By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
The Rockefeller Institute of Government hosted a public engagement session at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry last week, allowing dozens of community members to relay their visions for the future of the Erie Canal system.
The July 23 session, held at the college’s Gateway Center, functioned as part of the state-sponsored “Reimagine the Canals” initiative announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this year.
Former Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, the chair of the initiative’s task force and the university’s chief operating officer, said the canal has changed significantly since its opening in 1825.
The canal has been “reimagined,” according to Mahoney, throughout its history, citing the expansion and relocation in 1918 that connected it with natural rivers and lakes throughout the state as a example.
“Commercial shipping no longer exists on the canal, which was a big focus for the folks who were designing things, but all the infrastructure for that commercial traffic does exist,” Mahoney said. “The question now is: How can we reimagine the canal for the 21st century?”
Last week’s session collected input from around 60 members of the local community.
Seated at roundtables headed by discussion facilitators, eight small groups simultaneously made suggestions on how to improve the canal system and what challenges might be encountered in implementing various plans.
Each group concentrated on a different specified topic, the choices being water recreation; tourism; history and heritage preservation; flooding and ice jams; business and investment incentives; general nature and environment; land recreation and parks; and local business.
After 40 minutes, each group filled their poster board with bullet points and sticky notes describing their ideas.
The gathered suggestions across the eight groups touched on stormwater management, advertising opportunities, the coordination of events with local towns, invasive species control, a push for more signage along the canal and an increase in camping space.
The “Reimagine the Canals” initiative grew out of a competition that ran last year to generate ideas for maximizing the 365-mile canal system’s potential.
For the contest, a panel of judges narrowed 145 proposals from the United States and six other countries down to a pair of teams awarded a total of $2.5 million for their projects.
One of the winning entries proposed the development of a canal-side pocket neighborhood in Canastota, while the other conceived of a multi-day festival featuring a boat race among breweries.
The festival, called the Erie Armada, will take place from Sept. 20 to 22 at Macedon Canal Park.
Prior community engagement sessions had been held in Schenectady, Lockport and Brockport. Another was held in Utica.
The “Reimagine the Canals” task force is expected to present a selection of recommendations amassed at these sessions to Gov. Cuomo this fall.
To submit thoughts to the engagement team, fill out a survey at ny.gov/content/community-engagement-survey-reimagine-canals.
