@JayS it seems like the argument now is that by capping it there would be enough upside from property value increases, business expansion, etc that it’ll be worth it.
The whole “this is actually an investment” line of reasoning.
It could be, and I’m more inclined to believe it in this case, but it could also be the same “investment” that saw the light rail ruin Main Street.
Aaaaaand now we’re turning the Skyway into a park?
Governor Cuomo floated the idea of perhaps leaving the Skyway up, and replacing the car traffic with pedestrian traffic might work. He says it has been a success with the Highline, an old railroad bridge in New York City.
LOL… has he ever been on the skyway? That High Line in NYC is exactly NOTHING like the skyway. Most people I know are uncomfortable driving in their car on the skyway because it’s so high and windy. Imagine walking up that incline until you’re 109’ in the air with the gusts blowing off Lake Erie.
The High Line by comparison is 20-30’ off the ground and almost entirely level.
I don’t hate the idea necessarily… but if the 198 is turned into stop-and-go traffic and the Skyway no longer has car traffic it’s going to make things interesting to say the least.
When they changed Delaware Ave from 2 lanes to 1 lane + bike lane there was a noticeable traffic increase.
All of these highways were build for a reason; no one ever seems to talk about why they were put up in the first place, or if those reasons have changed or vanished.
I love it… More people moving to the city these days. Why not take away major routes for them to get in and out of the city easily. Don’t see why everyone else can’t understand this. Just like everyone should know its the weather driving people out of NY state and not the taxes. Come on.
To improve the city, density is needed, as is catering to the people who live there, not solely to vehicular traffic. The people who live in the city are the ones who pay taxes to the city, so that’s who the city wants to plan for.
Highways are bad for the city. People get on an on-ramp in their suburb, and they get off at their destination. If people instead drive down streets with commercial activity (storefronts) they’re much more likely to stop and spend their money, contributing in some way to the local economy.
I like cars, but dissecting our main park with a highway is not a good idea (198). The speed limit has slowed down to 30 and everything is still ok. If they could now provide intersection, pedestrian bridges for Buff State students to Amherst St, ways to cross going north/south, it would really benefit the economy.
Plenty of cities are real-time removing the highways in their cities, and becoming much better for it. There are plenty of examples happening this decade.
The city businesses pay taxes too and need to be considered. Not all of their employees live in the city and certainly not all of their customers.
We’re still very much a commuter city. I’m not sure how we change that although I agree on working towards it.
And that is exactly a driving force behind getting rid of thruways in cities. People can take thruways to cities, but it’s unwanted for them to commute via thruway through cities
The school of though is, if you want to use the city’s resources (jobs, stores, roadway maintenance, fire, police, etc) but live elsewhere, you’re welcome to. But we can’t cater to those whose tax revenues go elsewhere. If they want to quit their job because they don’t want to commute an extra few minutes, we have the brain power, companies can hire people who wouldn’t quite over an extra few minutes commute. Or people who don’t have to commute.
The city won’t improve if our efforts cater to those who live outside of it (with the exception of the tourism industry of course, and even then there has to be a good balance of building for residents too).
The issue with that is how hyper competitive the job market is, at least right now. I can speak for what I’ve seen in both the engineering and medical sectors and finding qualified candidates and retaining them is extremely difficult. Salaries are growing to the point where 6 figures isn’t even an accomplishment, just normal. One of the initiatives in the medical sector to help with this is increasing the number of days allotted for them to work from home. So from a high level strategic perspective if I don’t have a viable workforce located immediately around me I would move my supporting office space outside the city where my workforce can easily access their work space. And as long as buffalo schools are what they are you certainly wont get a huge influx of highly talented and educated population moving to the city. Look at all of the highest ranking officers of local companies and where all of them live. If we had children we certainly wouldn’t put them through what I experienced growing up in the city.
So unless the city wants to rot on a vine with no way in or out for its workforce it has to cater to those who commute in. Look at how many people commute into NYC everyday and everything they’ve built to make that feasible.
I agree I schools certainly need work, but if parents are able to get their kids into programs like Olmsted, BPS are pretty good. I went to 64, 67, 56, city honors, and feel like I received a quality education. With the Medical campus around main and Allen I think that’s established itself as a bit of a Mecca. Also things like this
Suspension bridge! The one in Gatlinburg is actually pretty cool, although I’ve never been on it.
I would ride a wheelie across that bridge.
On a bicycle of course.
I think high winds would be a major issue there though.
Is this actually going to happen?
The video has trees over the 33 tunnel, but I thought that wasn’t possible because of root depth.
so fucking dumb. $1B for 7/8 of a mile. meanwhile elon built 2.2 miles for like $50M
No union labor with Elon
LOL
$1B today means $3B 12 years later
with all the new illegals this should be mad cheap
Nooo…
In 12 years, they will move to Texas and start building more tunnels for the cartels.
In Detroit, they built a few of these tunnels with parks above them on 696
Granted we also have a tunnel under the Detroit river to Canada and historically they had a tunnel to Belle Isle as well.
