A simple walk across a street Tuesday carried with it a lot more significance than just getting to the other side.
“West Street used to be referred to the nine lines of fury, is what we called it here in our neighborhood and in our office,” West Side Initiative Director Maarten Jacobs said. “With nine lanes being used by cars, the community for a long time really felt isolated and separated from the rest of the city because of those nine lines.”
Jacobs helped the community and dozens of area school children dedicate a cross walk at the intersection of West Street and Otisco Street. Rick Destito, who gets out and about by foot and by bike in the area, appreciates the transformation.
“As a neighborhood resident, business owner, and a father, a crosswalk doesn’t seem like much, but I can’t tell you how incredible it is for so many people,” Destito said. “I remember the first time we were trying to walk our daughter across the street in a stroller. That’s when it really hit me that something needed to change with this street.”
The project included not just the cross walk – which has a stop light for both directions of traffic – but also parking added along West Street and a dedicated bike lane in the frontage road. Mayor Stephanie Miner agrees the changes carry more meaning than just a quicker way from west-side addresses into Armory Square and the rest of downtown.
“We’ve really realized that cities are about people, and cities thrive when you can have people make connections and get to places,” Miner said. “And for far too long, West Street was a barrier not just because of the nine lanes of fury but because we would not be able to have people go from one side of our city to the other.”
Led by the local marching bandSecond Line Syracuse, Miner joined residents and students fromSeymour Dual Language Academy, Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler, and Westside Academy at Blodgett in a parade that traveled all the way across the ‘nine lanes of fury,’ signaling the new walking pattern.
West Street’s history goes back to the city’s early days as a major north-south connector. It was then widened to be part of a long-abandoned idea an “inner loop” highway that would encircle the city.
However, Near Westside community residents expressed frustrations about the street at a public forum about Interstate 81, held at Fowler High School, in the winter of 2013. At the same time, the City of Syracuse had begun to rethink West Street, seeking to reduce the number of lanes and add bike paths and on-street parking. The combination of these two efforts resulted in the state’s $1.2 million project to renovate the entire area.
