By: Ray Levato | WHEC.com, link to original post
Rewater the aquaduct? Another idea that will get a long, hard look in the coming year is the ambitious plan to bring the feel of the Erie Canal back to downtown Rochester.
This was the Court Street bridge this week. A big WWE Smackdown wrestling was in town. Access to the stage entrance of the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial is on Court Street and the Court Street bridge is where they park the big tractor trailers. And this is where city officials expect traffic around the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial to be funneled.
Once this street–the Broad Street traffic bridge is removed from on top of the old Erie Canal aqueduct. The second set of smaller arches were added to the original aqueduct in the 1920′s to support Broad Street.
“We realize we’re taking a bridge out of service. It’s a major component of downtown. There are a pretty good number of people that use this bridge. However, we have extra capacity on Court Street, on Main Street and Andrews Street. We have off ramps on 490 that are underutilized, so the traffic model shows that essentially traffic will disperse accordingly. There will be a little bit of delay, I’ll be honest with you. But if we can get the buses off Main Street, traffic will flow,” said Thomas Hack, City Structural Engineer.
At last fall’s dinner gala inside the aqueduct, people got a chance to see what the Erie Canal aqueduct looked like before the canal was moved south of the city.
Water would be put back in the aqueduct for aesthetic, recreation and tourist reasons. Artwork shows a promenade on other side of the aqueduct and a new plaza just to the west on West Broad Street.
Proponents are projecting as much as $200 million in investment along West Broad Street including hundreds of apartments.
City Councilman Dana Miller says all of the development downtown so far has been focused on the east side.
“This is actually one of the first projects that is really focused on the westside of downtown, the west side of the Genesee River,” said Councilman Miller, “So we’re really I think looking at this now. And now a decision has been made finally, but we are looking at this as one alternative that could help spur development on the west side.”
But questions remain about whether removing one of the four downtown bridges is a good idea.
“It’s an urban environment, and people have to understand it’s not going to be like a free flow expressway ramp out of downtown. We encourage people to kind of spend a few seconds more. If they look around, they’ll see what we have to offer downtown, and that’s kind of what we’re after,” said Hack.
The city still needs $18-million to change this part of downtown and city council would have to vote to change the center city master plan.
I have been hearing about the plans, ideas, suggestions and such for the old canal/ subway downtown for probably over 20 years. It’s a vital part of Rochester’s history and was largely responsible for the early development of the city as a canal and continued to do so as a subway. I would love to see it developed to once again to attract people and businesses downtown. However, this plan I feel (like most ventures Rochester persues) does not tap the true potential of this historic treasure.
Recent articles I have read points to an increase in usage of the Erie Canal statewide as a tourist attraction and for shipment of goods. Wouldn’t it be great if downtown could tap into this?
Imagine if the entire canal from near Brown Street, is tied into the Genesee River, making it accessible by boats. This could create development on the entire west end of the city from residential to shops and restaurants, to waterway businesses such as water taxis and others. Cities such as Indianapolis and Oklahoma City can be used as examples.
Rochester greatly underutilizes its resources. The river to the historic canal bed, and even Lake Ontario are all being ignored of their true potential. I could write pages of examples that could be implimented for improvement and spark development but there is one important element I want to advocate for.
The thought process of local leaders need to change! Excuses such as traffic and money are constantly used to shut down ideas that could benefit our area. There are ways to accomplish great things if there was just a change in how leaders thought.
A better transportation policy would alleviate traffic concerns. Creating an environment that would make businesses desire to locate downtown instead of using $80 million as an incentive (that money could have been better invested infrastructure and improvements).
I know there are many ideas and argumments can be made for and against all of them, but one thing is true. The leaders need to move past what they feel are “obstacles” with more critical thinking instead of throwing away oportunities.