Reimagining the North Freeway

An Opinion By Garrett Hoie

In 1926 W.E.B Dubois observed that,

“Black Tulsa is a happy city. It has new clothes. It is young and gay and strong. Five little years ago, fire and blood and robbery leveled it to the ground. Scars are there, but the city is impudent and noisy. It believes in itself. Thank God for the grit of Black Tulsa.” 

The community was just as strong, if not stronger than before. And then came the highways. Through eminent domain, a white government once again destroyed much of Greenwood, including many of its Black owned businesses and homes, but this time, there was no space to rebuild.

Image credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

The past several years brought an increased awareness of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, where white police officers and residents destroyed 40 square blocks of the thriving Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. According to some estimates, as many as 300 people were killed. However, what is not so commonly discussed is that Greenwood did bounce back.

By the 1950s and 1960s across the country, through “urban renewal” and “slum clearance” programs, cities used eminent domain to take homes and businesses, and destroyed vital and living inner-city neighborhoods, most often Black neighborhoods, to build highways for use by white suburbanites. In Omaha, white civic leaders built the North Freeway, tearing apart Black neighborhoods, and destroying around 2,000 buildings, including homes, businesses, and churches. As the North Freeway ages, millions of dollars will need to be spent on its upkeep. However, I believe the North Freeway has never served its purpose. As many other cities are looking to demolish their own inner-city highways, Omaha should demolish the North Freeway and replace it with a human-scale boulevard that can take transportation in North Omaha into the 21st century, and serve as a tool for restorative justice. 

It is impossible to discuss the North Freeway without talking about the realities of historic race relations in Omaha. In the early 20th century, the Great Migration of Black Americans from the rural South to industrialized northern cities was in full swing. By 1920, Omaha had over 10,000 Black residents, yet the city’s racist underpinnings remained firmly rooted and were typified by the brutal lynching of Will Brown in 1919. 

The 1919 Omaha Race Riot and the lynching of Will Brown at the Douglas County Courthouse cemented the fact that North Omaha was essentially the only safe place for Black residents in Omaha. The mob turned towards the North Side, where the vast majority of Black residents lived, but they were stopped by troops from Fort Omaha, protecting North Omaha.

Two decades later, the 1937 Home Owners Loan Corporation maps from the federal government marked North Omaha as tier D, in red, as hazardous for loaning, meaning many traditional flows for capital investment were cut in the neighborhood. In the 1950s, with the federal government now paying for 90% of highway construction costs, civic leaders planned an expressway/interstate system that included plans for a North Freeway through North Omaha that would cleave the redlined, Black neighborhood in two, as well as a western expressway that would have gone approximately along the route of Dodge Street.  

Resistance to these expressways was fierce, with thousands of residents showing up to local meetings to express opposition. Eventually, the western expressway was canceled due to resistance from white residents in Dundee. However, the concerns of the Black residents of North Omaha went unheeded, and the North Freeway began construction shortly afterward, with the government using eminent domain to seize properties from residents at depressed prices in the name of “slum clearance.” Construction proceeded in sections for the next few decades, but stopped short of its initial goal when it was halted after white residents in Florence objected to extending the North Freeway to I-680 right through their neighborhood.  Now, the North Freeway exists in its current state: approximately 2.5 miles long, cutting North Omaha in two, with three sets of entrance/exit ramps into the neighborhood at Hamilton Street, Lake Street, and Ames Avenue. 

Not even accounting for the racist history that led to its construction, the North Freeway is simply a bad freeway. It is large, and it is underused. Its three lanes of traffic in each direction make it comparable to the West Dodge Expressway, however, it sees significantly less traffic than its West Omaha counterpart. According to traffic data from the City of Omaha, the ramps on the North Freeway each see between 12,000 and 14,000 cars in a day. In comparison, the West Dodge ramps handle between 38,000 and 58,000 cars in a day. For a nearby comparison, 10th and Cuming/Abbott Drive handles 27,000 cars in a day successfully without being an expressway. In fact, all of the ramps handle the same number of daily cars as 40th and Farnam, which is the heart of the lively Blackstone District that would have been destroyed by the never-built Western Freeway. The only section of the North Freeway that has significant traffic is the intersection with the Storz Expressway and Sorenson Expressway, which handles about 45,000 cars in a day. So does 50th and Dodge, which is the heart of the southern business district of Dundee. 

Comparable in size and lane number, the North Freeway ramps each see between 12,000 and 14,000 cars/day, while the West Dodge ramps handle between 38,000/58,000 cars in a day.

The North Freeway takes up a significant amount of land compared to these other streets. Its surrounding green bank ranges in width from 300 feet at its narrowest near Binney Street to 700 feet at Ames Avenue. In comparison, Dodge Street is about 55 feet wide at its intersection with 50th Street. There is clearly land available to build a substantial new boulevard that includes new transit options, such as an ORBT line that could run up to Florence, in the place of the North Freeway. I would propose ending the current highway system at Cuming Street, allowing drivers to easily take Cuming over to Eppley Airfield or into North Downtown, and then replacing the rest of the stretch from Cuming to the Sorenson and Storz expressways with a boulevard that includes a bus lane, bike lanes, and greenery; a modern parkway for the 21st century. The land freed up by the unused buffer space around the freeway could easily be used for parks, affordable housing, and other things the community needs. 

Removing an urban highway is not unprecedented, and money for it is available from the federal government. In 2014, Rochester, New York was given an $18 million grant from the federal government to remove a 1.2 mile long section of the Inner Loop highway and replace it with a boulevard. Like the North Freeway, the Inner Loop cut through a black neighborhood and segregated it from downtown Rochester. For a total investment of $25 million in the project, Rochester officials boast that there has been $300 million in investment in the area since the removal was completed in 2018. If Rochester can pull off a highway removal and reap significant benefits from it, then why can’t Omaha? And Rochester is not alone. According to the Congress of New Urbanism, there are currently 33 different highway removal projects proposed in cities across the county, including a proposal to remove the I-35 North Loop down in Kansas City, I-375 in Detroit, and the Inner Beltway in Akron. 

urban highway removal projects

are happening across the country and money for it is available from the federal government. In 2014, Rochester, New York was given an $18 million grant from the federal government to remove a 1.2 mile long section of the Inner Loop highway and replace it with a boulevard. Like the North Freeway, the Inner Loop cut through a black neighborhood and segregated it from downtown Rochester. For a total investment of $25 million in the project, Rochester officials boast that there has been $300 million in investment in the area since the removal was completed in 2018.

If Rochester can pull off a highway removal and reap significant benefits from it, then why can’t Omaha? And Rochester is not alone. According to the Congress of New Urbanism, there are currently 33 different highway removal projects proposed in cities across the county, including a proposal to remove the I-35 North Loop down in Kansas City, I-375 in Detroit, and the Inner Beltway in Akron. 

President Biden’s American Jobs Plan includes $20 billion for highway removal and allows these funds to be used to help prevent the displacement of residents that live near removed highways. It would fund efforts for community outreach, giving residents a voice in what replaces the demolished freeway, and it would prioritize grants for land trusts that would ensure affordability of the neighborhood. And if the legislation passes, the bill intends the money to be spent over the next five years. Furthermore, time and again, philanthropic leaders in the city have been willing to step up and give money to city projects that serve the public good, such as the massive fundraising efforts that paid for the majority of the $300 million riverfront parks reconstruction. 

Omaha planners should be ready as soon as possible to come up with a plan to remove the North Freeway, and replace it with something that can serve the residents of North Omaha, as well as the city as a whole, in a better, more sustainable, and fundamentally more equitable way.

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