Cultural Innovation District To Bloom Below Interstate 10

progrss ^ | September 10, 2017 | progrss Newsroom

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

People in New Orleans, Louisiana, have been voicing their discontent about the intrusion of the Interstate 10, or I-10, Freeway in their lives ever since it was completed in 1990. After years of debating and studying, they are ready to repair the damage it has caused with what they are calling a Cultural Innovation District. The community will not remove the Interstate since the city cannot afford it, and in the end, the cost of removing it wouldn’t measure up to its value, according to studies conducted. As a result, the city and designers decided to meet halfway and resurrect the commercial and cultural district that existed on Claiborne Avenue before the construction of the interstate, right under the I-10.

The I-10 is the southernmost cross-country interstate highway in the American Interstate Highway System, stretching from the Pacific Ocean at State Route 1 in Santa Monica, California, to I-95 in Jacksonville, Florida. From east to west, I-10 connects New Orleans with Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, Baton Rouge, and Jacksonville. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate Highway in the country, following I-90, I-80, and I-40, mostly running over Texas.

Claiborne Avenue runs the length of the city, at about 9.5 miles (15.3 kilometers). Before the construction of the I-10 freeway on Claiborne Avenue, the area was a vibrant marketplace in the historically African-American Tremé – a traditional African-American neighborhood in New Orleans. Oak trees lined the sidewalks and Azalea bushes bloomed as dwellers visited coffeeshops and street merchants. As many as 326 businesses were lost when construction of the freeway began.

Ultimately, a cocktail of federal grant programs funded a $2.7 million 2013 Livable Claiborne Communities study conducted by Baltimore-based design firm Kittelson & Associates. Last month, a unanimous vote in the City Council made way for the first phase of the Cultural Innovation District. Adding to this, the U.S. Economic Development Administration has promised New Orleans $840,000 to push the project forward. But the city will only get access to the money if it actually controls the land; it is not clear who currently controls the land.

New Orleans’ vision for the Cultural Innovation District is to transform all 19 blocks under the freeway into a public space equipped with new green infrastructure, a market with food and art vendors, with space for exhibitions and community events. Even though the design plans haven’t been finalized yet, phase one will focus on six blocks from Orleans’ Avenue to Esplanade. The Cultural Innovation District will create retail space and infrastructure for 30 micro-enterprises, 20 small businesses, and 10 nonprofit or public sector organizations, in addition to a plethora of open spaces, art installations, exhibits, and demonstrations.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many community have debated the viability of removing overpasses from their cities, as cities such as San Francisco, Boston and Portland have done. Last June and after two years of campaigning, the Ohio City of Akron finally reclaimed a public space formerly allocated to the Innerbelt Freeway, with plans in place to transform it into a cultivated 35-acre park. Earlier this year, after a fire broke on Atlanta’s I-85 highway, people demanded that it be replaced with a public space instead of paying almost $17 million for its restoration.

Atlanta, Ohio and New Orleans, among other U.S. cities, want to follow San Francisco’s lead of removing freeways. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco damaged two major freeways in the city’s urban core, the city replaced the Embarcadero Freeway that ran along the San Francisco Bay with a wide boulevard that opened up acres of downtown waterfront and led to the renovation of the landmark Ferry Building. The city went on to replace the Central Expressway with parks and another wide boulevard. Although freeways are considered a tool to aid the economy, when both freeways were removed from San Fransisco’s civilization, employment rates went up and tourism boomed in both areas.

[linear]

Good luck with that.

[eyeamok]

Claiborne Avenue runs the length of the city, at about 9.5 miles (15.3 kilometers). Before the construction of the I-10 freeway on Claiborne Avenue, the area was a vibrant marketplace in the historically African-American Tremé – a traditional African-American neighborhood in New Orleans. Oak trees lined the sidewalks and Azalea bushes bloomed as dwellers visited coffeeshops and street merchants. As many as 326 businesses were lost when construction of the freeway began.

I wonder if all these people know the Real Name of Interstate 10???

” The Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Expressway”

I have seen that sign at the beginning of the 10 in Santa Monica for as long as I can remember.

[DIRTYSECRET]

I was there after Katrina. One local in the Garden District said Katrina was a blessing in disguise. Still it back to 80% of it’s former population. Probably too many.

[Wuli]

And they’ll want federal HUD “economic development” grants.

Another failed urban economic development project in the making.

[bgill]

More wasted tax dollars.

[a fool in paradise]

>>New Orleans’ vision for the Cultural Innovation District is to transform all 19 blocks under the freeway into a public space equipped with new green infrastructure, a market with food and art vendors, with space for exhibitions and community events.

I loathe these public-private for profit parks. City real estate is privatized and the “trade off” is so-called “community” events (rented from the organization that oversees the real estate).

Houston is awash with them. The parks got sold out from under us. The Convention center is managed by a private concern. The visitors bureau too and they tried to trademark “Space City” even though it’s been in use over 50 years.

Non-profit doesn’t mean that people don’t make 6 or 7 figures at the top.

[a fool in paradise]

>>Atlanta, Ohio and New Orleans, among other U.S. cities, want to follow San Francisco’s lead of removing freeways.

Damned Marxists who hate the automobile and the highway system.

[a fool in paradise]

Houston's doing it too:

http://swamplot.com/big-i-45-downtown-rerouting-grand-parkway-expansion-get-go-aheads/2017-03-29/

BIG I-45 DOWNTOWN REROUTING, GRAND PARKWAY EXPANSION GET GO-AHEADS

Yesterday was a big day for Houston freeway expansion and reconfiguration: On Tuesday, the Texas Transportation Commission gave the go-ahead for construction to begin in late 2020 on the first of 7 separate projects that will move I-45 from the west and south sides of Downtown to its east side, paralleling U.S. 59 behind the George R. Brown, reports Chron transportation writer Dug Begley.

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And the greenie weenies want to turn the former elevated highway into a green park that would still bisect downtown from midtown.

And they want 45 and 59 parallel and sunken under you guessed it a park to be constructed.