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.
They widened it to add protected bike lanes, right?
“Historic” buildings
Hey now, some of those are 30, nearly 40 years old!
Are you sure it was the Connecticut DoT? It sounds like the mayor sold out your city.