Reconnecting Communities, Building a Thriving Future

January 14, 2025

My history in Rochester is part of why I’m so proud to be leading Rethinking Highways for Healthy Communities, a pilot program in EPA’s Office of Community Revitalization.

My hometown — Rochester, New York — has a rich transportation history. It started with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which allowed for increased industrialization and population growth. In 1941, an extensive streetcar system connected residents to many places they needed to go. By the mid-20th century, Rochester embraced the automobile. Miles of highways were constructed in the 1950s and ’60s to zip residents between downtown and the growing suburbs. This construction included the Inner Loop – a sunken highway, which sits below ground level but is not underground – built to encircle downtown Rochester and provide easy access to the business district. The Inner Loop cut through established neighborhoods and commercial districts, causing the demolition of up to 1,300 residential homes, and the closure of  small businesses and places of worship.

In the decades following construction of the Inner Loop, downtown increasingly became a business district, which fell eerily quiet after 5 PM when office workers returned home. Locally, the Inner Loop was known as the “moat,” a nod to the physical division it created between downtown and neighborhoods. It disrupted the cultural fabric of the city, which never quite recovered.

For example, Rochester was (and is) a musical city. In the 1950s, Rochester had up to six prestigious jazz clubs in operation across town. But by the 1980s, none had survived. Mid-century highways had been built directly through Clarissa Street, the heart of a cultural district anchored by one of the most famous jazz clubs, called the Pythodd Room. The highways also disrupted the commercial vitality of downtown.

The city recognized that downtown Rochester needed to be revived. One way to do this was to transform the Inner Loop. In 2012, Rochester received major federal grant funding to fill in the sunken highway thereby creating a walkable boulevard. This change opened six acres of land for new development of housing, retail, restaurants and even a newly expanded Children’s Museum (the Strong National Museum of Play). The highway-to-boulevard transformation was completed in 2017. Today, it is celebrated as a creative and forward-thinking concept for rethinking the future of highways within our cities. 

Rethinking Highways and Healthy Communities

My history in Rochester is part of why I’m so proud to be leading Rethinking Highways for Healthy Communities, a pilot program in EPA’s Office of Community Revitalization. In 2024, we began to partner with the Community Connectors grant program and the Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities pilot program to support communities rethinking relationships between highways, economic development, and urban design in their neighborhoods. Through this collaboration, we partner with community-based organizations and local governments to envision future development in corridors adjacent to highway infrastructure. Our initial pilot of this work served two communities: Albany, New York and Spokane, Washington.

Reimagining Albany, New York along I-787

In Albany, the New York State Department of Transportation is exploring turning a portion of I-787 from a highway into a boulevard to reconnect neighborhoods and downtown Albany to the Hudson River. For many years, residents have not had access to the waterfront and its natural habitat, despite proximity. Our work has helped the community shape their future through land use planning and an urban design-focused workshop in partnership with the Albany Riverfront Collaborative and Reimagine Albany.

Development in the East Central Neighborhood in Spokane, Washington

Our work with the City of Spokane, Washington, and the Carl Maxey Center has explored potential development opportunities in the East Central neighborhood, near the I-90 highway. EPA facilitated a workshop with  government leaders and community stakeholders that imaginatively explored urban design and housing development options for a three-acre site. For example, EPA shared resources about the benefits of vegetative barriers – such as densely planted trees or shrubs – to help mitigate the health impacts of the adjacent freeway.  The City of Spokane will continue to build upon these conversations during a forthcoming Small Area planning process.

Our nation’s highway system was built to connect cities, but in some cases these highways also ended up encroaching upon them when built through downtowns and neighborhoods. As communities work towards reinvestment, there is an opportunity to develop a clear vision for future development that emphasizes public health alongside economic vitality. I’m proud of how EPA helps these communities formulate their own visions and build toward a thriving future.

About the Author

Elina Bravve
Environmental Protection Specialist
Office of Policy

As part of the Office of Community Revitalization, Elina supports several locally focused planning assistance programs. Prior to joining the EPA, Elina worked as a City Planner as part of Baltimore’s Comprehensive Plan project management team and managed Baltimore’s Planning Academy program, which strengthened community leadership on issues of zoning and land use.

Elina got an early start in urban planning as a student in her hometown of Rochester, New York.