Nisstyre's Corner

The idea of a "rooftop highway," a four-lane divided road to connect Watertown and Plattsburgh, has become almost mythical in North Country lore. The concept has floated around policy circles since the 1960s as a means of regional economic development. In the last few years, the rooftop highway movement has gathered steam. Governor Pataki even gave it a new name—the Northern Tier Expressway—at a 2003 appearance at Clarkson University. Plans are slowly moving forward, despite some setbacks. David Sommerstein has this update.

Authors of a study that recommends a four-lane highway from Watertown to Plattsburgh held public meetings on the idea last week. The response from local leaders has been overwhelmingly positive, but the public's reaction has been mixed. David Sommerstein reports.

- North Country Public Radio (NCPR)

WASHINGTON - The rooftop highway proposed for Northern New York and New England is missing a few shingles. While the rooftop concept has strong support in Northern New York and Maine, it faces opposition in Vermont, where environmentalists worry that a new interstate highway would tear through valuable forest and disrupt towns along the route.

- Watertown Daily Times

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The first article comments very correctly about this interstate, it has become myth and lore of THE NORTH COUNTRY. First lets learn what is the North Country, and why you can get shot for calling it Upstate New York. Of course you have New York State, which for some reason many people do not realize that it is a large state. NYC is just a single city not even really part of the state, it sticks down into NJ and away from the main body in the south-east corner. And as great of a place it can be where I know a couple of people who I live, my feelings is the city needs to be cut from the state and become its own district, like Washington. The amount of money the state has to use towards this one area is just insane since there is alot more that is in need of help. NYC and the southern parts are known as New York State.

Upstate New York, which typically everything thinks its anything north of NYC, is actually the central part of the state. This includes part of the Adirondack Mountains, and such larger cities such as Syracuse, and Saratoga Springs. Past this you get into true wilderness, and thus you get....

NORTHERN NEW YORK. Find a map of NY with the counties shown, Northern New York is made up of roughly 6 counties, Jefferson, Lewis, Franklin, Essex, Clinton, and St.Lawrence. Lake Placid, home of the 1980 something Olympics and just had the movie about the US Hockey Team which kicked ass that year, is known as the Gateway to the area. I along with many others will actually get pissed if you call it Upstate, its a totally different world here compared to the rest of the state.

Norhern New York is not a place you'd want to live, unless you're already living here, or you're looking for a very peaceful place. Due to the Adirondack Mountains we are cut off from many things, since the mountain range is a national park for the rich NYC folks to come get away from their world of SIN! Joking, but that's the general attitude about it, the Adirondack Park is a lovely place to go camping, vacationing if you like wilderness. Its not the Rocky Mountains, unlike the Rocky Mountains which are very young in age, these mountains are old and worn down to be semi-small in areas. Nice glacier cut lakes, very clean, probably a good idea it was made into a park eons ago. BUT....

To get to my area, which all I will say is St.Lawrence County, you basically have to go around these mountains. There is a way to get places via the mountains, but the roads can be pretty shitty at times, just State Routes in need of some real work. The cool thing about the park is all the signs turn aburn/brown colors, and all the guardrails and railings are brown so they blend in more. But the true transportation, the one that brings ECONOMIC GROWTH are Interstates.

Interstates were created by Einsenhower (sp?) during his 1950s Presidentacy. Most think they were built because of the baby boom and the massive growth America experienced after WWII, and how we fell in love with automobiles, but that is false, and it shows how the government thinks. Interstates were created to allow our armed forces to move around our country quickly and safely. Einsenhower while serving in the army had to move his unit from the east coast to the west coast, and it took weeks over various roads, some nice, many rough. There was a highway system at the time, the old US ROUTES which many interstates were built next to allowed long distant travel. US 66 of course is the famous one, US 11 near me goes almost to Mexico. There is a US 9 near the I-90 here in NY that goes from Salem Mass to Portland Org. For every 5 miles of Interstate there must be a 1 mile of straight flat road....so the military could land planes if needed. Of course I'm sure that doesn't hold too true anymore, but that was 1950.

I am roughly 1.5 hours between the only two interstates in the area, I81 which goes from the Canadian Border down into Mississippi, and the I87 which goes from the Canadian Border to Queens. Interstate 98 as I discovered was the proposed number is suppose to follow US Route 11 from Watertown to Plattsburg, and apparently if possible all the way to Northern Maine. I've heard about this thing all my life, but as you can see, its being studied and cock-blocked by the politicians.

Its mainly the "Enviromental Impact" everyone is bitching about, oh god the fucking noise, what about the little animals, WON'T SOMEONE THINK ABOUT THE ANIMALS!!!!!!! Jesus Christ you people need to shut the fuck up. Northern New York has had a kind of tradition of "fuck nature", we are also home to the St.Lawrence Seaway, a water shipping lane which allows ships to travel from the Atlantic into the Great Lakes via a series of water locks. Before the river had a massive rapid area, which happens to be in my back yard. They built many locks and dams, and we fucking back-flooded a giant area that became to be known as Lake St.Lawrence, which is just a watershed to feed the FDR Powerdam, a massive cement powerdamn with 32 Turbines shared between the US and Canada (16 turbines each).

This is another area of woe, they built this entire system of locks based off a lock located between Lake Ontario & Lake Erie, and when they got done in 1959, they were a little too small for the modern ships. Its another lore and myth that has been talked about, the expansion of this system so it can handle larger ships. The Enviromentalists are also against this, because the shipping channel would have to be dug deeper, and we might disturb some wildlife. Maybe the Zebra Muscles will die off, wouldn't that be sad, some little snail like creature from china who hitched a ride on a ship and has caused some havoc on the river, clogging water intake pipes and such. We burrid 10 canadian towns and killed several US towns from growing in the 1950s to create this thing, including all the land we sunk under.

Anyways, back to the roughly main point of this rant, Interstate 98 is suppose to connect Interstate 81 and 87, and reading tonight the rest of the North-East America. But I found it funny that is it really a Myth, most have heard of it, and most know that we will not see it in our lifetime. Our economy sucks, we pay more than most for gas and vehicles, why? Because they are more or less Imported to the area due to lack of proper roads. Companies do not want to build facilities here despite some "good" things we do have, such as the FDR Powerdam, which currently supplies power to various locations in NY State including power down to NYC, two massive aluminum smelters and a GM Powertrain plant which produces engine blocks (alot more before GM went to hell). Those two companies (Alcoa & GM) are the blood of this area, if you're working here, you're making good money, and you are because they are union shops, and if you're not a doctor or a teacher (yes teachers are "higher" class here rather than spit as cities tend to treat them), you will either live alright, or you'll be poor. On the plus side housing and such is cheap, you can get a nice place for 400, a "NY Shoebox Aprtment" would cost like 50 bucks a month with everything included. Land is also cheap to come by, unless you are on the St.Lawrence River, or in the Adirondack Park (which you can't even build a firepit without three permits).

As someone who plans to stay in this area for at least part of his life, I feel that this interstate would be a very good thing for this entire area. It would allow things to be shipped here cheaper, lower prices for vehicles and gas, and could bring in some sort of business. If they would expand the St.Lawrence Seaway to allow at least small container ships, you could have disturbution centers here, trucking companies could setup in the region, companies would be more willing to come here.

There are other things they have talked about building here, such as a small nascar track that would at least give 500+ jobs to the community. Its shown economical boosts to areas that got a track, even though some areas complained about it, the people here are bitching because of the "noise" factor.

Anyways, my mind has wandered off the subject...