota Department of unable to enjoy it as an amenity. With Transportation the moment it considers limited places to cross, the highway The current iteration of the plan also what to do with the highway.

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 25 photo: D Magazine

I-5. Credit / Lid I-5

Early on, Seattle pioneered a new way InterstateSEATTLE, WASHINGTON 5 of thinking about the relationship between city and freeway with the HIGHWAY TYPE Depressed Interstate highway construction of Freeway Park over I-5 YEAR BUILT in downtown. Today, the highway is 1962-1967 overdue for safety upgrades, including STAGE OF REMOVAL Outreach and coalition building — advocates earthquake retrofitting, presenting the are actively building support to cap a portion of the highway perfect opportunity to expand this lid

KEY CHARACTERISTICS and better serve people, not just cars. In 1976, Seattle built one of the earliest caps, Freeway Park, over Interstate-5. The Lid I-5 movement seeks to build

Advocacy group Lid I-5 supports a plan on Freeway Park’s legacy and spark a to expand the cap as a way to reconnect Downtown neighborhoods and address equity, citywide conversation about what can sustainability, and community needs. be done with highways that damage communities.

26 Rendering of an expanded lid over I-5. Credit / Lid I-5

When discussions first began around Way Viaduct that covered its waterfront, calibrated to suit local needs. That the construction of I-5, some Seattle opening up this unique natural resource opportunity is expected to be coming residents recognized that the highway for the enjoyment of its residents. soon. The City of Seattle has taken would have consequences: notably an interest and recently completed a increased pollution and significantly less Since 2015, the advocacy group Lid I-5 feasibility study for the project, which street connectivity across the highway. has sought to expand on these successes demonstrated that lidding more of I-5 is The First Hill Improvement Club was and has worked with the public on new both technically feasible and potentially vocal that the highway builders needed design concepts that could add another desirable, as it can significantly improve to mitigate the road’s effects with 17 acres of lid area over I-5. The group the quality of life for residents. lids and other measures. Georgetown recognizes that an expanded I-5 lid residents also sought to preserve the can simultaneously address several of Lidding I-5 has the potential to Georgetown Playfield in full. Both of the pressing challenges Seattle faces. transform downtown Seattle with a these requests went unanswered. Only in Downtown Seattle lacks sufficient green win-win opportunity to address equity 1976, nine years after the highway was space, and the expansion of the lid issues, boost resilience, add green space, completed, did the City of Seattle step could create more for the 40,000 people and improve public and environmental in and support the creation of Freeway who would live only a 15-minute walk health. In addition, it can spark Park, a 4.9-acre green space over the or less away. The same residents who important conversations related to highway that at least partially restored lack easy access to green space are also other highways across Seattle and how lost connections to First Hill. The park concerned about displacement risks, they impact the neighborhoods around became one of the earliest examples in which have increased in downtown since them. As the city continues to explore the country of a freeway lid. 2010. An expanded lid over I-5 could options to cover I-5, it should also look provide new land on which to build to partner with less well-resourced Since then, Freeway Park has been affordable housing in the heart of a neighborhoods that are bisected by expanded several times to encompass diverse neighborhood with both a high freeways (like SR 99 in South Park) a total of 5.2 acres. And it isn’t the displacement risk and high access to to develop remedies that lessen or only effort that Seattle has undertaken opportunity. eliminate their negative effects. This to remove or mitigate the effects of larger, coordinated effort could build intrusive highways. Interstate 90 in the Rather than endorsing one particular on Seattle’s past accomplishments and Mount Baker neighborhood is partially concept for what gets built on top of the ensure that all the city’s residents benefit covered by a 10.3-acre lid that supports freeway, Lid I-5 remains purposefully from forward-thinking design. a regional trail and Sam Smith Park. flexible so that the greater community In 2019 the city removed the Alaskan can weigh in on plans that can be FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 27 Underneath I-81 near Pioneer Homes. Credit / Bob Haley

In 2019, the New York State InterstateSYRACUSE, NEW YORK 81 Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) recommended pursuing HIGHWAY TYPE Elevated Interstate highway a Community Grid solution, which YEAR BUILT would remove I-81 and restore 1957-1969 Syracuse’s street network in its place. STAGE OF REMOVAL The New York State Department of Two years later, NYSDOT still Transportation (NYSDOT) has submitted a draft plan for removal to the Federal Highway has yet to make good on its earlier Administration for approval. recommendation and formalize KEY CHARACTERISTICS NYSDOT has recommended the removal the Community Grid as its final of the highway and its replacement with a ‘Community Grid’ as its preferred alternative, decision. Now, more than ever, it is but still has yet to make the decision final. imperative that NYSDOT finish what The Community Grid has the potential to be a groundbreaking social and economic it started and do so in ways that create reparative infrastructure investment, if NYSDOT chooses to make this a priority. opportunities for community members historically left out of the system.

28 Proposed restoration of Almond Street. Credit / ReThink81

When it was first built over 60 years Ben Walsh, and even Governor Andrew prefer to see the highway come down, ago, I-81 valued the convenience and Cuomo, the Community Grid was they are skeptical that they’ll receive mobility of suburban commuters over selected by NYSDOT in April 2019 as any of the benefits of removal and fear the Black and Jewish communities in its preferred alternative when it released instead that they will be priced out its path. The construction of this 1.4- its preliminary Draft Environmental of the neighborhood as removal gets mile elevated viaduct forcibly displaced Impact Statement. President Joe Biden underway. To ensure more equitable nearly 1,300 15th Ward residents has added his endorsement, calling out outcomes, the New York Civil Liberties and businesses and left a legacy of I-81 as a transportation investment that Union has worked with members of the disinvestment in its wake. What had has divided communities. community to create recommendations formerly been one of the densest parts NYSDOT should adopt, including the of the city was transformed into acres In its current form, NYSDOT’s creation of a community land trust to of abandoned property. Many Black Community Grid alternative removes steer the development of land reclaimed residents, even if they had the means the elevated viaduct and replaces it with from the highway. This is just one of to move, were unable to because of restored city streets, with Almond Street the ways that NYSDOT can be more redlining and had little option but to becoming the principal thoroughfare. intentional about empowering the live around the declining conditions Through-traffic would be rerouted community’s vision for the corridor after of the new highway. These effects are around the city using the existing I-481 the highway. still felt today and contribute to wealth bypass, which would be redesignated disparities across the Central New York as I-81. Under this plan, NYSDOT It is likely that I-81 will be the first of region. calculates that travel times into the city all the highways featured in this edition as well as around it would change by no of the report to be removed. It has the The removal of I-81 viaduct through the more than a few minutes, if at all. potential to herald a new generation of city center, the physical manifestation Highways to Boulevards projects, ones of the policies perpetuating inequality, While NYSDOT should be applauded that seek to right historical wrongs and has the power to change this status for taking this momentous first step remedy spatial injustices. NYSDOT quo and heal Syracuse’s 60-year divide. toward removing the highway, there is has the power to make the removal of For this reason, the Community Grid still much to be done. NYSDOT’s plans I-81 through the center of Syracuse a alternative gained widespread support don’t take into account the project’s reparative infrastructure investment that when NYSDOT began to consider what ramifications other than its traffic centers the residents who have lived with to do with the crumbling I-81 over a impacts. In particular, it says little about the burden of the highway. It only needs decade ago. With the backing of dozens the effects it will have on the residents to follow through. of community groups, Syracuse Mayor who live around it. While residents FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 29 I-980. Credit / Congress for the New Urbanism

Following the 1989 Loma Prieta InterstateOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 980 earthquake, Oakland transformed the former route of the collapsed Cypress HIGHWAY TYPE Depressed Interstate highway Freeway into the Mandela Parkway. YEAR BUILT Now, the City has set its sights on the 1962-1985 aging and underused I-980, still a STAGE OF REMOVAL Outreach and coalition building — advocates controversial project to this day, but are actively building support for removal one that demonstrated the power a KEY CHARACTERISTICS I-980’s cross section includes two city streets community has to leverage benefits out that act as ramps to the 5-lane freeway, creating a 560 foot wide chasm between West of infrastructure investments. Oakland Oakland and downtown. residents can apply this lesson again Any plans to remove I-980 should advance multiple community goals, including equitable as the City looks at options to replace development, access to affordable housing, and building new transit options. I-980 with streets more appropriate for an urban setting.

30 A multi-way, multi-modal boulevard solution. Credit / ConnectOakland

Construction on I-980 had started in roads that serve fast-moving traffic. ConnectOakland thinks removal is 1962 but had stalled out several times in Furthermore, the highway is largely worthwhile only if the city and other the face of lawsuits that cited significant underutilized, carrying only 53 percent agencies that oversee it cede much of environmental and housing concerns. A of its potential capacity, mostly local the design and planning process to portion of the right-of-way had already traffic with both origins and destinations community members, so that it’s their been cleared, leaving a no man’s land along the northern part of the corridor. vision for the neighborhood without the separating parts of West Oakland from highway that gets built. the rest of the city. Finally, in 1977, the Advocacy group ConnectOakland has City of Oakland decided I-980 was developed a vision for removal that The City of Oakland is actively crucial to its economic development addresses both these local as well as exploring the removal of I-980 as part efforts and the residents of primarily- regional mobility needs, in addition of its soon to be adopted Downtown Black West Oakland realized they to other community goals. Designs Oakland Specific Plan and is starting to had leverage. The partially constructed remain flexible to achieve the best bring together community leaders and freeway was already a barrier, so why not solution possible for the residents who government stakeholders in roundtable get something in exchange for letting live along the I-980 corridor but crucial discussions about I-980’s future. the City proceed with its plans? In the components include: the replacement of “Building from the success of Mandela end, residents secured new housing and the highway with a roughly 75 percent Parkway – the result of the Cypress rent protections from the city and some narrower street, the reconnection of Freeway’s removal – we recognize that of their houses in the highway’s path at least 13 cross streets severed by the West Oakland residents must guide were even relocated. highway, the potential to incorporate regional transit (including a new BART government leaders in their vision for Thirty-five years later, the residents line) into the current right-of-way, and healing from this scar,” says Warren of West Oakland now have leverage the reclamation of around 17 acres of Logan, the City’s Policy Director of again, as I-980 approaches the end of its land for new development. Mobility and Interagency Relations, designed lifespan and the city decides “The time is ripe for this conversation as whether or not to dismantle the highway. Housing also comes to the fore in these the region plans for a second Bay Area There are many potential advantages discussions. The land reclaimed from rail crossing and federal leadership has to removal. The highway inhibits West the highway could be developed for any signaled interest in supporting these Oakland residents from easily accessing type, use, or intensity that will best serve types of restorative projects. We know downtown on foot and by bike, with a West Oakland’s residents, including that West Oaklanders represent the best daunting route that consists not only of affordable housing and community of our City — they are resilient, creative, the Interstate, but also a pair of frontage services that prevent displacement. and tenacious – and are up for the task!” FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 31 Kensington Expressway. Credit / Bradley Bethel Jr.

Kensington For over a decade, the Restore Our Expressway Community Coalition has campaigned BUFFALO, NEW YORK for the restoration of the Humboldt

HIGHWAY TYPE Parkway, the Olmsted-designed street Depressed state highway the Kensington Expressway replaced. YEAR BUILT Through their efforts, the New York 1957-1970 State Department of Transportation STAGE OF REMOVAL Study and public comment — a cap is being (NYSDOT) has come to the table. But examined as one possible alternative in official study the community has found NYSDOT’s KEY CHARACTERISTICS alternatives less than acceptable, as The Restore Our Community Coalition advocates for a cap of the Kensington they fail to include a true parkway Expressway that restores the tree-lined Humboldt Parkway it destroyed. option. It’s time to return to the The cap has great economic potential for drawing board! Buffalo, with the ability to generate $2.8m in tax revenue for the city and increase household wealth by $76.7m.

32 Designs for a Humboldt Parkway restored. Credit / Restore Our Community Coalition

In 1950, Buffalo was the 15th largest “I Remember” public awareness In 2016, Governor Andrew Cuomo city in the United States and Hamlin campaign. It combines historical backed a $6m environmental impact Park, the neighborhood that would archives, testimonies from past and study of different capping options for be targeted by the future Kensington present residents, and case studies from the expressway. But when NYSDOT Expressway, was considered one of its comparable projects in other cities to unveiled the options in 2019, they were most stable neighborhoods. Decades build a community-focused narrative underwhelming at best, providing only earlier, it had been developed specifically for restoring a third of the original limited connections across the highway as an inner-city suburb, with tree-lined Humboldt Parkway. As a solution, and failing to reduce air or noise streets marketed to upwardly mobile, ROCC proposes a green cover over pollution. The presented alternatives middle-class German immigrants. approximately one linear mile, or 14 were far from a parkway restoration. acres of the expressway’s imprint, from Renderings showed few street trees and But in the 1950s, a combination of East Ferry Street to Best Street. placed an exaggerated ventilation facility events reshaped the neighborhood. Black at the end of the cap that resembles a professionals and their families, seeking While some community members would factory with smokestacks. Critics suspect the same middle-class quality of life, like to see the expressway removed this was an intentional ‘poison pill’, started purchasing homes in Hamlin entirely, others are concerned that the designed by NYSDOT to make the Park. Real estate agents, preying on NYSDOT would build a surface-level Humboldt cap seem unappealing. racially-charged fears, ushered in an era road with highway-like qualities as a of white flight and drained Hamlin Park replacement. As an alternative, they have NYSDOT must either return to the of the political capital needed to fight rallied around the idea of a cap, which drawing board or turn the process over the highway. In the end, the expressway would still reap substantial benefits for to someone who is willing to cooperate deprived the Black Hamlin Park the community. The 2014 Humboldt with immediate stakeholders, like with residents of the benefits of Olmsted’s Parkway Deck Economic Impact Buffalo’s Scajaquada Expressway when Humboldt Parkway, instead leaving in Study projects that the restoration it was unable to finalize a solution the its place a legacy of vehicle pollution, of the parkway will bring significant larger community could support. The homes with depreciated value, and reinvestment to the Jefferson and Kensington Expressway has contributed severed connections from other parts of Fillmore business districts that bookend to Buffalo’s economic decline over the the city. Hamlin Park. In turn, this could past 70 years. As Buffalo continues generate up to $2.8m in new property to overcome past mistakes, it needs a In 2014, a group of Hamlin Park tax revenue for the City of Buffalo over a solution for this highway that will bring residents, the Restore Our Community 30-year period, in addition to $76.7m in long-term investments to the Hamlin Coalition (ROCC), launched its household wealth. Park community. FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 33 Current conditions of the North Loop. Credit / Confluence

North Loop In Kansas City, there’s a plan to (Interstate 35/70) disentangle the northern part of KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI downtown from the highways like HIGHWAY TYPE the North Loop that envelope it and Depressed Interstate highway reincorporate it back into the rest of the YEAR BUILT city. Beyond the Loop offers a chance 1957

STAGE OF REMOVAL to play the long game and provides a Study and public comment— removal is being step-by-step blueprint to prepare the studied as one possible alternative in an official study city to reap the overwhelming social, KEY CHARACTERISTICS environmental, and economic benefits The removal of the North Loop and restoration of Independence Avenue has from the North Loop’s removal. the power to reconnect three divided neighborhoods, bringing increased vitality to each. The Beyond the Loop study creates a long- range plan with immediate next steps the city can take to prepare for a potential removal while in the meantime increasing safety and connectivity.

34 Two different visions for Kansas City without the North Loop: A restored Independence Avenue. Credit / Confluence. Rendering of a new Central Park in place of the North Loop (inset). Credit / Gould Evans

Many of Kansas City’s neighborhoods Council, the City of Kansas City, between River Market and Columbus are effectively islands, divided by seas and the Missouri Department of Park, but also remove the oversized of asphalt and concrete. Nowhere is Transportation (MoDOT), proposes cloverleaf interchange that connects this more true than Kansas City’s several visions for the north side of it to the North Loop. Roughly five Central Business District, which is downtown without the highway. It city blocks could be created from the penned in on all four sides by Interstate explores a range of options, from keeping land the interchange now occupies, highways. The north side of this loop the current highway to shrinking its an opportunity for incremental is particularly invasive, a tangle of footprint to removal and replacement improvement before a possible North ramps, interchanges, and highways with a restored Independence Avenue. Loop removal. that separate three neighborhoods: the Unsurprisingly, the removal option Central Business District, River Market, scored highest among all options in An Urban Land Institute panel on the and Columbus Park, from each other. the categories of physical conditions, North Loop removal indicates that Prior to the highways, Independence improved transportation choices, market conditions would be prime Avenue seamlessly linked all three and improved economic vitality and starting in 2028, so Kansas City should neighborhoods. placemaking, while only causing a slight begin planning now. One high priority increase in traffic. should be to establish strategies to Traffic studies undertaken as part of the combat displacement once investments Buck O’Neil Bridge rebuilding suggest Beyond the Loop also recommends are made. Kansas City already has an that the removal of the North Loop, other parallel projects that would go incentive program for formerly redlined the redesign of Route 9 as a city street, hand-in-hand with a North Loop neighborhoods that offers a 10-year tax and the reconnection of Independence removal and amplify its effects. Key abatement when owners spend at least Avenue between Columbus Park and among them is the removal of the $5,000 per unit on renovations. The city River Market were all feasible without elevated Route 9 and its replacement can build on this program and develop noticeably increasing travel times. This with an at-grade street. Once the Buck an exterior grant program for those who raises a significant question: if expensive O’Neil Bridge is replaced, MoDOT can’t afford to make improvements, as highway infrastructure wasn’t necessary projects Route 9 will only carry well as create large-scale incentives for to serve Kansas City’s transportation around 12,000 cars per day, which is affordable rental housing built on the needs, what else could be built in its less traffic than MoDOT estimates highway’s right-of-way. That way the place? for many of downtown’s existing two City and its residents will be ready for lane streets. Rebuilding Route 9 as a when it becomes time to transform the Beyond the Loop, a collaboration street without highway-like qualities North Loop. between the Mid-America Regional will not only restore connections FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 35 Scajaquda Expressway through Buffalo State College. Credit / Scajaquada Corridor Coalition

Scajaquada Visit Buffalo’s popular Olmsted- Expressway designed Delaware Park and you’ll BUFFALO, NEW YORK find you have to cross the Scajaquada

HIGHWAY TYPE Expressway to get from one side to the Hybrid at-grade and depressed highway other. For years, public support favored YEAR BUILT plans to convert the high-speed road 1962 into a pedestrian-friendly parkway. But STAGE OF REMOVAL Study and public comment — removal is when the New York State Department being studied as one possible alternative in official study of Transportation unveiled in 2017 KEY CHARACTERISTICS that it would rebuild the expressway, The Scajaquada Expressway slices through Buffalo’s Delaware Park, making parts of it public indignation forced the agency to dangerous for visitors. abandon this course and turn over the NYSDOT has presented alternatives that still prioritize high speeds, which planning process to Greater Buffalo were unacceptable to the greater Buffalo community. Now the Greater Buffalo Niagara Niagara Regional Transportation Regional Transportation Council is guiding the redesign process. Council.

36 A restored Scajaquada corridor. Credit / Scajaquada Corridor Coalition

The centerpiece of Buffalo’s parks system 2015 levels. four-lane roadway similar to the existing designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and expressway. After intense community Calvert Vaux in the late 1800s, Delaware The most effective way to curtail pressure, NYSDOT walked away from Park today remains a favorite recreation dangerous driving is to redesign the the project in January 2018 and turned spot for Buffalonians.Given the park’s road in ways that calm traffic. For the planning process over to the Greater sustained popularity, the construction of the Scajaquada Expressway, this was Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation the high-speed Scajaquada Expressway recognized as early as 2005, when Council (GBNRTC) in 2019. through it in 1962 might come as a the city and state presented a project surprise to many. But the City of Buffalo proposal to replace the expressway with Community stakeholders have been Planning Commission that initiated a parkway designed for 30 mph travel vocal that the removal of the Scajaquada the project justified the route because it that included safe pedestrian access, Expressway goes beyond getting rid viewed the park as ‘vacant land,’ not a dedicated bicycle facilities, and a tree- of a dangerous roadway; rather it is a community asset. lined median. After the 2015 fatal crash, step toward realizing Buffalo’s future thirteen local organizations, including potential and increasing its residents’ Unsurprisingly, the construction of the the Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy, quality of life. Numerous regional expressway had negative consequences the Restore of Community Coalition, assets are located along the corridor for the park and those who lived around and GObike Buffalo, joined forces to and currently separated by the highway, it. It divided and destroyed acres of form the Scajaquada Corridor Coalition including many of Western New York’s parkland, cut off residential sectors from to renew the call for a parkway that fits key cultural and educational institutions the park and waterfront, and obliterated the context of Delaware Park and its and the suppressed Scajaquada Creek. the Humboldt Parkway, not to mention adjacent neighborhoods. As the GBNRTC resumes its work bisecting established neighborhoods east after the COVID-19 pandemic, it and west of the park. Speeding vehicles At the governor’s direction, the should focus on restoring the legacy have also made parts of the park unsafe. New York State Department of of a park and parkways system that In 2015, a driver veered off the road and Transportation (NYSDOT) took charge connects Buffalo’s vibrant communities, killed a three-year old boy walking in the of executing these changes, but added treasured historic landscape, and healthy park with his family. Governor Andrew an additional project goal at odds with waterways along a corridor where Cuomo was quick to respond, reducing the rest: the maintenance of the existing all modes of transportation are safe, the posted speed limit from 50 mph to level of service for vehicles. So when accessible, and welcoming. 30 mph. But this has done little to slow NYSDOT revealed its solutions in 2017, cars, as the number of speeding tickets its designs for the proposed parkway issued on the road in 2019 approached had morphed into another high-speed, FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 37 The Great Highway along Outer Sunset. Credit / SFARMLS

The Great Highway The Great Highway may lack the SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Interstate designation that many other

HIGHWAY TYPE of the highways in this report carry, but At-grade arterial it still exhibits similar qualities: limited YEAR BUILT 1929 access, speed as a priority, and a barrier

STAGE OF REMOVAL to access. But all of this changed in Outreach and coalition building — advocates April 2020, when the road became a are actively building support for removal

KEY CHARACTERISTICS popular car-free slow street to facilitate A street closure in response to COVID-19 has social distancing. As the city debates catalyzed a debate about whether the Great Highway should serve only cars. whether or not to reopen the Great Thousands of people and cyclists now enjoy the oceanfront Great Highway each day. Highway to traffic, some residents

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation wonder if it would be better to keep it Agency is now exploring whether to keep the highway permanently closed and transform it closed permanently. into a park.

38 The car-free Great Highway, with rendering of the Great Highway Park (inset). Credit / The Great Highway Park Initiative

At the start of the COVID-19 American and Pacific Islander hate. The Great Highway Park Initiative pandemic, people began to reconsider also advocates for a few simple and their relationship to transportation. All this has led to a debate about the inexpensive changes that would vastly With non-essential businesses closed Great Highway’s future. Given its improve the Great Highway as a park/ and stay-at-home orders in place, popularity without cars, should it stay bikeway. The addition of basic amenities, traffic levels plummeted overnight. that way permanently? The members of such as water fountains, trash and But even prior to the pandemic, San the Great Highway Park Initiative think recycling bins, and places to safely lock Francisco’s Great Highway was already so. The group has started working with bicycles could drastically improve the closed. The 3.5 mile-long commuter community members and the relevant usability of the park. Access to the park road sits adjacent to the dunes along San Francisco agencies to outline a also needs to be inclusive, regardless the Pacific coast and every time it’s plan to keep the street pedestrian-only. of how people are able to get there. overwhelmed by sand or erosion, it is They’ve identified four key pillars that The initiative wants the city to increase forced to close -- sometimes for as much will make this possible: reduce traffic, transportation options so everyone can as 30% of the year. So when the San safer streets, improve the park, and enjoy the park, but also recognizes that, Francisco Municipal Transportation inclusive access. for some, it will only be accessible by car Agency (SFMTA) started identifying and parking needs to be considered for One of the key components of their potential car-free streets to enable social both visitors and current residents. plan is to reduce the number of cars distancing, the Great Highway became driving through the Sunset district by an obvious choice. Because of the park’s popularity, the introducing traffic calming measures. SFMTA has initiated a study to explore As a pedestrian-only space, the Great There are other north-south routes built the long-term future of the Great Highway has achieved notable success. for commuting, but drivers opt to travel Highway and wants to ground it in SFMTA collected data on the street’s through the neighborhood because there deep community engagement. Once usage from September-November 2020 are few controls on speed. For instance, completed, the city could act quickly (i.e. the offseason) and found an average on the Lower Great Highway (the as the City’s Recreation and Parks of 6,800 bicyclists and pedestrians per street parallel to the Great Highway), department already owns the street and weekend day. In essence, the street has seven out of fifteen intersections had no its right-of-way, even if it falls under the become a flexible public space where north-south stop signs at the outset of jurisdiction of several different agencies. some people still use it for transportation the closure. Since then, dozens of speed Meanwhile, thousands of visitors each (albeit on bicycle), others recreate, and it bumps, stop signs, and other traffic day will continue to enjoy the Great has even served as a site of Black Lives calming measures have been added to Highway as a park and demonstrate the Matter rallies and a march against Asian help keep neighborhood streets safe. need for this unique community space. FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 39 Graduated Campaigns

These campaigns represent the next stage of the Highways to Boulevards transformation: projects where authorities have committed to removal or completed it.

Interstate 375 Sheridan Expressway DETROIT, MICHIGAN NEW YORK, NEW YORK

When the Michigan Department of In 2019, the New York State Transportation (MDOT) committed Department of Transportation to the removal of I-375 through (NYSDOT) completed the removal downtown Detroit in 2017, its initial of the Sheridan Expressway through plans for the boulevard replacing the Bronx. NYSDOT’s final plans the highway basically resembled a for the removal strayed far from racetrack, with as many as ten lanes the more pedestrian-friendly and in places and Texas U-turns. Since community-centered plans proposed then MDOT has further refined and by the New York City Department of improved its plans for the boulevard, Transportation. Sheridan Boulevard, although much of it is still wider than which has replaced the highway, has necessary and remains auto-centric. the same number of travel lanes as the Until MDOT fixes all these elements, former expressway. The wide design Detroit won’t reap the full benefits of the street still prevents safe passage of highway removal. The project was for pedestrians and encourages expected to break ground in 2022, speeding. While marginally an but Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s improvement over the expressway, administration has delayed funding additional changes will need to be it until 2027. Meanwhile, MDOT made for Sheridan Boulevard to continues to solicit public feedback. realize its full potential.

40 SheridanNEW YORK, NYExpressway

I-375DETROIT, MI

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 41 Conclusion

For many Americans, controlled-access highways are a regular part of their daily landscape. They take these high-speed roads for granted, with little consideration for how they were built, the damage they have caused, and the massive amount of money and subsidies that are needed to support them. But the hard truth is that at least one million Americans, if not more, were forcibly moved through eminent domain seizures to build the highways we have today. Millions more Americans who live next to a highway still endure the noise, pollution, danger, and disinvestment caused by these roads.

The 15 projects featured in this Root the project in Adopt new metrics report are on a path to remedy the community priorities. that create streets for ills caused by highway building. When realized, they will transform people. Too often, communities only the cityscape around them, building have the opportunity to respond upon existing community assets If the streets that replace highways to proposals to alter a highway, and creating new ones. Highway still cater to a high volume of vehicle not create their own. Community removal can be a powerful tool traffic moving at a fast pace, then feedback is solicited after alternatives to spur economic development, many of the benefits of highway have already been proposed, which especially for communities that have removal will fail to manifest. These limits the capacity for change and long experienced disinvestment. But streets will still be a barrier for undervalues the lived experience of with this opportunity also comes pedestrians, businesses that are residents. responsibility. Cities need to promote supposed to rely on foot traffic will design choices that truly create Cities undertaking Highways to founder, and property values will streets for people and policy options Boulevards projects must give remain stagnant. Eight uninterrupted that ensure current residents enjoy the communities that live around lanes of at-grade traffic mimics the the benefits of highway removal. highways the power to lead the way. effects of a freeway, including dire Without careful attention to these This starts with gathering meaningful public health consequences for nearby issues, new highway removal projects input from residents and determining residents. may replicate the inequalities of the their visions for the future of a Street designs that include cars last generation of transportation highway corridor, before the physical but do not make them the highest infrastructure. planning begins. Community priority are key: the test of time has members should be involved in What are the principles that local and shown that fewer lanes are adequate the entire process to ensure follow state authorities should adopt from for auto traffic but can still be through. the start, the moment they commit to designed for people and bicycles, with taking down or covering a highway? well-proportioned sidewalks, frequent and well-signed crossings, street trees, and one or more medians that create a desirable and walkable avenue.

42 Mandela Parkway in Oakland, the former route of I-880. Credit / Scott Humphreys

New sets of metrics should be adopted replaces a highway should reflect this. a community may lack. Investments for Highways to Boulevards projects in the built environment should to better align with their intended The removal of a highway is be balanced with investments in purpose. Projects should have to a divestment from expensive people as well. A comprehensive reduce the amount of vehicle miles automobile infrastructure. It presents Highways to Boulevards project will traveled so that they will not replicate an opportunity to capture and offer support to businesses that are a highway’s environmental injustices. convert trips taken by private cars community-oriented to help ensure Multi-modal accessibility scores that into other, less expensive and more the development of a complete combine transportation and land environmentally friendly modes of neighborhood with a wide variety use data to evaluate the number of travel. In place of the highway, the of services, amenities, and cultural people who can easily access jobs and critical infrastructure that supports institutions. It should leverage the services in a project area should also be other forms of mobility can be built. expanding economic opportunities adopted. This ensures a corridor’s land This should range from sidewalks in the neighborhood by funding uses are planned to work in tandem and bike lanes all the way to public workforce development programs that with its transportation systems and transportation like bus rapid transit serve local residents and train them for puts humans, rather than automobiles, with dedicated lanes. Unlike the the jobs that come with construction, at the center of designs. highway, this infrastructure serves the transportation, and community community members in and around development. Invest in holistic the highway corridor, who often lack neighborhood repair. these sorts of quality-of-life amenities. Prevent displacement Highways to Boulevards projects of legacy residents. At its core, the Highways to should also incentivize building Boulevards movement is more than amenities beyond transportation The removal of a highway will just a transportation issue; it intersects infrastructure. This will vary based increase the attractiveness of nearby with housing and affordability, on community needs; these projects neighborhoods and subsequently, economic development and access have the power to transform the property values and rents may be to jobs and services, environmental land occupied by the highway into expected to rise. In this scenario, many justice and public health, racial equity, a variety of housing types, green lower-income families and individuals and community development. What space, retail, and other services that who currently live around a highway

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 43 will find they can no longer afford to they continue to perpetuate today. stay. This should not be the outcome. In this context, highway removal has A robust Highways to Boulevards become an increasingly important project will put displacement tool for community revitalization. protections in effect before But the benefits unlocked by construction begins. Like the taking down an expressway must designs for what comes after the be channeled to the members of highway, there is no one-size-fits-all the current community. As more solution when it comes to combating and more state and local agencies displacement. Protections to keep take up these projects, it is essential current residents in their homes can that they achieve the best possible include tax abatements for property outcomes. Successful projects will owners, rent control and first-time benefit municipalities and states homebuyer programs for tenants, and through the economic empowerment community land trusts to steer new of disinvested communities, not at development. But this short list is far their expense, unlike last century’s from exhaustive. What is important transportation infrastructure. is that cities tackle displacement from the start by funding programs with the means to do so.

The equitable development plan created in response to the creation of the 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington D.C. provides a great example of how to protect legacy residents when infrastructure investments are made. Early in project planning, the nonprofit Building Bridges Across the River created a community land trust that acquired properties on the market and sold them back to residents at subsidized rates to enable them to build wealth before the market appreciated.

The events of 2020 have only demonstrated the increasing need for additional Highways to Boulevards conversion projects that follow these principles. The drastic drop in driving during the early stages of the pandemic exposed shortfalls in highway maintenance budgets and exacerbated the problems of the funding schemes that were already struggling to pay for these roads. Campaigns for racial justice have also set highways squarely in their sights. It is no surprise that protest movements have occupied highways, given the racist legacy of highway building and the spatial inequalities

44 FREEWAYSUnion WITHOUT Street in Rochester, FUTURES the former2021 route/ 45 of the Inner Loop East. Credit / Stantec Further Reading

P10 / Brooklyn-Queens P14 / Claiborne Marshall, Kendrick. ‘Signs of gentrification’: Greenwood community Expressway, New York Expressway (I-10), New worries residents being pushed out, history disrespected. Tulsa World. 19 Davidson, Justin. Here’s a Solution Orleans January 2021. for Fixing the Brooklyn-Queens Clark, Jess. Claiborne Expressway, Expressway: Get Rid of It. New York Through The Eyes Of Fourth Graders. P18 / Magazine. 10 December 2018. I-275, Tampa WWNO. 16 May 2019. Frost, Mary. Cobble Hill’s ‘Fix the Frank, Josh. From Bifurcation to Duncan, Ian. A woman called for Ditch’ plan comes roaring back to life. Boulevard: Tampa’s Future Without a highway’s removal in a Black Brooklyn Eagle. 5 March 2020. I-275. neighborhood. The White House Kimmelman, Michael. It’s a singled it out in its infrastructure plan. Johnston, Caitlin. Here’s how Tampa Crumbling Road to Despair. Can Washington Post. 1 April 2021. Bay’s $6B highway expansion will New York Fix the B.Q.E.? New York burden minorities. Tampa Bay Times. Kaplan-Levenson, Laine. ‘The Times. 10 April 2019. 12 June 2016. Monster’: Claiborne Avenue Before King, Michael. Op-Ed: Imagining And After The Interstate. WWNO. 5 Roa, Ray. Hillsborough officials will Downtown Brooklyn Without the May 2016. study whether or not we should tear BQE. Streetsblog NYC. 9 January down I-275. Creative Loafing Tampa Claiborne Avenue Alliance Website. 2020. Bay. 10 May 2019. Restoring Claiborne Avenue: Spivak, Caroline. Transform or tear Schmitt, Angie. Paradigm-Shifting Alternatives for the Future of down? The BQE reconstruction, Highway Teardown Gaining Traction Claiborne Avenue. Claiborne Corridor explained. Curbed NY. 25 February in Tampa. Streestblog USA. 10 May Improvement Coalition and Congress 2020. 2019. for the New Urbanism. 15 July 2010. TO BE OR NOT TO BQE? The #blvdtampa Website. Tour: New Orleans’ Tremé Institute of Public Architecture 2020 Neighborhood and the Claiborne Fall Residency. P20 / Expressway. Nola.com. 17 September I-345, Dallas P12 / 2018. Simik, Peter. A New Plan for Tearing Inner Loop North, Down I-345. D Magazine. 15 April Rochester P16 / I-244, Tulsa 2021. Horbovetz, Arian. Rochester’s Inner Bates, Michael. The Rise and Fall of TxDOT. Dallas City Center Loop Infill: We Did Something Greenwood: A new look into Tulsa’s CityMAP. 27 September 2016. Amazing. The Urban Phoenix. 3 segregated past reveals the power of February 2020. the people. Urban Tulsa Weekly. 13 Toole Design Group. I-345/45 June 2007. Framework Plan. Smart Growth Network. American Highways Are Being Removed: Jeffries, Daniel. How to Kill Main A New Dallas Website. What’s Next? 27 January 2020. Street and Make it Look Like an Accident. Medium. 9 March 2017. Coalition for a New Dallas Website. Hinge Neighbors Website. Johnson, Hannibal. Black Wall Street: P22 / I-35, Austin Inner Loop North Transformation From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Study Website. Historic Greenwood District. Eakin Barnes, Michael. Recalling Austin’s Press. 1 August 2007. ample East Avenue. The Austin- American Statesman. 29 August 2015.

46 Further Reading (continued)

Clark-Madison, Mike. Austin Leans Urbanist. 29 January 2021. P32 / Kensington in Hard to Change TxDOT’s Mind on I-35. The Austin Chronicle. 2 April Lid I-5 Website. Expressway, Buffalo 2021. P28 / I-81, Syracuse Bethel, Bradley, Jr. Kensington Ross, Robyn. Reconnect Austin: Expressway: Cap It or Fill It? Rise Part One. The Austin Chronicle. 17 AIA CNY. Syracuse I-81: Urban Collaborative. 23 November 2016. January 2014. Design Study of the I-81 Project Area. Higgins, Brian et al. Restoring Ross, Robyn. Reconnect Austin: Gordon, Aaron. The Highway Was Buffalo’s parks will revitalize the city. Part Two. The Austin Chronicle. 31 Supposed to Save This City. Can The Buffalo News. 6 July 2020. January 2014. Tearing It Down Fix the Sins of the Morrison, Angelica. Expressway seen Past? Jalopnik. 30 July 2019. ULI Advisory Services Panel. The I-35 as symbol of racial inequity, health Corridor Austin, Texas. Samuels, Robert. In Syracuse, a road problems. WFBO. 15 January 2018. and reparations. Washington Post. 20 NYSDOT. Humboldt Parkway Deck Reconnect Austin Website October 2019. Economic Impact Study. 2015. Rethink35 Website. NYCLU. Building a Better Future: Puma, Mike. NYSDOT Proposes The Structural Racism Built into I-81, Band-Aid Fix for Kensington P24 / and How to Tear it Down. I-35, Duluth Expressway. Buffalo Rising. 15 Johnson, Brooks. Group proposes bold NYSDOT I-81 Opportunities November 2019. vision for I-35 in Duluth: Make it a Website. Restore Our Community Coalition parkway. Star Tribune. 28 May 2020. ReThink81 Website. Website. van der Hagen, Jordan. Stitching P34 / Together Duluth’s Downtown and P30 / I-980, Oakland North Loop (I- Waterfront – Part One. streets.mn. 7 September 2020. City of Oakland. Draft Downtown 35/70), Kansas City Oakland Specific Plan. Kniggendorf, Anne. Navigating van der Hagen, Jordan. Stitching Downtown Kansas City’s Ring Of Together Duluth’s Downtown and Johnson, Nathanel. A highway runs Highways Is Throwing Pedestrians For Waterfront – Part Two. streets.mn. 16 through it: Inside the push to tear A Loop. KCUR. 22 May 2019. October 2020. down an Oakland freeway. Grist. 17 April 2019. Morefield, Thomas. Highway Duluth Waterfront Collective Robbery: How 80 Years of Land Use Website. Rudick, Roger. More Urban Freeway and Transportation Policy Slowly Removals Possible. Streetsblog SF. 27 Revisiting Highway 61 Website. Strangled a Neighborhood. Urban January 2021. Angle. 16 September 2020. P26 / I-5, Seattle Savidge, Nico. A freeway separates ULI Advisory Services Panel. North West Oakland from downtown. Loop Kansas City, Missouri. Black, Lester. Lid I-5 or Get Rid of Biden’s infrastructure bill could help I-5? The Stranger. 4 December 2019. get rid of it. The Mercury News. 12 Beyond the Loop Website. May 2021. City of Seattle. I-5 Lid Feasibility Study. ConnectOakland Website.

Trumm, Doug. 8 Takeaways from Seattle’s Lid I-5 Feasibility Study. The

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 47 Further Reading (continued)

P36 / Scajaquada Livengood, Chad. Why did the Mohl, Raymond. “Urban Expressways funding for I-375 rebuild get yanked? and the Central Cities in Postwar Expressway, Buffalo Crain’s Detroit Business. 26 July 2020. America,” Poverty and Race Research Action Council Civil Rights Research Kurutz, Steve. Once So Chic and Ricciulli, Valeria. The $75M overhaul Brief (PRRAC: 2002), 2. Swooshy, Freeways Are Falling Out of of a South Bronx roadway is now Favor. New York Times. 21 October complete. Curbed NY. 12 December Patterson, Regan and Robert Harley. 2017. 2019. “Effects of Freeway Rerouting and Boulevard Replacement on Air Sommer, Mark. Next up for MDOT I-375 Environmental Pollution Exposure and Neighborhood Scajaquada corridor: Imagining what’s Assessment and Proposed Alternative Attributes,” International Journal of possible. Buffalo News. 28 April 2021. Website. Environmental Research and Public Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy Health 16 (21) (Nov. 2019): 4072. Website. General Rose, Mark and Raymond Mohl. The Scajaquada Corridor Coalition Avila, Eric. The Folklore of the Freeway. Interstate: Highway Politics and Policy Website. University of Minnesota Press. 2014. Since 1939. University of Tennesee Press. 2012. P38 / Biron, Carey. Neighborhoods united: The Great Highway removal gains steam in U.S. Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Highway, San Francisco cities. Thomson Reuters Foundation. Law: A Forgotten History of How 12 April 2021. Our Government Segregated America. Graf, Carly. Closing Upper Great Liverright. 2017. Highway for good is popular, survey Crockett, Karilyn. People before finds. San Francisco Examiner. 29 Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Thompson Fullilove, Mindy. March 2021. Planners, and a New Movement for City Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Making. University of Massachusetts Neighborhoods Hurts America, And Lee, Fiona. How the Great Highway Press. 2018. What We Can Do About It. New Village became San Francisco’s most Press. 2016. unexpected promenade. SFGATE. 28 Dewey, Caitlin. Advocates Rally to September 2020. Tear Down Highways That Bulldozed Wilson, Kea. Senate Considering Black Neighborhoods. Pew Stateline. $10B for Highway Removal. Rudick, Roger. Great Highway vs. 28 July 2020. Streetsblog USA. 11 January 2021. Great Walkway. Streetsblog SF. 18 May 2020. Harrison, David. Highways Give Way Congress for the New Urbanism to Homes as Cities Rebuild. Wall Every Place Counts Design Challenge Great Highway Park Initiative Street Journal. 1 December 2019. Website. Website. King, Noel. A Brief History Of How Congress for the New Urbanism Four SFMTA Great Highway and Outer Racism Shaped Interstate Highways. Principles for a Federal Highways to Sunset Traffic Management Project NPR. 7 April 2021. Boulevards Program Wesbite. Website. McCormick, Kathleen. Congress for the New Urbanism P40 / Deconstruction Ahead: How Urban Higways to Boulevards Website. Graduated Highway Removal Is Changing Our Campaigns Cities. Land Lines. 14 April 2020. Cuba, Julianne. Gov. Cuomo McFarland, Matt. Highways that Celebrates New Sheridan Boulevard, destroyed Black neighborhoods are But Advocates Still Wary. Streetsblog crumbling. Some want to undo that NY. 12 December 2019. legacy. CNN. 27 February 2021.

48 About CNU

Members of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) help create vibrant and walkable cities, towns, and neighborhoods where people have diverse choices for how they live, work, shop, and get around. People want to live in well-designed places that are unique and authentic. CNU’s mission is to help people build those places.

With nineteen local and state chapters and CNU is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., CNU works to headquartered in Washington, D.C. unite the New Urbanist movement. Our projects and campaigns serve to empower our members’ efforts, Learn more about our Highways to Boulevards program identify policy opportunities, spread great ideas and at cnu.org/our-projects/highways-boulevards. innovative work to a national audience, and catalyze new strategies for implementing policy through design approaches.

All New Urbanists share the conviction that our physical environment has a direct impact on our chances for happy, prosperous lives. Our movement includes professionals, leaders, advocates, citizens, and other like- minded organizations working to identify and address the range of issues impeding the development and redevelopment of well-designed neighborhoods, public places, commercial corridors, and rural environments.

CNU works to unite that movement as a connector, convener, alliance builder, and teaching platform. Our staff, members, partners, and allies are the international thought leaders on building better places, and CNU helps bring them together. CNU is committed to ensuring that good urbanism is available to all through our work on equity and inclusion.

FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES 2021 / 49 50