INNER-CITY CONNECTOR
For the future development of our community
It is widely accepted
that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. In fact, it
was 5th-century B.C. Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who discovered the longest
side of a right triangle is actually the shortest path between the two points
on either end.
But Pythagoras missed a
couple of key exceptions, however. First, his theorem only works on flat
surfaces. And secondly, he never calculated the distance between the folks who
want to establish an inner-city connector between Interstate 20 and I-220, and
those folks who don’t.
And
despite the proposed distance between those two points being virtually a
straight line, these groups could not be further apart. Here’s what I mean:
Earlier
this year, the Louisiana DOTD formally broke ground on a section of I-49 that
will connect Martin Luther King Drive and La. Highway 1 by 2016. As this
section of I-49 inches closer to Shreveport, so does the debate over
constructing an estimated $300 million inner-city connector to this last
section of I-49, which would be built through the Allendale neighborhood.
Formally,
the prospect of this connector is only in the planning and environmental stage,
where an Environmental Impact Statement will be presented to the Federal
Highway Administration and DOTD for approval.
But
for others, like the Shreveport City Council, they’ve already made up their
minds. In June, they unanimously supported construction of a new 120-unit
affordable housing complex that is being built on land owned by the Shreveport
Housing Authority. And this was in spite of the Metropolitan Planning
Commission’s denial of the project only days earlier.
State
Representative Roy Burrell argues that this connector is more important than
this housing complex because the connector will have a projected economic
impact of $400 million in the Allendale area alone. He claims that those opposing
the connector, and supporting the construction of the housing complex, have
their own, selfish economic interests in mind instead, and not the “plight of
the poor black folks in Allendale.”
On
the other side of the road, those opposing the connector point out that
downtown was most prosperous when neighborhoods like Allendale, and Ledbetter
Heights, were prosperous. Architect Kim Mitchell points out that since 1980,
the population in these neighborhoods has decreased by 80 percent. Revitalizing
these neighborhoods, and making them attractive for entrepreneurs, he explains,
“doesn’t include running a six-lane interstate highway through them”.
He
points out that even President Eisenhower, who signed the law establishing the
interstate highway system in 1956, admitted that building these highways
through congested parts of cities was against his original concept. But now, it
seems, his original concept may actually be part of a growing trend throughout
the nation.
For
example, there’s a proposal in downtown Dallas to tear down I-345 because some
say it divides the Deep Ellum neighborhood and downtown Dallas, effectively
choking the life out of both. And even down in New Orleans, Mayor Landrieu says
that he is willing to consider tearing down the elevated stretch of I-10
through downtown New Orleans, pointing out that it “gave people more impetus to
bypass the city than to stay in it.” Tearing it down, he explained, could
attract new residents and businesses.
And
that’s what Senator Barrow Peacock has in mind also for Shreveport, but for a
different reason. He supports building the connector because it will attract
new residents and businesses to both Allendale and downtown alike. He points to
the North Central Expressway in Dallas, complete with miles of service roads on
both sides, as an example of how to build more than a highway, but an economic
engine.
What’s
the alternative to building the connector? Some folks propose simply looping
I-49 traffic around I-220 and the 3132, and for considerably less than the
estimated $300 million cost of the connector. Of course, this will increase
southbound traffic (and congestion) on North Market, for travelers headed into
downtown.
Well,
that’s enough for now. It’s all a matter of great importance for community’s
future, though. It’s difficult to overestimate the role that the interstate
highway system has played in the American economy and our culture. The
interstate connected us as a nation, long before Facebook, and it’s hard to
imagine progress without it.
In
the coming months, get informed, and be heard. Surely there’s a way for us to
get Pythagoras and Robert Frost together somehow, so that we can travel along
the shortest distance between two points while, at the same time, perhaps
taking the road less traveled. I hear it will make all the difference.
Louis
R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman and attorney. He is also a former aide
to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His
columns have appeared regularly in The Forum since 2007. Follow him on
Facebook, on Twitter @louisravallone or by email at louisavallone@mac.com.