A Collection of Images of Demolished Downtown Apartment Buildings - The most striking change in Downtown Syracuse’s building stock over the last 100 years is the almost total removal of apartment houses. Downtown’s old apartment houses weren’t as famous as major public buildings like the Third County Courthouse of the Yates Hotel, but they were home to hundreds of people at any given time, and … Continue reading A Collection of Images of Demolished Downtown Apartment Buildings →
Three reasons Syracuse needs new housing - Syracuse has a housing crisis, but when a new apartment build gets proposed there’s usually someone who asks whether Syracuse really needs any new housing. The thinking behind that question goes something like this: ‘Syracuse’s population is basically stagnant, we already have plenty of housing, why should we build any more?’ There’s good sense there. … Continue reading Three reasons Syracuse needs new housing →
Restoring the Community’s Street Grid - The Near Eastside needs more small streets. A fine-grained street grid with many small streets and many small blocks yields many different benefits to a neighborhood. The Near Eastside used to have one of the most finely grained grids in Syracuse, but urban renewal removed many streets and consolidated many blocks, and the result is … Continue reading Restoring the Community’s Street Grid →
Rowhomes for the Near Eastside - City Hall should build new housing on the Near Eastside, and a lot of that new housing should be rowhomes. Rowhomes combine the benefits of both single-family and multi-family housing and they are a perfect housing solution for the growing Near Eastside. Over the past few years, private for-profit developers operating on the Near Eastside … Continue reading Rowhomes for the Near Eastside →
The Public’s Interest in Housing on the Near Eastside - The Near Eastside needs more new housing, and it needs that new housing to be affordable for families with a range of incomes. Recent private for-profit development is providing housing for households at the top of that range, but it will take public and not-profit development to meet the needs of the rest of the … Continue reading The Public’s Interest in Housing on the Near Eastside →
The Community Grid and Neighborhood Restoration - Before urban renewal, tight-knit neighborhoods right next to Downtown provided housing and opportunity for tens of thousands of people. Now, most of those neighborhoods are mostly parking lots and home to very few people. In order for the Community Grid to succeed, Syracuse must restore those neighborhoods. Urban renewal hit the 15th Ward/Near Eastside worse … Continue reading The Community Grid and Neighborhood Restoration →
Public involvement in the design, funding, and construction of Syracuse’s Columbus Monument - In a recent letter to the editor, James Albanese—a member of the Columbus Monument Corporation—described Syracuse’s Columbus Monument as a ‘privately’ funded statue. Writing of the importance of the monument as a physical object located in a prime public space, Mr. Albanese says: “being there connects us with our immigrant ancestors, who after a 15-year … Continue reading Public involvement in the design, funding, and construction of Syracuse’s Columbus Monument →
Monuments to genocide - There are monuments in Syracuse City Parks that commemorate an act of genocide carried out by the United States Government against the Onondaga Nation in April of 1779. These monuments memorialize the Van Schaick Expedition—a part of the infamous Sullivan-Clinton campaign—which passed from Fort Stanwix, through the present-day City of Syracuse, on its way to … Continue reading Monuments to genocide →
Hidden Village Squares - In the early 1800’s, there were several distinct villages within Syracuse’s present city limits. Each had its own small business district, meeting hall, and churches, and many were built around a public square or village green. As Syracuse grew to encompass these small villages, their central public spaces became less important, and while some—such as … Continue reading Hidden Village Squares →
Getting people out on the water - Syracuse should reconnect with its waterfront. This City was built around water, and we have miles and miles of creeks, canals, and lakefront where people can get in touch with Syracuse’s maritime side. One way to make that happen is to just make our various waterfronts more accessible—give people public space next to the water, … Continue reading Getting people out on the water →
A Waterfront City - Water created Syracuse. Natural springs brought salt up from underground deposits to briny pools on the surface. Onondaga Creek powered a sawmill that turned trees into the lumber that built the early village. The Erie Canal turned the little settlement at the corner of Genesee and Salina into a city. This is a maritime town. … Continue reading A Waterfront City →
Neighborhood-Level Population Change - Since the 2000 census, the total number of people living in Syracuse has remained remarkably stable. From 146,070 people in 2000 to 145,170 in 2010 to 146,620 in 2020, the City’s topline population figure has never moved more than 2.4% between censuses, and the most recent count is within 1.7% of the 2000 count. But … Continue reading Neighborhood-Level Population Change →
A New Kind of Population Growth - The 2020 census is a big deal for Central New York. Not only did the City of Syracuse post its first decade of population growth since 1950, but—more importantly—the City’s rate of growth exceeded the rest of the county’s. Between 2010 and 2020, Syracuse’s population grew by 2.38% while the towns’ collective population grew by … Continue reading A New Kind of Population Growth →
Public Parks and Climate Change - Climate change is here, and Syracuse is already feeling it. The last several summers have been some of the hottest on record, and new weather patterns are scrambling all our seasons. We need to do everything we can to stop climate change, of course—driving less, greening the grid—but in the meantime we also have to … Continue reading Public Parks and Climate Change →
Downtown’s suburban population - We’ve all heard about Downtown’s growing residential population, but the most recent census figures only put the neighborhood at 3,298 permanent residents. That’s just 2.3% of Syracuse’s entire population, and it’s far fewer people than live in Eastwood, the Southside, Westcott, or just about any other city neighborhood. If Downtown were a village, it’d be … Continue reading Downtown’s suburban population →
Preparing for sustainable, equitable growth - A lot of people are pretty pessimistic about Syracuse’s prospects for future population growth. ‘Our best days are behind us,’ ‘this place is going nowhere fast,’ ‘who’d want to live somewhere with this weather?’ People who think this way are fatalists—they think Syracuse is fated to decline, and there’s nothing we can do about it. … Continue reading Preparing for sustainable, equitable growth →
Demographic change between 2010-2019, part 3 - Population is a function of two variables: the size of households and the number of households. If households get bigger, population will also grow even if the total number of households remains the same. And if the total number of households increases, population will also grow even if the average size of those households remains … Continue reading Demographic change between 2010-2019, part 3 →
Demographic change between 2010-2019, part 2 - Syracuse has long been one of the youngest municipalities in the county, and SCSD is one of the only districts that’s seen a growing enrollment in recent years. But over the last decade, Syracuse’s population started aging, and the total number of children decreased while the City’s adult population grew. Like variations in total population, … Continue reading Demographic change between 2010-2019, part 2 →
Demographic change between 2010-2019, part 1 - After years of precipitous decline, Syracuse’s overall population has held remarkably steady over the last decade. Between 2010 and 2019, the total number of people living in the City decreased by just 1,890 or 1.3%. But look at the tract-level data, and it’s clear that Syracuse’s population has been anything but stable. Some neighborhoods boomed, … Continue reading Demographic change between 2010-2019, part 1 →
What to do with Shoppingtown - After losing out on millions of dollars in tax revenue and spending millions more in bankruptcy court, Onondaga County has gotten legal control of Shoppingtown Mall. Now the County’s just got to figure out what to do with that 70 acre property. Given the geographic location of the site and the demographic trends in the … Continue reading What to do with Shoppingtown →