Derby, CT is a small, working-class, post-industrial town with a population which has been stagnant at about 12,000 for more than six decades.
The geniuses over at the Connecticut DOT decided that this obviously meant that the town’s Main Street needed to be widened, by twice the size, destroying a number of historic buildings and uprooting numerous small community businesses in the process. That red stripe on the far left of the “After” pic is the new edge of the street.
It’s a few hundred year old town that refuses to grow. It’s not a historic site. It’s just some old town that uses to exist due to the historic limitations of transportation.
A town that’s been stagannt for 60 years doesn’t yell “I’m important”