Churchill: OK, so 787 isn't the worst

Other cities also have terrible waterfront highways. That doesn't mean Albany should accept the status quo.

Chris Churchill

Dec. 8, 2022

Updated: Dec. 9, 2022 10:12 a.m.

ALBANY — Believe it or not, there are waterfront highways in this country that are more egregious and destructive than our Interstate 787.

 So says Ray Delahanty, a city planner by trade and the creator of the popular CityNerd channel on YouTube. In a recent video — titled "Freeway Malpractice" — citing what he describes as the worst waterfront highways that need to go, Delahanty gives 787 a "dishonorable mention" but doesn't include our rightfully maligned eyesore among his top 10.

 Man, I thought we really had a shot at winning this thing.

 Alas, the folly of 787 was hardly original. Similar stupidity was replicated across North America, and Delahanty cites the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in New York City and Storrow Drive in Boston as even worse examples of waterfront abuse. In part, that's because high property values in those cities makes the gobbling up of waterfront land all the more wasteful.

 The nation's worst waterside highway, by Delahanty's estimation? That would be Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, which, as its name makes clear, consumes much of the city's lakefront.

 "It runs practically the length of the city, almost all at grade, as if to maximize the noise, the air pollution and the physical barrier from the lakefront," Delahanty says.

 Yet, as I've mentioned here before, Lake Shore Drive through Grant Park in downtown Chicago becomes a boulevard with pedestrian crossings. That part of the road, at least, is a possible model for what 787 could become in sections of downtown Albany.

 Here's my reminder that nobody is talking about entirely getting rid of 787. The idea is to scale back a clearly overbuilt highway, with its swirling ramps and soaring pillars, into something less egregious and less costly to maintain.

 I mean, there are places where Interstate 787 and its ramps comprise 11 lanes of high-speed traffic. Eleven lanes! For a city of fewer than 100,000 people, that's insanity. What in the world were they thinking?

 As the Albany Riverfront Collaborative has noted, a scaled-back version of the road could open 92 acres for parkland and development, both of which would transform a downtown that, let's be honest, needs some help.

 Would there be traffic impacts? Well, the collaborative believes a smaller version of the road, with more exit and entrance points, could actually be a more effective way to move traffic through the city, eliminating the backups common at rush hour.

 If you're unconvinced, you not alone. And the impact on traffic is one of the things that will be examined by an upcoming feasibility study, which received $5 million in the most recent state budget. As I wrote in April, that feasibility study might prove a key step toward the end of 787 as we know it. For Albany's sake, let's hope so.

 The other plan for transforming downtown is still alive and kicking. That would be the proposal by Len Tantillo to bring the water to the city with the construction of downtown canals and marinas that would stretch from the SUNY administration building north to the Central Warehouse.

 Tantillo, a painter who has made studying and loving the Hudson River a theme of his long career, casts his plan as a less costly and more politically palatable alternative to rebuilding the highway.

 He envisions pedestrian bridges and restaurants overlooking the water. He depicts river taxis chugging by some of Albany's architectural wonders. He imagines boaters coming up the Hudson to dock in Albany and take in the sights. It all sounds ... wonderful.

 Earlier this month, Tantillo presented his idea to a crowd of about 200 at the New York State Museum. And he touted it to business leaders Monday evening during a talk at the Fort Orange Club. Both audiences were receptive, he said.

 Tantillo's big hope is to have his idea included in the feasibility study set to examine 787. He just wants to know if the plan is possible, he told me Monday, or if it's a pipe dream.

 "We just want to be included. I still believe that the idea would be transformative and would make downtown Albany a very unique place."

 Of course, there's no reason — other than, I suppose, exorbitant cost — why Albany couldn't rebuild 787 and have Tantillo's downtown canal. But maybe we shouldn't get greedy.

 The overarching point is that Albany needs to reclaim the Hudson. As Delahanty noted, waterfronts in cities around the world "are places where you find incredible views, great recreation, dense housing" and tourism.

 But 787 makes much of that impossible, keeping Albany and its region from realizing its potential. It may not be one of the 10 worst highways in North America, but it's still pretty bad.

 An earlier version of this column misstated the name of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

cchurchill@timesunion.com ■ 518-454-5442 ■ @chris_churchill