Downriver Today

Michigan is ready to proceed with plans to supplant the obsolete I-375 freeway with an urban boulevard that will facilitate economic development and easier access for motorists in Detroit, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a recent news release from her office's website.  

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has finished their environmental review after obtaining a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), which will allow the urban boulevard to enter the design phase this spring, the release said.  

"As development has pushed east from downtown and west from Lafayette Park, the barrier that I-375 represents in our city has become even more apparent," Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said in the release. "Removing the freeway ditch and replacing it with a street-level boulevard will unlock enormous development opportunities. It was Black residents and Black businesses that were hurt when Black Bottom was wiped out and they were displaced for the construction of this freeway. Black businesses today should benefit from the enormous development opportunities this project will create. The equity of who participates will be just as important as how the new boulevard ultimately will look. We can replicate what we did up on Livernois when we worked with neighbors to reimagine that historic business district, which is now the city's most vibrant and successful Black-owned business corridor."

I-375 is over 50 years old, the release said. It displaced the thriving Black neighborhoods of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, and several businesses and residential buildings were also destroyed during its construction.  

Built through a then-flourishing Hasting Street, I-375 was officially opened in 1964, the release said. In the process, a hurdle was established between Detroit's central business district and the communities to the east. As a result, those predominately Black communities have been deprived of investment and economic opportunities.