>City Highways = Ugliness

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I came across this video this morning on Treehugger and it really struck a nerve with me. It’s in regards to highways cutting through cities: why we don’t need them and the destruction they leave in their wake. I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions that I am writing from Buffalo, NY…a small city, but it’s getting smaller (population) each year. It is quite literally half the size in population that it was 50 years ago. Anyhow, what struck a nerve in me–and to get to the point–is that like many American cities mine has a few hiways circumnenting them, but also one that cuts it directly in two. For a small city we have such beautiful park space…but it was once more beautiful. The park system was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who was most famous, I think, for designing Central Park in NYC (among numerous others). Anyhow, one of the parks–Humboldt Park–was shortened greatly by the Kensington Expressway. The park still remains, but the pan handle is gone.

 

The highway was completed in the late 1960’s (I think). I grew up in a neighborhood that was close to the construction (but not near Humboldt Park). I don’t have many memories of it being built, but one I do remember is–ironically–riding a bicycle down it at night. They worked around the clock building it (time is money) and had flood lights at night, and one memory is the construction workers allowing a gang of us to ride our bikes down the unopened highway at night (in my minds memory it seemed  really late, but being just a boy it was probably only like 9pm). I also remember my mother  telling me stories of when she was a little girl the “rich people” would ride horses through Humboldt Park (how perfect…two miles long and narrow)…now we just drive cars down it.

I can’t image how terrible it must have been for the people who own the many beautiful houses that line the highway. Oddly (and almost cruelly) in an effort to make it seem less ugly the city actually submerged the highway, which in my opinion is uglier still. So these people when from having beautiful park-front homes to owning a house whose front yard now faces a submerged highway. This isn’t just ugly; it’s the anti-beauty of the urban landscape. This highway has made it really easy–to this day–for people to flee the city, for good or just daily; to work downtown and race back to their subdivisions at 5pm. Here’s a couple before-and-after pictures (found here and here). It’s easy to see which makes more sense on so many levels. In a city that has such a rich cultural and architectural heritage…shame on us for allowing this to happen.