I also have to correct you on your other point: it is absolutely a problem nationally! You say it isn’t in DC, but near the Watergate you can’t get to the river from town because of the Rock Creek Expressway, and parts of SE and SW are even worse. Across the river, Arlington is separated from the Potomac in more places than it is not, thanks to the parkway there. Planners and civic boosters in DC would love nothing more than to tear those out.

It is an issue from coast-to-coast…Seattle has the Alaska Way Viaduct…St Louis has I-70….Cincinnati has Fort Washington Way…Hartford has I-91…plus SanFran, as was already mentioned. There are groups in each of those cities trying hard to correct mistakes made years ago, just like some are here.

Places like LA or Houston or Phoenix have either paved their rivers in to concrete culverts (LA) or don’t have riverfronts downtown at all. Would you rather not have that problem?

So, a concern nationally: YES.

It’s a matter of the definition of the word. Not the issue.

But then again, without reading the website (no time at the moment), what are the proposals to handle some of the logistical issues removing these highways would produce? Philly, ok, it’s a piece of 95, but the West Side Highway in Manhattan …. how would it handle the volume of NYC cars getting around Manhattan vs. merely through Manhattan as Byrne suggests?

Most of these address highways directly connected to waterways. It’s a national issue alright. And there are some seriously compelling examples (San Francisco) of entire neighborhoods being pulled out of disinvestment by reconnecting them to their waterfronts.