The state has money to spend and some of it could be used to make Griffiss Parkway four lanes wide through the entire business park. Griffiss Local Development Corp. is applying for funding through the state Department of Transportation’s Strategic Transportation Enhancement Program. . . .
"With the final completion of the Griffiss Veterans Memorial Parkway, access will be unencumbered into the park and allow for more parcels to be developed between Books Road and the Mohawk River bridge, an area that contains some of the most valuable real estate in the region but is relatively inaccessible without the project," says the GLDC document.In Utica, of course, we plan on spending money to choke Genesee St. down to two lanes. Sure traffic counts are down now, but choking access will ensure that downtown can never redevelop to its former density -- wasting infrastructure already in place.
How about the new $62 million Arterial in Utica. Worse than choking, Sunset Ave. will be entirely severed from both the Arterial and from itself. This not only REDUCES access to nearby parcels from the Arterial and Sunset, it makes Sunset Avenue useless as a thoroughfare for local traffic from S. Utica to the Brewery District.
We seem to be able to find funds to "unencumber" access in Rome, but cannot even maintain access in Utica across the Barnes Ave. Bridge. . . . or across Oriskany Blvd. along Whitesboro St. . . . or from State St. to Whitesboro St. making the now vacant land on Whitesboro St. behind the Aud difficult to reach.
The "Statewide Sustainability Team" should be ashamed of itself if it approves of this project in Rome while DOT projects and crumbling infrastructure continue to turn vast areas of Utica into hard-to-reach backwaters. Meanwhile EDGE, of which GLDC is a related entity, needs to be defunded for its continual focus on Rome while the county's principal city continues to decline.
18 comments:
Strike, I'm sure you are aware, but GLDC was formed to help redevelop Griffis after the AFB closed normal operations at Griffiss.
EDGE's main source of revenue is GLDC through real estate revenues and for shared personnel. EDGE is therfore beholden to GLDC for its money and continuence. GLDC still exists to redevelop Griffiss....EDGE therfore does too.
EDGE by nature of its funding souce is in a conflicting position.
MV EDGE should officially change its name to "The EDGE of the Griffiss and Business Technology Park AND the Oneida County International Airport". Do you get a vision form this name?
Can the Army Cops of Engineers deny a Wetland Permit at the Griffiss Business and Technology Park?
The County of Oneida designated both in word ansd deed EDGE as the area's econonomic development agency. The EDGE board accepted the responsiblity. That was when the mistake was made. It was folish, careless, stupid and the like to think that once bitting the apple of the masssive former base, development priorities would go anywhere else. And, much of this development, if you can even call it that, came at the expense of other areas within the county, including Utica. The Griffiss site was just too big to try to redevelop in a conventional sense.
Are you really stating that the state should rebuild the Barnes Ave bridge that was used by a small number of vehicles into a poorly maintained area vs expanding a parkway that is used by tens of thousands each day?
Unreal.
Utica is a dump because the city leaders failed to maintain the city infrastruture and has nobody to blame but themselves and the unions they overfund. Don't hold the rest of us hostage to the corruption of this city. Utica has had its chance and blew it.
Anybody in Rome see a firetruck following every ambulance in the city? No, but you do in Utica ....
Get it yet???
Anonymous 11:35 -- Yes I am saying exactly that: the state should have fixed the Barnes Ave Bridge because *Existing* businesses in Utica and Marcy (most were in Marcy) were forced to move when the Bridge was shut down. Don't people who set up shop along a public highway have a right to expect that their access won't be cut off? In this case the State made good by buying the properties instead of rebuilding the bridge, but the fact still remains that land that was formerly available for development is no longer so.
You can blame Utica for not maintaining the bridge, but why should Utica have done so when (except for CWSI) all the businesses were in Marcy? Those business addresses were cut off from Marcy when the State put in the Thruway in the 1950s.
The comment about ambulance chasing and Utica corruption, while true, is off the point, which is that formerly developed land in Utica is being cut or choked off from potential redevelopment, while the public purse gets used to open up new areas in Rome.
The comment that "tens of thousands" use the Griffiss parkway is one of the silliest ever posted. The entire working population at the ex Base is far less than ten thousand. Are we to seriously believe there are tens of thousands using it as a short cut? The writer may be using trip figures related to coming and going but that is far different.
A 2012 DOT traffic count came up with 15,750 vehicles on a weekday between Floyd Avenue (Brooks Road) and Black River Boulevard.
So that would be over 100,000 or so vehicles a week..... How silly...
It is not a short cut, but a main highway. It should be completed.
Have them use the traffic count from Woodstock 1999.
Dear Anonymous, Your original post said not a word about vehicles or vehicle trips. When using the phrase,"tens of thousands" without clear definition one would think you are talking about people. You are talking of vehicle trips of which 15,000 per day is not a lot especially when thay involve a pretty small number of cars. And, "tens of thousands" of anything is not less than 20,000 as in this case. The enitire expense of Griffiss so called redevopment has not been worth the hundreds of millions spent on it, especially considering that most of the uses there were already here.
Really??? I am talking about people. What is so hard for you to comprehend. Here - let me hold your hand. If 15,000 vehicles a day use the parkway and each has 1.5 people in them, thats 22,500 people or tens of thousands. Of course all the school buses that take the kids to and from RFA hold 40 or so, so the 22,500 is very underestimated.
Have you even driven through the park? I'm doubting it big time.
Really? There is a huge difference between number of vehicles and vehicle trips and that impacts how numbers and use are presented. How many people work at he site and how many cars do they drive? I recall reading that the number is somewhere around 5200. If we use your number of 1.5 per car that's 3467 cars. Where in heavenss name are the 15,000 vehicles. Are there 11,500 cars cutting through every day? The answer is obviously that the traffic count is not people; it is vehicle trips. Or , has employment really exploded out there? And, to justify that kind of expense for hauling little darlings back and forth twice a day is foolish. Although I'm also one to believe that locating a high school away from the city was really dumb to begin with.
The traffic count came from DOT.
The parkway is a major road between north Rome and Route 49. It is the fastest way to head east.
Over 100,000 autos use the parkway a week. It needs to be finished.
If the expense is based on people and cars using the "fastest" way to head East, the folly of spending money of this extent on one roadway to allow drivers to avoid other roadways we taxpayers spenf money on is even more foolish and wasteful than thought. Boy, why don't we exhaust all of our taxpayer resources on short cuts?
100,000 autos do not use the parkway a week. DOT counts vehicle trips. This means the same car may be counted many times. There is a difference.
The DOT counts vehicle trips, not numbers of cars. The totals include the same cars making multiple trips. That does not equate to 100,000 autos.
vehicle trips, number of cars, number of people ...... no matter how you count the numbers, this is one heavily travelled roadway that needs to be completed.
No matter how you count the numbers? This kind of thinking is exactly why our governments go broke as our taxes rise. In this case, numbers that make sense is the only way to determine if the roadway is used enough to warrant more expenditure.
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