Weeks after a developer withdrew a project aimed at transforming Durham’s Hayti neighborhood, the City Council turned its attention to the freeway that divided the area decades ago.
On Thursday, the Durham City Council reviewed a community-driven vision for the Durham Freeway corridor, also known as N.C. 147, which cuts through the center of the city. The Reimagine Durham Freeway study aims to address the lasting damage the road’s construction inflicted on Black neighborhoods in the 1970s.
When the freeway was built, neighborhoods near downtown, including Hayti, lost hundreds of Black-owned homes and thousands of businesses. Some neighborhoods, like Brookstown, were wiped out all together…