after eight and a half hours of driving, i finally merged onto the last highway i needed to get me home to my family for christmas, a road that should have been familiar. instead, the new hwy 29/hwy 41 interchange in the heart of green bay, wisconsin looked like something out of the jetson’s with towering on/off ramps three layers tall. definitelyout of place in a suburban city of less than 100,000 people. this transformation has been happening over the past several years (after all, major roadways don’t spring up overnight), so it’s not as if i was unaware, but i certainly was unprepared. i felt a mix of sadness, frustration, anger, and alienation as i sped along amidst these feats of civil engineering. this was a road i’ve been traveling since i was born; exit 169 to shawano avenue would get us home after trips to grandma’s, the mall, restaurants, wherever. i know what it looks like. but not anymore.
as my emotions ebbed and i began to think, i realized that this is exactly the type of change that i would love to see in detroit: massive restructuring of roads and open spaces, additions of public mass transit, a real twenty-first century forward-thinking deal. but why would i want that for detroit when it upsets me to see it in green bay, a city that could use a few keen urban planners. how could i wish these changes on people who have inhabited a city that i have been in for less than six months? what right do i have to prescribe a cure for detroit? and why do i ultimately care about a city to which i have no ties?
as detroit evolves physically, so too must the mindset of the people evolve. and vice versa. we must constantly ask ourselves if people are ready for a proposed change and if a proposed change is ready for the people. it’s a forever struggle but we must be mindful that urban planning and revitalization is not an emotionless science but a complex study of all factors, human and built. it is rare that these factors exist in harmony, but when and where they do, beautiful, desirable places can be found.