Both of these cities have 30,000 people. Only one of them is the state’s least walkable.

Ithaca, New York and Franklin, Massachusetts are quite alike – yet they also could not be more different.

Both cities have a bit over 30,000 people living in them. Franklin’s bigger by area, a little over four times the square area (27 square miles versus six), so naturally Ithaca is much denser. Include Ithaca’s urban area, and the population swells to over 50,000, yet its density is still higher than Franklin’s (2200 people per square miles as opposed to 1250).

Franklin and Ithaca both have colleges within their cities. Now, granted, Franklin’s Dean College is no Cornell University, but they both are private institutions that not only serve their community but help to bring people from outside to the city. 

So, what’s the key difference between the two? As stated before, Ithaca is much denser. And what comes with that density is walkability. Something Ithaca is noteworthy for, and something Franklin is sorely lacking.

What’s the problem with Franklin?

The immediate area surrounding Dean College in the Town of Franklin is admittedly fairly nice. Just blocks away from the city’s train station with direct access to Boston, situated close to the town’s common area, and located right along Main Street, the Dean College area is the best Franklin has to offer.

Unfortunately, beyond this small area, the rest of the city is not like this. A lack of sidewalks and a decrease in density leads to the rest of Franklin being extremely car dependent. The town as a whole has a walk score of just 22, meaning that Franklin is actually the single least walkable city in the state of Massachusetts.

This lack of pedestrian infrastructure and the city’s urban sprawl actively discourages people from walking and forces them to drive around town for nearly everything. 

“You get the message very clearly – ‘this really wasn’t meant for you. This was meant for the cars,’” said Ed Augustus, the Chancellor of Dean College and the former city manager of Worcester, Massachusetts in a podcast for Franklin Matters.

Now, you may notice Franklin has been referred to here as both a town and a city. That’s because Franklin is a bit of both. Technically it is a city, due to its form of government, but it still likes to call itself a town. A small town might be able to get away with a lack of density or walkability because it’s “too spread out,” but a city? As much as it may want to think of itself as a town, Franklin is a city. Perhaps it should embrace this distinction to uplift itself and make it a better place for its residents to live.

Why Ithaca is so much better

Ithaca does not have these same problems as Franklin. Of course, not every street in the city features wide sidewalks and a robust pedestrian network – but many do.

As of 2020, Ithaca had a walk score of 68, beating major metropolitan areas like Austin or San Antonio and almost equal to that of Seattle. In 2017, nearly 40% of all residents walked to work. And compared to those other major urban areas, the annual revenue dedicated to sidewalks is a fraction of the cost, with only a small percentage of missing sidewalk miles.

Ithaca also has its own Commons area, a pedestrian-only “shopping area jam-packed with more than 100 independently owned and operated shops.” The area is spacious, with wide sidewalks, plenty of trees, and benches for people to use, making it a beautiful gathering area for the community. After all, a major boon of sidewalks and a walkable area is the increase in spending for the local economy, among many other factors.

How did Ithaca, a city with the same population as Franklin, become such a walkable community? The answer is quite simple: the city shifted the burden of sidewalk repair from the owner to the city and levied a sidewalk maintenance fee.

In 2013, the city decided to divide its area into five “sidewalk improvement districts” (SIDs) and collect fees, which are only used in the district they are collected. The fee for single family homes is a mere $80 a year – which equates to less than the cost of a monthly Netflix subscription. 

Other properties have to pay a bit more. The fee for non-single family homes is $150 annually, plus a frontage fee and a square footage fee of two cents per square foot. This adds up, and fees for apartment complexes or large-scale businesses can be hundreds to thousands of dollars.

These fees, while minimal for homeowners, might sound like a lot for other properties. But these are paid only once a year, and are just a portion of the revenue of these properties – a small price to pay for a walkable, connected community.

A key difference in attitude

One key facet that helps separate Ithaca from Franklin (besides its walkability, of course) is transparency.

Ithaca is remarkably upfront about its costs, fees, and construction plans. The city compiles a list of addresses and makes it clear what each property owes that year in fees. The entire year’s sidewalk budget is available to view, plainly laying out how much money the city has, what bills it has to pay, and where the money is being spent.

The city’s sidewalk program goes district by district and delineates exactly what streets they will work on, the cost of construction/maintenance, the linear feet of construction, and even which side of the street work will be done on.

Compare this with Franklin, and it’s clear this ideology of being upfront with the people is not shared. 

Unlike Ithaca, Franklin does not have a sidewalk maintenance fee, and the effects of this are obvious, reducing Franklin to a car-dependent community. Franklin does, though, have some sidewalks, and is working on adding more.

You’d be hard-pressed to find out where, though. Franklin has secured about $100,000 for “constructing and repairing cement concrete sidewalks and pedestrian ramps at various locations within the Town of Franklin.”

Many other notices like this can be found on the Town of Franklin’s website showing past bids for construction and maintenance of sidewalks. Yet the only details are that they are in “various locations” throughout the city – it’s not clear who is even doing the labor. It’s a far cry from Ithaca’s methodical street-by-street approach.

Franklin is clear on one thing, though. They prioritize the streets over the sidewalks. Granted, this is regarding snow removal, but the city’s website makes it clear that “only certain sidewalks” are plowed after a snowstorm. Either way, it’s not a good look, when asked “do sidewalks receive the same priority as streets,” to respond with an emphatic “NO.”

Is Franklin doomed?

Though progress is slow and hard to identify, it seems the Town of Franklin is at least cognizant of some of the issues outlined here.

In September 2021, an unofficial discussion regarding a Complete Streets program was held where multiple members of local government and residents considered various proposals to make the streets of Franklin more accessible to all.

Here, some specific projects were outlined – adding bike lanes throughout town, a bike lane on Grove street, a sidewalk extension on Lincoln Street, and numerous more. Though, the meeting made clear that these proposals were not permanent, and “each year projects will come off and go on depending on available funding and priorities.”

The city is definitely aware of numerous issues that pedestrians and non-drivers face, such as sight lines being obstructed by fences or hedges. The city is also aware that at many locations where sidewalks are present, utility poles interfere with the pedestrian zone, making the sidewalk not traversable by those in wheelchairs. 

Franklin has received $38,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to work towards their Complete Streets goal, and can receive up to $400k in funding per year for projects. 

The program is admirable, and Complete Streets, with bike lanes, sidewalks, and improved pedestrian crossings, would do wonders to revitalize the city by reducing car-dependency and fostering a sense of community.

The problem is that little has been done to achieve this goal. It’s been nearly three years since this meeting was held. The meeting’s notes remarked that “a comprehensive plan that is required by the state…must be submitted this month [September 2021].”

Despite a detailed plan having already been created, a look around town shows a decisive lack of Complete Streets. There are no bike lanes in the city. The Lincoln Street sidewalk extension has not begun, leaving a lapse in the pedestrian network. 

Updates on the progress are hard to come by, and there has been little news since the meeting. Despite an awareness of the problems facing the community, the Town of Franklin is not upfront with its community on how or when it will solve them.

Recreating community

Ithaca serves as a model of what a suburban town/city can do when it remembers that people live in cities, not cars. Its years of dedication and planning have made it an incredibly walkable place to live with a true sense of community.

Franklin is not the same. It is a “community of islands,” as Ed Augustus said in his podcast on Franklin Matters. Driving from place to place is “the antithesis of community. That means we’re all separated from each other. We’re all in our little machines isolated from each other,” he said, a major problem for creating a desirable place to be.

What can Franklin do? It could, perhaps, adopt a similar system to Ithaca, shifting the burden of sidewalk maintenance on to the town. Franklin should also focus on expanding the area around Dean College, as dense communities naturally lend themselves to being more walkable and equitable.

What Franklin especially needs is transparency and to embrace its identity as a city, not a town. Clear updates on what the city is doing to rectify these issues is crucial, and a structured approach as laid out by Ithaca is desirable.

Many cities struggle with making their streets safer and faster for non-car forms of travel, but they must keep trying. Although it may want to be known as a town, Franklin is a city – and so it must keep trying.