COMMENTARY
Bruce Andriatch: Fear stalks plan to blaze a new trail
At some point, we heard the word “Dallas,” and the first thought in our collective mind was not Kennedy. At some point, we heard “space shuttle” and did not immediately think of the Challenger.
So a day may come when we hear about a trail or a path and do not first think of Altemio Sanchez or his pseudonym, “the Bike Path Killer.” But that day hasn’t come yet.
That is part of the reason proponents of a 27-mile-long trail system connecting Orchard Park to Ashford Junction are finding their effort to be very much an uphill climb.
The trail that supporters envision as a jewel for outdoor enthusiasts in the Southtowns is a section of the former Buffalo&Pittsburgh rail line that is no longer used. The railroad has taken steps to abandon the property. New York State has expressed interest in getting the property and using it for a “linear park,” better known as a trail. Negotiations are continuing.
The Town of Orchard Park has had a trails task force for eight years. Its members are ardent supporters of the state’s plan to obtain the rail property.
But opponents, many of them homeowners whose property abuts the proposed trail, are just as adamant that they don’t want strangers traipsing through their backyards. Public meetings about the trail have degenerated into the fairly standard Us vs. Them development battle.
Peter Swartwout, a task force member, said the blame for the state of the debate rests with him and other supporters who “pushed too hard” to win approval from the multiple jurisdictions along the trail.
“We got all these people very nervous,” he said of trail opponents. “ ‘Well, I’m going to have a snowmobile going through my yard at 90 miles an hour at 2 in the morning.’ Those kinds of things have not been decided. We don’t even know what kind of trail it’s going to be. All we want to do at this point is preserve the corridor. We don’t want the corridor to go away.”
Trail opponents are worried that a trail will bring more crime. But multiple studies have shown the opposite to be true, a point that Carl Knoch of the Rails-to- Trails Conservancy underscores when he speaks about the benefits of trails.
“The incident rate of crime on rail trails is lower than the overall crime rate of the surrounding community,” Knoch said in an e-mail. “Rail trails open up corridors that were far more dangerous before the trail was developed. Rail trails bring a friendly public eye to areas that were once isolated and unpoliced.”
One of the most well known and well traveled recreational trail systems in Erie County is in Clarence, a pair of former rail lines that are hugely popular with residents. But that trail system will forever be linked with Sanchez, who killed his last victim there.
Clarence Supervisor Scott Bylewski said the tragedy of Joan Diver’s murder is not indicative of crime problems along the trail. He said crime is no more or less a problem on the trail than it would be in any park, and he said having a trail in your backyard is akin to having a sidewalk in the front.
“We remain very supportive of trails,” he said. “It’s key if you’re going to have a community that is more walkable.”
Supporters of the trail in Orchard Park are “lying low” for a while, Swartwout said. Public fights didn’t work, so they are trying to quietly build consensus for the project while they allay fears about crime.
They might find that approach finally puts the trail project on the right path.
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