Civic Innovations

Eight years ago, when the future of Syracuse’s I-81 viaduct felt uncertain and the public debate was just heating up, I built a simple tool called Without81. The concept was straightforward: help Central New Yorkers understand what their daily commutes might look like if the aging downtown viaduct wasn’t an option.

At the time, much of the discussion around the I-81 replacement project centered on abstract concepts and political positioning. People were understandably concerned about how removing the elevated highway might affect their ability to get to work, visit family, or conduct business across the region. Without81 aimed to make those concerns concrete by letting anyone input their origin and destination, then compare standard routing with alternatives that avoided the downtown viaduct entirely.

The tool was built with Code for Syracuse, part of our broader effort to use civic technology to inform public discourse. Looking back, I’m proud that we contributed something tangible to the conversation at a time when tangible information felt scarce. The project garnered attention from local media and community groups, and I hope it helped some residents feel more informed about the changes coming to their city.

Now, as 2025 unfolds, the transformation of Syracuse’s transportation infrastructure is no longer a hypothetical. The I-81 viaduct project is well underway, with major milestones reached this year and the Community Grid taking shape. New flyover ramps are operational, construction crews are racing to meet deadlines, and the project is on track for completion by 2028. What once felt like an uncertain future has become Syracuse’s present reality.

With this progress, the time has come to let Without81 retire gracefully. The domain will expire later this year, and I’ll be archiving the code repository soon. The API keys I used to build and launch it no longer work, and I don’t have the heart to renew them. This tool served its purpose during a critical period of public engagement, but now that the community has moved forward with the Community Grid solution, continuing to maintain a service like Without81 seems unneeded.

There’s something bittersweet about letting go of a project that i had hoped would be vital to public discourse. But that’s the nature of civic technology at its best—sometimes the most successful projects are the ones that eventually become obsolete because the problems they addressed have been resolved. Syracuse has chosen its path forward, construction is proceeding on schedule, and soon the shadow of the elevated highway will be replaced by tree-lined streets and reconnected neighborhoods.

It’s time to let go, and that feels exactly right.

Image usage: Daniel Lobo, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons