Skyway to Hell

As mayor of Milwaukee, John Norquist tore down that city’s version of the Skyway.

That revealed enough new, free land to enable $300 million in waterfront development in that City. Without a hulking, ugly, rusting overpass blocking the sky.

Norquist is now the head of the Congress for New Urbanism, and Higgins brought him to town to help advocate for the destruction of our own Skyway.

The Skyway, he says, is blocking Buffalo’s waterfront development.

Norquist said, “Tear it down. I mean, it’s blighting property.”

Norquist heads up a group that helps bring old cities back up to speed, called the Congress for New Urbanism.

He has chosen Buffalo as a national demonstration city, and has the support of the mayor, who also wants to see the Skyway come down.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said, “As a way of returning viability, prosperity, and creating economic and housing development in the City of Buffalo.”

Kudos to the mayor for that. The Skyway must go. And I’ve seen a groundswell recently of people bemoaning the future ability of Southtowners to get to work if the Skyway comes down. If they were going to replace the Skyway with a ferry service, I could see the point. But they’re not, so I don’t.

Saving 2 minutes in drive time to reach the 190 isn’t a good enough reason, to me, to stunt waterfront development at the foot of Main Street. Anyone who complains about the traffic in Buffalo really needs to take a trip to LA, SF, Boston, New York, Washington, Denver, etc. and see what a traffic jam really looks like.