June 18, 1984

Before Walmart, Walgreens or the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there was another W bullying its way through the neighborhood. On this date, Wegmans went public with their plans to build a 88,000 square foot superstore on the Hookway Tract, a 14.4 acre parcel of land on the Syracuse University campus, in the area bordered by Broad Street, Meadowbrook Drive, Westmoreland Avenue and Colvin Street. Fearing that the area would turn into a shopping strip similar to Erie Boulevard, six neighborhood groups — Drumlins Terrace, Meadowbrook, Outer Comstock, Sherman Park, Southeast University and Westcott East banded together to fight Wegmans' plan to change zoning from residential to commercial, just as they had nine years earlier when Wegmans first hoped to build on the site. Yet not comfortable with wholly rejecting the Wegmans jackpot, an alternate location was suggested: Nottingham Road in DeWitt, near the 481 interchange. Wegmans rejected this proposal, citing that there were no people in that immediate area, and wished to be more integrated in the neighborhood. In November 1984, Wegmans' option to purchase the land expired, and the company abandoned its plans for the store. The southern part of the Hookway tract now serves as practice fields for Syracuse University, and the rest remains undeveloped.

I am a big proponent of walkable neighborhoods, independent businesses and generally hate the big boxes. In fact, I currently live in such an area myself, about 300 miles to the east of the nearest Wegmans. Which is to say, I would gladly bulldoze my own building if Wegmans wanted to build a store on the site. And while I may be doing this because it's WEGMANS, DO YOU REALIZE HOW LUCKY YOU ARE PEOPLE, I would also welcome a supermarket that wanted to open inside city limits, rather than in the great sprawl of the suburbs. When is the last time that Wegmans built a store that shoppers can walk to? The proposed Hookway Wegmans would have been the largest in Syracuse at that time. There is something to be admired about the residents of the area coming together to not only fight big business from turning open space into a concrete box and parking, but to win - twice. And yet, let's not overlook the significance of the Wegmans proposal, and the statement it would have made if completed: a belief in the future of the city.