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1-696 VERDICT

The
freeway
has drawn
Oak Park
and
Southfield
Jews closer

AMY J. MEHLER

Staff Writer

W

hen Lisa Cohen left
Bloomfield Hills for
New York City five
years ago, she never heard
anyone brag about living in
Oak Park.
Now she's back, and she
hardly recognizes the old
neighborhood.
"I think the completion of
1-696 has helped a lot," Mrs.
Cohen, a native Detroiter,
said. "But what's really
stabilized the Jewish com-
munity has been the renew-
ed strength of Oak Park's
yeshivahs and Jewish agen-
cies."
. Mrs. Cohen, who returned
to Detroit to be closer to her
family, said she never imag-
ined she'd want to raise her
family in Oak Park.
"To tell you the truth, I
thought the Jews of Oak
Park would have been long
gone by now."
Today, Lisa, her husband,
Gary, and their new, five-
month-old baby live in the
heart of Oak Park. They are
part of a new wave of young
families, according to
Marion Freedman, staff as-

sociate of the Neighborhood
Project.
Begun in 1985 by the Jew-
ish Welfare Federation of
Detroit, the Neighborhood
Project encourages Jewish
home buyers to locate and
remain in Oak Park and
Southfield neighborhoods.
The Project provides in-
dividuals or families with
$6,000 to $8,000 in interest-
free home loans.
Since 1986, the Project has
enabled 380 families to buy
homes in Oak Park and
Southfield neighborhoods,
Mrs. Freedman said.
In the last year, the
number of homes that Jew-
ish families have bought
has increased by 18 percent,
she said. Sixty-six homes were
purchased in 1989 compared
with 81 homes in 1990. Since
January 1991, 11 more
families have bought homes.
"Up till now, we've been
able to assist in the purchase
of $24 million worth of real
estate," she said, "and
roughly 60 percent of the
people we help want to live
in Oak Park. We've suc-
ceeded in changing certain
perceptions about the corn-
munity, and we want people

"c7i

0

0
0

Motorists say it took no time at all to get used to 1-696.

64

FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1991

to know that Jews are look-
ing to buy homes and want
to be here." Since the open-
ing of 1-696 last winter, Oak
Park and Southfield are now
minutes from the western-
most suburbs of Oakland
County and within a 20-
minute drive to anywhere in
the Detroit metropolitan
area.
But just as significant,
Mrs. Freedman added, is the
community's wealth of local
synagogues, yeshivahs,
Hebrew day schools, kosher
bakeries, butchers and Jew-
ish agencies.
"The new freeway has
drawn the Jewish com-
munities closer together and
not bisected them like many
thought it would," she said.
"It's become a marvelous
asset and has actually
reduced our sense of isola-
tion".
She said the best example
of this was the day the
freeway opened. "The (Mich-
igan) Department of
Transportation proclaimed
the event with a ribbon ty-
ing ceremony," she said.
"Usually, you have a ribbon
cutting ceremony."
Helen Naimark, executive
director of the Federation
Apartments on 10 Mile
Road, says she can really
feel the difference the
highway has made. "No one
was more excited than we
were when they finished the
highway, "Mrs. Naimark
said. "For months, we lived
with the noise from
bulldozers and trucks. You
wouldn't believe how much
dirt and dust there was.
"Then there was the prob-
lem of increased traffic on 10
Mile," she said. "With so
many senior citizens living
in our buildings, it was a
real safety concern."
The three buildings that
comprise the Federation
Apartments in Oak Park
house about 400 Jewish
seniors.
"It's a lot easier now for
families of our residents to
come and visit their parents
or relatives," Mrs. Naimark
said. "For instance, a drive
that used to take at least 40
minutes now takes 15 to 20
minutes."
The Jimmy Prentis Morris
Jewish Community Center
on 10 Mile is reporting an
increase in the number of

RABBI MARC VOLK, Executive
Director of Akiva Hebrew Day
School. "There's no question
that 1'696 has been a major
improvement and benefit to all
who use it. Now we can travel
from one section of Detroit to
another. It used to be you'd
have to give yourself an extra
half hour."

children's birthday parties
they've been asked to host
since the highway opened,
according to Irma Starr, di-
rector of the JCC.
"Before the highway,"
Mrs. Starr said, "we'd have
maybe one or two parties a
month. Now, because of the
improved access, we'll have
at least eight parties a
month?'
Mrs. Starr said the
highway has shortened the
distance between the Jewish
communities.
"Families from West
Bloomfield hardly ever used
our JCC. But now, they can
just hop on the freeway and
reach us in minutes," she
said.
Ever since the 1950s, when
the state highway depart-
ment discovered they could
incorporate a northern east-
west connector into their 10-
year freeway construction
plan, residents of Detroit's
Jewish communities have
awaited the completion of I-
696 with a great deal of
skepticism and an equal
degree of fear.
The principal concern, ac-
cording to Rabbi E.B.
Freedman, one of three
original Orthodox Coalition
members who began lobby-
ing against 1-696 in 1979,
was the belief that construc-
tion and operation of the
freeway would lead to the
disintegration of the re-
ligious community.
"Besides worrying about
the increased automobile
traffic and noise and air
pollution because of the
highway, the Orthodox
community feared that 1-696
would cut off about one-third
of the Orthodox community
from neighborhood shuls.
"However, as a result of
the Coalition's lobbying, the
Federal Highway Ad-
ministration offered the Or-
thodox community several
concessions. While it didn't
Continued on Page 68