Saw a show on PBS last night about Oregon's land use laws and how they have encouraged dense, urban-scale development while minimizing sprawl around the city. It mentioned how Portland used to have a freeway running alongside, and cutting the downtown off from, its river. When it was proposed that the artery be widened, residents not only rallied to stop that project, but—amazingly—got the whole damn thing ripped up and moved. It's been called the single best thing ever done for the city, and a major reason for Portland's downtown revival.
It reminded me of a very memorable front page piece in the Inquirer by Inga Saffron that ran way back in 2002. She brought up Portland as an example of how it's possible to undo what seems a permanent blight to Philadelphia's waterfront. Since that article originally ran, we've had the completion of the "Big Dig" in Boston. Even if we did not tear up 95 altogether (which, after all, doesn't even provide a direct connection to New York because it peters out in Princeton), Philly could restore its riverfront for a fraction of the Big Dig's cost simply by putting a little bit of the freeway into a tunnel.
Saffron's article was called "I-95's stranglehold on riverfront" and was published 11/17/02. Worth the $2.50 to purchase through the archives: http://bit.ly/fysYBr
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