• A corridor of opportunities

    Out of all of the CNU Freeways Without Futures picks, I-345 in Dallas probably has the most potential to create new mixed-use development as it reconnects downtown to a historic neighborhood.
    Since 2013, local advocacy group A New Dallas has captured public attention and made a strong case to remove I-345, an imposing concrete barrier that divides the city’s historic Deep Ellum neighborhood from downtown and has spawned vacant lots and disinvestment along its 1.4-mile path. As a result...Read more

  • A chance to repeat history

    Portland, Oregon, could open up the east bank of the Willamette River to adjacent neighborhoods and duplicate the success of the removal of Harbor Drive.
    Portland is a tale of two waterfronts. On the west bank of the Willamette River, Waterfront Park offers Portland’s residents direct access to the river in place of the former route of Harbor Drive, a freeway removed by the city in 1974. On the river’s east bank, I-5 deprives the growing Central...Read more

  • Restoring a parkway system in Buffalo

    The Kensington and Scajaquada expressways disrupted Frederick Law Olmsted's vision and divided neighborhoods, but that damage could be undone.
    Before the age of highways, celebrated landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted designed Delaware and Humboldt Parks, linked by the tree-lined boulevard of the Humboldt Parkway, in Buffalo, New York. The construction of the Kensington and Scajaquada Expressways in the 1960s marred this masterful...Read more

  • Never too late to stop the bulldozer

    Thirty-seven US urban highways were halted mid-construction by the communities in their path, saving city parks and neighborhoods from demolition.
    How late is too late for communities in the path of urban freeway construction to save their neighborhoods from the road’s negative impacts? Many may be familiar with the story of Jane Jacobs and other Greenwich Village community activists. In 1960s they opposed the construction of the Lower...Read more