The Michigan Department of Transportation recently announced postponing a planned I-375 reconstruction project citing increasing increased costs and community feedback.

The plan would have converted the freeway interchange to ground-level boulevard. The project was to be funded in part by $100 million in federal dollars from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. The rest of the cost, estimated to be at least $300 million, would have come from the State of Michigan.

When the project was announced in 2022, then-Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttegig characterized the federal project dubbed “Reconnecting Communities” as a reparative one, aimed at fixing injustices created from federal highway construction of the mid-20th century.

The announcement that I-375 would be redesigned raised interest and even optimism. Was this an opportunity to address the wrongs of the past? Was this truly going to help resolve the razing of Detroit’s Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods in the name of paved roads?

There were community input meetings, and the plans presented gained both support and criticism. MDOT hosted a presentation on the history Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods at the Charles H. Wright Museum.

Despite being a controversial project, one of the points that was largely agreed upon was that if the I-375 reconstruction was going to be reparative, there should at least be some recognition of the thriving neighborhoods that Detroiters once called home.

Marcia Black and Lex Draper Garcia Bey from Black Bottom Archives joined Tia Graham on The Metro to share their reaction to the I-375 redesign being paused, and the exhibition on display at the Detroit Historical Museum, “10 Years Back, 10 Years Forward,” on display until September 14, 2025.

Guests: 

• Marcia Black is the director of archives and education at Black Bottom Archives
• Lex Draper Garcia Bey is the director of community engagement and programs at Black Bottom Archives

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