United States Department of Transportation
i
Using Public Engagement to Respond to Community Needs and Priorities: Rethinking I-94 and Reconnecting Communities in the Twin Cities
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2024-04-30
[PDF-340.49 KB]
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Abstract:In the 1960s, during a major national expansion of the United States Interstate Highway System, the Minnesota Highway Department (now Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT)) routed I-94 through the heart of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. As was the case in many cities where construction of an interstate highway and existing neighborhoods came into conflict, the process did not accommodate all communities equitably. One such community impacted by the construction of I-94 was the predominantly Black neighborhood of Rondo in St. Paul. In the 1940s, nearly 90 percent of Saint Paul’s Black population lived in Rondo, making it one of the largest Black enclaves in the Midwest.1 Despite community opposition to the highway, the Rondo community and dozens of others were divided by I-94. This action displaced hundreds of residents and businesses, disrupted social cohesion, reduced residents’ ability to walk and bike, and initiated a period of economic and social decline for the community. These planning decisions also have resulted in residents’ general distrust of road projects in underserved communities along the I-94 corridor. In 2015, Commissioner Charles Zelle of the MnDOT offered an official apology and acknowledgement for the unfair planning, project development, and delivery practices which devastated Rondo and other communities like it.
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