Mass transit blues

Syracuse is no stranger to mass transit. There is Ontrack the seldom used but often hyped low tech train that runs from Jamesville to Carousel Mall. It stops at Armory Square and at the bottom of 'heart attack hill' below the Dome. The system is almost 100%tax payer subsidized and never produced the jobs or riders that were promised. After the Madrid and London subway bombings who wants to ride a train anyways...Right? Wrong!!!

Everyone assumes that Americans don't want high speed rail. We want our cars, and our 1 1/2 hour commutes, and traffic jams and fender benders, and on and on. The fact is that the American people have never been shown a viable alternative. Well here it is:

Using existing state owned right of ways we build guideways for high speed maglev trains from Niagara Falls and Buffalo to Syracuse, Cortland, Binghamton, and finally New York City. Imagine getting on a maglev in Syracuse and 40 minutes later getting off at Grand Central Station or the Falls. Why should anyone care? Imagine needing a job in finance but unable to find work in your field in Syracuse. A quick maglev ride to NYC is just 40 minutes to thousands of finance job opportunities. Imagine wanting to see a Broadway show on a Friday evening and you live in Buffalo. An hour ride on the Maglev and a quick cab ride to Broadway and you will be there. Goods and people will be whisked at unheard of speeds across the Empire State. This vast state will be brought together in ways that no other state could even imagine. How much will it cost? How much does it cost to keep up the Thruway? Linking major cities and rural attractions like the Adirondacks and Wine Country will draw in tourists to our fair state. Cities will then need to build light rail, tramways, or yes, even gondolas to transit people from the main maglev lines to their citywide attractions. Imagine a gondola tacking you from the maglev center at Hancock airport to the fairgrounds or the Dome, or the malls....We need to be innovative and develop new high tech industry now. High speed rail is expensive to build, cheap to run and maintain and could prove to be just the boon we have been looking for.

Tale of 2 cities, Syracuse Versus Baltimore Maryland

I just got back from a family outing to an old fashioned summer baseball game in Baltimore. Aside from the long drive I was eager to see a quality professional sporting event. Baltimore did not disappoint. The stadium was built in a revitalized downtown center. Syracuse's minor league stadium is built on a side of town not often frequented by folks from the suburbs. Baltimore's stadium was clean, packed full of screaming fans and it was architecturally beautiful. Skychiefs stadium in Syracuse is none of those things...Least of all packed.

Baltimore did it right. The BART trains disgorge their passengers right at the gates of the stadium meaning the fan faithful can park far from the crowded inner city. The vendors were plentiful, selling BBQ ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, and crab cakes. In Syracuse you get a Hoffman hot dog and a soda.

The smartest thing about the Baltimore stadium is it's location. The placement of Camden Yards @ the heart of downtown ensures that a good portion of the fans will remain in the clean neighborhoods surrounding the stadium after the game. It ensures that many folks will eat a meal or tip back a cold one in the nearby restaurants and pubs. For the out of towners there are multiple hotels within a blocks walk from the front gate of the stadium. The Syracuse stadium was built miles away from downtown and the rejuvenated Armory Square district. The few fans who do attend games pay 3 bucks to park (there is a train but it can't reach the stadium) and then they go home. They go home because there are no shops or restaurants nearby for them to stop into.

And herein lies my point; Syracuse development has been done here and there and over there. But nothing is linked together. There is no central vision of how projects are being built. The restaurant district (Armory Square) is beautiful but there is hardly enough parking. And just recently it was decided by the powers to be to convert one of the few free parking lots into a sewage transfer station. Talk about a waste.

The sporting venues like the Skychiefs and the Crunch hockey teams play their games at opposite sides of the city. The War Memorial and Skychief stadiums are clear across town from one another. There is no convenient link between them, no vision was applied. Now take a trip to Baltimore and you will see the Orioles and the Ravens stadiums a stones throw from one another. Both stadiums sit in the midst of a booming downtown. Both sit at the cross roads of modern highways and railheads. Both sit astride clean city streets filled with shops benefiting from the traffic of the thousands of fans.

Syracuse needs to get smart. We need to send our community development folks out into the world and emulate the successful downtowns in the nation. We need to learn from their lessons. IF you build it, they will come, unless.... they can't park...they can't get a meal... they don't feel safe...And most of all not if they don't find it fun!!!! And downtown Syracuse isn't very fun these days. We need to fix this and keep Syracusans happy to be living in Syracuse.

Clinton Square Downtwon Syracuse, New York. Summer in the Cuse!!