Derby, CT is a small, working-class, post-industrial town with a population which has been stagnant at about 12,000 for more than six decades.
The geniuses over at the Connecticut DOT decided that this obviously meant that the town’s Main Street needed to be widened, by twice the size, destroying a number of historic buildings and uprooting numerous small community businesses in the process. That red stripe on the far left of the “After” pic is the new edge of the street.
Congrats. Your small peaceful town is about to become a gas stop on the side of an interstate highway expansion.
Either it will boom and you’ll all be gentrified out. Or it’ll bust and dwindle away to literally a gas stop.
Flip a coin.
I’m sure the local business community (on the side that wasn’t torn down) was all for it because it would bring so much more traffic to their business, but they’ll soon discover they lost all foot traffic and nobody driving will stop either because they’re going too fast to even see that there’s a business there.
well, let em suffer then.
I see it mostly depending on where the Walmart goes…
Cars (2006)
They widened it to add protected bike lanes, right?
They should remove the buildings on the other side, too.
Businesses can then operate directly out of the bed of a semi truck, and housing is provided by rental RVs.
For recreation, you can race from one stoplight to the next, or coal-roll some cyclists.not that we would propose any locals be forced to cycle. convict cyclists will be imported.
The before photo already had far too much road for a small town.
Lol, they demolished half the town for this?
well, yeah; cars gotta live somewhere.
half of the eight houses yes
Just one more lane bro. All your problems will be fixed.
They needed to fix that overhead cable that didn’t meet in the middle.
it’s a screenshot from streetview where such issues often occur when the images are stitched together
Beautiful stroadside shopping
But think of the profits (those go to few individuals, elected people included). Very very short term profits that overall cause a net loss for everyone.
“Historic” buildings
Found the Eurosnob.
Yes 🗿
Hey now, some of those are 30, nearly 40 years old!
Probably in the Derby CT history books.
Are you sure it was the Connecticut DoT? It sounds like the mayor sold out your city.
Let’s face it, those buildings were making traffic worse.
/s
probably true. they gave people a reason to go downtown after all.
This looks like a before after, but in the wrong order
It looks a little awkward during construction but it’ll all come together nicely once they put those buildings back up
Narrator: Those buildings were not put back up
Sad truth is more people drive through that town than to that town.
