Photo: Jessica YoonIt would seem to be a given that Americans reinvent themselves and their surroundings faster than anybody else.
Many roads that helped build and make cities, sit today amid changed and changing landscapes. And that offers a chance to find a new way to look at the relationship between the road and the people who live with it.
Take, as a single example, parts of I-10 in New Orleans.
Like in so many American cities, this area of New Orleans has suffered from the creation of a freeway that cuts through cities. It’s a case of public dollars creating freeways that devalue private real estate.
A study in New Orleans aims to reimagine Claiborne Avenue as a transportation corridor that anchors a more livable community. Funded by federal and local government grants as well as private funding partners, Livable Claiborne Communities is a study that underscores how transportation affects land uses, economic activities and environmental conditions.
This is part of a blog post by Jessica Yoon, a native Oregonian who lives in New Orleans. She holds a B.S. in Urban and Regional Studies from Cornell University, where, she says, she became interested in how great places can promote both equity and prosperity.
Jessica and I would probably have a few differences to discuss, but this project may be an example of keeping a road as an integral part of a developing neighborhood, of finding a way to merge old and new into a vibrant “transportation corridor.”
(Photo: Jessica Yoon)
