Gillibrand recommends OCC graduate to serve on DOT advisory committee on transportation equity

A 2003 graduate of Onondaga Community College (OCC) is under consideration to join the advisory committee on transportation equity within the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) last week announced her recommendation of Lanessa Owens-Chaplin, who the lawmaker described as a “local I-81 advocate.”

“I am proud to recommend Lanessa Owens-Chaplin to the DOT’s Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity,” Gillibrand said. “Lanessa is a dedicated public servant committed to helping her community and fighting for environmental and racial justice.”

As an attorney and director of the environmental-justice project at the New York Civil Liberties Union, Owens-Chaplin has been working with state and federal officials and stakeholders surrounding the I-81 project, per Gillibrand’s office.

Owens-Chaplin’s expertise in structural, economic, and environmental racism has been “critical in guiding a more equitable plan” for the I-81 replacement and will be an “invaluable asset” to the advisory committee on transportation equity, the senator contended.

Crews will replace the elevated portion of Interstate 81 (I-81) in downtown Syracuse with a community grid alternative. The replacement effort remains in the planning stages, even though the project is currently on a temporary pause following a Nov. 10 ruling from a state Supreme Court judge.

The judge sided with the group “Renew 81,” which cited the state’s new “Green Amendment,” which provides for a right to clean air, water, and healthful environment, per a Nov. 10 article on the website of Spectrum News 1 Central New York.

Owens-Chaplin told Spectrum’s Capital Tonight program that the lawsuit “paints a false narrative of what this community actually wants.”

She argues that using the green amendment as a legal case to keep the highway is “utterly ridiculous,” per the Spectrum News 1 website article.

The article also includes a statement from the lawyer for the plaintiff saying the group is “very pleased” with the ruling and hopes the state can devise a new solution allowing Syracuse residents to “effectively commute to new jobs in Clay,” referring to the future semiconductor manufacturing campus of Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU) in the town of Clay.

OCC reaction

In a statement about the recommendation, OCC said Owens-Chaplin also has the perspective of someone who at one time lived in the Pioneer Homes housing project, which is right next to I-81.

The college also noted that Owens-Chaplin is a 2021 distinguished OCC Alumni Faces honoree and was awarded an honorary doctorate from SUNY during OCC’s commencement ceremony earlier this year.

“We’re so proud of Lanessa and everything she has accomplished,” Warren Hilton, president of OCC, said. “She has dedicated her life to helping those going through the same struggles she experienced. She’s a shining example of the power of a community college education, and the difference people can make when they dedicate their lives to helping others.”