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If 695 had been built and 95 had come through the city
By teric on Tue, 05/19/2015 - 10:01pm
This is from an engineer's report on the proposed Southwest Expressway and Inner Belt that was killed in 1971 and shows the view from above what is now the Reggie Lewis Center looking towards the interchange of the two highways at what is now Ruggles.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
can also see the highway's proposed impact here...
not far away, the "Campus High School" master plan... (currently Madison Park & O'Bryant High Schools and the Reggie Lewis Center...
http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/research-maps/maps-and-gis/h...
Are you sure this is not the
Are you sure this is not the Olympics 2024?
Highways separate people, Olympics bring people together
Highways separate people and destroy the area around. Fortunately we stopped the inner belt, buried the Central Artery, and now taking down the Casey. The Olympics will not only bring people together but help fill underutilized or vacant areas of the city with housing and sports venues, namely the vacant Bayside Expo and Widdet Circle.
Bring people together
Olympics bring together deep-pocketed developers hungry for more quick profits and the politicians desparate for their campaign donations. The Olympics bring together privatized profit and socialized costs.
lol good one
i almost took the bait
Good morning, Boston2024 interns!
Glad to see you're posting more than just Nazi propaganda and co-opting popular events in Boston that have nothing to do with your bid. You're earning your summer income well!
Widett Circle is FAR from
Widett Circle is FAR from vacant! It's home to food distribution companies that have been there for decades.
Just because a location is not home to luxury condos or biotech offices does not mean it is vacant.
Inner Belt
^ BU Bridge Replacement
Lots of great information on this site about what was planned
All those flyovers! Be still
All those flyovers! Be still my heart. Such a shame this didn't get constructed.
To be fair about the BU bridge replacement, there was a tunnel alternative as well.
It brings a tear to Mark's eye
As for me, this is perhaps the scariest thing I'll see all day.
This was proposed in a time when cities where things to get though, not enjoy for themselves. The economic impact of the land used by these roads is enormous, worth far more then any gains from being able to pass though these areas quicker.
It's not like it would have even worked as planned. Look at LA where they did build things like this -- they have far, far worst traffic then in Boston. Boston's traffic is bad but it's not West coast horrible and there are normally alternatives if you're willing to be a little flexible.
if we're being accurate
It was proposed at a time when cities had the majority of the population
Over 80% of Americans live in urban areas
...today.
Urban area does not equal city
Most of Boston's urbanized area is - as with most American cities - dominated by lower density suburbs. As a percentage of the total urbanized area population, the City of Boston carried a much higher share than it does now: in 1950, it represented 25 percent but as of 2014 that number is down to around 14 percent. We're just getting back to 1970s levels of Boston city population while the suburbs have grown exponentially.
Population
Boston's Population:
1900 560,892 +25.1%
1910 670,585 +19.6%
1920 748,060 +11.6%
1930 781,188 +4.4%
1940 770,816 −1.3%
1950 801,444 +4.0%
1960 697,197 −13.0%
1970 641,071 −8.1%
The highway was conceived at the start of the great urban exodus (Drop of 100k+ between 1950 & 1960) and most of them where built at peak times when people where leaving the city. The writing was on the wall so they said -- cities where getting smaller and those with money where expected to move to the suburbs. The theory was that cities were for offices for the rich and homes for the poor.
Had this been built the suburbs might have seen even more development and sprawl which of course only leads to worse traffic as people need to go further. (See: LA)
To what extent did highway construction cause population loss?
I mean, if your house was in the path of a highway, or would be right next to a highway, you'd probably be leaving.
Also
To what extent did redlining and GI Bill mortgages lead to the growth of suburbs over cities in the 1950s?
Thank you to the activists
Thank you to the activists who fought this and to Governor Sargent for KOing this thing. We're lucky this never happened.
What Forest Hills could have looked like
Forget that measly overpass, take a look at this interstate highway.
wow.
It's almost been 12 hours since this was posted.
Did Mark call his doctor yet?
imagine
imagine how much better traffic would be if they actually built this.
no more 3 hour friday commutes!
most definitely
yeah, they'd probably be 5 hours.
Yes, except
Increase the number of automobiles by 10000%, and I think they've nailed it.
Looks like the 401 in Toronto
Too much traffic
Looks like there is already traffic backing up. They better expand that road!
We spent a couple of hours....
...stuck in rush hour traffic going through Toronto once upon a time.
It looks to me like traffic
It looks to me like traffic is flowing freely, but the picture was taken with a big telephoto effect.
That isn't rush hour
It has that much traffic at 11am or 7pm.
When my "Calgary is too much city" sister-in-law was headed to Toronto and renting a car to go visit her daughter's family nearby, I printed out the cycling directions for her. Otherwise, she would have to had navigated all the way across this insanity, which is to say that she would have stopped dead about three lanes in, gripped by a panic attack.
I had to get through it at 3pm on a weekday and it was astonishingly stressful for those not used to that many flying merges.
Hand Markkk a tissue
I think he's crying
It's too bad that 44 years
It's too bad that 44 years later, they still haven't bothered to undo the damage caused by clearing the land for these highways, along what's now Melnea Cass Boulevard and Columbus Avenue.
Thank the BRA for that.
Thank the BRA for that.
depends on how you define undo...
1. Southwest corridor park
2. Roxbury Community College
3. Jackson Square Revitalization
4. Reggie Lewis Track Facility
5. New Orange Line MBTA with stations
6. BPD Headquarters
7. Madison Park Voc High School
8. Whittier health Center
9. Northeastern University Dorms and Office (Renaissance Building)
10. Parcel C: if it ever gets developed
11. Whittier Housing Redevelopment
12. Madison Park Village Townhouses
but yer right, still a ways to go.