Battle Creek seeks to right history, remove channel that moved Black residents
- Battle Creek displaced a community known as ‘The Bottoms’ to control flooding near downtown
- Finished in 1961, the concrete tunnel is now the target of demolition efforts to return Kalamazoo River to its natural state
- Many city residents are skeptical the plan will ever get off the ground
More than 60 years ago, Battle Creek did more than protect downtown from flooding when it built a concrete channel to control the Kalamazoo River.
The project, like many urban renewal efforts nationwide, also displaced residents of a thriving Black and working-class neighborhood known as The Bottoms.
The construction of the “concrete river” in 1961 destroyed the neighborhood that was home to 7,500, Calhoun County’s first Black teacher and the bustling Hamblin Community Center that hosted dances, meetings and sports events.
Now, as city officials consider removing the tunnel and restoring the river to its natural state, the scars of the past are shaping current debate in the city of 52,000 that remains one of Michigan’s most segregated.
The city, which is 22% Black, hopes to eventually renaturalize the river to improve recreation, boost economic development and prevent flooding with new landscaping and river design techniques.
Though some residents remain skeptical, officials said they’re mindful of that ugly chapter of the city’s past and hope to avoid repeating mistakes by engaging residents, speaking to neighborhood groups and surveying the city.
Residents are “looking forward to there being some progress,” said Pastor Monique French, who chairs the North Central Neighborhood Planning Council representing neighborhoods north of the river.
“I do believe that economic development is good for the neighborhood. It’s good for the economy as well as the neighborhood.”
Battle Creek’s effort is one of several efforts around the state and the country to undo aging urban renewal projects and replace them with more inclusive development.
Detroit plans to fill the sunken Interstate 375 whose construction destroyed its Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods and build a boulevard, while similar discussions have occurred about freeways and concrete rivers in New Orleans and Los Angeles.
“Our goal would be to make sure that, whatever the outcome is ultimately, what ultimately happens would be accessible for all residents within the community,” said Kris Martin, the urban planner hired by economic development firm Battle Creek Unlimited to spearhead the renaturalization of the Kalamazoo River.
‘We’re kind of on lap one-and-a-half’
The Cereal City’s renaturalization efforts date to 2014, when a local attorney and other residents formed a nonprofit called Battle Creek Whitewater Inc. to encourage the city to get rid of the concrete river.
That group failed to gain any traction until fall 2021, when the group’s founders saw the first signs of cooperation from the City Commission because the channel had reached the end of its useful life.
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City leaders began to explore whether “we can rebuild this river structure in a more sustainable way that can provide more flood resiliency” while ensuring that Battle Creek isn’t “on the hook for rebuilding this river channel every 50 to 60 years,” Martin said.
Battle Creek Unlimited has received $13 million from the state to study the idea and began buying property along the river. A federal feasibility study in September concluded the project is possible.
Still, the project is at least two years away, and Martin said final costs won’t be known until engineering studies conclude.
“We’re kind of on lap one-and-a-half now of four laps,” Martin said.
What was lost
If residents are skeptical about optimistic talk, it could be because some have heard it before.
The city spoke a good game the last time it messed with the Kalamazoo River, said Jody Owens, a volunteer at the Battle Creek Archives and secretary of the Historical Society of Battle Creek.
In the 1950s, city leaders touted “slum removal,” “flood control” and “railroad consolidation,” Owen said.
“Really, what was going to happen was that (the) urban renewal program was really going to make it much more difficult for low-income people to obtain housing,” Owen said, citing a doctoral thesis written by a former Battle Creek city commissioner named Kennet Santana.
Before World War II, the Bottoms neighborhood thrived near the confluence of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo rivers near downtown Battle Creek. Many homes lacked indoor plumbing but the area had a “strong sense of neighborhood loyalty,” Owens said.
Proximity to the rivers, though, led to frequent floods, including major ones in 1896, 1904, 1908 and 1947.
Seven years later, the US Congress passed the first of several urban renewal bills that budgeted money for highways, housing projects, flood control and railroads.
Using eminent domain, Battle Creek seized residents’ homes and forced them into the Washington Heights neighborhood, which remains 60% Black today.
“In The Bottoms, they owned their homes, but, when they were dispossessed … they couldn’t afford anything else in other parts of the city” and ended up as renters, Owen said.
She doesn’t mince words about the latest plan.
“I think it’s crap,” Owens said.
She pointed to other efforts to revitalize the city, including multimillion dollar efforts to revitalize downtown that have not led to the creation of many businesses.
“It’s a waste of money,” she said. “Come look at our streetlights down Michigan Avenue, where there are no businesses left. They’re really pretty, but they’re not illuminating people’s shopping.”
‘Development … has skyrocketed’
Other cities in Michigan also are studying ways to return rivers to their natural states.
Grand Rapids has worked for years to restore the Grand River’s rapids near downtown, but the project has been dogged by permitting and other delays. In Flint, officials have demolished a dam and are adding rock riffles to restore the Flint River.
In Wisconsin, Milwaukee has spent $4 billion over the last three decades improving infrastructure and renaturalizing rivers that flow through downtown.
Milwaukee wrestled with its urban renewal past, and city leaders approached the more recent work differently by only buying from willing sellers, said Bill Graffin, public information manager for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
The work has reaped benefits, Graffin said, including opening up dozens of miles of water to fish migrating in from Lake Michigan, new greenspaces, and new economic development.
“The development along the rivers, as far as condos and restaurants and bars and businesses, tourism-related businesses, has skyrocketed,” Graffin said.
“The number of people kayaking on the river these days is just astounding. The quality-of-life issues that come with cleaner rivers and waterways and what that does as far as attracting people to the water, that’s totally invaluable to any city.”
Battle Creek officials hope for a similar fate, said Martin of the Battle Creek Unlimited group.
When the project wraps up, he envisions new housing and retail downtown and residents from throughout the city enjoying the river.
“I think kind of holistically, a big movement to kind of help restore the watershed and also provide great amenities and provide some opportunities for people to get back and explore that part of the downtown again — live, work, and play — would be really great, in my mind,” Martin said.
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