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Originally Posted by urbanlife
I would rather see the city spend money on a subway tunnel than tear down the bridge and I-5 and bury that....seems like a waste of money on cars when it would be better spent adding more alternatives.
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While there are a lot of projects that need to come first - such as streetcars on the east side (esp Hawthorne and maybe NE), the removal of the eastbank freeway would be akin to what was done with Harbor Drive in the 1970s - opening up vast amounts of land that could be redeveloped.
Both the freeway and the railway lines are a major barrier to redeveloping the eastside, particularly in making them attractive and safe for people and families. You don't want little kids getting hit by freight trains, nor do you want all the buildings to be hermetically sealed due to the freeway noise and air pollution.
The eastside is going to be the next Pearl District, mark my words. It's too valuable and well-connected to not redevelop - being located between all the eastside neighborhoods (with over 300,000 residents) and downtown within walking distance. Not to mention all the buses that allow easy connections...
The city likely knows this, but wants to redevelop the other districts first - finish the Pearl, SoWa, get more downtown redevelopment while the Urban Renewal funds are still available. I doubt they could add any new urban renewal areas due to political resistance.
The city's just going to wait for redevelopment pressure to build up in the future.
The big ticket items to redeveloping the CEID is going to be burying the highway, tunneling I-5 under the river, and burying the railroad. Oh, and environmental remediation for all the
polluted sites. Then you've got the Morrison Bridge viaduct that will likely be altered, plus parks and stuff. Getting rid of the railroad would allow a nice new pedestrian parkway ala the Boston Greenway or the Park Blocks.