Open letter about road removal between Lewiston and Niagara Falls

Emerson,
Here are my candid observations about your email urging peers to “consider both sides of the Robert Moses Parkway (RMP) issue before blindly signing” the Niagara Heritage Partnership (NHP) online petition for road removal between Niagara Falls and Lewiston.

In the last four years, you and the Parkway Preservation Committee have ignored the benefits of road removal.

Your unsubstantiated opinion is the RMP is “an artery” for Old Fort Niagara State Park. You ignored Main Street, Youngstown, the Fort’s mainline front door.

The NHP proposal repairs the aneurism Robert Moses caused when he built the RMP, bypassing every Niagara Falls’ business direct. Main Street, Little Italy's Pine Avenue, Third Street and Niagara Street.

Removal rehabilitates that urban-decay abscess. It creates a new life support system with documented economic stimulus numbers and new urbanism thinking.

1. Hundreds of thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in tourism revenue. Data supplied by cities implementing road removal.

2. Seoul, Korea reclaimed a stream for open space. They removed 6-lanes. (Feb. 2009, Scientific American, pages 20-22)

3. USA Niagara proposed the 6-mile segment along the lower river gorge from Niagara Falls to Lewiston be removed." (A View From The Falls: The Demand and Opportunity For Hotel Development in Niagara Falls, page 51.)

4. The Curriculum Guide for Green Infrastructure Planning: "There are economic reasons for protecting "viewsheds" since they are important to attracting…Heritage Tourists...spend[ing] on average two-and-one-half times [more] than other tourists."

5. The New York Natural Heritage Program's Conservation Guide: roads and their associated run-offs are detrimental to calcareous cliff communities. page 2

6. The Smart Growth Network's "Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Policies for Implementation" pages 43-44- Chapter 6- "there is a sense of urgency to saving critical environmental areas. Communities MUST work with other communities in their region and political leaders to expend the resources and develop the innovative techniques to make open space preservation a reality."

7. RMP removal between Niagara Falls and Lewiston is what the Niagara River Greenway aspires to. See the 11 guiding principals, chapter 3, Niagara River Greenway Plan.

8. Counter compromise merely means keeping the current two lanes open.

Emerson, lead, follow, or get out of the way.