One proposal even suggests turning part of Hoosick near the bridge into a boulevard that would be safer and would help reconnect hillside neighborhoods with downtown.Waterville (ME) Morning Sentinel. Troy, meanwhile, has been studying ways to make Hoosick less disastrous for pedestrians. Herrington mentioned that Brunswick has received a $100,000 grant to study potential fixes for Hoosick's traffic problems, but that only raises a question: Shouldn't solutions be found before the town approves new development, rather than the other way around?īesides, shelves could sag under the weight of the reports about Hoosick's traffic issued over the years. It's hard to imagine that anyone headed for a few days of leaf peeping, skiing or any other stereotypically Vermont activity is left with a good impression of the Capital Region. Hoosick, which is Route 7, is also the region's major route to Vermont. It's worth remembering that the headaches aren't just a local concern. I can understand why Herrington and the town wouldn't say no to new supermarkets.īut does that mean that Brunswick has to greenlight all the fast-food restaurants, too? Get the story behind Chris Churchill’s latest columns. "I've got a lot of people who are happy to be having Hannaford coming to town," Herrington added, noting that older residents of the town seem particularly enthused about the coming of Aldi.
But Hoosick, he told me, is designated as the town's commercial corridor and Brunswick needs the tax revenue. Another noted that "the center turning lane of Hoosick Road (in Brunswick) is more and more being used as a passing lane and some people are even using it as a travel lane to avoid congestion."īrunswick Supervisor Phil Herrington is aware of the problem, of course, and admitted it was a concern. One resident, for example, complained of an 18-wheeler using residential Yates Street in Brunswick. And if comments on the Facebook page used by residents of the Sycaway neighborhood are an accurate indication, the problem isn't confined to one side of the border.
"I guess the growth is positive for the tax base in Brunswick, and I commend them for that, but there should be some consideration for the impact on Troy."īy Steele's telling, development along Hoosick Road in Brunswick is having a deleterious effect on surrounding Troy neighborhoods by pushing traffic to residential streets. "It's frustrating to have one municipality impacting so negatively on another," said Troy City Councilwoman Sue Steele, whose district is divided by Hoosick. (I hope you didn't just faint from the excitement.) But the development in Brunswick seems particularly insane, given the existing and intractable problems along Hoosick Street. In fact, something similar is happening south of Troy along Route 4 in North Greenbush, another booming stretch that will soon be home to a much-anticipated Chick-fil-A. Same old, same old, almost anywhere in the country. New, auto-centric construction gobbles up open acreage on the outskirts of the city despite available land and existing infrastructure within the city itself. Yes, this is the sprawling development pattern familiar to Americans everywhere. But causing the most alarm is the imminent opening of two grocery stores - Hannaford and Aldi - set to compete with an existing Market 32 by Price Chopper and a Wal-Mart. Yet that's exactly what's happening.Ī stretch of Hoosick east of the Troy border is booming with new construction that includes the usual array of fast-food and chain-store names. Widening the road is nearly impossible, in part because existing properties crowd the road, and would only induce more demand anyway.īut it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that more development along the road will make its problems worse.
There's nothing new about any of that, of course.Ĭomplaints about congestion along Hoosick Street, particularly where it narrows to two lanes near the border with Brunswick, have been aired for decades, and solutions aren't easy to come by.
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