Last Exit for West Utica

[dgriffin]

Strikeslip carried an article in his Fault Lines Blog on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, entitled, "The Last Exit for West Utica . . ." Somehow I missed it and didn't comment on his site until today. But since this forum is more conducive to discussion, I thought I'd post here also. I'd like to hear the opinons of others.

If I may summarize Strike's article, he begins by remembering the beauty of West Utica, lamenting its decline and saying the Arterial's opening, "mark(ed) the beginning of West Utica's decline," a phrase that sounds an awful lot like the Arterial was much to blame for West Utica's demise. Strike goes on to say the Arterial's useful life is ending and he hopes a more human highway or boulevard will replace it, rather than a limited access highway.
The article, which was also published in the July, 2009 "Utica Phoenix," may be read at:
strikeslip.blogspot.com/



Having had "dual citizenship" in Cornhill and West Utica as a child in the 1950's, I saw many similarities in their decline. My memory is that West Utica had begun it's downward direction some years before the advent of the arterial. The arterial's route was a natural, replacing as it did the railroad that ran through the middle of town, which many years before had replaced the Chenango Canal that ran through the middle of whatever was there at the time. The problem with West Utica (other than a lack of law enforcement which seems endemic throughout Utica) still boils down to jobs, or the loss of them. I remember the idyllic lifestyle described by Strike, and I remember what fueled it. As he pointed out, GE, Bosserts the State Hospital, etc. provided good jobs. Good enough for the sons and daughters of the families mentioned to get out of their small homes and small lots and move the suburbs to live in small houses on big lots. Nothing new about that; it happened in every city in America. The Arterial helped speed them across town and out of town to their suburban life.
Of course I don't know what kind of highway design will eventually prevail. But a good guess is that the insurance companies will weigh in heavily. The fewer intersections, the safer the road. If they can afford to fly it in the air with Up Ramps and Down Ramps, obliterating neighborhoods along the way, they will do so, ala downtown Syracuse where 81 and 690 meet fifty feet above the heads of those visiting Upstate Medical Center.
There isn't much hope that a parkway-style road will be built. I've said before that a city is a past paradigm. It will take untold influence to get the feds and state (who will pay for this) to "do it pretty."