Prior to the American Revolution, there were two roads in the Troy area starting at Dirck Vanderheyden's ferry house. One went north, following much of present day River Street and split, with one end continuing north, and the other spur heading east up to Schaghitcoke. The second road went northeast to Hoosick. Present day Hoosick Street follows much of this later route. What has happened in recent years to Hoosick Street in Troy is a monumental disaster.

Last week I received a call from an irate Trojan alerting me to the destruction of four houses along the south side of Hoosick to 15th Street. Four more residential units taken down for what - a chain drugstore, service station, or doughnut shop?

When I was young, Hoosick was like Congress or Ferry Streets. Small, two lane roads, with residential and commercial buildings lining each side. Anyone wanting to go to Vermont crossed Congress, Menands, or Green Island Bridges, went north, and then east up Hoosick. Often those travelers would stop in downtown or along Hoosick to do some shopping or eating. There were 72,000 people in Troy and those travelers had no problem getting to Vermont.

A few years ago some bright rocket scientists at the State Department of Transportation decided Troy needed to sacrifice a way for those travelers to bypass the city and speed through Hoosick and out of sight. This included destroying several commercial buildings for the exit ramps of the new bridge, and of course, the total wipeout of housing and commercial buildings along the route of Hoosick up to 15th Street. This has separated Troy from the North Central portion of the city. Yes, there have been public hearings on a new Hoosick Street "Corridor," not that anyone listened (that building on the corner of 15th and Hoosick was asked to be saved). The word corridor says it all. Hoosick is no longer a street.

Where did it say that Trojans had to give up their street and way of life so that people could hurry up to Vermont? Who made the decisions that hundreds of homes and businesses were less important than time travelers who had no interest in Troy? I fail to see the logic in this. Nearby Bennington County has only grown 3.2% from 1990 to 2000 (the entire state only 8.2%). Does that justify the destruction of Hoosick Street as a viable locally controlled residential and economic part of Troy? I don't think so.

And now some folks think that by lining this "corridor" with new fast food restaurants and convenience stores, those fleeing by-passers will take a few moments to stop and spend their money. Any money spent will go to the home office of these chain stores, while a few of us will get the minimum wage. Realize that by lining the corridor with these out of town establishments, it means that in addition to the constant flow of traffic, now add the few hundred stragglers trying to get back into the traffic flow. That means many traffic lights and traffic jams. How do we solve that? Well, easy, just widen the road into more lanes. More lanes, more traffic, you get the drift? In a few years, this corridor will become a total nightmare. It's like a cancerous tumor that will spread north, south and east.

What happens when Vermont decides to build some throughway no longer making Hoosick a major link? Ask all those folks who built restaurants, motels, and the like along Route 9, when that road was the major north/south "corridor" before the Thruway was built. Can you say economic disaster?

Why not tunnel Hoosick! Where the Collar City bridge ends, dig a tunnel under Hoosick and run it the length of Hoosick to exit past South Lake Avenue. Then Hoosick Street can be rebuilt back into a two-lane street with new residential and commercial buildings alongside and reconnect the two parts of the city again.

But you can't tunnel, you say? Engineers dug the block long train tunnel between Congress and Ferry in the 19th century. In 1967, DOT had no problem digging the Ferry Street Tunnel (3 blocks long) so Russell Sage girls didn't have to walk across Ferry Street? The following year, DOT proposed to build the Mid-Crosstown Arterial in Albany that would have provided a connection between the Downtown Albany Interchange of the NYS Thruway, Exit 23, to an interchange with Interstate 90, Exit 6. The entire interchange would have been completely under Washington Park entering and exiting via a series of tunnels (see www.capitalhighways.8m.com/highways/m-ca/ for images).

So if anyone tells you it can't be done, tell him or her this is one time that having "tunnel vision" is a good thing.