Erie Canal Museum

A dozen people clad in sandals rolled out baby blue paint onto Erie Boulevard in downtown Syracuse Saturday night between Montgomery and Salina streets, a two-block stretch converted from a fraction of the Erie Canal into dry land less than a century ago.

Approaching 9 p.m., the former national power building shone out down the boulevard, and the fountains bubbled behind public works barriers. To the South, the sky loomed dark and opaque.