Proposed renovations to West Street in the Near Westside of Syracuse could make the road safer for pedestrians.

The potential changes to the street include shutting down several lanes, closing the Marcellus Street entrance to West Street, and adding bike paths, parking and greenery to the roadway. A mid-block crosswalk could also be added to make crossing the street easier. The street could be re-paved and the lane lines re-drawn as early as the end of the year, according to Near Westside residents and Near Westside Initiative staff familiar with the project.

Though it runs through Syracuse, West Street has been owned and operated by New York state since it was created in the 1960s as a way to funnel motorists onto Interstate 81 and New York state Route 690. As Syracuse debates change to I-81, Near Westside residents remain focused on the increased traffic the current version of this highway has brought to West Street as well as how future I-81 improvements would affect the neighborhood.

“The West Street arterial is kind of an example of what used to happen with highway planning and construction that shouldn’t happen anymore,” said Marilyn Higgins, Near Westside Initiative president. “They’re rectifying that problem and obviously the concern is not to make the same mistakes that were made in the past.”

West Street, which runs past the Nancy Cantor Warehouse and up to Route 690, effectively separates the Near Westside neighborhood from the rest of downtown.  Near Westside residents, many of whom do not own cars, regularly have to cross this street to reach essential services in the downtown area, including the main bus depot and other shops, said Taino Palermo, a community organizer for the Near Westside Initiative.

Palermo refers to West Street as “the Berlin Wall” and said he has seen people, including Syracuse University students, get hit by cars while trying to cross the road. Because many of the cars on West Street are coming off the highway, there is a natural tendency to speed down the street despite the residential surroundings, Palermo added.

“We have women with strollers and other residents who have to run across West Street, which at its widest point is six lanes wide,” he said. “It’s in no way, shape or form pedestrian-friendly.”

Residents first brought up concerns about West Street during an October meeting about the future of I-81 held by the New York State Department of Transportation at Fowler High School. Following the meeting, NYSDOT regional director Carl Ford put together a team of traffic engineers and landscape architects to address the concerns. He also invited Higgins and representatives from the city and county to participate, Higgins said.

The group has been meeting weekly and two weeks ago, Near Westside residents met with NYSDOT officials to review interim plans for West Street, Higgins said. To implement the changes, the city will use some state funds, Higgins added.

NYSDOT spokesperson Gene Cilento confirmed that discussions about changes to West Street are ongoing but declined to discuss specifics because “things are subject to change.”

Phyllis Gamble, who has lived on the Near Westside for almost 20 years, uses a wheelchair to get around, making the West Street crossing even more dangerous for her. She too has seen people get hit crossing West Street as well as people walking on the road because the sidewalks haven’t been adequately shoveled.

Gamble said she hopes the improvements to West Street will help make crossing it easier but also worries that changes to I-81 could negatively affect the street.

“I feel that they should find a different place to put the traffic. Yes, I believe they should fix I-81 because it’s important for a lot of businesses, and it also helps people get where they’re going,” she said. “But I don’t believe that West Street is the answer.”

Karaline Rothwell, co-chair of the Westside Residents Coalition, said she’s encouraged by the state’s willingness to listen to the community about changes to West Street and I-81. The state has given residents many opportunities to voice their opinions and Rothwell said she has found it relatively easy to participate in the ongoing discussions about I-81 and West Street.

But she said she hopes that when decisions are made about I-81 and other projects that could affect the Westside that people balance the needs of residents and what she calls the “higher powers”: businesses and the government.

“They have a lot more power than some of the lower income people who have no voice in this,” she said.

Published on February 13, 2014 at 1:28 am

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta