And what about the community that crosses municipal borders? When 1-80 was being planned in New Jersey, the town of Leonia was successful in having its route changed to follow its borders rather than cutting through the middle of it, but what about the neighborhoods that existed along and across those borders? Weren’t they important, or was there nothing there at the time?

First of all, there’s the fact that there are three places where people get onto the current 81 northbound between those two points, and a lot of that could well be intracity traffic. People going from Nob Hill to the north side, Or from Calthrop Ave to the University area. I’ve used it quite a bit to get from Colvin to 690.

With this in mind, that “long exit ramp” should still include “entrances” of a sort from where those current entrances are, with the understanding that many people just to the north of exit 16 use it as an intracity bypass.

Second, it would be nice if, as a part of this process, the two halves of East Raynor were reconnected. I lived on East Raynor for two years as an undergrad, and had no idea that there was another half to it on the other side of 81. I knew there was another street over there, you could see it. But I didn’t know that it was my street. Was there some practical engineering reason why Raynor was cut off rather than bridged over, or was it a “social” one like sealing off the “bad” neighborhood from SU?

I still wonder about people from Nob Hill getting to the airport, I’m just so used to it being a straight shot right up 81 to Hancock. But I suppose people could learn to deal with taking “the long exit” to Almond Blvd for a few blocks before getting onto “new 481″ on the way the airport.

AHA! I just had another idea. Suppose Almond Blvd began at exit 16 as a limited access road (allowing it to still be used as an intracity bypass), and then became more of an urban boulevard when it crossed the railroad tracks just below Brewster-Boland. Van Buren Street would have to be slightly reconfigured to intersect with it after it dropped from passing over the tracks, but I think it could work. And the entire length of Almond Blvd, from Exit 16 to the 690/481 on ramps at Genesee Street, could be given an official State Highway number and signage. Think about it, the entire length of NY-635 (Thompson Rd) from the Carrier Circle Thruway exit to Erie Blvd is only 2.5 miles. This would be 3.

Even with the conversion of 81 between the current southern end of 481 and Burt to a long exit ramp, the entrance ramps to 690 and a redefined 481 starting at about Genesee St, and an Almond Bouldvard sitting between them, a person driving from Nedrow to Liverpool could still do it quickly by taking the exit ramp to the boulevard and then the on ramp to the new 481. This might add one more minute to their trip if they hit every single traffic light wrong.

But no matter what we do, we have to remember that people <b?in the city use that route to get to other place in the city. It’s not just the dreaded exurbanites (and let’s face it, don’t we all enjoy visiting our friends and relatives who live out in places like Tully and Fabius?).

Now that having been said, I never had a problem with 81 where it was. It was properly situated to get me back and forth between SU and North Jersey. It was properly situated to get my wife and I between our first apartment in Clarendon Heights and our church out in Liverpool. It was properly situated to get us from our old house in Eastwood to our sitter’s house in the Valley. I’m a dedicated city-dweller who regularly uses 81 as it exists now. And I have to say that during the 16 years that I lived in the University area, not once did I consider it to be a barrier to my getting downtown from campus.

But this may be because my hometown of East Orange NJ was “divided” by the raised tracks of the DL&W (now NJ Transit), on reinforced concrete structures that I loved as a kid, even though by then it was clear that they had seen better days. Perhaps what made them seem less of a barrier and less threatening to people is that, like 690, they mostly ran through the middle of the block, and behind businesses, so that while there were underpasses at every corner, there wasn’t the vast open area that we have under the current 81. Except for the spots along the elevated line that served as the East Orange and Brick Church stations and parking for them, the entire undersection of the raised line was enclosed. Anyway, being used to passing beneath the DL&W viaducts whenever I went to the library, the barbershop, my grandparents’ house, choir rehearsal, and the homes of various girls that I liked in high school, passing under 81 to get downtown was no biggie, and I did that by foot and by bike on a regular basis.

So I”m not some elitist suburbanite who uses 81 to get into the city and then escape back to my “safe” haven. Quite the contrary I work in the burbs and bring my money into the city, and I’m a city person who uses 81 to get to the many other places and people within this wonderful county that I’d like to visit. After all, let’s face it, Syracuse is a wonderful place to live, but it doesn’t have everything.

As a result I think that we should think very carefully before we tear the current 81 down, thinking it will be the magic solution to all of the problems of the past. It won’t cure the past, and even with our best efforts and best studies done with current information there will be some trends and changes we can’t forsee. And maybe 50 years hence, we’ll actually regret moving 81 from its current alignment, because of changes we couldn’t have begun to anticipate today. Maybe we’ll regret them as little as 20 years hence. We can’t know for sure, and admitting that right from the beginning is very important to this process.

I was originally a naysayer to the idea of totally getting rid of 81 through downtown, citing the people who needed to get from Nedrow to Liverpool, the ease of access to downtown, and the fact that no matter what we do, someone’s ox is gonna get gored. It was also based on the fact that I never found it to be a barrier to getting downtown from SU, and the fact that a boulevard as I had perceived it would be even harder to cross than what was already there (I was envisioning having to cross East Genesee Street near the Wegman’s shrine). Then, of course, there was the question of quick access to the hospitals in the area.

I came to the conclusion that if you re-routed 81 to 481, turned the current 81 heading north from there into a long exit ramp into the city, with the boulevard starting at about Burt St, and then at about Genesee Street had that boulevard lead to ramps leading to 690 and what would now be designated 481, it just might work.

People would still be able to get to and from downtown, through traffic could still get from Binghamton to Watertown, there would still be quick access to the hospitals, since the redesignated “exit ramps” would still put you in the exact same places they did before, and you’d be rid of your “ugly eyesore” and “psychological barrier.”

But there are still a few questions that remain. One of them is whether or not the current 481 is wide enough to handle the increased capacity of the diverted through traffic around the city. I know that I enjoy taking 481 south on my way to work every morning and having the “reverse commute” from Syracuse to DeWitt. I wonder what the increased traffic on the current 481 will do to my travel time and my quality of life. Right now I have an 11-minute commute door-to-door. With the diverted traffic, it could only get worse.

But as I’ve said before, no matter what we do, somebody’s ox is gonna get gored here.