Efforts to redesign I-375 in Downtown Detroit are reigniting conversations about compensating Black residents displaced during its original construction more than 60 years ago.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan suggested thousands residents forced to move from the city’s Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods in the 1950s and 1960s – including renters – should be considered in discussions about the $300 million reconfiguration of I-375 next year.

The Michigan Department of Transportation “has got a design and it’s going to move forward and everything else is noise,” Duggan told WDIV’s Flashpoint on Sunday. “The question is what do you do? We’re going to create a block almost a half a mile long of new Downtown.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

“It will be some of the most valuable real estate anywhere in America,” he said. “I’m assuming we’re going to see apartments and mixed use, but that’s a process we’re going to go through. And then there needs to be a conversation for people who were pushed out without compensation, the renters primarily, in the 50s and 60s and is there a way that those renters who were never compensated would get some.

“Those are conversations we’re going to have, but I think we’re going to see 375 move forward just fine,” Duggan said.

The comments come as MDOT solicits feedback on its plan to reconfigure the Gratiot interchange of I-375 to elevate the sunken freeway and better align the new boulevard with area neighborhoods, Bridge Detroit reports.

As part of that process, a Downtown Detroit Partnership of businesses and other stakeholders recently delivered recommendations that include protections for businesses disrupted by construction, opportunities for additional housing and roadway changes, all issues highlighted by residents with a ReThink I-375 Community Coalition that has asked officials to halt the project earlier this year.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

“The original project destroyed a business district; it would be tragic to do it again,” Olga Stella, organizer with ReThink I-375 Community Coalition, told the news site. “The first set of concerns is getting this project on the right track and calling attention to design issues, but there are many more issues that still need to be addressed.”

The DDP report suggests businesses could lose up to $2 billion in sales revenue and result in the closure of up to 8% of the roughly 2,000 businesses surrounding the project, and offers a series of recommendations to minimize the impact.

Those recommendations include financial assistance for revenue losses, transit passes and free parking for customers, temporary relocation, and other measures.

The report also considers the roughly 43,000 mostly Black residents and 350 businesses displaced by the federally funded construction of I-375 six decades ago, with one of three proposed scenarios focused on replacing housing lost in Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods.

It calls for a “Cultural Heritage” plan that incorporates a “desire for reparative framework” that focuses on efforts to “retain and attract the Black middle class.”

A Reconnect, Repair, Restore Agenda would “Develop a Cultural Heritage plan that elevates and integrates the cultural histories of Black Detroit, Black Bottom and Paradise Valley that represents both what has been lost, and elevates what remains into the physical design and programming,” according to the report.

Community comments included in the plan sus out what that might look like.

“Public art should be incorporated on showcasing Black Bottom and Paradise Valley,” one commenter said.

“The Black community should feel welcome and be able to embrace this new area,” another said. “Something should be done to incorporate and honor the lost businesses and homes.”

“This project should really work to be a model for other projects, especially regarding projects that happened in history and tore through Black neighborhoods,” yet another comment read.

How exactly Detroit may accomplish that remains to be seen, but officials will host the first of many meetings at The Eastern on Dec. 3. Construction of the $300 million project, funded in part by a $105 federal grant, is expected to start in the latter half of 2025, and conclude in 2028.

In the meantime, MDOT will continue to collect public comment on the project, both online and at the December meeting.