The Stand
South Side figured prominently in mayor’s speech
During the 2017 State of the City address delivered by Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, the South Side neighborhood popped up often.
The program was held at the historic Hotel Syracuse, located at 100 E. Onondaga St., on Jan. 12 and started with the welcoming remarks from Ed Riley, the managing member of the corporation that restored the hotel.
Riley told the standing-room-only crowd, assembled in the facility’s Grand Ballroom, that the hotel has a staff of 242 associates, 157 of whom live in the city of Syracuse, with 130 of them coming from “the more disadvantaged neighborhoods” such as the South Side, the Near West Side and the North Side.
“When the associates were hired, about six months ago, they had never worked at a hotel but now they have made this Syracuse location one of the top Marriott hotels, serving as community representatives and ambassadors,” he said. “We are also proud that more than 90 percent of the costs to complete the project were spent locally.”
Common Councilor-At-Large Steven Thompson, who introduced Miner to the audience, underscored the importance of local hiring.
“Economic development is inclusive economic development,” he said.
In her address, Miner followed the thread.
“I want to talk specifically about the unprecedented development — both downtown and in our neighborhoods — we have helped foster over the last seven years. There are some who subscribe to the philosophy that holding developers to high standards, and promoting principled economic development, stifles investment. Our experiences suggest otherwise,” she said.
She focused on an agreement with Riley to restore the adjacent vacant Symphony Tower building and turn it into a new extended-stay hotel.
“The agreement includes the forgiveness of back taxes and penalties, but in return the developer has agreed to pay the city $1.5 million, and hire at least 20 percent city residents and contract with at least 20 percent minority- and women-owned business. It’s a fair deal, and it’s good for the city.”
Then, she shifted her attention to Central Technical High School.
She said: “With the rejuvenated Hotel Syracuse, and the Centro bus hub a constant hive of activity, the time to push downtown’s success is now. Just across Adams Street is the old Syracuse Central High School. Sometimes called the Greystone Building, Central was designed by famed Syracuse architect Archimedes Russell, and first opened in 1903. It served as a school until 1975. Efforts to revive the building in the ’80’s proved unsuccessful, and estimates to reopen the building as a school exceed $60 million dollars. It’s time we gave this Syracuse classic a chance at a new future that might forge connections between downtown and the South Side. In the coming weeks, I will be asking the Board of Education to decommission the building as a school, after which the city can commence a process to challenge the development community to come to the table with creative new ways to bring Greystone back into productive [use].”
Among the members of the audience was Mike Morgan, who said that he graduated from Central Tech in the ’80s, later on working at the Hotel Syracuse and now living in the vicinity of the hotel.
In an interview after the event, he added that he studied mechanical engineering and design at this school when it was done by hand, noting that now it’s done by computer-aided design (CAD).
“I drew the Carrier Dome’s roof for a class project,” he went on to say.
Asked about Miner’s plans for the former school structure, Morgan said: “It’s a beautiful building. Downtown is rebounding and hopefully this rebound will spread to the South Side like Manhattan’s development has spread to other New York City boroughs. It can only ascend from here. It will go up, because a lot of people are looking to live in or near downtown.”
Miner moved to talk about properties situated in the southern quadrangle of the city: 224 W. Glen Ave.; Joslyn Court, on the 4300 and 4400 blocks of South Salina Street; Eljay, in the Strathmore section of the South Side, and; Salina Crossing, in the Brighton section of the South Side.
“The Land Bank’s success has led to hundreds of examples in every neighborhood across the city of longstanding eyesores finally being addressed, not ignored. Like the house on the corner of Glen and Midland avenues that was deteriorating for years, and was seen by hundreds of parents taking their children to Little League and school. Now, the house has been renovated, and the property is beautiful,” she said.
“Affordable housing is a basic need. And yet it remains elusive for too many of our residents. That’s why, over the past seven years, we’ve leveraged more than $120 million in private investment – $8 dollars to every $1 dollar in city funds — to create more than 450 units of affordable housing with another 380 currently in development. These projects include: Syracuse Homes, Van Keuren Square, Loguen Homes, Joslyn Court III & IV, Eljay, Salina Crossing, Clinton Plaza, Harbor Street Lofts and Butternut Crossing.”
An additional theme of her address was that of the Onondaga Creekwalk.
“Currently we are in the process of designing Phase II of the Creekwalk, which will extend the trail south from Armory Square to Kirk Park on Syracuse’s South Side,” she said.
Barry Hughes, a South Side resident and an occasional bicyclist, liked the idea of expanding the Creekwalk up to Kirk Park.
“I don’t have the endurance to ride my bike on the Creekwalk between Armory Square and the Inner Harbor,” he said. “The city is becoming more bike-friendly as the Creekwalk lanes will complement the bike lanes already existing along Onondaga Boulevard and West Onondaga Street on the South Side and in downtown.”
— By Miguel Balbuena, The Stand community correspondent
