Suburbanites are stepping up to the challenge of getting more people engaged and open to a Community Grid option to replace the I-81 viaduct through Syracuse. Coran Klaver is the Founder of Syracuse Suburbs for the Grid and lives in DeWitt but, just on the outskirts of the city and nearby Syracuse University where she is a professor.
“The people who live in the cities and the suburbs we are all connected; we are not at odds with each other. We can’t help but be connected, and so let’s be responsible to one another,” Klaver said.
Rep. John Katko’s I-81 Town Hall begins at 10 a.m. Saturday
St. Matthew’s Church School Gym,
214 Kinne Street, East Syracuse.
The Syracuse Suburbs for the Grid meets immediately following
She recognizes that the SAVE I-81 group has the backing of 19 town supervisors which she says has in essence demonized the Community Grid. Claver wants them to know their support for a new viaduct replacement doesn’t represent all of the residents’ opinions on the matter.
“I had listened to DeWitt town board members saying the community grid was not going to be good for the city,” she said. “That was a week and a half ago because they were trying to pass for the third time this proposition saying that the town of DeWitt was against the community grid.”
So, the group is holding its own open meeting tomorrow in the same location as John Katko. Klaver feels as though the Community Grid option is a real opportunity to benefit city residents to which she is indebted to working in.
“Urban renewal and the highway system and red lining are all go hand in hand; they’re inextricable. And we have a chance to do something different. I think rebuilding a viaduct, it’s doubling down on the north and the northeast version of segregation policies,” Klaver said.