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Please click on the picture or the link below to see the entire proposal (pdf file) created by Mike Stanton. It will definitely open your eyes to perfectly viable possibilities here in Eastwood. Proposal for a Kinneys . . . → Read More: We could have this Kinneys Sent in by Babette Baker regarding the development of the southwest corner of James and Midler (where the Sport Center once stood, where Fifi’s Ice Cream is now): Information Meeting On the Proposed Kinney Drug Store Project Monday, August 15th -7pm Representatives from the Development and Design Team will be present to answer . . . → Read More: Meeting about design for James/Midler corner Maybe memories are short, or eyeglasses in need, but 9WSYR committed an interesting boo-boo in their video about the groundbreaking for the new Ronald McDonald House. You may recall our great gnashing of teeth over the demolition of the beautiful Kingsley-True house. Our Eastwood neighbor, architect Beth Crawford, had done a rendering of the historic yellow . . . → Read More: Right rendering, bad news “Family” Video gave a presentation at Monday night’s TNT meeting. In essence, despite their pronouncements of neighborliness, the real message was this:
There was virtually no positive response to the presentation and many people were quite unhappy with what they saw. Their plan violates the overlay district zoning standards as well as city regulations that prevent the sale of adult materials within 1000 feet of a church, school, or residential area. Continue reading “Family” Video to Eastwood: “We always win.” The “Family” Video store being proposed at tonight’s TNT meeting (Huntington Elementary School, Sunnycrest and Forest Hill, 7:00 pm) has been the topic of discussion in the Walkable Eastwood email group. The consensus: it’s a no-go on two fronts.
Not one of over a dozen comments in the email group of over 100 members was in favor of having this business in Eastwood. This community has spent years fighting bad design – and winning – so we’re not about to turn back the clock and allow suburban-style development in our urban community. That would cause all our property values to drop and would be a slap in the face of the James Street business owners who develop, successfully, following the guidelines. The northeast corner of James and Midler, known as “the old Steak and Sundae” or “Wittigs Ice Cream”, has been sitting for some time, being allowed by its owner to rot and bring our property values down. “Family” Video is bringing a proposal to the TNT meeting on Monday evening (March 22, 7:00 pm, Huntington Elementary School, on Sunnycrest at Forest Hill). I’m guessing that most of this blog’s readers can now tell exactly what is wrong with all three proposed site plans. (If not, read over the James Street Overlay District Zoning Standards.) This article was posted exactly one year ago. Do we understand any better now the monetary and quality-of-life impact that design and development, good or bad, have on our neighborhood? It’s time we got very clear about what we want and do not want in Eastwood. Word on the street has it that in a meeting last night of the Common Council, the idea of demolishing the old Steak & Sundae building at the corner of James and Midler was brought up. Please correct me if I’m wrong (go ahead! down below, in the comments section), but I thought the owner of this property already asked for this and it was turned down because he had no plan for building something else there. [Editor's note: corrections will be found in comment section.] Why is this week any different from that week? And why would anyone want to reward this person with what he asked for back then? The owner of this property has allowed his building to blight our neighborhood and owes back taxes on it (what happens to you when you owe thousands in back taxes?). He’s been approached a number of times by Stephen Skinner, owner of the Eastwood Plaza, with offers to buy and fix up. “A gas station used to be there.” This is true of the corner of James and Midler. A gas station used to be on approximately every corner in Eastwood, based on some comments I heard at TNT Monday night. And that might have been true. But saying “a gas station used to be there” as justification for a new one being put in at the same location is like saying “An oil city used to be there” as justification for putting in even bigger, taller, brighter oil tanks at the northern entrance to Syracuse. Just because we used to do it doesn’t mean that it necessarily is or is not a good idea. Let’s debate this one on its own merits, not the merits of a period of cheap, plentiful oil, now fast waning. Continue reading A gas station used to be there I am always amazed at the sheer courage it takes people using wheelchairs to navigate the streets of Eastwood. In the summer, they have to work their way up and over or around broken or heaved sidewalks, sidewalks made narrow by encroaching grass and dirt, and cars parked over the sidewalks. And in the winter, just one house on a block with its sidewalk made impassible by snow means anyone trying to get from point A to point B must then walk in the street. Continue reading Demand safer streets! Sent to the Walkable Eastwood email group and reposted here with the permission of the author:
The city of Seattle has Transportation and Pedestrian Safety Committees and a Pedestrian Master Plan. “The plan (a summary you can find here) sets goals and performance measures for making Seattle a more walkable city and reducing the number of car-pedestrian accidents. The plan was developed with help from a citizens’ advisory group.” (see this blog . . . → Read More: Have you done your homework? This little slide show explains the whys and hows of “complete streets” – streets that are designed for all users, not just drivers. It’s best seen in full-screen mode. To get that, just click on the “full” icon in the taskbar at the bottom of this little screen. When you’re done watching it, hit the “Esc” . . . → Read More: Why complete streets? Some time ago, I got to posting on giving up plastic, especially when it might touch food. Now that there are more young families moving into Eastwood, it might be a good time to revisit this idea. Plastics break down, and there really is no safe amount of plastic molecules that you’d want in your body, much less baby’s. . . . → Read More: Driveway conflicts avoided When it comes to approaching the Planning Commission about waiver requests, we hear a lot of conflicting messages about the role and power of the residents:
The sign being voted on at the Planning Commission meeting tonight (City Hall, 6:00 pm) is not, I repeat, is not the hold-up on the store opening. Sean Kirst reported on this fact a month ago (Post-Standard, Friday, June 19, 2009 – bolding mine):
RE: Application No. AS-09-17, Sign Exception , Five Point Development
Dear Ms. Lamendola,
I am writing in regards to application number AS-09-17 submitted by Five Point Development. As an Upstate New York native and urban planner I strongly oppose a waiver for the projecting sign with LED sign. The design does not coincide with the pedestrian oriented design of Eastwood; it’s distracting for drivers and therefore dangerous. Further waivers to the James Street Overlay will weaken the ability to enforce guidelines in the future. I’m not the only one who hopes they get this exit straightened out before we have to read in the paper that a tragic “accident” has taken place at the intersection of James St. and Grant Blvd. Call it an accident and it seems the hand of God is in play. But even mere mortals can tell this exit at Walgreens isn’t going to work. Fact is, we knew it back on December 14, 2005, when I first put this on the Walkable Eastwood website: Anyone crazy enough to read all these posts knows I grew up in Manlius, so walkability was normal for me. My dear ol’ dad was a member of the Village Board for quite some time and I recall fights back in the ’60′s when he and others were trying to prevent the village from tearing down its historic buildings. For the most part, they were successful. And if you walk around Manlius today, you’ll see that there’s still a “there” there. You’ll know, from the quaintly mid-century Sno-Top to the Swan Pond to the ancient Masonic Temple and the early 19th-century homes near the gazebo, that you are in no other place than Manlius, NY. Don’t it always seem to go I’ve been reading a lot about upstate New York lately, in particular Carl Carmer’s books. But I recently got a different kind of book from the library: Dispatches . . . → Read More: They paved paradise |
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