Welcome and Invocation Practicing for his forthcoming Presidency, Harold Graves introduced “Reverend” Lawrence Schunck for the Invocation, followed by Dr. Jack Schultz (yes he really does have a doctoral degree) to announce our visitors and guests.
Principal among our guests, other than our speaker, was our returning Brazilian Exchange Student, Sarah Pratt. Sarah presented the flag of her host Club and read a “letter” which she composed from herself to herself about her experiences in Brazil. The letter gave us insight into her challenges, emotions and growth from the experience, and what she would say to herself now, if she were advising herself when she first left on the adventure. For example, she would tell herself to be more confident, less shy and not to be afraid to make mistakes in speaking the language.
Program In an unbridled example of nepotism, the speaker was Donna Rohde, Harold Graves’s sister. Donna represented the Onondaga Citizens League, and spoke on the alternatives for the replacing Interstate 81 through Syracuse. The Onondaga Citizens League has studied this issue for two years to make its recommendation. They found the issue to be far more complicated than they first expected and it took an extra year to sort out all the factors they needed to investigate to make their decision.
The issue is that the present highway is nearly a half century old, no longer conforms with acceptable safety standards and had deteriorated to the point that it must either be rebuilt or replaced by a new concept. As radical as it sounds, Donna made a convincing argument for diverting traffic not destined for Syracuse onto I 481, and replacing the present section of I -81 in the City by a modern urban boulevard. She explained that the present exit ramps tend to create congestion because traffic is diverted onto a limited number of streets instead of being siphoned off gradually onto destination streets along the motorist’s way. She also gave examples of cities that had adopted the boulevard concept and had found that it spurred inner city development and growth because of the more attractive land use. She explained that Syracuse will now embark on a two year discussion phase, preliminary to a decision on what course of action to take. I am sure we would all like to hear from Donna again when OCL has recommendations on additional issues to present.
Upcoming Programs The future holds some more exciting programs that you will not want to miss:
Sept. 7 - NO Meeting
Sept. 14 – Mel Rubenstein - presentation of his 3rd book “The Peacetime Draft .. during the Cold War”
Sept. 21 – Girl Scouts\
Sept. 28 - Dr. Lebowitz – presentation of his book “Ills of Health Care”
Guest Editor, Frank N. Decker