Tear it down! Is it possible for DC to be as progressive as Milwaukee, Wisconsin?

Whitehurst Freeway and Georgetown. Flickr Photo by Furcafe.

The Georgetown Current has an article about the Whitehurst Freeway, and a recent public meeting about the ongoing study by the DC Department of Transportation on the real possibility of taking the freeway down. Of course, many drivers oppose this recommendation. According to the article, a website, Save the Whitehurst, has been created listing 10 reasons why the freeway should be retained.

While the Big Dig in Boston--which replaced a freeway scarring the center city with a tunnel--is turning out to be somewhat of a debacle over its construction and cost, there are important precedents for cities taking out freeways.
The Claes Oldenburg sculpture "Cupid's Span" (right) dominates Rincon Park, just a stroll south along the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building. San Francisco Chronicle photo by Michael Macor.

The Ferry Building plaza bustles with commerce when the weekend brings out the Farmers Market booths. Chronicle photo by Michael Macor.

The Ferry Building was encased by the Embarcadero Freeway. San Francisco Chronicle photo by John O'Hara.

The Embarcardero Freeway coming down in San Francisco as a result of the Loma Prieto earthquake was the best thing to happen to SF's waterfront. Similarly, a freeway was taken out in Milwaukee, and is having similar positive impact on urban design and revitalization there.

See the piece by John King from the San Francisco Chronicle, "15 Minutes that Changed San Francisco: The sweeping makeover that transformed the city began 15 years ago today with the Loma Prieta earthquake." "Now, instead of a shoreline cloaked in concrete, San Francisco savors the glory of a wide-open waterfront freed by the 1991 demolition of the quake-damaged Embarcadero Freeway."

They had a much broader expanse, but still, letting our public spaces become sewers for automobiles hardly contributes to quality of life in the city.

What freeway has ever been beneficial to a center city?

For more on the Milwaukee case, see "Freeway razing sets stage for $250 million in development" and "Tear it Down," by the then mayor of the city, John Norquist.

Mr. Norquist's article reminds us that Portland Oregon did the same thing.
The Harbor Drive Freeway, left, was demolished in1976 to make room for the Waterfront Park, right. Photos courtesy of Portland Development Commission. (Photo from Terrain.)

I'd completely forgotten that the park on the west side of the Willamette River, along with the RiverPlace housing and mixed use development, is built where the freeway was. Now, you can walk down to the water (which I did myself). The "UnSprawl Case Study" in the online magazine Terrain, RiverPlace in Portland, Oregon, covers the Riverplace development, which includes a marina, and is separate from the 72 acre waterfront park.
A landscaped park provides green space between downtown Portland, left, and RiverPlace proper, right. Photo from Terrain by Simmons Buntin.

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking; car-culture