Downtown need a makeover? More cities are razing urban highways

Construction equipment lines the old Interstate 195 in Providence, R.I. The city has closed this highway, which once ran through the downtown core. Chuck Aube/RIDOT

Removal of aging highways is a strategy some cities are using to try to boost their downtown districts.

By Jeremy Kutner, Correspondent / March 2, 2011

New Haven, Conn.
 
In New Haven, Conn., a mistake of the past – one that displaced hundreds, razed a neighborhood, and physically divided a city – is finally set to be rectified: A highway is going to be demolished.

Some people in New Haven have been waiting to see this for 40 years, ever since it became clear that a modern roadway slicing through the heart of downtown would not bring the hoped-for suburban shoppers and revitalization. That waiting list is long, it turns out, as cities across the United States look to erase some of the damage from urban highway construction of the 1950s and '60s – tearing up or replacing the roadways and attempting to restitch bulldozed neighborhoods.

"For people who live and work around [urban highways], they always had huge negative side effects: They broke up the urban fabric, were noisy, and divided cities," says Ted Shelton, a professor of architecture at the University of Tennessee who has studied urban highway removal. Removing roadways presents an opportunity for wiser, gentler redevelopment that can – if all goes well – add vibrancy and livability to areas around city centers.  READ MORE

Book: Navigating the Coming Chaos

by Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., http://carolynbaker.net/

In 2006 the Transition movement was born in Totnes, England and since then has virally spread throughout the world until there are now over 300 Transition initiatives on the planet. Some people reading this book are familiar with Transition and the efforts it continues to make to create sustainable communities everywhere on earth. Its model offers a brilliant map for transforming the conditions of the external world, or in situations where that may not be possible, responding to them resiliently.

However, even though the Transition Handbook contains a section on the psychology of change, the focus of the movement remains on external Transition. Because I feel passionately that external Transition cannot succeed without a transformation of consciousness among the human species, Navigating The Coming Chaos has been written to address the void created by a predominant emphasis on outer Transition and offer specific tools to facilitate inner Transition. My hope is that this book will become an intimate companion of the Transition Handbook as well as a map of inner transition for individuals who are completely unfamiliar with the Transition movement.  READ MORE