Rochester Subway has introduced us to a marvelous plan, created as a school project by a group of RIT students, which radically repurposes the old subway line.

Using some elements from the highly successful Hi-Line project in NYC, the plan incorporates many gardens, water fountains, exercise space, walking and mediation areas among other wonderful ideas. The project seeks to connect with the community to find ways to serve the local’s interests even as it makes the entire length both an attraction and a park. They named it “The Roc Low Line.”

The students have posed many clever ideas such as inserting mini-hydroelectric generators into the raceway to supply power for the long arrays of LED lighting. That lighting will be flexible, colored and seasonal. Some sections will be open to the weather and some enclosed. There will be several, different types of gardens. There will be space for pedestrians and bicyclists. There is even a design for a basketball court!

Check out the proposal here: ROC Low Line
Of course the drawback is that such a plan would cost millions upon millions to build. If only the US could hack away at some of our defense and NSA spending there would be plenty of money for terrific redevelopment/infrastructure projects like this.

While this plan is extraordinary it ends up begging the question of, “What’s the objective.” What should the focal point be of any development? Should it be to create a tourist attraction similar to San Antonio’s Riverwalk? That project has been so successful it is the number one tourist destination in the state, bigger than the Alamo! Such a goal would rely heavily on retail, restaurants and entertainment to be organized around the length of the project. The tourists are actually shoppers.

Should the subway be seen strictly as park and civic improvement that will have a positive effect of housing and retail development? This positions the plan at a lower financial priority but its impact would no doubt be huge for the advancement of downtown Rochester. Such a goal would certainly bring new residents because the plan is attractive, offers an all season’s exercise environment and the respite of a nature and a park.
There is much good in the plan these ambitious students created. Maybe now it’s time to turn the proposal over to a group of business school and political science students for Phase Two of the project: Find the Money.

Rochester Subway:
ROC Low Line: A (new) Proposal for Rochester’s Abandoned Subway
[Photo courtesy of Rochester Subway]