Written by Henry John Steiner Friday, 30 July 2010
I would be remiss not to mention it, but I believe that this community and the surrounding region may be about to go through an extended period of unprecedented upheaval. Until more questions receive substantive answers relating to the negative impacts of the proposed new Tappan Zee Bridge construction project, the residents of Tarrytown, Irvington and Sleepy Hollow have good reason to be gravely concerned. That also goes for Nyack and other communities across the bridge. In fact, the ranks of those communities and those people who stand to be negatively affected in a serious way may reach much farther – from Manhattan to Albany, from remote points in Connecticut and New Jersey and beyond.
There has been little public discussion or debate on the actual quality-of-life threats that the new Tappan Zee Bridge (TZB) project poses to adjacent communities. On the contrary, the plan appears like a force of nature – inevitable and indifferent to the consent (or the protests) of Hudson Valley residents. This project is very soon to make landfall. I hope, in this and future columns, to take up some of the questions that have, so far, been left unanswered.
Poster Child – the Cross-Westchester Expressway
The all-in official estimate for the new TZB project is $16 billion, although anyone who ever put in a new bathroom should have some idea of what to expect from that figure. But discussions of cost, timetable, and the other details, so far presented, do not answer the very central question of, “Why?” And not just a superficial “Why?” But a real “Why?” Are the details of a bridge plan being weighed before the public has had a chance to understand why a bridge is called for and what the construction of that bridge will cost us in our everyday lives?
Sometime in the late 1950s, my father had our family in the station wagon, en route to do some shopping in White Plains. As we headed from Tarrytown east on Route 119 toward Elmsford, he announced that, soon, the trip, which took about twenty minutes, would only take about ten minutes. He told us that a new expressway was being built, the Cross-Westchester Expressway. By December 1960, we had our new expressway, a speedy six-lane link to White Plains and beyond. Then in 1999, the New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Thruway Authority set about "fixing" the Cross-Westchester.
As soon as the Cross-Westchester Expressway "improvement" project began, people who lived and traveled along the 287 corridor experienced crippling, grinding, unexplained delays and traffic jams. The project began over a decade ago and there is still no end in sight, and nary a word of explanation. The project and the disruption it continues to bring have become the norm. Eleven years after it began, there are still only six lanes on the Cross-Westchester. It makes one wonder if this project was really necessary. It makes one wonder about the true motivation and true intent and the real finances behind this eleven-year (so far) tooth extraction. If the project's only goal was to profoundly obstruct the flow of traffic over an extended period of time – it has succeeded.
As bad as the stretch has been on a sunny day, it has been worse; just add an inch of rain. Shall we assume that the same folks who brought us the heartache of this project are capable of doing a better job of minimizing the negative impacts from a project monumentally larger? The 287 project has now settled in, east of White Plains. It is a nasty strip of highway-under-construction, challenging and apparently hazardous to the best of drivers. Godspeed the beginner who ventures along that stretch.
A major portion of my long life has been spent during the days of the 1999 to 2010 Cross-Westchester "improvements." Zen mystics would approve, for they say that it's the process, not the end, we must embrace. Yet my dad would wince if he knew how many drivers have shunned the maddening delays of the expressway in favor of Route 119, the colonial Tarrytown-to-White Plains Road, known in former days as Petticoat Lane.
Unanswered Questions
In the case of the new TZB project, there is no Petticoat Lane option for the driver; there is only the Hudson River and no ferry. But this statement suggests that our sole frustration would be in getting from one side of the river to the other. There is a much greater concern. Namely, the idea of living the next ten, twenty, or even thirty years of our lives next to one of the modern world's largest construction sites. Any local resident who has lived here for over a decade has first-hand experience with living in and navigating through a permanent construction zone. Am I wrong to fear that this project will also settle, like an army of occupation, into our community?
There is very little official information available on this score, and perhaps that should be the major concern of the people locally. Apart from an infrequent "nuts and bolts" New York Times article outlining some details of the proposal, there is little information available other than from the bridge project's proponent, the New York State Department of Transportation, or DOT. The DOT appears intent on managing local public opinion, establishing five so called "Citizen Stakeholder Groups." Although the local public is invited to discuss the "soft" details of the project on a par with "... what color would you like to see here...?" the hard decisions have been made in Albany. This hardly constitutes an airing of the issues that will hit people where they live.
Alongside the quality of life questions are the financial ones. Where is the money coming from and who stands to gain? Or more to the point, who will reap the windfall? Is this a pork project and can we move it out of our backyards so the pork can fester elsewhere? How can a state, impaired in its finances, that is stripping and dismantling so many programs including those of basic education, afford this expensive, disruptive, and questionable adventure?
So, if you do not have a strong opinion about the construction of a new Tappan Zee Bridge, there are people who do. They spend their days in the state's capitol city, planning the future of our communities, and they will happily make the decision for us, if we let them.
Henry John Steiner is the village historian of Sleepy Hollow and the managing broker of Steiner Real Estate Associates; henry@ SteinerRealEstateAssociates.com
