LANSING: I-496
Posted September 17, 2024
Construction of I-496 displaced over 600 families (approximately 2,200 individuals) in Lansing, Michigan—nearly all of them Black. “It was quite an experience for those who walked to school,” recalled resident Burton Smith. “They went through the trauma of watching some of their classmates’ homes torn down, and had to negotiate not being able to walk directly to school anymore” (1).
In the 1960s, the highway was cut through the center of the Main Street-St. Joseph’s neighborhood (seen in the animation above), which due to racist housing policies & real estate practices (e.g. redlining) was the only central location Black families could rent/buy. Before the highway was built, as in so many other cities with similar restrictions, residents had created a thriving neighborhood, anchored by dozens of Black-owned businesses on St. Joseph’s Street and Main Street (now Malcolm X. St.). Along with the displacements, most of these businesses (and several churches) were demolished for the highway, as Main Street and St. Joseph’s Street became frontage roads for 496 (2).
Those to the south of the highway—roughly 400 households, including a young Magic Johnson—found themselves completely cut off from the rest of the city, hemmed in on four sides by the highway, the massive GM assembly plant, the Grand River, and a railroad spur.
Now, with assistance from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Local Infrastructure Hub, Lansing has applied for funds through the Biden/Harris Administration’s Reconnecting Communities & Neighborhoods Initiative (RCN). Mayor Andy Schor writes in the Detroit Free Press, “My city is seeking to reconnect the isolated households and businesses with the community to which they originally belonged. And we want to recognize and give power to those who were forcibly displaced and dispersed throughout the city” (3).
As mentioned previously, I’m partnering with the Local Infrastructure Hub to highlight recent progress from the RCN and cities they’ve assisted in applying for funding. The Local Infrastructure Hub is a national program guiding municipalities on how to navigate historic federal funding opportunities, develop competitive grant applications, and bring essential investment home to residents. Led by Bloomberg Philanthropies which galvanizes support from the Ballmer Group, Emerson Collective, Ford Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Waverley Street Foundation, National League of Cities, The U.S. Conference of Mayors, Results for America, and Delivery Associates, the Local Infrastructure Hub is a first-of-its-kind initiative helping thousands of mostly small towns and mid-size cities improve their communities for generations to come.
The Local Infrastructure Hub seeks to address the lack of grant-writing capacity that short-staffed smaller cities like Lansing face as a barrier to accessing federal awards. While this may seem like a small issue, it is crucial. Through programs like the RCN, the Administration has made billions of dollars available to local governments for potentially transformative infrastructure investments. “Historically, bigger cities with substantial budgets tend to corner grant opportunities,” writes Patrick Sisson for Citylab. “Local governments without the expertise or budget to apply could be left out of the action.”
"We don’t want the Infrastructure Law [that created the RCN] to compound our geographic inequalities. We wanted it to be an equalizing moment," said James Anderson, head of the Government Innovation Program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, in an interview with Streetsblog. "We are asking local governments to do more and more, but we haven’t made a commensurate investment to help them do it… This is an opportunity to reduce the number of places that have been left out and left behind.” (4).
For more on the history and potential future plans for Lansing and the Main Street-St. Joseph’s Neighborhood, check out the excellent documentary “They Even Took the Dirt,” from the Historical Society of Greater Lansing.
Endnotes
Cosentino, Lawrence. “Double Disruption: How I496, court ordered busing scrambled Lansing Schools.” Lansing City Pulse, 2019. https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/double-disruption,13059 (accessed 9/17/2024). (@lansingcitypulse).
Aerni-Flessner, John. “Lansing: Context.” Mapping Inequality: Redlining In New Deal America.” University of Richmond, 2024. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/map/MI/Lansing/context#loc=13/42.7245/-84.5301 (accessed 9/17/2024).
Schor, Andy. “I’m the Mayor of Lansing. We need a Federal Grant to Fix Harm Caused by I-496.” Detroit Free Press, 2024. https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2024/03/07/i-496-lansing-expressway-infrastructure-interstate-federal-grant/72698665007/ (accessed 9/17/2024). (@andyschor).
Wilson, Kea. “How a New Program is Helping Small Cities Transform Their Transportation Systems.” Streetsblog, 2024. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/08/21/how-a-new-program-is-helping-small-cities-transform-their-transportation-systems (accessed 8/31/2024). (@keareads)