Fighting for the Community Grid Along Interstate 81 Fighting for the Community Grid Along Interstate 81

HEATH: INTERSTATE 81 MARKS THE SYRACUSE SKYLINE… THE ROAD IS AGING, AND IS NOW PAST ITS ‘EXPIRATION DATE,’ MEANING IT’S AT RISK OF COLLAPSING AT ANY TIME… TO FIND OUT ABOUT WHAT ACTIONS NEED TO BE TAKEN, I HOPPED IN THE CAR…

HEATH: Let’s take a drive. We’re under Interstate 81, specifically, the I-81 viaduct that runs through the center of Syracuse. The current structure was built as part of the Eisenhower interstate program and opened in the 1960s. Now – it’s crumbling and desperately needs replacing. But once you leave the viaduct and the city for greener pastures, DeWitt Town Board Member Kerin Rigney says you can’t see the stark divide the road – and the plans to replace it – create in this community.

RIGNEY: We know that it has the potential to be a strong revitalization, because it has happened this way in many other places. The highway cutting through the city has had the opposite effect.

HEATH: The Department of Transportation’s research and recommendations on replacement plans match that sentiment. The current plan – which was announced in April – is to rip down the current viaduct and replace it with a community grid. But not everyone agrees this is the best way forward. A community meeting over the weekend allowed people to voice their opinions on the grid. Some in the crowd were vocal…

FLETCHER: Why wouldn’t we want a viaduct that gets them there really fast instead of going through whatever it is, the 13 traffic lights and slower traffic?

HEATH: While others just observed… The meeting was led by Community for the Grid – an organization of suburban leaders supporting the grid. But why do suburban residents care so much about what happens in the city?

KLAVER: Because of the suburbs’ dependence on an interconnection with the city the community is also the best option for the suburbs.

RIGNEY: The city is the heart of the county and as the heart of the county, we want a strong economy.”)

HEATH: Speakers and research argue that the grid is the best way for the Syracuse community to reconcile with years of red-lining and discrimination.

RIGNEY: My hope is that since we have this problem of concentrated poverty, we could actually use this to help change that, change the couse of that, because we, our concentration of poverty has only gotten worse and worse and worse. It needs to change.”)

HEATH: But regardless of what side of the debate you’re on, there’s one sentiment everyone can get behind.

RIGNEY: Frankly, everyone in this county is stick of the stalling, we want this to move forward.

HEATH: In Syracuse, I’m Ally Heath, N-C-C News.