In its first phase, the Connective Corridor project revamped and revitalized parts of the Syracuse community. By the end of summer 2015, there will be even more additions and improvements.

Initial planning for the second and third phases of the Connective Corridor project began earlier this month and excavation is slated to begin in early March. The project will reconstruct sidewalks, bicycle lanes and vehicle travel lanes, as well as add improved signage and intersection and street crossings.

But Linda Hartsock, the director of the Connective Corridor, wants to do more than that. In an information meeting Wednesday morning at the Nancy Cantor Warehouse, she said the project also focuses on encouraging people, especially Syracuse University students, to go out into the city.

“If all we’ve done is build beautiful streets, but we haven’t encouraged people to use them, move through the city, interact with businesses, go to arts and cultural venues, get students engaged and experiencing the city…I think we’ve failed as a project,” she said.

“We are not just building a beautiful building, a beautiful street,” Hartsock continued. “We’re building a city for the next generation.”

Hartsock said the Connective Corridor bus route gave rides to about 190,000 passengers last year, and she hopes to reach 200,000 passengers this year.

Another part of the Connective Corridor’s project is enhancing the Civic Strip. Not only will there be better pedestrian signage and lighting, but there will also be interactive design elements to the city, said Joe Sisko, the assistant director of Upstate: Center for Design, Research and Real Estate.

One of them is Kinections, which are motion-activated information stands, Sisko said. A person walks by a Kinection and a stick figure avatar appears and greets the person. Kinections would provide information on events in venues across Syracuse and produce interesting facts about the city.

The Facade Improvement Program allows businesses and students to apply for grants — collectively worth $200,000 — to fund projects they want to pursue, Hartsock said. It will be entering its third round of grant applications.

Christina Lockwood, a paralegal at Brookline Development, said she applied for a Facade grant in the first round, and now she will apply for another grant to install lighting in its building.

Other residents and businesses in the area said they feel confident about the project. Valerie Alfieri, a real estate broker for Sutton Company, said she thinks the project is a great idea. She added that with this project, more people will use the Connective Corridor buses as much as she and the project team hoped for.

“I think that every year, it’s been increasing,” she said. “As people are more aware of it, it will catch on and they’ll be able to get the numbers they’re looking for.”

Alfieri added that it’s been hard to get people to develop downtown for a long time, but it’s now bouncing back with new businesses opening up and buildings being constructed in the last few years.

Lockwood said she thinks the project will help bring downtown back into its prime.

“Downtown has deteriorated in the past few years and it’s finally seeing a resurgence,” she said. “I remember when downtown was retail, and you could go for lunch, you could go shopping and all of that just went away.”

Published on February 27, 2014 at 2:00 am

Contact Ellen: ekmeyers@syr.edu | @ellenkmeyers