Problem/Vision Statement

VISION:

Create a connection between downtown and peripheral areas with the river and Broadway. Reclaim this as the north gateway to the city.

This area is ripe for intense development. Much of it is currently abandoned. We have opportunities to encourage sustainable redevelopment and reclamation of the river here. Consider a development corridor using the river as a transitway. Identify and illustrate sample projects that could stimulate sustainable development in this area.

PROBLEMS/OPPORTUNITIES/DESIGN ISSUES:

• Freeway divides neighborhoods, streets, river access.
• Abandoned areas may allow guidelines for corrections of past mistakes.
• Bridges harbor transient communities, and possible lawless activities.
• Corps of Engineers plans may include artificial river bottom of concrete, discourage natural ecosystem and their water aerating/cleansing capabilities.
• Need to restore river and bank ecosystem. This is an urban green space that needs ecological augmentation as it develops as a linkage to downtown. It can stimulate high quality development that reaches far beyond its banks if treated sensitively.
• Mixed use/zoning benefits and liabilities (+nearby entertainment -could be noisy).
• Brooklyn street dam proposal could increase navigability, but flood existing river banks. It needs a transfer point for river transportation. (A funicula could lift boats between levels)
• Existing abandoned original river channel could be reopened.
• New flood control tunnel may allow more river bank development.
• Old rail/trolley routes to downtown could facilitate access from its development.

Last updated: 11 April 1996 
This document: http://www.salsa.net/aiasa/center4.html