New Urbanism Transportation Ideas A Hard Sell

In Detroit, some believe that the Woodward-8 mile bridge benefits their neighborhoods.

1 minute read

February 4, 2004, 1:00 PM PST

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"City Manager Tom Barwin is convinced that the only way to save the intersection of Eight Mile and Woodward is to destroy it. With the backing of the Ferndale City Council, numerous businesses and John C. Hertel, general manager of the Michigan State Fair, Barwin is pressuring the Michigan Department of Transportation to demolish the bridge that carries Woodward over Eight Mile. Barwin would replace it with a landscaped, pedestrian-friendly interchange controlled by traffic lights: an upbeat gateway to Ferndale and to Detroit, directly to its south. Barwins game plan is vigorously opposed by local residents in Detroit and Ferndale, who accuse him of trying to ramrod through a personal pipe dream that would destroy the integrity of their neighborhoods on both sides of Eight Mile. They accuse Barwin of intimating that the bridge, built in the mid-1950s, is a symbolic racial barrier between Detroit and the northern suburbs."

Thanks to Richard Layman

FULL STORY: Ferndale leader wants historic bridge razed: Locals say keep span over Eight Mile

Tuesday, February 3, 2004 in The Detroit News

Transportation Michigan

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