My hopes were misplaced.
The picture below (click to expand) is based upon a plan on the NYSDOT Route 5S Safety Project website with certain street corridors highlighted in red and green. These corridors currently tie Baggs' Sq. West to the rest of Downtown.
As you can see once the DOT and Hospital projects are completed. . .
- The Seneca St. and Washington St. corridors (in red on the right) will be closed as thru streets by medians in the NYSDOT project.
- The proposed Downtown Hospital is expected to occupy the northernmost block of Cornelia St., closing that recently reopened corridor (in red on the left).
- Crosswalks for pedestrians will be eliminated at Washington St., and the one at Seneca St. will be in the middle of a 3-block-long stretch of road.
- The former connection between Hotel St. and Franklin Square (far right in the photo) that was destroyed 50 years ago remains closed to both vehicles and pedestrians.
- Only the Broadway corridor (highlighted in green) will remain open to connect Baggs' Sq. W. to the rest of Downtown.
Simply put, while the DOT project "gussies up" a 60's era Arterial with 21st Century trappings of a bike path and greenery, it doubles down on street closures and pedestrian inconvenience, further isolating Baggs' Sq. West from the rest of Downtown.
Why would someone invest in Baggs Sq. West when plans will make it difficult to access?
4 comments:
Here's a plan that would really change the face of Downtown Utica, plus utilize road surfaces we already have. Adds more green space (a long narrow park), much more parking, easy access to AUD, and traffic can still flow through Utica...
http://www.truettfamily.com/oriskany-5s-traffic-concept.html
They have however changed things a bit to include an opening on the west side of Genesee St to merge on Main Genesee St before Oriskany Blvd. and enter the downtown, thankfully they did listen in part to some of the concern of the disconnect.
Looks like worse for through traffic. I don't see the Leland Ave bypass for easier access to SUNY, Marcy, Rome. A thru bypass from roughly Culver to beyond Schuyler would be great for those from the valley to Commercial Drive, Whitesboro, Oriskany,etc.
Great Ideas, Anonymous 306! There were some people advocating for just those projects when the Utica Master Plan was being developed, but the powers that be found excuses to leave them out. The funny thing is that those very projects were recommended in the 1950 master plan for Utica before the state got involved with all its arterial-making.
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