Looks like those backward downstate New Yorkers are at it again. First, there was the successful High Line that reused a defunct Manhattan rail line as a public park, and now the Walkway Over the Hudson, the newest NYS park, which opened to the public on October 3. They even got Empire State Development grant money to help make it a reality.

A New York Times editorial describes it as “the latest example of the new kinds of infrastructure- for tourism and recreation- that are reshaping the Hudson Valley.”

Could something similar be done with the Skyway, if it’s ever decommissioned as a vehicular roadway? I’ve wondered about it.  Some local folks think it’s worth considering, before spending tens of millions of dollars to tear it down and stuff all the scrap into our already bulging landfills.

And besides, the Skyway is part of our history.

Then again, maybe it’s just that people from downstate aren’t as afraid of heights as we are.

So you think Buffalo has a hard time figuring out what to do with its waterfront, do ya? Mad that we can’t just build a signature bridge, huh? Madder still that we can’t just knock the Skyway bridge down? Furious with obstructionists who don’t want a Bass Pro Shop? Livid about the ice boom? And don’t even get you started about all the blind, misguided fools who can’t see that a huge casino downtown will turn our city around?

Yes, my friend, you do in fact have all the answers. If only you were in charge, by God, some things would get done.

Take Buffalo Rising founder Newell Nussbaumer. There’s a guy who gets behind a cause. The passive beach down on the waterfront would never have been there without his commitment. But Newell knows the wisdom of that old Bob Dylan song:

Time passes slowly up here in the mountains,
We sit beside bridges and walk beside fountains,
Catch the wild fishes that float through the stream,
Time passes slowly when you’re lost in a dream.

In fact, the waterfront has been a hot topic for at least sixty years, as evidenced by this award given to Rose Marie Vilardo, a 1949 student of Grover Cleveland High School who addressed the timeless question: “What About our Waterfront?” Check out who the President of the Buffalo and Erie County Planning Association was in 1949.

Now, Newell, I must ask you the tough question: Are you a vampire?

Bring up the Skyway in any conversation where Buffalo’s armchair urban planners are discussing anything from grain silos to livery stables, and watch the sparks fly. But before you join the mob chanting for its removal—a massive demolition that we’re told will restore the city to its former greatness—you’d be well advised to read “Ribbon of Steel and Concrete”: A cultural Biography of the Buffalo Skyway , which was recently published in the academic journal American Studies.

Author William Graebner, Professor of History Emeritus at SUNY, Fredonia, puts the historic bridge in the context of its time, and in so doing lets us see the “eyesore” in a new light. Rich in detail, and full of interesting photos, Graebner avoids the easy route of treating the Skyway like a political football. He draws no final conclusions, but at the same time presents an interesting dilemma for preservationists and developers alike to consider.

We offer it with the kind permission of American Studies editor David Katzman, the Mid-America American Studies Association and the University of Kansas.

*Please note: Although the essay is in the spring, 2007 issue of American Studies, that issue was published only recently, in May 2008.