Sep 18, 2022

Dividing Highways

      When I-85 and I-65 were completed through Montgomery, the road projects destroyed a longstanding black neighborhood in the capitol city. And it wasn't the only place that happened. As The Washington Post reports this week, steps are being taken to repair some of the damage done with similar projects in Detroit:

 

"Detroit’s Paradise Valley was a buzzing nightlife district, home to jazz clubs and hundreds of other Black-owned business. Then urban renewal plans launched after World War II and the digging of a highway through the area displaced more than 100,000 residents.

Today, almost nothing of Paradise Valley and the neighboring Black Bottom area remain.

For years, Detroit leaders worked on a plan to fill in the highway trench, turning Interstate 375 into a mile-long boulevard. On Thursday, the Biden administration announced it would give Michigan a helping hand in the form of a $105 million grant.

The award is the biggest step the administration has taken toward helping to remove an aging highway, fulfilling — in one community, at least — a goal the White House set when it announced infrastructure plans early last year."

 (FULL Washington Post story HERE)


Now the question is will the feds provide similar funding in the Alabama Capitol City, even though that amount would only be a drop in the bucket. It costs about $11-Million a mile to build interstates within city limits. ow much to undo the damage?

 

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