I want to thank the Onondaga Citizens League, its board and officers especially Stephen Kearney and Sandra Barrett for allowing me this honor of addressing you. I want to congratulate Judy Mower for receiving the Levi Smith Civic Education Award. All I can say is that, having seen you present at Rotaries and S.U. and various community groups, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an award be so richly deserved as this one is to you, Judy.
It is no secret that our nation is in a recession and that our particular region of New York State has had economic difficulties stretching back many years even before the current crisis. The closing of Syracuse China, the slow decline of New Process Gear and the bankruptcy filing by Crucible is really just another chapter decline of the traditional manufacturing base that started to erode back when General Motors closed its plant, Crouse-Hinds and General Electric drastically shrunk and sold their operations, and Carrier moved its massive manufacturing somewhere very far away from the domed stadium that still bears its name.
And while technology, engineering and defense firms have expanded and the health and higher education sectors remain big employers, we must admit that in 2009, we are very much still slogging our way through the transition from a post-World War II industrial economy to a high-tech and green-tech 21st Century economy.
Add onto this, a national and global financial crisis, shortage of energy sources that do not make worse our environmental problems, a near bankrupt state, and a federal government that until recently neglected nearly every priority except for two arduous wars fought a half a world a way – and someone could really start feeling a little gloomy.
So, to give us some perspective, I ask you to imagine what it might have been like to live in Upstate New York nearly 200 years ago as hostilities between the very young and fragile United States and the world power Great Britain broke out in 1812. International trade virtually stopped, the financial burdens on both the national and state governments swelled, and the real challenges of living on a frontier that even stage coaches seldom visited kept any industry from really taking hold here.
And yet, because of a few people with a strong vision and the persistence and ingenuity to see it through, just five years later on July 4, 1817, there was the groundbreaking of a project that would turn everything around, define the area we now live in, connect the Midwest and Great Lakes areas to the Eastern seaboard, make New York the Empire State and New York City the greatest metropolitan area in the Western world. And all that from a four-foot deep ditch eventually called the Erie Canal.
There are two lessons from this historical reference that are particularly relevant today.
The first is that even in rough times, we should still think big. Change can be right around the corner if we have a vision and work hard to make it occur.
The second is that a good transportation project can change everything.
So let’s think big. What would we want to see our area look like in say nine years on the 200th Anniversary of the Erie Canal groundbreaking on July 4th, 2017.
- A revitalized downtown with people living around places where they can shop, work, and even eat out and catch a show all within easy and safe walking distance.
- Green spaces replacing vacant buildings and unusable parking lots.
- A real waterfront downtown bordered by Onondaga Creek on one side and maybe part of a rediscovered historical Erie Canal on another.
- Better transit with circulator bus routes on predictable schedules with at least one light rail track going from Syracuse University via Armory Square to Alliance Bank stadium. -- Where the Chiefs are in first place in the International League – OK, now I’m really dreaming.
- A series of interconnected neighborhoods with walks and bike lanes flowing from the Westcott Nation and S.U. hill down to Hawley Green over to downtown, Franklin Square, the Inner Harbor and Little Italy and to Armory Square, and then artist lofts on the near west side surrounded by a wonderful multicultural neighborhood of residences, restaurants, and rebuilt schools worthy of kids.
And since July 4th, 2017 happens to be my 49th birthday, my present will be a ride on the first run of a new separate tracked, rapid inter-city passenger rail that -- while its top speed is a safe and comfortable 125 miles an hour -- is easily capable of going the 250 miles from the train station in Syracuse to downtown Manhattan in just 2½-hours.
This new railroad – this Erie Canal of the 21st Century would put us back on the map figuratively and in some cases literally. It would not make us a commuter city to New York or Buffalo or Montreal but give us much more reliable access to these cities, and their companies and overcrowded populations better access to us.
Far-fetched? Too much? Never gonna happen? We’ve talked about so many of these things for so long? … Who knows?
But I do know that for a half century, people talked about the Erie Canal, did studies, passed legislation, appointed commissions and yet nothing real happened for decades. And then some strong leaders backed by strong citizens pushed, and prodded, and compromised, and innovated and in eight years built the Erie Canal and changed life forever in Upstate New York. Years later others did the same with railroads and manufacturing facilities and institutions of higher learning.
Leadership matters. Active citizenship matters. Persistence pays off.
So, that’s where we come to you – the Onondaga Citizens League after 31 years is ready to take on these challenges.
You have been looking at what to do with Interstate 81 – a road whose elevated portion runs like a metal band across downtown Syracuse. It is nearing the end of its useful life. Your exploration will matter a lot to policy makers because what’s most important to me is that the decision about what to do with Route 81 be made by our citizens and not by some far away bureaucracy in Albany or Washington.
As the Brookings Institute’shttp://www.brook.edu/metro Bruce Katz points out, “For the most part federal and state policies still tend to have a fairly significant suburban and exurban tilt and they haven’t been revised to reflect the new competitive potential of cities.” That’s why I will work hard to make sure that options are available to the community so that we could remove 81 as a barrier to a better community and ensure that our urban roadways are used to bring people into the city and not simply transport from outskirt to outskirt.
As the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote in October of 2001 in Urban Land magazine, urban areas are “recovering from the trauma” of the interstate highway system. With the coming of the automobile, cities emptied out…open space just disappeared in our cities, enough so that the highway took you out and there was nothing to bring you back. Today, that way of thinking is over. … We have discovered that people want to talk, like to gaze, and like to dine outside. The redevelopment has succeeded.”
Maybe by 2017 we will have succeeded in revitalizing downtown Syracuse because we rerouted I-81, so it no longer cut through the heart of our city and carved up vibrant neighborhoods. It’s not just new transportation projects that create opportunities for rebirth but also removing the past projects that have become barriers.
Your next study too is vital for the redefinition of Central New York – What does in mean to be green? We pride ourselves on the environmental innovations of our private and non-profit institutions. And, with plenty of clean water with our climate and good agricultural resources, it appears we are poised to be a real leader in this area. A connected and interconnected city with an economy centered on green technology could be as potent a formula for economic growth in the 21st Century as salt and canal water was in 19th. And we would have finally turned our economic corner and brought forth a new reason-to-be for our area.
That’s why while I work in Washington to re-authorize our city’s Federal Empowerment Zone or E.Z., I will also be introducing a new concept similar to the empowerment zone but with a shade of green and environmental innovation – a “G.Z.” A couple years ago, such a proposal would be as outlandish as landing on Pluto. But now we have a President who believes in high speed rail, smart grids, and economic incentives to reduce carbon footprints. Leadership does matter.
So, I want to call you – the Leaders in the Onondaga Citizens League – to action today, encourage you to use your vision to imagine how much we can accomplish. If we start now, it will still take years. But if we don’t start now, it may never happen.
As Bruce Katz wrote in 2006, “The art of policy is to build places that are livable and distinct and special.” That kind of policy takes great minds but a lot of heart also. But my fellow Onondaga County citizens, we in this room are well suited for the task. Thank you.
