A leading expert in urban design and infrastructure planning will bring his experience to Syracuse on Wednesday, September 24th as the next speaker in the I-81 Speaker Series. Harvard Design critic, Peter Park, says there are many lessons to be learned from building highways through US cities, and it's a good starting point to understand what worked and what didn't.
"In the experience in many American cities was that the freeway, or the highway, that cut through neighborhoods didn't really do much to include those neighborhoods, but every single case around the world, or freeway, was removed from the city, things got better."
Park should know. He served as Planning Director for Milwaukee, Wisconsin where they chose what some might consider an unconventional route...
"We took the freeway out. That nearly mile of freeway is no longer being supported financially and maintained by the state of Wisconsin and the federal government and the real estate is returning to tax revenue generating jobs, creating homes, building kinds of opportunities."
Park says cities like Syracuse have to avoid asking the typical narrow question about what to do about the traffic when considering the future of I-81. Rather, he says the question should be, "What kind of city does Syracuse aspire to be and what role does transportation play in that vision?"
Peter Park's presentation begins at 6PM Wednesday at the Carrier Theater in the Civic Center. Doors open at 5:30. It's free and open to the public.
