However, I think the point Samuels (and his subjects) were trying to make, was that the businesses within this area were marginal to begin with, and the construction pushed them over the edge.

Without defendable quantitative or qualitative research to back up Kilpatrick’s claim that Metrorail was the causal agent in the demise of these businesses, we’ll need to rely on his familiarity with the community to trust his claims.

If this was unequivocally true, we should generally see a snaking path of desolance all the the way from Kendall to Medley. Obviously, however, since this is not the case, there are many other factors that need to be considered to understand why NW 27th Ave is the way it is today.

I’d be happy to continue doing such, but it would be better represented in a post than the comment section.

With all that said, I think it’s important to view Liberty City the way Sean does here, looking forward toward using transit to reinvigorant the community instead of simplistically blame it for its demise. We’ll try to take a closer look at Liberty City in the coming months to determine how it can become more prosperous and livable without wholesale gentrification.