National Elections are Local Too - The City of Syracuse is governed by City Hall, Onondaga County, New York State, and the Federal Government. Each level of government has jurisdiction here, and each one owes a responsibility to this community that goes beyond their duty to its residents as individual voters. National elections are local elections too. Syracuse’s population loss is such … Continue reading National Elections are Local Too →
Who will ride BRT? - Talk to non-bus-riders about Centro, and eventually they’ll say something to the effect of “you know a specific challenge that we have in Syracuse is that bus ridership is associated with socio-economic class, and so the question is how do we get people of all classes to ride the bus. How does Centro get me … Continue reading Who will ride BRT? →
Who Lives Downtown? - The dominant narrative of Downtown’s resurgence goes something like this: after years of neglect, a huge change in popular attitudes towards ‘the city’ have drawn people back to Downtown and supported millions of dollars in investment in new businesses, building renovations, and housing. No longer is Downtown just a place to go for work—a central … Continue reading Who Lives Downtown? →
A $45 Million Jobs Program for City Residents - Jobs are the number one issue in Syracuse. Good jobs, ones that pay well, ones that don’t require unnecessary credentials, jobs that people can get to whether or not they own a car. In a real way, the best thing that City Hall could do for the City of Syracuse would be to run a … Continue reading A $45 Million Jobs Program for City Residents →
Pools, Police, and Priorities - It is such good news that the pools will open up, that children and families will be able to cool down during this historically hot summer, that kids are getting at least one thing that they’re asking for. But it is ridiculous that it took a GoFundMe to make it happen. After City Hall announced … Continue reading Pools, Police, and Priorities →
Why Do We Need This Many Police? - Syracuse needs a new idea of public safety—a new paradigm that sends healthcare and social workers to deal with health and social issues. A new paradigm that significantly reduces the number of interactions that police officers have with the public and significantly reduces the number of police officers employed by City Hall. New ideas threaten … Continue reading Why Do We Need This Many Police? →
Systematic Reformation of Public Safety - Protests across the county have shown that American policing is broken—every single city has local cases of abuse, brutality, and murder to march against, and in every single city police have responded to criticism with military force. The problem isn’t just ‘a few bad apples,’ the problem is a broken institution that replicates the same … Continue reading Systematic Reformation of Public Safety →
Quit asking if the protests are peaceful - After night fell on a day of speeches and demonstrations, a number of the protesters attacked the building where the police were waiting. The protesters were breaking the law, and they knew it, and the police responded with force. It was 1851. It was the Jerry Rescue. There’s a monument to it in Clinton Square. … Continue reading Quit asking if the protests are peaceful →
How Far From Minneapolis, Syracuse? - This weekend’s protests are about Syracuse Police Department as much as they are about George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Ex-Minneapolis Police Officer Eric Chauvin. It might be comforting to those in power to pretend otherwise, to think that it’s all about something that happened in some other community, somewhere far away from here, … Continue reading How Far From Minneapolis, Syracuse? →
Coronavirus, the Sidewalks, and Race - The coronavirus has disproportionately hospitalized black people in Onondaga County. The County’s population is 76.5% white, but only 54% of people hospitalized for coronavirus are white. The County’s population is 11.5% black, but 27% of people hositalized for coronavirus are black. Looking for a possible explanation, the County Executive “speculated that the trend might be … Continue reading Coronavirus, the Sidewalks, and Race →
What if they had put the trains in the Erie Canal bed in 1925? - Early in the twentieth century, Syracuse was facing two huge shifts in transportation. The Erie Canal became obsolete after New York State built the Barge Canal in the Seneca River north of Onondaga Lake, and railroad traffic through Downtown had gotten so bad (158 trains a day) that the tracks had to be moved off … Continue reading What if they had put the trains in the Erie Canal bed in 1925? →
Coronavirus, the Digital Divide, and Public Libraries - Social distancing has moved so much of our work, learning, and social interaction online, but we’re leaving too many people behind. Only about ¾ of Syracuse households have internet access. That leaves 13,000 families where the parents simply cannot telecommute and the kids simply cannot participate in a virtual classroom. In more normal times, these … Continue reading Coronavirus, the Digital Divide, and Public Libraries →
Coronavirus and the Bus - Crises reveal what really matters. Work that used to be forgotten is now understood to be essential. Workers who used to be taken for granted are now recognized as heroes—fighting on the frontlines against this global pandemic—the hospitals, the nursing homes, the garbage routes, the checkout counters. Renewed appreciation for these people and the work … Continue reading Coronavirus and the Bus →
What if Liverpool had merged with Salina and Syracuse in 1848? - In 1848 the villages of Salina (the area around Washington Square) and Syracuse (the area around Clinton Square) merged to form the City of Syracuse. According to Dennis Connor’s book Crossroads in Time, local leaders also considered including the villages of Geddes and Liverpool in the new city. Geddes (the area around St Mark’s Square … Continue reading What if Liverpool had merged with Salina and Syracuse in 1848? →
Big Demographic Trends, part 3 - Big demographic trends are bringing equally big changes to Onondaga County and the City of Syracuse. Two weeks ago we looked at where those changes are happening. Last week we tried to figure out who is driving them. This week we’re asking why we should care. The Old Growth The dominant demographic trend in Onondaga … Continue reading Big Demographic Trends, part 3 →
Big Demographic Trends, part 2 - From 2000 to 2016, the different neighborhoods, villages, and towns that make up the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County saw huge swings in population while the County and City as a whole held steady. Those neighborhood fluctuations reveal big demographic trends that point to a very different future for the City and County. Last … Continue reading Big Demographic Trends, part 2 →
Big Demographic Trends, part 1 - After decades of massive gains and losses, the populations of both the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County have held steady in the 21st century. But that broad stability masks huge changes in the neighborhoods, villages, and towns that make up the City and County. Look at them more closely, and those neighborhood fluctuations reveal … Continue reading Big Demographic Trends, part 1 →
The Very Idea of a New Neighborhood - Tired of taking on Syracuse’s seemingly intractable problems, a lot of people in positions of power throw their hands up and say ‘let’s just start over.’ Segregation, poverty, and exclusion are all so systemic in so much of the City, and depopulation and deindustrialization have combined to leave so much cheap empty land, that it … Continue reading The Very Idea of a New Neighborhood →
The Promise of the 20-Minute City - Ask some people, and they’ll tell you that the best thing about Syracuse is that it’s a ‘20-Minute City.’ They mean that you can get between any two points in Onondaga County—from Fayetteville to Fairmount, from Liverpool to Lafayette—in 20 minutes or less. This was part of Syracuse’s pitch to get Amazon’s HQ2, it’s part … Continue reading The Promise of the 20-Minute City →
The Canal in the City - The Erie Canal is maybe the most important thing that ever happened to Syracuse, but there’s hardly any trace of it left in the City. That’s bad—it makes it harder for people to tell their City’s story, and that makes it harder for them to place themselves within that story. Anything that restores the canal’s place … Continue reading The Canal in the City →

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