{"id":103033,"date":"2019-04-29T12:31:25","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T16:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=103033"},"modified":"2019-04-29T10:29:25","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T14:29:25","slug":"stirpe-i-81-community-grid-will-help-revitalize-syracuse-and-cny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=103033","title":{"rendered":"Stirpe: I-81 community grid will help revitalize Syracuse and CNY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Al Stirpe<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

More than 60 years ago, a decision was made to build an\nelevated highway through the center of Syracuse. This was in line with similar\nprojects across the country that made the speedy flow of traffic through our\nurban centers a priority over the integrity of the cities themselves. Before\nI-81 was built, downtown Syracuse was a vibrant place with department stores\nand shops lining Salina Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the decades since, we\u2019ve witnessed the disastrous\nconsequences of that decision, including population loss, the division of our\ncity and the concentration of poverty in certain neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider the population loss alone. In 1950, more than 220,000\npeople lived in Syracuse. According to the latest census, the city\u2019s population\nnow stands at about 145,000. Some may argue that this is part of a regional\ntrend. But, over the same time, Onondaga County saw population increase from\n341,000 in 1950 to 465,000 today \u2013 although, much of that growth happened\nbefore 1970. After that, most of the population change was from the city to the\nsuburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sort of population reshuffling was a predictable result\nof I-81\u2019s construction. The preference for ease of movement led to an emptying\nout of the very city that serves as the economic engine for the region. When we\ndiscuss the lack of prosperity in Central New York, the problem of sprawl\nwithout growth and the financial challenges facing Syracuse, we need to look no\nfurther than this six-decade-old decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we are finally going to right this wrong and set our\ncommunity on a new path toward prosperity now that the state Department of\nTransportation has selected the community grid option in its draft\nenvironmental impact statement. I fully support this choice and I am not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community leaders, business groups, economic development\nexperts, city planners and citizens across the region are all speaking up in\nfavor of the community grid. They are doing so because of what the grid will\nmean for our city and our entire region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A community grid will mean a renewed city center. It will\nmean more land put back on the tax rolls and into productive use. It will mean\na more walkable, bikeable and, yes, drivable city. And it will mean\nreconnecting impoverished and disenfranchised neighborhoods with the prosperity\naround them. I\u2019ve supported the community grid for some time because I know it\nis the most affordable and least disruptive option, and it offers the most\npromise to spur growth in our city and in our entire region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also want to address one of the common reasons why\nopponents of the community grid favor other options: public safety. Opponents\nhave claimed a grid will hamper emergency response, even though most first-responders\nalready avoid the highways to cut down on the chance of unexpected delays.\nImagine for a moment that you are an ambulance driver who has come upon some\nunexpected traffic with a patient on board. Would you rather be driving on a\nwell-designed city street grid or in a tunnel? That, among other reasons, is\nwhy the region\u2019s biggest hospitals, St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital Health Center and\nSUNY Upstate Medical University, have come out in favor of the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I-81 was built, the transportation world has changed\naround us. And it\u2019s time for us to change with it and restore our vibrant city.\nNow it\u2019s time for us to come together and do the work necessary to make this\ntransformative project a reality. Simply put, it\u2019s time to make Central New\nYork a 21st<\/sup>-century community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 60 years ago, a decision was made to build an elevated highway through the center of Syracuse. This was in line with similar projects across the country that made the speedy flow of traffic through our urban centers a priority over the integrity of the cities themselves. Before I-81 was built, downtown Syracuse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Al-Stirpe.jpg?fit=226%2C222&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-qNP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}