The Connective Corridor has been beneficial in some respects since it started, but has much to improve on during its second and third phases, specifically with local businesses.

During Wednesday’s Connective Corridor public information session, plans for the second and third phases of the city project were revealed. This is the first major step in the project since former chancellor Nancy Cantor, who proposed the $42.5 million project in 2005, left Syracuse University.

The Connective Corridor, which is the city’s largest public works project in the last 30 years, is now in the hands of Chancellor Kent Syverud, who should follow through with the remaining phases and improve on Cantor’s vision.

Since its creation, the project has been most beneficial to SU students. However, it should be beneficial to both the campus and the city.

While it has been about nine years since the project was first proposed, some businesses downtown are still questioning how the Connective Corridor can help them to improve business, which shows it is not as successful as it was hoped to be.

The project’s first phase made downtown more accessible with the addition of the bus route, but it has not improved business as much as it should have. The Connective Corridor has helped students on campus, but it should be focusing on improving local business in the next two phases.

Improving downtown’s infrastructure may be the key to improving business downtown. In the next phases, the project plans to make downtown more pedestrian-friendly, cyclist-friendly and accessible by increasing car lanes and parking spots. These are simple measures to making downtown a more attractive destination, which can ultimately improve businesses.

Additions like the Kinection, a motion-activated interactive kiosk, however, are not. Last year, 19 lights on University Avenue along the Connective Corridor were vandalized, which cost more than $20,000 to repair. The project’s planners should take vandalism to items along the corridor into consideration, since an expensive, technologic kiosk would also run the risk of being damaged.

The Connective Corridor project didn’t do enough to help local businesses in its first phase. Planners should make this the focus in the final phases of the project.

Published on February 27, 2014 at 1:00 am