The city of South Bend wants to correct what it says was a big transportation mistake in the 1960s, and it’s seeking public input on how best to do that.
Where wide bridges carry Eddy and Sample streets over the St. Joseph River and Lincolnway, it looks and feels like an interstate exchange in the heart of the city. There’s a freeway-like cloverleaf with ramps and big green signs with arrows pointing to other places.
It was all built in the so-called urban renewal of the early ‘60s in an effort to move traffic faster in and out of the city’s core, mainly Studebaker workers. But the automaker closed in 1963, about a year after the project was finished, making it almost instantly useless, says Jitin Kain, the city’s deputy public works director.
Worse than useless, Kain says the interchange divided neighborhoods, leading to continued racial segregation and redlining by mortgage lenders. It’s a scenario that played out across the nation when interstate highways were run through inner city neighborhoods.
The city is calling the area the Market District because of the nearby Farmers Market. With the help of research by Notre Dame architecture students, the city last year won a $2.4 million grant, and is adding $600,000 in city money, to hire a consultant. You’ll soon see their surveyors out taking photos, for a study of how streets in the area might be reconfigured if the ramps are removed.
"So if we remove the ramps, all that area becomes available then for other uses, and that's what we're asking the public to give their feedback on," Kain said.
The city invites the public to an informational meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Howard Park Event Center.
