On Streets and Highways

One day this week, while heading west on Little Rock’s Ninth Street from our (other) home on East Ninth, I was caught by the traffic signal at Ninth and Broadway. As I looked west, a vision grabbed me. It was that of a vibrant commercial area, as depicted on the recent PBS documentary, “Dreamland.” The vision lingered within me, both powerful and stimulating.

When it cleared, I saw a lonely pedestrian cross Ninth and turn west. She was the only living thing in sight. The light changed, and I turned to continue west. You can’t do that on Ninth Street anymore. Years ago, we ended it a few blocks down to make way for the Wilbur Mills Expressway.

Sometimes, in the darkest part of night, sleep escapes me and I am forced to spend time thinking. One of those thoughts I can’t express professionally as an urban planner. I’ll do it here, though, if no one will report me.

I’m not altogether sure that the decision to build the interstate highway system, in the manner we chose, didn’t create the single greatest negative impact on our cities in America’s history. Some say it was racial prejudice instead, and that poses an argument difficult to refute. Truth is, when combined, the two forces were horribly, and lastingly, destructive. Witness West Ninth Street.

Could we have built the system differently? Germany did. Could we have resisted the destruction? The City of Memphis did. Could we have invested more creatively in our cities? San Francisco did. Could we have thought about the future of our cities more humanely? Jane Jacobs and Lewis Mumford did.

Would, one will ask, alternatives have reduced our mobility, curtailed our opportunities for travel, and imprisoned us within a more defined geographic area? Most certainly. But, I’ve learned a great lesson as a result of being forced, by family responsibilities, to limit mobility and travel. There are wonderful results to such a situation.

It gives one a chance more fully to explore, what William Faulkner called “my own little postage stamp of native soil.”

It gives one a chance more fully to enjoy a relationship with family and friends that a frenetic chasing of “The American Dream” may have curtailed.

It gives one a chance more fully to establish ties with this wonderful planet we seem so hell-bent on destroying.

It doesn’t require the engineers to destroy more neighborhoods in order to accommodate the automobile.

Most of all, it gives one a chance to read, contemplate, listen/play music, converse, and visualize a better world.

I’m thankful for that. I, for one, have even quit using the interstate highway system, except as a last resort. It takes more time, but you see such things. Did you know, that just outside Hazen, Arkansas, is a building still standing that once was a music venue for many groups headed from Nashville to Dallas, and is reputed to have been the model for the country and western bar in the movie “The Blues Brothers?” You won’t see it from the interstate.

We won't see the likes of this again.
See the following story about Ninth Street.