This figure-ground diagram shows just how much Downtown Syracuse and the northern 15th Ward were hollowed out by the freeway. The 15th Ward, home to "eight of every nine African-Americans in Syracuse (@onondagahisassn)," was specifically targeted for "slum clearance and urban renewal" programs. “Urban renewal means negro removal," wrote novelist James Baldwin. Hundreds of homes and many black-owned businesses were demolished, displacing over 2,500 people (this map only shows a portion of the destruction--more on the southern portion of the 15th Ward in a future post). Most of these homes and businesses were replaced with surface parking and other parking structures.