Rochester, NY Dispatch: tearing down the Inner Loop

From the Democrat and Chronicle, a movement is afoot to tear down Rochester's Inner Loop. File the loop under misguided central-city highway projects of the 60s, before most people realized how highways could destroy neighborhoods and cities. Tearing this down (or filling it in to be more precise) seems like a no brainer.

In my visits to Rochester the loop (see map) always struck me as a rather useless highway; I can't see how it could save anyone more than a couple of minutes, And such expressways create huge barriers to pedestrian traffic and commerce, and they disrupt the overall urban fabric. Nearby neighborhoods, like Park or Monroe Aves., are really cut off from downtown, and vice versa, with the highway being the major factor. This dead zone hurts both downtown and the nearby neighborhoods.

The project may have made a little more sense when people thought the city was growing. (though even by 1960, it was starting to shrink.) Now having lost 38% of its peak population of 1950, the effects of this barrier have been disastrous, amplifying the downward spiral of the downtown and nearby neighborhoods by choking downtown off. Unlike it's bigger neighbor Buffalo (down 53% and counting) however, Rochester seems about ready to bottom out, at around 200,000 people. More sensible, cohesive planning like this highway removal will further stabilize the city and create some desirable pockets with potential for growth.

The removal should really be coupled with an extension of Park Avenue so that it leads all the way into downtown. East Ave is the closest access path, but it's on an inhuman to ostentatious scale. Continuing Park Ave, the most thriving residential/retail corridor of the city, would be good for neighborhood residents, giving an easier, better walk to offices downtown. And, it'd be good for downtown, as there'd be a more natural flow between the two areas. Eventually a real continuum between the two may form, with people living/working/shopping in the current dead zone.

I hope the state approves the project.