Water Street to Linear Park

February 24, 2023

The street grid through Downtown Syracuse continues to be built around a canal that was removed nearly 100 years ago. At that time, Water St acted as a vital access road for the many businesses that lined the Erie Canal. Many of the remaining buildings from that time still front Water St with more utilitarian doors and windows facing Erie Blvd. Today, outside of the blocks around Hanover Square, Water St is a minimally used street surrounded by parking lots, underused and vacant parcels, and open green space. At the same time, it is a key portion of the Empire State Trail (EST), a premiere 750 mile bicycle trail that connects the entire state. It is time to rethink Water St and the area around it.

Business fronts on Water St

Business backs on Erie Blvd

First let’s look at the street’s current use. According to NYSDOT’s Traffic Data Viewer, an average of 700 to 2,000 vehicles use the street on a daily basis, which is a fairly light volume. Most of these vehicles are utilizing the parking lots that front the corridor. To accommodate the EST, standard painted bike lanes function for the majority of the corridor, with sharrows occupying the three blocks between State St and S Salina St, with the block off of S Salina St utilizing a protected contra-flow bike lane as well. For people on foot, there’s even less infrastructure. The sidewalk network is in pieces, with parts overgrown as you move further away from Downtown Syracuse. The street may attempt to serve all users but it struggles to serve any of them well.

So what if we decided to focus on just the active modes of transportation?

By removing cars from Water St, the corridor opens up to possibilities. A shared use path, typically 10 to 12 feet wide, could be shifted to the center of the corridor while the rest of the right-of-way is filled with greenery, similar to the characteristics of the EST further east down Erie Blvd. This change creates the opportunity for a truly urban linear park, similar to portions of the Onondaga Creekwalk, but more ambitious in some ways.

The Onondaga Creekwalk through Downtown Syracuse leaves a bit to be desired. It forces cyclists off of their bikes as they must share sidewalks instead of having a dedicated off-road path. Its circuitous route, a necessity due to the space constraints associated with trying to follow the path of the creek, is less desirable than the straight shot that Water St offers. Instead, we will look more towards the second phase of the Creekwalk which runs through primarily park-like conditions and minimizes street crossings. While a Water St linear park will require far more street crossings, we can alter the function of those intersections through the use of raised intersections, which help to slow drivers as they pass, as well as switching many of them from signalized intersections to stop signs. As Jeff Speck notes in Walkable City, stop signs are preferable to traffic signals from a safety perspective, for all mobility methods.

With a linear park in place, the conversation turns to development along its path. Looking at ReZone Syracuse, most of the land fronting Erie Blvd will be zoned as MX-3, which encourages mixed-use development. Large portions of the land fronting Water St on the southside of the street is zoned as MX-4, again mixed-use but at a higher level of density. Three blocks, between University Ave and S Beech St are zoned for open space. While this open space preservation makes sense with the current configuration of the street network, by shifting Water St into open space, the narrow lots currently zoned for it should be converted for mixed-use development.

The development along Water St will be unique in that they can be built truly for car-free households, opening up to the linear park and providing ample access to transit along Erie Blvd. To ensure this opportunity is seized, secure bike parking should be thoughtfully included in every development along the route, both for residents and visitors to the commercial spaces. As the major entryway into Downtown Syracuse along the EST, providing ample accommodations for cyclists is vital to attracting cycling tourists into the City. It is also a way to make it easier for city residents to embrace a car free or car light lifestyle, saving each thousands of dollars per year.

Some parking lots and car centric businesses currently line the corridor, including the Syracuse Center for Excellence. While the Center for Excellence is an experiment in sustainable building practices, as well as energy and water use, it does not fully embrace more sustainable transportation methods, with the building utilizing a large parking lot and only providing a handful of bike racks. Some businesses, including the U-Haul rental and storage office, may need to be completely rethought to encourage more desirable uses near our city’s center. The building currently used by U-Haul is structurally deficient on many floors, which might make demolition a requirement for redevelopment.

The area currently covered by I-81 will also be open for development once the viaduct is removed. Auto-oriented businesses must be avoided in this area. Drive-thrus, automotive repair shops, and car sales should be excluded in favor of street fronting businesses, which may still include chain restaurants and businesses, but utilizing more urban oriented designs. College Town in Rochester, NY is a good example of this style, but the development still relies heavily on an inner parking lot. Some parking will need to be built to make this corridor function, but it should be minimized.

A Water St linear park is a chance for Syracuse to embrace a unique development style and encourage car free / car light living. It's time to rethink our streets and there’s no better place to start than a street whose purpose has been reduced over the last 100 years.

In Defense of an Aquarium and the Future of the Inner Harbor

February 28, 2022

In the fall of 2021 a surprise proposal for an $85 million aquarium at the Syracuse Inner Harbor was announced. The project would be paid for using a large budget surplus Onondaga County experienced as a result of federal pandemic funding and stronger than expected tax collections. This proposal also sparked a heated debate over what those funds should be used for and whether an aquarium is truly a viable project for this community. Should these funds instead go towards improving roads, starting new assistance funds, creating community programs, or simply stowed away for future uses? Should we bond for the required funding instead of paying for it in cash? If we are to build an aquarium, does it need to be so large?

Each of these questions are valid and should be considered, but I also think we should be looking at this project as part of a grander plan for the Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor has been stuck in development Hell for decades (including the current legal troubles of the developer who purchased most of the land), which has resulted in an area ripe with opportunity sitting mostly vacant and overgrown. Perhaps it’s time to really consider what that future could be, with an aquarium as the spark.

Addressing Some Key Questions

First, we need to look at some of the key questions opponents and skeptics of the aquarium project bring up, since they are valid concerns. We’ll begin with the other possible uses for the funds.

Road construction is always a favorite issue to point to by critics, noting the many potholes and other issues we experience on a yearly basis in the northeast. But overall, the roads that Onondaga County is in charge of are kept in fairly good condition, as noted in SMTC’s annual pavement rating report. While this report only documents the federal aid eligible roadways, those same roads have the most impact on people’s day-to-day movements. Some of the funding could be pushed to the City of Syracuse to improve their roadways, but even then, the City has made some significant progress over the past decade of maximizing their paving budget. We must also remember that the City will also receive $123 million in federal funds as part of the pandemic relief fund, with some of that focused on improving roadways.

Others often point to providing additional services that are needed within our community, including social and health services. While I think we need further investment in those areas, it is not wise to start programs of that nature with a one-time surplus. Once those funds are gone, the services that may have become vital to some will be stripped away. We should instead look at our recurring costs and see where we can shift funding to better represent the needs of our communities. Additionally, we should be looking for ways to build our economy and create opportunities, which will help increase funding for future programs that will be more reliable than recovery funds.

But that still leaves questions on the specifics of the aquarium itself. Should we bond for it instead of paying for it with the surplus funds? And just how big should an aquarium be? The easier question to answer here is about the size. Did you know Niagara Falls has an aquarium? If you did, you’re probably one of the many visitors who was disappointed by how small the facility is. If you’re looking to build a regionally significant project, the size and scope of the project should fit that criteria. The proposed project would be the largest aquarium in the northeast, immediately bringing it attention throughout the larger region. While few people travel places just for an aquarium, the presence of a high quality aquarium might sway some to take a chance, or keep those already traveling to the area here longer. Think of fans of teams at SU or Canadian shoppers at the mall or visitors to the State Fair during the summer who might decide to extend their trip by a day to explore the aquarium. Those extra days can be a huge boon for businesses within Syracuse and leave people with a more positive view of the City as a whole, hopefully leading to return visits.

When it comes to bonding over using the surplus funds, the nice thing about using the surplus funds is that you already have them and you can act now with them. That can be subject to a larger debate on how best to fund a project of this scale, but sometimes its good to just rip off the bandaid.

The Inner Harbor’s Future

Now let’s look at some ways that the aquarium can play into the future of the Inner Harbor, and some ways we can improve upon this plan to give it a real chance at success.

First, it is an investment in the quality of life for the community. Aquariums provide an educational experience that is unique, which students at all age and grade levels can benefit from. One way we can push the current proposal to a new level is by creating a larger learning/ laboratory annex that is supported through partnerships with colleges throughout Central New York. Syracuse University, LeMoyne College, as well as the nearby SUNY campuses (Cortland, Oswego, and ESF) all have biology and environmental studies programs, which could benefit through more in-depth research opportunities at the aquarium. Providing these unique connections could encourage the expansion of these types of programs in the region as well as attract students who value this type of hands-on education. These partnerships will also provide financial support for the aquarium, which could ultimately support reduced price or free admission for City residents or low-income families. One of the main sticking points has been the proposed fee for admission, $21 per adult with reduced prices for many different groups. The financial support of colleges and universities could be geared towards creating a more equitable fee structure that ensures everyone access to this unique attraction.

Let’s also look at the accessibility of the proposed aquarium site. The Inner Harbor sits in a unique location in terms of access by residents across the City and the greater region. Yes, it sits between I-690 and I-81, providing easy access to visitors driving to the site from outside the City, but increasing access by bus, bike, and on foot are possible and already somewhat in place.

Community Grid Bike Connections

SMART1 Preferred Option

The BRT network that is considered the locally preferred option in the SMART 1 study would run nearby on North Salina Street. A slightly different route that runs up Solar Street, where the aquarium would be built, was considered but was not selected due to higher ridership demands on the Salina Street corridor. Even though the BRT system would not run directly to the aquarium site, improved pedestrian and bicycle facilities in the area would help create the needed connections. The I-81 Community Grid would help produce these new connections as wider sidewalks and new bike lanes that connect the Inner Harbor to North Salina Street are proposed across multiple bridges. This would not only help connect the Northside to the Inner Harbor, but also connect it to the Onondaga Creek Walk and Empire State Trail, making the location one of the easier places in the City to reach without a car.

For those who do choose to reach the aquarium and Inner Harbor by car, minimal parking should be built directly surrounding the site, and instead a partnership with Destiny USA should be forged to use the large swaths of overbuilt parking lots across Bear Street. We should be focused on creating a walkable neighborhood surrounding the Inner Harbor, filled with apartments, townhouses, shops, restaurants, and parkland. This can only be accomplished by reducing the amount of parking available directly on site and utilizing the already existing lots across the street.

Inner Harbor Site Plan

Inner Harbor Rendering

And on that note, we should be looking to use the development of the aquarium as leverage to force COR to continue their proposed build out at the Inner Harbor or sell the land to others who will develop it. The original proposal would have created a mixed-use neighborhood that finally provided the City a chance to fully connect with the waterways of its history. With the introduction of townhouses at the Harbor, we should require that at least half of them are for sale to own, providing a new homeownership opportunity in a denser development style than most of the City offers. An additional thing to note is that even if the original plan was fully built out, the land needed for the aquarium would remain open according to the site plan above. This would allow the aquarium to become an anchor institution at the Inner Harbor and pull the development currently occurring in Franklin Square northward.

While the Inner Harbor development shouldn’t hinge on whether an aquarium is built or not, I still think there are some unique benefits that an aquarium brings to the City that should encourage us to make the investment. The last point I’ll make, and this one can sometimes be overlooked, is that we should invest in quality of life amenities that can be enjoyed by all. The Amphitheater, while an amazing amenity, is often geared towards adults over kids. Restaurants and bars in Downtown Syracuse emphasize alcohol consumption as part of the experience (with many local breweries producing top notch beers and drinks). Destiny USA is a closer example to an amenity that can be enjoyed by all, but only if you want to spend and consume. An aquarium, like the zoo and the museums Downtown, can provide an afternoon or even a full day of fun for all ages without the pressure to consume. You’re truly there for an experience, whether to learn or to be calmed by the presence of nature, and that is truly a benefit to the community.

Note: The Central New York Regional Planning Board was involved in the aquarium study. While I have worked on the CNY Broadband Study with the agency, I have had no involvement in this study and this blog post is entirely my personal feelings on the proposal.

Downtown Syracuse after a heavy snowfall

Cities Don't Have to be Loud

January 31, 2022

One of the things that stands out after a heavy snowfall is just how quiet the whole world becomes. You can hear the gentle crunches of the snow beneath your feet when you walk outside. The first run of the plows breaks the stillness, but they still feel muted. The rest of the world is still waking up and those that are up often choose to stay home until the roads are clear. It’s as if the world is covered in a blanket, resting.

Snow acts as a natural muffle as it absorbs noise, but it is not the only reason these snow days help to quiet a city. By choosing to stay home to avoid the snow covered streets, we help remove one of the biggest audio nuisances around; your car.

We often think of cities as noisy places filled with traffic and construction, but we forget that there are plenty of cities that are snow storm quiet all year round. The one thing they have in common is that they de-prioritize cars in their transportation networks. To see why this policy matters, we first need a quick run down of how decibels are measured.

Decibels are measured logarithmically, which means that if something is 10 decibels louder, it is in fact 10 times louder. If something is 20 decibels louder, it is 100 times louder, and so on. Extended exposures to sounds over 70 decibels can lead to hearing damage.

So let’s take a look at some decibel levels of common occurrences in an urban setting:

Normal conversation: 60 decibels
Busy street: 75-85 decibels
Lawn mower: 94 decibels
Motorcycle: 105 decibels
Car horn: 110 decibels
Ambulance siren: 112 decibels
Diesel truck accelerating: 114 decibels

If you’re driving through a city you may not notice your contribution to this urban noise pollution as cars have become a sort of isolation chamber on wheels, but when you’re walking or riding a bike you notice the increase in noise immediately. Adding more cars on the road also increases the likelihood of emergency vehicles finding themselves stuck in traffic, resulting in prolonged exposures to dangerous decibel levels for everyone outside of a car.

Cities don’t have to be this way. Cities in the Netherlands are dramatically quieter than their American counterparts, primarily due to their transportation policies. By emphasizing pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit while slowing down the private cars that are in use help reduce the amount of noise pollution on an average city street. You can see this in more detail in the video below by Not Just Bikes on YouTube.

While larger changes to our transportation network may take time, there are plenty of things we can do now to start the transition and bring down the noise.

Street trees and other urban vegetation help to absorb sound. They have also been shown to slow down vehicles by visually confining the space, forcing drivers to increase their attentiveness. On top of all of that, they make walking a much more pleasant experience by providing shade, cover from rain, and a visually interesting journey. Cities should ensure that all street and sidewalk improvements are coupled with an evaluation of their street tree canopy.

Prioritize clearing sidewalks and bike paths during winter storms to encourage their usage. Walking through the snow can be a challenge for many people, especially if it’s deeper than a couple inches. Cities like Syracuse and Rochester, NY are making serious strides when it comes to clearing sidewalks during the winter, but they still play second fiddle to the roadway clearing programs these cities have had in place for the better part of a century. If we begin elevating sidewalks and bike lanes to the same level as vehicle lanes, we may get closer to the Finnish ideal of prioritizing the most efficient forms of transportation over personal vehicles.

We might not want to be stuck in a snow globe all year round, but there’s no reason our cities can’t get closer to the peace and quiet we hear during those early winter mornings. Quiet cities let us enjoy the little things just a bit more.

About 27 percent of Syracuse is covered by tree canopy, which is below average for cities east of the Mississippi River.

Bike Share is Back in Syracuse!…And We Need to Fix It

October 2, 2021

Every city should have a bike share program as part of their transportation network. I’ve discussed it in the past on this blog noting that bike share should be seen as an integral part of creating access and freedom for people. Syracuse’s bike share program, originally run by Gotcha and now operated by Veo Ride, is a success story in its own right and I am personally excited for its return. In fact, the cover photo for this story is me on one of the bikes as soon as I got out of work after hearing they had officially returned. But there are some glaring issues with the system that, if not corrected, will keep it from being a true alternative transportation option for many people.

First, let’s take a look at the system we have in Syracuse. In 2019 the City launched the first, by a few days, all e-bike bike share program in the country. Committing to an e-bike program was a unique option at the time, but one that made complete sense for a city as hilly as Syracuse is. Riding a traditional bike share bike, which tend to be heavier than most bikes people own for safety reasons, up to Tipp Hill or to Syracuse University would be exhausting for most riders. With an e-bike those hills become manageable and you can arrive at your destination without breaking much of a sweat.

At its launch, Sync (the name for Syracuse’s bike share program) offered individual ride purchases but also offered a monthly and yearly pass. Monthly passes, which ran for $12 per month, offered a free 30 minutes per day with $0.10 a minute after 30 minutes, while yearly passes, which were $50 per year, offered one hour of free riding per day with $0.10 a minute for any additional minutes. While these weren’t as generous as the unlimited rides of up to 45 minutes offered by CitiBike in New York, the price came in at a fraction of the $180 for the annual pass, and the service area in Syracuse can easily be covered in under 30 minutes.

While Sync was successful, including seeing a large bump in usage during the Covid-19 pandemic, financial strain on Gotcha resulted in the program ending in the fall of 2020. The City rightfully decided to seek a new vendor to provide this service and accepted a bid by Veo Ride at the beginning of summer 2021.

So now that we’re caught up on the history, let’s take a look at the system we have now and ways that we can improve it so it can become a true alternative option for people to get around Syracuse.

The Pricing

The original Sync program was priced in a reasonable way that would be an extremely affordable alternative for most people within the City of Syracuse. Under Veo Ride, the system no longer lives up to that ideal.

Monthly and yearly passes have not been implemented at this point in time, requiring all users to pay for individual rides. E-bike rides are charged a $1 unlocking fee and $0.20 per minute, while scooters are charged a $1 unlocking fee and $0.31 per minute. For low-income users you can have the $1 unlocking fee waved. On the first day of operation I took a 15 minute ride from Downtown Syracuse to Destiny USA which cost around $5, so a $10 round trip. An Uber ride in Syracuse is usually not much more expensive, and a bus ride is $2 each way. By contrast, CitiBike costs $3.50 per ride up to 30 minutes, with $0.18 per minute after 30.

Now we may not be able to have prices and offerings at the same level as CitiBike, but if we want bike share to be a true option for people we need to provide affordable monthly/yearly passes so people feel empowered to take a ride as frequently as possible.

The Network Geography

The original bike station map for Sync. Station locations did not change in the switch over from Gotcha to Veo Ride.

In the transition between Gotcha and Veo Ride the geography of Sync’s service stations did not change. Stations are located primarily around Downtown Syracuse and the surrounding neighborhoods. While the bikes and scooters utilized are dockless in nature, the stations remain key locations for individuals to look for bikes/scooters and can become transit hubs. The end goal for Sync is to eventually cover the entire city and hopefully convince some of the inner most suburbs to become part of the system as well. But we are currently leaving out important destinations in the network that should’ve been included as stations from the beginning.

The most obvious omission in the system is the lack of station access at Destiny USA. The nearest station to the mall is still around a 10-15 minute walk up the Creekwalk. As one of the largest employment centers in Onondaga County, let alone the City of Syracuse, missing this connection is a huge missed opportunity. This is especially glaring since the Creekwalk, which connects to Destiny USA’s property, is one of the premiere bike routes in the City and continues to grow into the Southside providing access to large population centers.

Near Destiny USA, we also miss connections to the Regional Market, Regional Transportation Center, and NBT Bank Stadium. A recent study by SMTC identifies ways to make this area more accessible for individuals on foot and on bikes, and is an important destination for many people who don’t have, or choose not to have, access to a car.

We should aim to have bike share stations at major bus stops in the region, helping it become a true last-mile option for many people. Even if the system is somewhat dockless, we need to provide hubs so residents can expect reliable access to a bike or scooter and not go searching near someone else’s house.

Bike share is back and we should all be excited about it. But we need to make sure its a system that is affordable and truly connects people. Let’s get to work!

Byrne Square Can Dance Back From the Grave

June 13, 2021

Over the past 10-15 years, Downtown Syracuse has seen a number of its architectural treasures preserved, renovated, and reoccupied, bringing more life back to the city’s center. One outlier of this trend is the Byrne Square on West Genesee Street and Franklin Street. While its basement is occupied by Studio 54, the rest of the building remains vacant, with remnants of its dance studio past evident all around; large mirror walls, barres, wooden floors, and a large billboard on top advertising “License to Dance - Arthur Murray.”

Some would argue that this building suffers from a lack of parking, with most street spots already taken up by Dinosaur BBQ and Apizza customers, but in many ways the availability of this parking is what hinders this space. West Willow Street, which borders the triangular building to the north, is rarely used for traffic, and the little traffic that does come through is often drivers looking for a shortcut, leading to high speeds and little awareness of their surroundings. Parked cars often back up to the corners, even with parking restrictions in place, causing poor visibility for people on foot. The western intersection, over 100 feet wide, has no crosswalk and any traffic turning onto the street often picks up speed to avoid oncoming traffic.

Here, there are a few solutions to improve the appeal of this location and make it safer to access.

The first, and probably less controversial option, extend the sidewalk and have West Willow Street square off with West Genesee Street. This would require drivers turning onto the street to slow down to make the turn instead of continuing on at the same speed. This would also provide shorter distances for people to walk across, making walks from the nearby Creek Walk more pleasant and appealing, as well as provide extra sidewalk space for outdoor dining opportunities. Utilizing bump outs at each corner would also prevent cars from blocking crosswalks and sight lines, making it safer to cross.

The second option is to make West Willow Street into a one-way street heading west and squared off as discussed above. This alone prevents some of the faster moving vehicles from turning onto the street from West Genesee, while also providing opportunities to expand the sidewalk, add in bike facilities, and create a more welcoming place to walk to hang out.

The third, more ambitious option, is to close West Willow Street off from traffic. Remake the street as a pedestrian plaza and allow a new building tenant to control the space, creating significant outdoor dining opportunities, as well as performance spaces. The plaza space should continue down into the Franklin-Willow intersection, functioning as a raised intersection, a significant traffic calming measure that would fit perfectly in a space surrounded by popular bars and restaurants.

All of these options options should be paired with expanded sidewalks around Dinosaur BBQ, a place that consistently has lines outside the door on a narrow strip on concrete, and Apizza, which currently forces people to walk around cars parked in the space a sidewalk should be. It may also be worth exploring partnering with the parking lot that makes up the fourth corner of this intersection. The lot sees heavy use during traditional work hours Monday thru Friday, but very little use at night and on the weekends. Using this as a share space for the restaurants’ customers at night would help lower the competition for on-street parking and allow that space to be used for other things.

Finally, time to consider what type of business make work well in this space. With Dinosaur BBQ, Apizza, Press Room Pub, and Trexx Night Club within an easy walking distance, Byrne Square could become the third major dining/nightlife spot in Downtown Syracuse. Hanover and Armory Squares benefit from the close proximity of multiple bars and restaurants with relatively slow vehicle traffic. Part of this is thanks to narrowed streets and some street closures. Byrne Square could be the missing piece that uplifts this entire district.

Considering the uniqueness of the building, and its history as a dance studio, Byrne Square has the potential to become a unique bar/restaurant experience where each floor has its own theme and vibe. This is similar to the concept of Tequila Cowboy in Pittsburgh, which is home to four different bars that are interconnected (country, karaoke, modern, and casual). Part of the first floor, where the dance studio used to be, should be turned back into a dance floor and named “Licensed to Dance” to honor the former occupant. The top floor can be used as a casual lounge with views of the city. The basement, currently occupied by Studio 54, could be reinvented as a speak easy or a wine cellar, catering to a more upscale clientele. During the afternoon and early evening, lunch and dinner can be served indoors on the dance floor and out on the newly expanded sidewalk/plaza area, while dining can continue at night on the top floor with snacks provided in the speak easy/wine cellar in the basement.

With or without following my suggestion on how to bring the Byrne Square building back to life, the improvements on the street will give the building a real chance at reinvention while lifting up the surrounding buildings as well. Reclaiming space for people instead of cars is how you build a stronger Downtown and Byrne Square is some of the lowest hanging fruit in the Syracuse area.