Abolish the Sales Tax - Sales taxes are no way to fund a government. They create all kinds of weird incentives that make City Hall do all kinds of weird things, and—as the current crisis shows—they leave local government helpless just when we need it the most. Local governments like sales taxes because they’re easy to charge on non-voters. That … Continue reading Abolish the Sales Tax →
Judging the Mayor’s Next Two Years - Ben Walsh just announced that he’s going to run for reelection in 2021. That gives the Mayor two years to convince you to vote for him. Here are four things to watch over that time to help inform your decision. Sidewalks It wasn’t a big deal when Ben-Walsh-the-candidate said he’d do something about Syracuse’s snow-covered … Continue reading Judging the Mayor’s Next Two Years →
Congressman Katko’s Letters - When the Trump administration tries to harm Upstate New York, John Katko writes a letter about it. That’s what he did last week after Sonny Perdue announced a plan to take away people’s food stamps. The Congressman wrote a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture asking that “we don’t make people food insecure as a … Continue reading Congressman Katko’s Letters →
Affordable Housing and the City Line - Matthew Paulus, one of several developers with plans to build new housing at the eastern edge of Downtown, is trying to get goodwill and tax breaks by putting ‘affordable’ apartments in his newest project, but the rents don’t match the rhetoric—tenants will pay $1,050 a month, not including utilities. This is clearly not a good … Continue reading Affordable Housing and the City Line →
Transit is not a Tool of Social Control - At its best, public transportation expands access to opportunity, but recent local examples show how it can also be used to do the exact opposite. Instead of creating a transit system that gives its riders more choices, options, and freedom, people with power have tried to use transit as a tool of social control. Take … Continue reading Transit is not a Tool of Social Control →
Working with Students for a Better City - University students and people living in Syracuse long-term face a lot of the same problems and should be natural political allies, but some structural barriers keep them from working together to make the City a better place to live. Take this garbage pickup proposal. City Hall collects trash from small residential properties but not from … Continue reading Working with Students for a Better City →
Tourism’s Trap - The Reimagine the Canals Initiative—a statewide brainstorming session that asks ‘how can we make more money off the Erie Canal?’—threatens to reduce one of Upstate’s most valuable pieces of infrastructure into a tourist attraction. The initiative follows last year’s Reimagine the Canals Competition. The judges of that competition thought that the Canal was most useful … Continue reading Tourism’s Trap →
An Ugly Idea - Ever since NYSDOT came out in favor of the Grid, Town of Clay Supervisor Damian Ulatowski has been spreading a real ugly idea around Onondaga County. He’s been telling anyone who will listen that the suburbs’ “voices are not being heard.” When Ulatowski says that, he doesn’t mean that all the communities along I81 should … Continue reading An Ugly Idea →
Congressman Katko’s Party Loyalty - As the Republican Party digs in to defend the President, Congressman John Katko is losing control of his carefully crafted image as a ‘moderate.’ It used to be that Paul Ryan would help Katko maintain that image by allowing him to cast meaningless protest votes against unpopular Republican legislation. That’s what happened in 2017 when … Continue reading Congressman Katko’s Party Loyalty →
A Former Refugee Will Sit on the Common Council - Chol Majok’s victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary marked both the beginning of a new era and the continuation of a long tradition in Syracuse’s politics. This City has welcomed more than 10,000 refugees and immigrants in the past two decades. They’ve come to Syracuse from places like Somalia, Burma, and Bhutan. Majok himself is from … Continue reading A Former Refugee Will Sit on the Common Council →
The Emerging Pro-Transit Coalition - In Syracuse, local politicians are doing all they can to expand economic opportunity. At the same time, politicians in the State government are working to eliminate New York’s carbon footprint by 2050. These two groups of politicians—along with the activists and organizations that support them—should partner to advocate for better public transportation in Syracuse. A … Continue reading The Emerging Pro-Transit Coalition →
Housing Instability and Rent - Since 2015, City Hall’s Innovation Team has worked out new solutions for old municipal problems like aging infrastructure and snow covered sidewalks. Since February of 2018, the I-Team has set its sights on housing instability—both a major cause and effect of poverty in the City. In a recent series of blog posts, the I-Team described its … Continue reading Housing Instability and Rent →
What the Mall Does for the City - This week, the Post-Standard reported that Destiny USA may default on its mortgage. The mall was the defining issue of the 2000s—like I-81 is of the 2010s—and a lot of people are still bitter that Syracuse gave away so much public money in exchange for ridiculous and ultimately unfulfilled promises (an aquarium, an imitation Erie … Continue reading What the Mall Does for the City →
Upstate Cities Benefit From Proportional Representation in the State Senate - This week, a couple of upstate politicians from rural districts introduced legislation to give people living in rural areas more power in New York State’s government. Their plan is to redraw State Senate districts to match existing county lines. It’s being pitched and covered as a plan to “boost upstate new york political clout,” but … Continue reading Upstate Cities Benefit From Proportional Representation in the State Senate →
New York State Needs to Stand Up for Public Transportation - Since Democrats took full control of the state government in Albany on January 9, they have been working overtime, already passing the Reproductive Health Act, GENDA, and voting reform. All of these major pieces of progressive legislation are necessary to push back against the regressive policies coming out of the federal government. They’re part of … Continue reading New York State Needs to Stand Up for Public Transportation →
I81’s Environmental Impact - Last week, Onondaga’s Town Supervisors—a group of people without any governmental responsibility for the City—got together to again let everybody know that they would like for I81 to stay in the middle of Syracuse. They want that, in part, because they’re concerned about the ‘environmental impacts‘ of removing the I81 viaduct. On the face of … Continue reading I81’s Environmental Impact →
The Green New Deal, Housing, and Transportation in Onondaga County - Congress is full of new members talking about a Green New Deal—a “broad and ambitious package of new policies and investments in communities, infrastructure, and technology to help the United States achieve environmental sustainability and economic stability.” The ideas for those new policies include regulations on carbon emissions, subsidies for alternative energy, and wetland reclamation. … Continue reading The Green New Deal, Housing, and Transportation in Onondaga County →
Cooperation over Competition - When Syracuse takes notice of its neighboring upstate urban communities, it’s usually to see how we measure up. That’s the impulse behind City Hall’s decision to compare Syracuse to Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester in its recent report on poverty, and it’s the impulse that drove the CNY Business Journal to run a story about State … Continue reading Cooperation over Competition →
Redlining by Another Name - Syracuse doesn’t have hurricanes, tornadoes, or wildfires, but FEMA still exerts a lot of influence over city residents’ lives. That agency maps the City’s floodplains, determining which people need to buy flood insurance under certain circumstances. Whenever FEMA amends the map–putting that financial burden on new people–it always makes the news. But those marginal adjustments … Continue reading Redlining by Another Name →
New Job Brings New Power in the City - On September 24, Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney announced that she would leave County government to take a job working with both SUNY ESF and SUNY Upstate. That new position will give her a lot of power to guide the City’s future. For years, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has used other SUNY schools to … Continue reading New Job Brings New Power in the City →

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