Louisville is intent on constructing a new bridge and expanding an existing interstate freeway along its waterfront with the Ohio River. A move that runs counter to the prevailing wisdom of freeway removal and increased mass transit as a means of attracting people and talent to cities.
Michael Kimmelman laments the 1950's era line of thinking that has many of the region's civic leaders, "[p]ursuing a plan that would, in part, enlarge the downtown highways and construct a second bridge next to the Kennedy. It would even eat up some of a park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, of Prospect Park and Central Park fame. Louisville is a car city with auto plants and a big investment in the auto industry... The proposal, so clearly out of step, has been met with grass-roots opposition and is now in the courts, tied up over issues about financing, tolls and the environment."
Thanks to Matthew W. Kuhl
Comments
Punctuation
"...a new freeway expansion through it's downtown..."
*its.
"...other progressive cities are tearing their's down."
*theirs.
Revisions made
Thanks for the keen eye dhofmann.
Thanks
My first time posting and didn't realize how involved a process it can be.
As I had to do that during lunchtime, I was a little rushed.
Louisville Freeway Removal
There is a group working not only to stop the new freeway but also to remove some of the freeways in spaghetti junction, to simplify the interchange and reconnect the city with the waterfront.
See their web site at http://www.8664.org/
The overview presentation (one of the first links on the left) is a good summary of their proposal.
Charles Siegel