Syracuse's Elevated Highways in Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of the elevated portions of I-81 and I-690. Having lived next to them for about 6 years now, I've walked underneath them many times, but had never walked the entire length of I-81 through Downtown before. Some opinions and observations from the experience...

It's huge. The amount of space that the elevated portions take up both horizontally and vertically is massive.

Homelessness is a real problem at the intersection near Erie Boulevard and Townsend.

There's almost no on-street parking around the highways and almost all of the surface lots are privately owned or owned by the NYSDOT.

It's loud. This is an uneducated guess, but I'd go out on the limb to say that the noise level hovers around 70 to 80 decibels; or the amount of volume that comes from a vacuum cleaner. In all seriousness, it would be interesting to see what the exact decibel levels are and how much exposure someone would need for potential ear damage generated by these highways.

I did not feel safe walking underneath the elevated portions; most specifically when crosswalks were poorly marked, but also in terms of personal safety from of the amount of desolation and isolation that they encourage.

There's no sidewalk on the western side of I-81 between Harrison and Adams streets, so anyone living in the Pioneer Homes who needs to walk north, has to walk on a dirt path (which you can actually see on Google Maps).

On to the pictures...

215 Tully St

I wandered around this afternoon taking pictures in the Near Westside and found myself at 215 Tully St. I didn't even know that building existed and am glad I randomly stumbled upon it. The art is gorgeous and I had to take some pictures. Coincidentally, two younger guys were walking along side of the building discussing the graffiti so I asked if they had any additional information about it. Turns out they were two of the artists.

You can find more information about 215 Tully and some of the artists in this article from Syracuse.com.