Community members continued the debate over the Interstate 81 viaduct’s replacement options Sunday, calling on lawmakers to support a “community grid” plan they said would help alleviate issues of economic segregation in Syracuse.

More than 50 people gathered Sunday at the May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society on East Genesee Street to discuss the controversial multibillion-dollar project, which is currently being studied by New York state officials.

“I’m thinking about lives, human lives,” Twiggy Billue, president of the Syracuse chapter of the National Action Network, said of her support for the community grid concept.

The grid option calls for the destruction of the raised portion of I-81 that bisects the East Adams Street neighborhood near Syracuse University’s Main Campus. A grid would redirect traffic to city streets or Interstate 481.

The Syracuse viaduct has reached the end of its useful life and, in some sections, is deemed “functionally obsolete,” according to the New York State Department of Transportation.

Speakers at the forum Sunday included Emanuel Carter, an associate professor of landscape architecture at SUNY-ESF; Yusuf Abdul-Qadir, director of central New York’s branch of the New York Civil Liberties Union; Diana Ryan of Aqua Action CNY; and Billue.

Carter said that major interstates were frequently built and routed through areas marked as red or yellow by the Federal Housing Administration in “redlining” practices, which essentially allowed government officials to refuse to insure mortgages in and near black communities, according to NPR.

Those red or yellow areas were frequently settled by Jewish, black or foreign-born white populations, Carter said.

I-81 cuts through some of the poorest sections of Syracuse. The highway runs through a public housing community called Pioneer Homes, which is adjacent the State University of New York Upstate Medical University.

The census tract Pioneer Homes is located in is referenced in a 2015 report that showed Syracuse had the highest level of concentrated poverty among blacks and Hispanics out of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. That report was published by the New York City-based think tank, Century Foundation.

Syracuse has the 13th highest poverty rate in the United States, with high poverty census tracts nearly doubling between 2000 to 2013. Many of those census tracts line major highways crossing through the city, including I-81.

School districts in the area have some of the most racially- and financially-segregated borders in the country. The border between Westhill Central School District and the Syracuse City School District had a 38 percent poverty difference, making it the 15th-most segregated school district border in the U.S.

“We designed a situation in this community where some people have opportunity and some don’t,” Abdul-Qadir said.

Billue, of the National Action Network, said residents need to talk about things beyond concentrated poverty to address the issues that are created by highways that cut through cities.

“I don’t want us to think in any way that this is about the grid or the tunnel versus another option,” Billue said. “What I want us to think about is, ‘What do we get out of it as well?’”

Billue said that no matter which option is chosen for I-81, construction jobs must come from the local community, eminent domain paperwork must be filed beforehand if the government tries to obtain private land for public use as part of the project and impacts on the environment must be assessed before anything happens. New York state is currently analyzing possible environmental impacts.

Syracuse landowners should be prepared to negotiate for eminent domain, Billue said.

The community grid is also the best way to support organizations such as universities and hospitals to help the city expand organically, Carter said. Universities and hospitals tend to withstand economic changes, create jobs and bring intelligent people to the area, Carter said.

Ryan, of Aqua Action CNY, said the I-81 renovations have environmental ramifications. Pollution is often concentrated near highways, she said, so the community grid option would help mitigate air and noise pollution.

New York state Assemblymember Pamela Hunter, Onondaga County Legislator Linda Ervin and members of the town of DeWitt board were in attendance. DeWitt is a suburb just east of Syracuse. Abdul-Qadir urged residents to speak with their representatives and tell them they want the community grid.

Syracuse lawmakers, including Mayor Ben Walsh, have previously voiced support for the grid concept.

“This issue is the pinnacle problem we are facing in this community,” Abdul-Qadir said.

Published on March 4, 2018 at 11:32 pm

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