City lawmakers voted Tuesday to approve funding to replace a section deteriorated section of the Pike Plan canopy in Uptown Kingston. The council did not weigh in on the long-term fate of the system of covered porticos which shelters sidewalks on Wall and North Front streets.
The $165,000 allocation from the city’s reserve fund will pay for the replacement of a section of the Pike Plan covering 43-45 North Front. In voting to repair the single section, lawmakers punted on the larger question of whether the canopy should undergo further repairs or be torn down entirely. According to estimates, it will cost about $450,000 to repair damaged portions of the canopy. Tearing down the structure would cost an estimated $868,000. A recent city-sponsored survey found broad support for maintaining the canopy among the general public, while owners of property abutting the structure favor its removal.
Council gets its Wings
The Common Council voted unanimously to approve Mayor Steve Noble’s plan to purchase and demolish a former fast-food franchise to make way for the realignment of a Broadway intersection.
On Tuesday, the council voted to allocate $475,000 from the city’s reserve fund to purchase and demolish the former Planet Wings restaurant at 500 Broadway. The shuttered fast-food restaurant is located at a four-way intersection where Broadway comes together with Grand Street, Pine Grove Avenue and Prince Street. In a March 1 memo proposing the realignment, Noble noted that the intersection had been the site of 44 traffic accidents in the past five years. The realignment plan, Noble said, would improve safety by allowing drivers to pass directly across Broadway between Pine Grove Avenue and Prince Street without having to make a turn. Unused portions of the former planet wings site will be used as public green space. Construction of the new intersection is slated for 2021 following the completion of a larger project to improve the entire Broadway corridor between St. James and Cornell streets.
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