Detroit still building $1.5 million Livernois median, despite outcry

Councilwoman calls it ‘disgrace’

Back in 2006, the city of Detroit started construction on a controversial $1.5 million dollar median strip to be built on Livernois Avenue’s two-mile stretch between Eight Mile and Grand River. At the time, it was one of the reasons why the City Council butted heads with former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

But despite the council’s efforts to stop it and the outrage of numerous community groups and businesses, the median is still being constructed today.

Critics of the median claim that it slows traffic on Livernois, which is one of the few roads other than Woodward Avenue, that go from Detroit all the way through the sprawling suburbs more north.

One of the major opponents to the median, Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson, has created a resolution to halt construction on the project, but it was blocked by the mayor’s office.

Watson called the median a “disgrace” in a phone interview with Michigan Messenger and listed reasons why the median is bad for the surrounding communities.

With the median, Livernois is down to two lanes on each side and the narrow “Michigan left” turns make it difficult for delivery trucks to access local businesses. It also slows traffic, discouraging commerce to the city, Watson explained.

The median will also make it harder for fire trucks to maneuver and may force the Fire Department to re-map emergency routes.

But according to Marja Winters, director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization, the median is being built to ease traffic crashes in a “high risk” area.

Winters said that 80 percent, or $1.2 million, of the funding for the median came from MDOT (the Michigan Department of Transportation), and the city of Detroit paid the $300,000 remainder.

She added that without the median, pedestrians would have to cross a six-lane road, which is difficult on a busy street. “There’s no refuge in the street for pedestrians who want to cross,” Winters told Crain’s Detroit Business before construction started.

The latest data from the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments shows 148 accidents on Livernois in 2004. Four of the 148 accidents involved pedestrians.

Residents in the surrounding communities didn’t have good things to say about the median.

“I don’t know one person who likes it. No one,” said resident Jack Watkins who lives near the construction and passes it every day. “It’s counterproductive.”

Council member Watson said she’s been “raising hell” about the median for some time. “The residents hate it and so do the businesses,” she said. “We’ve been fighting it for months.”

Critics have also pointed out that the communities that are directly affected by the median are suffering a serious problem of collapsing infrastructure due to sheer neglect from the state and the city.

“When you consider the poverty that plagues this neighborhood, it seems like a median would be lower on the list,” said Jauron Winston, a community activist who lives near the Livernois construction.