- The City of Lansing recently got a grant for $1 million to honor the former west side neighborhood, which is now I-496.
- Watch video above to hear how this grant will do that.
Kenneth Turner has strong ties to the former west side neighborhood in Lansing.
“We had a house about two blocks down the street on Saint Joe,” he said.
It was a predominately Black neighborhood, that stretched about 7 miles and was filled with hundreds of homes, but later destroyed in the 1960's with the construction I-496.
“They, the Federal Government, went through brown and Black neighborhoods exclusively and required people to move almost immediately, maybe within 90 days,” said President of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing Bill Castanier. “In this neighborhood, there were more than 800 homes that were torn down.”
Castanier said this was all done within a year, without the consideration of residents and small Black businesses.
“When they lost those businesses, they couldn't reopen,” Castanier said. “They couldn't get mortgages, so that was a lost forever.”
But now, there is something in the works to honor those impacted by the loss, thanks to a one million-dollar Reconnecting Communities Grant.
“It's a grant that communities can apply for by recognizing the wrongdoings of the past,” said Lansing Mayor Andy Schor.
Schor said the money will be spent on planning something special to recognize the impact I-496 had on the Black Community.
“We'd like to put a cap over 496 by Walnut near MLK and on top of that cap, we could put parks, housing, we could talk to the community and ask them what they want to see that would recognize this used to be a thriving Black community,” Schor said.
