Churchill: One (potentially wonderful) alternative to replacing I-787

A plan from the 1990s for a canal through downtown Albany is worth another look.

ALBANY — So, you think replacing Interstate 787 with a boulevard would be impossibly expensive or terrible for commuters? You believe the benefits of such a dramatic project wouldn’t make up for its costs?

Well, then I present an alternative proposal, one first floated to a fair amount of fanfare back in the 1990s. The plan is by Len Tantillo, a painter who has made studying and loving the Hudson River a theme of his long career.

Tantillo’s plan, as some of you remember, calls for a canal that would meander along Broadway in downtown Albany roughly from the SUNY administration building north to the Central Warehouse. The idea in a nutshell: If Albany can’t get to the water because of the highway and railroad tracks, then why not bring the water to Albany?

Tantillo hatched the idea when replacing 787 seemed like an impossibility. It was a time before cities around the country were deciding that taking down highways, particularly those built along the water, was a fine way to enhance their livability. It was a time when getting cars in and out of cities was considered entirely more important than the vitality of the city itself.

Though that time has passed, by and large, and the possibility of taking down 787 no longer seems like a pipe dream, Tantillo’s plan is worth revisiting, if only because it would transform Albany. It would make the downtown of New York’s capital a destination. If nothing else, the canal is wonderful food for thought and enjoyable to imagine.

As Tantillo told me Friday, part of the beauty of the plan is its relative simplicity. In areas immediately north of downtown, it would require only unearthing basins and a section of the Erie Canal that might just be salvageable.

“It doesn’t tear down a single building, and it doesn’t interrupt 787,” said Tantillo, 74, whose art is now being celebrated at a major Albany Institute of History & Art retrospective. “There’s even enough width to keep Broadway operating as a road.”

Tantillo’s painting of what the canal would like like are enchanting, depicting a newly romantic Albany that looks something akin to, dare I say, an upstate Venice. 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’s not hard to understand why former Mayor Jerry Jennings fancied the plan and provided Tantillo with seed money to flesh it out, leading to a 36-page plan. But the initial excitement over the canal faded, succumbing to the pessimism and malaise that dooms so many good ideas in this town. Decades later, the potential of downtown Albany remains unrealized.

There are reasons to reconsider the plan now. President Biden is preparing a plan to spend $3 trillion on infrastructure and rebuilding the economy, and you can bet that U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer will be looking to ensure that New York gets its fair share of the money, if not more. So why not at least Tantillo’s idea some consideration?

After all, you don’t have to travel to San Antonio’s Riverwalk to see what relatively small channels of water can mean for cities. In Ottawa, the Canadian capital about 250 miles northwest of Albany, the Rideau Canal through downtown is a vital part of the city’s economy and, in the winter, a massive skating rink.

In Providence, the Rhode Island capital 150 miles southeast of Albany, a long-buried canal uncovered in the 1980s (technically, it’s a river) is traversed by tourist-carrying gondolas and is home to regular WaterFire celebrations that, believe me, are worthy of your bucket list.

So, the big question: How much would the canal cost?

Beats me. Tantillo doesn’t really know either. Certainly, though, the canal would cost less than taking down 787 and rebuilding it as a boulevard. And, as Tantillo noted, the costs has to be weighed against what the plan would do for property values and tax revenues.

“If it generates enough money, it doesn’t cost anything,” the Nassau resident said, noting that the project could be constructed in phases.

The canal would aid the planned redevelopment of a bleak area of downtown known, facetiously, as the Parking Lot District, which would almost be be near the canal, and would complement the Skyway project, putting its transformed highway ramp directly over water.

It might lead to big things for one of the city’s most problematic buildings: the massive (and massively ugly) Central Warehouse, which would sit on the new waterfront.

But the best thing about the plan, from Tantillo’s point of view, is that it would return Albany to a canal and river that has been such a big part of the city’s history — and should be vital to its future.