OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Omaha leaders are discussing the possibility of reconnecting a street that was split nearly 50 years ago.
City officials closed off 16th Street in the late 1960s to make room for a hotel they thought would spur downtown development, the Omaha World-Herald (https://bit.ly/2m6zQvi ) reported. Instead, the now Doubletree Hotel became a barrier between downtown and north Omaha, stifling the commercial district of 16th Street.
“To his dying day, blocking the main artery of Omaha commerce, 16th Street, was one of Peter Kiewit’s abiding regrets,” Peter Kiewit Foundation director Lyn Wallin Ziegenbein said of the late city leader who pushed for the street closing.
Many black residents in Omaha have also seen the hotel, which was built on the heels of the 1960s race riots, as a wall between north Omaha and downtown. North Omaha resident and community activist Preston Love Jr. said the building symbolizes physical and psychological barriers between the neighborhood and the rest of the city.
“It’s absolutely a sore spot,” Love said. “It is like the Confederate flag. It is what it is, but as long as you’re waving it, it’s a reminder of things, the way they were.”
Mayor Jean Stothert said there is no specific proposal for how to reopen the street, but some ideas include creating a tunnel under the hotel or demolishing it altogether.
“Opening up 16th Street would make a lot more sense to encourage downtown development and jobs,” Stothert said. “It’s all about bringing jobs back to the urban core and adjacent neighborhoods.”
A spokesman for First National Bank, which owns the land, said it’s too early to comment on the idea. Doubletree general manager Sandy Buonanni said he hasn’t participated in any discussions related to the street’s reconnecting.
“It’s one of the things we should have never done,” former Congressman Brad Ashford said. “What’s neat is that we can rewrite history here.”
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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, https://www.omaha.com
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