All Hail The Car (Re: "A point-by-point look at the I-81 alternatives: Commentary")

Minch Lewis, former Syracuse City Auditor and MDA Project Manager, recently wrote a commentary for the Post-Standard in regards to the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council's analysis of I-81 and how that summary provided mixed signals to the public.

While I strongly disagree that the SMTC’s analysis provided little if any mixed signals, Mr. Lewis is certainly entitled to his opinion. However, his arguments, which favored rebuilding I-81 through Downtown Syracuse, consisted of vague points, random figures, irrelevant references to city life from 40 years ago, and used poor examples in supporting his case.

Mind you, this was not an article per-se, but more of a largely worded opinion piece which was printed by the Post-Standard. I understand that the main media outlet in the region is doing its best job (and they have for the most part) to provide a wide range of opinions about I-81 as this is a major decision that will have drastic consequences in either case of a rebuild or boulevard. My concern is when these opinion pieces are filled with very little facts or thoughtful dialogue, such as the one written by Mr. Lewis.

You can find the entire piece here. There's quite a bit to get into, so I'll do more of a response to the individual sentences and paragraphs.

Sticking Up for Downtown and its Parking (Re: "Mayor Miner, tear down those buildings")

This is a tad overdue, but none the less, a response to Maureen Green's column, "Mayor Miner, tear down those buildings" [1], from the March 3rd, 2012 edition of the Post-Standard.

I won't try to summarize the column all too much, as I encourage you to read the whole thing first to get a sense for what's being suggested, but the gist of which is that the city should demolish its post-World War II buildings along Warren Street to build parking lots and garages.

Without getting right into it, I'll first unravel a truth about Syracuse that I've come to realize after living here for most of my life and specifically in and around Downtown over these last 5 years.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there is one, and only one, true problem with all of Downtown Syracuse, the City of Syracuse, as well as Central New York. I call it "The Suburban and Urban Divide" (which has initial subcategories of education, housing, tax revenue, and crime; each of which have subcategories of quality of life, parking, personal space, and safety; and each of those have subcategories of elitism, defeatism, classism, racism, basic human psychology, and preconceived perceptions about reality).

It's as if you discuss any one of these subcategories with anyone, suddenly one feeds directly into a neighboring one or vice versa. They may not all be linked, but find a problem with one and there's a good chance that another one of them right beside it along the same spectrum. The thing is they all seem to come back to The Suburban and Urban Divide.

It's way too broad and time-consuming of a topic for me to fully dive into; especially because I don't get paid in beer or tacos to write blog posts. But I feel as if I could publish an entire book if I really had to. Mrs. Green's column specifically deals with parking so I'll do my best to stay within that realm as well as venture out into several other aspects that center around it.