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"Community Grid" plan needs our helpPost-Standard letter July 27, 2021To the Editor: I'm happy that community leaders and NYSDOT have reached a consensus on choosing the Community Grid alternative over the Highway Rebuild alternative. But this news is almost 2 years old. My concern now is that there are many issues about the current DEIS plan that are being overlooked. First, a reminder: The I-81 project, as per law, provided for the community to offer an alternative plan to a highway rebuild. Our community plan was to replace the highway with a "street-grid" solution. At some point, NYSDOT found the highway removal option viable, and presented a street-grid plan they named, the "Community Grid" alternative. It was "a" plan, but was never "our" plan. In fact, at its core, the "community Grid" plan is more a highway plan with a viaduct removal option than a genuine "street-grid" plan. Consider the following, stated in brief: 1. Southern "BL 81" remains a freeway all the way to downtown's edge; most of the berm it lays on remains. This isolates the road and precludes meaningful future development along it. It also continues to block the original main entrance to Oakwood Cemetery. For these reasons, more berm should be removed and the road lowered to grade. 2. Northern "BL 81" within the city remains a freeway all the way to downtown; astonishingly, NYSDOT plans to add lanes! This leaves behind enormous development opportunities to revitalize the Northside and tie it in to the Inner Harbor. More below. 3. By maintaining the northern and southern freeways to downtown, traffic will be encouraged to flow much as it does today: in a concentrated way all the way to downtown where just a few streets and intersections will bear the brunt of the traffic. 4. I am very much for a Canal Park/District. But the current concept is completely undermined by making the streets that traverse the park, Oswego Blvd and Pearl St, the Off/On ramps of Northern BL 81. Not exactly a park-like setting. Also, the current Canal Park/District concept is too small to be useful, much less attract development. The concept is but a token, and needs to be fleshed out. 5. Oswego Blvd and Pearl St face either a tiny street or no street across Erie Blvd, no viable paths to continue southward. This means traffic will have to turn onto Erie Blvd to hunt for a viable street, which means traversing two intersections to cross Erie Blvd. Erie Blvd will get very busy. All of which further undermines a viable Canal Park/District. 6. Turning Northern BL 81 within the city into "Oswego St" would make possible enormous development opportunities as well as a successful Canal Park/District. It would also preclude the need for flying ramps between BL 81 and I-690; a simple urban street to I-690 junction would do. Lets eliminate all of the spaghetti junction. 7. As others have said, Almond St need not consume the whole right of way. A parkway-like street is very nice. But there are no park-like features along Almond St to tie into. A somewhat narrowed right of way that provides space on the west side for a new row of buildings seems more appropriate. On the other hand, West St, which has the Creek walk and park space to tie into might be the better street to make parkway-like, and would create an additional area of development stimulus.
God bless NYSDOT. But their mandate is transportation, not comprehensive urban planning. That's the community's job. It's up to us to tell them and show them what we want for our city. Let's not leave so much on the table.
In a nutshell: For a true street-grid solution, and to secure the structural foundation for the city's future growth and vitality, convert northside I-81 into "Oswego St", a mixed-use development corridor, and so eliminate the I-81/I-690 spaghetti junction completely. Reconnect and upgrade several northside streets to carry traffic towards downtown in a well-dispersed way. For the full citywide street-grid plan details please see:
Carlo Moneti To comment, contact moneti ATT arsteca DOT net |