The "Carmageddon" that didn't happen in the NYT

I had to check the spelling on "Carmageddon" before typing it. What a ridiculous concept. And that's basically what Timothy Egan writes today in the Sunday Review section of the New York Times.

If you ignored the talk about Carmageddon, a 10 mile stretch of the 405 freeway in LA was closed last weekend because a bridge had to be demolished. Everyone thought it would be a disaster, and it was not. This reinforces that Jane Jacobs-New Urbanist theory that traffic is not like water. Really, it's more like some sort of element with a very short half-life, because if a freeway is closed or eliminated, huge portions of it just disappear.

Now can we get working on the NY-198 downgrade so the people of Buffalo can have Delaware Park back?

WBFO on Sprawl (again)

I feel that Buffalo News Columnist Bruce Andriatch is starting to get it on sprawl. Unlike last year's conversation, he must have picked up Suburban Nation or something similar. His last commentary on WBFO talked about Transit Road and how the car traffic will never end. Additionally he said that complaining about it is futile because at 8 or 9 lanes, not much can be done.

I would suggest he or anyone else looking to avoid such traffic move to the CIty. Then you can just walk or bike through traffic. And what can you find on Transit Road that you can't find on Elmwood? Don't ask me. I haven't been to Transit in at least five years.

Outer Harbor Bike Trails

I have to say it is nice being able to go to the Outer Harbor and get to places you couldn't in the past. The problem is there is no connectivity. Even in places where it seems like it would be easy. For example, as you can see in the map below, courtesy mapmyride.com, there is a nice path along the water that ends near the site of the former Pier Restaurant. Its driveway is still there, but the path ends at the driveway and you have to carry your bike over some boulders to get onto the driveway and back to the main path.

There is also a short spur along the City Ship Canal, but this also ends awkwardly without a good connection back to the main path. It does, however, provide excellent views of the Pillsbury Elevator, the canal, and the neighboring railroad tracks.

The problem here is partly NY-5. The Common Council unanimously recommended its replacement with a boulevard. So did other organizations such as the Congress for New Urbanism and Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper. At the same time, this lack of access will keep this area from ever being developed, which is good for people who like nature, like myself. The area between the Coast Guard Station and the Small Boat Harbor includes small forests and meadows. It's almost like an extension of Tifft Farm . At the end of the day, this might be the best use of this part of the waterfront.

"Sustainable communities are economic game-changers" in the Buffalo News

and probably a lot of other newspapers, too. However, it's great to see the Secretary of HUD, Shaun Donovan, out there advocating for these ideas, as he did last week on Need to Know. You can read the entire article at the Buffalo News website. If you don't have time to get there, here's a section worth reading:

Unfortunately, smart planning is the exception rather than the rule. With the average American now spending more than 50 cents of every dollar on housing and transportation, there has never been a greater disconnect between where people live and where they work. The problem was exacerbated by the “drive to qualify” frenzy of the housing bubble years, when families were forced to move farther away from job centers to find a home they could afford.

This mind-set has contributed to an epidemic of sprawling residential areas with few jobs, long commutes and little economic engine to support housing prices. In the recession, these more remote areas have often been hit the hardest.

Hopefully, people will read this article. It's unfortunate that it's tucked away in the Viewpoints page. I have to admit, that's the first section that I read each week, because it contains the Sunday editorial page. I don't always agree with the Buffalo News, though I do respect them. I like to read the editorial page first because the paper's articles tend to reflect the voice of the editorial board, which often has its own agenda that I don't necessarily agree with.

Relevant Radio Conversations: an update

Back in August I wrote about Buffalo's public radio stations, WBFO's format change, and some conversations each station had about infrastructure and urban sprawl. I'm sure you can find it below.

Well, a couple weeks back, WBFO and WNED jointly announced that they are looking for ways to collaborate. Each station simultaneously issued the same statement. This is really exciting for many reasons. I think if both stations combined their reporting resources, they could cover a lot more stories. Additionally, I'd like to hear some of the NPR/PRI music programs here in Buffalo, especially the World Cafe and Echoes. A different morning program, like The Takeaway, would be great too. Essentially, I would be happy if they stopped duplicating programming.

The Innovation Trail is one thing that is already being done well collaboratively across Upstate. It's interesting stories about inventiveness and entrepreneurship that are oftentimes turned into radio segments.

The Capitol Pressroom's state political coverage is worth listening to this time of year, too. It's really nice hearing about Albany for an hour instead of hearing about it in fractured soundbites or in short news articles when space needs to be filled.

Blueprint America on PBS

The Blueprint America series on PBS is an excellent cross-broadcast partnership about America's infrastructure. It's latest feature, from the program Need to Know, is a conversation with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan that makes me feel somewhat better about the future.

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Local Success Stories: Robert Moses Parkway

Niagara County's Robert Moses Parkway was constructed in the 1960s by the New York Power Authority. It follows the Niagara River from the North Grand Island Bridges to Lewiston, where it veers inland and continues to Lake Ontario. It was initially constructed to connect the area's numerous state parks. Though scenic at places, the road has always funneled more commuters to work than tourists to state parks, and is being gradually removed. It is named for the oft-maligned former chair of the Power Authority, and numerous other state authorities.

In the late 1980s, the section of the highway that ran through Niagara Reservation State Park (at 55 miles per hour) was removed, and its traffic rerouted through downtown Niagara Falls, NY. A visitors center, extensive gardens, and many trees were were put in its place. Remnants of the parkway are still visible and used for park vehicles, as seen in the above photo. The state is working to remove these remnants, between John Daly Boulevard and Prospect Street, in the near future, and replace them with a road similar to the Riverway planned by noted landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Niagara Reservation's original designers.

In addition, in 2003, half of the parkway between Downtown Niagara Falls and Devil's Hole State Park was closed to traffic and turned into a recreational trail. The Niagara Heritage Partnership is advocating for the full removal of the parkway between Downtown Niagara Falls and the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge. The Niagara Gazette recently announced that funding has been lined up for a scoping process that includes the Partnership's removal option.