Alive in CNY

Come Home to Syracuse

2007-01-25T09:18:00.000-05:00

Peter Baskin writes in about Come Home to Syracuse, an organization aimed at getting people here – and, as importantly, back here.

There are excellent resources on the site for places to live, some job tools, and an overview of entertainment and recreation opportunities.

There's also a form to sign up to volunteer in the city, a not-so-subtle hint for your friends and family, and even a sign-up form to have someone help you get settled.

Victory for Salina 29

2007-01-06T10:07:00.000-05:00

In addition to that giant mall expansion we've been going on and on about, there's a smaller Pyramid Companies proposal we haven't touched on much: The Destiny Research and Development Park. The proposal was for land north and south of Seventh North Street, and included taking 27 businesses and two homes by eminent domain.

We've mentioned more than once that we think developers should be required to buy land if they want to build, rather than asking the government to take the land and give it to them at a heavy discount.

Notice the past tense, though, in the first paragraph. That's because yesterday, Pyramid dropped the eminent domain proposal.

Some of the land owners – who have become known as the Salina 29 – are happy to keep their homes and businesses and to let Pyramid do whatever they want on public land regarding the R&D park.

I tend to agree with John Sposato, who owns a rest stop/travel center that would have been taken by eminent domain under the previous proposal. Sposato says that Pyramid should be required to submit a new application and proposal for public scrutiny.

And he's right. In order to build the R&D park using only publicly owned land, Pyramid is going to have to make some major revisions to its proposal, and since the public had input on the first proposal, the public should be allowed to have input on the new one. The county shouldn't just get to decide that the revisions are acceptable without talking to the people who are going to be affected by the development.

Contact Onondaga County Executive Nick Pirro and the County Legislature to voice your opinion.

Development in the city; January updates

2007-01-05T08:42:00.000-05:00

Hi ho. We're back. Miss us? Happy new year. For the first time, I rang it in with friends from Syracuse (and one from New Jersey, with whom I've also never rung in the new year). It felt damn good to be with damn fine people in a damn fine city on a warm night. Thanks, A and D!

Picking up The Post-Standard this morning, the fat hed across the top of the front page warms the heart:

City Sites Eyed for Housing, Shops, Art Studios

Ah, yes, and that's not even the best part. The best part is that it's a fake headline – just a tease. There are three stories inside about great projects happening in the city.

If you head a little west of downtown to Tipperary Hill, you'll find Coleman's, a green-on-the-top traffic light, and my friend R. You'll also find the Rosamond Gifford Zoo over in Burnet Park. And next to that, a 48-acre site that has a former mental institution on it.

That land is up for bid, and if Hal Travis has his way, there will soon be houses, condos and office space over there.

Travis and some investors are looking at building some nice houses – patios and all – that would run about $200,000 apiece (reasonable in today's U.S. housing market, pretty upscale for this area – you'd be able to cash in on this if that were your thing).

Bids are due Jan. 17.

Also on the near West Side, over at West Fayette and Geddes, there's this grayish-white building that was at one time a factory and is now just a five-story, 65,000-square foot structure sitting on the corner.

Last year, Rick Destito bought it, and he's putting artist and musician studios in it.

In a word: Awesome.

Artists love affordable housing, and cities love having artists. Win-win.

Even better: Remember Th3? We wrote about it after a trip in October (it starts back up in February). Well, this building isn't all that far from Delevan, where we started that journey. And who couldn't use another Th3 venue to visit as they walk? I know I could.

Quick: What's missing? New Centro Center on South Salina. New jobs at Excellus. The restoration of the Landmark. New stuff going in on Clinton Street. The renovation of the Wilson Building.

That's right: The 300 block of South Salina Street.

Big gaping underdeveloped hole in the middle of downtown, right?

Not anymore. The Metropolitan Development Foundation is hoping to draw a major developer. The foundation picked up a few buildings over there and around the corner on West Fayette.

Right now, I think it's a fairly unattractive spot for a developer. It's part of the "four corners," which essentially serve as the public bus hub. That means no parking, no street-level visibility, and lots of people standing around waiting.

Once that bus station gets built, it's not only a matter of that space becoming prime real estate, it's a matter of it become prime real estate overnight. When people start transferring at the new Centro station, you have (a) no more people standing around waiting for the bus instead of shopping, (b) visibility of store fronts to people driving by (since the buses aren't blocking the view), and (c) more parking, since that space isn't taken up by bus stops anymore.

There's also a lovely little urban park across the street, which most people don't even bother to notice.

Ah, what a happy little Friday.

Since We've Been Away: Some Updates

The Inner Harbor is still really pretty. H. was up from Jersey over the weekend, and I brought her out there and bored her with visions of development. Speaking of, the Canal Corporation is due to have its recommendation of what to do with the land on Jan. 17. That's 12 days and counting, kids.

The Carousel Center didn't go back on the tax rolls on Monday. Instead, there was a 90-day extension because of the whole lawsuit thing. But you know what? There's still an unused pile of steel sitting in the parking lot. Shocking, I know.

That's about it for now. Hopefully, this is a sign that we're back to regular posting. Yay!

Christmas lights in 'Cuse

2006-12-21T09:17:00.000-05:00

The Post-Standard recently ran a feature listing some of the more elaborate holiday lighting displays in Onondaga County.

NYCO has done some work, and gives us an interactive map of where they are, so you can go look at the houses.

Here's the list of addresses:

101 Brookview Lane, Liverpool
104 Raspberry Lane, Camillus
105 Royalton Drive, Minoa
110-114 Colony Park Drive, Liverpool
111 Stilwell Circle, East Syracuse
113 and 118 Bellshire Lane, Syracuse
115 Snowdale Drive, Van Buren
1206 Oswego Street, Liverpool
1260 Mill Street, Fabius
131 Winchell Drive, Lakeland
1421 Court Street, Syracuse
144 East Milford Drive, Syracuse
1981 Esprit Glade, Radisson
200 block of Durston Avenue, Syracuse
201-202 Peterson Drive, Camillus
23 First Street, Camillus
249 Marsh Drive, Dewitt
2757 Howlett Hill Road, Marcellus
2957 Route 11, Lafayette
309 Broadmoor Drive, Camillus
405 Revere Road, Dewitt
411 Emerson Avenue, Syracuse
411 Old Cove Road, Liverpool
412 Weatheridge, Camillus
4653 Makyes Road, Onondaga Hill
4975 Brittany Lane, Onondaga Hill
4985 Brittany Lane, Onondaga Hill
515 Boston Road, Mattydale
520 Stinard Avenue, Syracuse
5735 Sunset Terrace, Cicero
703 Maple Drive, Fayetteville
7210 Willow Road, North Syracuse
7537 Thompson Road, North Syracuse
7819 Karakul Lane, Fayetteville
80 Smokey Hollow Rd, Baldwinsville
806 Bear Street, Syracuse
812-814 Park Avenue, Syracuse
8300 Summit Cedar Lane, Liverpool
84 Main Street, Camillus
8887 Kilkenny Drive, Baldwinsville
Chaucer Circle, Baldwinsville
Dory Course, Cicero
Hamilton White House, Syracuse
Old Stone Lane, Maestri Manor, Camillus
Rte 370 and River Road, Baldwinsville

Hole in the bottom of Destiny's basket

2006-11-28T12:00:00.000-05:00

Dick Case reminds us today that Destiny isn't off the radar. And by Destiny, he means a mall expansion. The key hasn't even been taken out of the pocket yet on the Destiny project.

Here's the big hit:

Know this: Another deadline approaches for the Pyramid partners, and it's a big one. Some of that steel stacked along Hiawatha Boulevard has to be dusted off by the end of the year or the city folds its tax agreement.

Sure, the city could still grant an extension (and probably would, if it was asked). But another question is, what exactly is required for the tax agreement to take effect? The agreement says essentially that Pyramid has to begin work on the mall expansion by the end of the year. Does that mean they can dig a hole and stick a beam in there and then let it sit for six months – or forever? It might.

It seems like there are no more legal hurdles to getting the expansion going, even if some of the mall tenants do decide to take their case to the Supreme Court. Hell, the folks at Pyramid even settled an outstanding lawsuit by paying some former business partners $100 million and admitting no wrongdoing.

Yeah, we didn't do anything wrong, but here's $100 million just in case we did. That should smooth everything over.

With the Canal Corp. maybe finally offering someone else the opportunity to buy the Inner Harbor and a whole lot of other development going on in the city, I think Case drives it all right to the point:

Over the last few months, the community seems to have moved the eggs from one basket to many. We're going ahead on smaller bits of private enterprise without ties to Destiny. History tells us this is the best course for our town.

Best course, indeed. It's never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket – it's even worse when you know the basket has a hole in the bottom.

Monday Night Poetry moves

2006-11-28T10:27:00.000-05:00

Monday Night Poetry is moving from the Coffee Pavilion to the Downtown Writer's Center. Here's the e-mail from host Jane Cassady.

DEC 4! Extended open and WELCOME CELEBRATION. THERE WILL BE CAKE. For those of you who don't know, Phil Memmer, poet and head of The Downtown Writer's Center, invited us to use their space for our beloved poetry night. I take this as a HUGE compliment and you should too. We are now at:

The Downtown Writers Center
(inside the YMCA)
340 Montgomery St.
Syracuse, NY

Because Jen Pashley's workshop is in there before us, we have a new start time:
Sign-ups 8:30-9pm, open mic starts @ 9pm.

Shiny things about the new place:

Free coffee and bring your own snacks.
We have the room to ourselves so we have even more freedom of expression than we had before.
More seating and a more audience-shaped room.
Free books! The DWC Anthology will be there for thetaking our first night and all the nights.

And 2 Awkwardnesses:

Be on time. The doors lock to the outside at 9:30, so we can get in and out, but you'll have to wait till a break if you come after 9:30. I'm letting people leave their phones on to help with this issue a bit.
We're no longer at street level, so that cuts down on the chance of walk-ins. That means we need to set up new synchronicities-spread the word any way you can think of: take flyers, blog us, repost bulletins, etc. Phil's plugging us at his events, too, so that should help.

For those of you without the ability to contact Jane through her MySpace page, you can contact me and I'll pass along the e-mail.

Who's with me?

2006-11-27T14:40:00.000-05:00

I went downtown last weekend to do some Christmas shopping.

See how normal of a sentence that seems?

I got on the bus, walked to Armory Square, and knocked off about a quarter of my shopping. When I talked about it a few days later, answering innocent questions about my weekend, I was greeted with the same response almost 100 percent of the time: "You went downtown? To go shopping?

Interestingly, I got a similar response from some of the store clerks. They'd ask if I was killing time, and I'd say, no, I came downtown to Christmas-shop, and they'd ask, "You came downtown? Specifically to go Christmas shopping?

I thought it was a pretty normal idea for a nice Saturday, especially for someone like me who can't stand being: 1) in traffic, 2) in crowds, and 3) indoors on a mild day.

For some reason I find myself very defensive about the reactions I've gotten to this choice. But I read my share of inspirational greeting cards. I know I'm supposed to be the change I want to see in the world. I haven't yet figured out how to bring back social dancing to my generation, but shopping? I'm a product of the 80's. And the suburbs. Shopping I can manage, even if it is in a different milieu than I grew up with.

So, yeah. I went shopping. Downtown. On purpose. And I'll go again.

New York: Wife beaters don't need help

2006-11-20T19:05:00.000-05:00

Also at BlogJosh.

Here's a question: What do you think Vera House would have to do to have $42,000 a year pulled from its state funding?

How about trying to give domestic abusers therapy and anger management?

Didn't see that one coming, did you?

That's right, New York is the only state in the country that strictly forbids rehabilitation programs from trying to change abusers. That's right: If you're in a program for domestic abuse, basically you're told what you did was wrong. Over and over and over and over.

Why? Because, says Sherry Frohman, who runs the state's Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence:

"It's not about being rehabilitated. They can stop using violence at any time. The reality is, they manage their anger just fine. They're not uncontrollable."

Right. Because if you just keep saying, "You did something wrong," over and over, people will just decide to stop using violence and get in control of themselves.

Kenneth Corvo, a Syracuse University prof who studies domestic violence, says that while New York is the only state that expressly forbids therapy in its programs, it's not the only state that does a lot of finger-wagging.

New York's philosophy is pervasive across the country, Corvo said. "We're haunted by this model," he said.

The dropout rates for batterer programs that follow the state's philosophy are high, Corvo said. When the dropouts were asked why they quit, they said, "Why would we go and be insulted?"

Fantastic.

To make a donation to Vera House, which also assists abuse victims, click here.

Jim Walsh, you've really disappointed us

2006-11-20T18:34:00.000-05:00

Who works for whom? Jim Walsh, a Republican who has spent the last 18 years in Congress thanks to Central New York voters, won a close race in the 25th District.

The race was close because people in Onondaga County – and the City of Syracuse in particular – leaned heavily toward his Democratic challenger, Dan Maffei.

Rather than take the close race as a message, Walsh grimaced at voters in Syracuse and said, "I'm really disappointed in you."

What Walsh should have said was, "I'm sorry I disappointed you. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to rectify what I have (or haven't) done."

I mean, how many 18-year incumbent congressmen had entire blogs for the sole purpose of electing their opponents?

Sean Kirst says Walsh is a decent guy, but he missed the point of the vote being so close. And a couple of dozen people have written in – check out his blog.

Walsh needs to go in 2008. What kind of politician is disappointed in people who don't vote for him? Usually when people don't vote for someone, it's because the candidate disappointed them. We owe Walsh nothing. He owes us his job.

The need for more parking better public transit

2006-11-18T13:28:00.000-05:00

There's a story in today's Post-Standard about a downtown tenant who has racked up seven parking tickets in two months because he's got no place to park overnight. He can lease space in a lot from April until October, or he can put his car in a parking garage, but he won't have access to it after the garage closes – perhaps even as early as 10 p.m.

Plus, he's perfectly willing to pay for parking – there are just not enough spaces available.

And it's not going to get any easier, with a bunch of apartments going into buildings that are under renovation downtown.

The big argument is going to be for more parking. Isn't it always? If we had better public transit here, though – more buses and trains going where people need to get when they need to get there – people could just dump their cars, and with them, the need for parking.

People do it in bigger cities all the time; why not here?

For those of us who live less than two miles from downtown, the buses run about every hour after business hours. For those who live a little further out, they stop running altogether fairly early in the evening. Early enough that you have to drive if you expect to eat dinner and catch an hour of live music downtown and still manage to get home.

And if we don't want to invest in more buses, guess what? We can just dig up the road and use some existing rail lines. Canal Street and parts of North Clinton Street still have intact tracks under the pavement, and who knows where else that's the case? If we had a north-south train running every 20 minutes down the Salina Street corridor and an east-west train on the same schedule (staggered by a couple of minutes, of course, so people could transfer easily) running along the SR-5 corridor (Erie Blvd. East and West Genesee Street), hundreds of people could get to work, dinner, and shopping without their cars.

What are we waiting for?

Clear Channel sale means people lose jobs

2006-11-18T13:25:00.000-05:00

Also at BlogJosh.

Last week, we noted the impending sale of Clear Channel, owner of some 1100 radio stations, a bunch of TV stations, outdoor advertising and more, to a private equity firm.

Thursday, the company announced an investment firm offered $18.7 billion, a premium of 10% over the value of the company's stock, and the Clear Channel will continue taking bids until Dec. 7.

The big draw, says Dow Jones, is neither the broadcast media outlets nor the music venues, it's the outdoor advertising unit.

And to show just how focused Clear Channel is on the outdoor stuff, the company announced that five employees are getting the ax in Syracuse, where Clear Channel owns five radio stations, a television station and a music venue.

They're also dumping 17 stations in Maine and 12 more in Wisconsin.

Yeah, those stores ain't playin'

2006-11-17T14:23:00.000-05:00

We've discussed frequently in this spot the plight of about a dozen tenants of the Carousel Center mall. They risk losing their leases to an eminent domain taking because their landlord doesn't want to negotiate with them, and three weeks ago, the state supreme court said that's just fine.

Because, you know, those stores don't have millions invested in their leases or anything, and their "we get to voice our concerns over how a mall expansion might hurt our business" clauses were just put in the leases because, well, because it's a poetic phrase that doesn't really mean anything.

Right. I've been saying all along that this might be the right time for the stores to just say, "OK, we're gone." They haven't done that, but they have taken an intermediary step: they've asked their lawyers to prepare an appeal to the SCOTUS.

The SCOTUS has in the past upheld some rulings for taking property by eminent domain for private development, but the court might take this up, because it's only taking some of the lease by eminent domain – the companies will all have to keep paying their rent in order to keep their stores open, but they would have no say over a loss of nearby parking spaces and mall entrances.

Voice-over: Meanwhile, not far away in a not-too-distant part of town...

Just west of the Inner Harbor – perhaps a mile away from the Carousel Center – Salt City Enterprises has bought 10 lake front properties and has started to rehab the buildings into what will surely be a thriving commercial area.

Yes, Pyramid did great things with Franklin Square. And while they may be the end-all as far as development goes in this town, they are certainly not the be-all.

Eliot Spitzer, patronizing prick

2006-11-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

Eliot Spitzer's been making the upstate rounds the past couple of days, and he took a bus tour through Syracuse yesterday.

He stopped in exactly two places – the Inner Harbor and the SU men's basketball game – and said the city has "potential."

Fantastic.

He's stepping into the top job in the state – a state that owes back taxes on a building in town, holding up a major renovation there; a state that, when it reports to us in mid-January what it plans to do with respect to the Inner Harbor, will have been sitting on its hands for fully 11 months after it said it was dumping the Pyramid Cos. as preferred developer.

Spitzer ran on a platform of ~~change~~ ~~being a political outsider~~ ~~not being connected downstate~~ well, people know his name and he's not George Pataki.

So, his telling the mayor, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, and other officials that the city has "potential" and that he'd "try to divert some development money" our way might make him feel good, but it doesn't actually help the city in any way.

We'll just have to wait and see if we're getting something besides lip service. I'm not holding my breath.

Envisioning greatness downtown

2006-11-15T05:44:00.000-05:00

My friend, colleague and co-author of this blog Angela Newman – who recently started a local theater blog you should be reading – asks about twice a month when the company's moving downtown. Me, I'm pessimistic, even though our boss almost jumps out of his shoes every time he overhears the conversation.

Of course, I'd love for us to be downtown – not only for the convenience of being downtown, but to be part of a revival down there.

Sean Kirst has a column today about a Syracuse University student who grew up in LaFayette and envisions wonderful things for downtown Syracuse. Better yet, Jason Evans is an architecture student at SU, which puts him in a great position for this vision – twice.

First off, Evans is actually learning a business in which he could design the next great thing downtown. Secondly, the school he attends moved last year into a former furniture warehouse that was sitting around on West Fayette Street about two blocks from Armory Square. Incidentally, if you want to see the Warehouse, it's part of the th3 art open, which takes place tomorrow and then goes on Hiatus until February.

Kirst's piece on Evans comes barely a week after engineering firm O'Brien & Gere said they were moving 330 employees downtown and First Niagara Bank followed up by saying they're moving 65 people into a new downtown building early next year.

If you're thinking about taking your business downtown, now's the time.

Taking Clear Channel private (local links)

2006-11-10T14:18:00.000-05:00

Also at BlogJosh.

Sometime in the next week or so, we may hear that one of the largest entertainment groups in the world, Clear Channel Communications, has been bought and taken private, for something in the range of $17 billion dollars.

Clear Channel owns some 1200 radio stations, a bunch of television stations, an outdoor advertising unit and a slew of music venues across the country.

Locally, Clear Channel owns five radio stations in Syracuse, six in Binghamton, six in Utica, and seven in Rochester; they own the ABC television affiliates in Syracuse and Watertown, and the Landmark Theater in Syracuse. I'm not sure about the outdoor operation, but it wouldn't surprise me if they owned at least a few dozen billboards in the area.

Why the diversification? Well, look at it this way: You can have a radio station that makes songs popular, then bully musicians into playing a free tour of your venues under threat of not playing their songs on your 1200 stations. You can advertise the concerts on your radio stations, television stations and billboards, and all the money is just shifting from one of your subsidiaries to another.

But taking the company private could actually provide some benefit to the public. Public companies are accountable to their stockholders. They're required to push their profits as high as they can. This is easily done by sharing resources – including radio personalities, facilities, and news operations. And with the technology available today, the company could easily have one person working, say, from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., handling all 24 stations in Utica, Binghamton, Rochester and Syracuse from a remote location, and no one would notice – unless there were an emergency, and all of a sudden, you couldn't get a news crew there, because there isn't one.

Private companies* don't have to please their stockholders. Sure, they have owners and employees and other stakeholders, but if they want to blow money here and there on innovation that doesn't pan out, it's OK – and all the better if it does work out. Private companies have the ability to spend some cash on trying something new without having to justify the expense.

So, I'm thinking this is a good thing. We'll see.

*Disclaimer: I work for Advance Communications, which is currently the largest privately held media company in the U.S.; I'm not sure if Clear Channel would be bigger, but it would be very big.

Vote Tuesday

2006-11-06T19:50:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is Election Day. If you're eligible and registered, vote. If you're not sure if you're registered, go to your local polling place to see if you're on their list. If you're not on their list, ask for a paper ballot – you may be registered at a different address and your vote will be counted as soon as that's confirmed.

If you're not sure where to vote, call your county's Board of Elections; Central New York numbers are here, as well as in your phone book. Some of the boards' web sites have inaccurate information, so take the time to call.

Vote your conscience: If your party's candidate doesn't do live up to your expectations, there's no reason you have to vote for him or her. If you don't think any of the candidates will live up to your expectations, cast a write-in vote for someone you think will (and make sure the candidate you write in is eligible for the office – one must be 25 to serve in the U.S. House and 30 to serve in the Senate).

If you plan to vote for a major party candidate, check to see if the candidate appears on any other lines. Pro-labor Democrats frequently show up on the Working Families Party line; Republicans often appear on the Conservative Party line. If you can vote for someone on a third-party line, consider doing so – it will help keep democracy alive in New York.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. If you need a ride to a polling place, call a local candidate's campaign office; there are usually volunteers waiting to help out.

I'm not going to recommend any candidates to you. You'll need to make that decision for yourself. Just make it an informed one – don't vote for Candidate A because you like his name or for Candidate B because you like her hair.

Seth says: Vote.

Amy says: Vote. [Also, read more from Amy.]

Absentee ballots

2006-11-06T06:48:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day to request absentee ballots in New York, and also the last day for them to be postmarked. A lot of people are voting by absentee this year; if you're one of them, don't forget to get your ballot in the mail before last pickup today!

VOTE

2006-11-04T15:52:00.000-05:00

My plan for tomorrow: VoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVote VoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVote VoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVote VoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVote VoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVote VoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVote VoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVoteVote then VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer VolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteerVolunteer

Good Luck to us all, CNY! Let's go to work. ps--here's my appeal to family far away.

Jill on work, art

2006-10-31T15:52:00.000-05:00

Here are two pieces you'll want to read by Jill Hurst-Wahl:

• Jill went to hear Dame Anita Roddick speak about entrepreneurship, how Syracuse can draw entrepreneurs, form an identity, and all that good stuff.
• As a seriously inspired afterthought, Jill goes on to write about an expanded need for public art in Syracuse.

Maybe we can get some of the th3 venues involved.

Making it easier to do business here

2006-10-31T09:53:00.000-05:00

I may have been harping on this just a bit lately, but it's really not easy to do business in the city of Syracuse.

Well, there's now a task force to help make it easier for developers to get things running in town.

The task force – which includes actual humans trying to do business here – is out to cut down paperwork, and help prospective developers give investors timelines they can stick to.

Hopefully, this task force will not just include people who hope to drop hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars here. In casual discussions over the past couple of years with a former small business owner in Syracuse, I've learned that one of the biggest obstacles to doing business here is the lack of direction the owner got – no one was able to just hand the owner a list of required permits, licenses and inspections.

And when someone walks into a small business and says, "By the way, you need to spend $5,000 on X," it's a lot more difficult for someone with a $50,000 small business loan to conjure up another five grand than it is for someone dropping a couple of million on new development.

The most frustrating part of this equation, though, has to be Mayor Matt Driscoll, a former business owner in the city who has been in office for five years now and has had ample opportunity to step up and improve the process. Proof of his own inaction comes in a quote at the very bottom of the P-S story:

"I've been through it (as a businessman) and it is very, very painful," he said. "Every person in City Hall really needs to develop a customer service mentality. After all, they are being paid by the taxpayers. If a city worker is telling a developer about a code that has to be met, it needs to come along with the message 'we want you and we need you.' "

Umm, yes it does. Now make it happen.

Canal Corp.: Destiny will just have to be smaller

2006-10-31T09:04:00.000-05:00

The T-U reports today that the Canal Corp. has cut off talks with Pyramid Corp. over the Inner Harbor.

They claimed they'd do that last February, and then they spent the summer futzing around, but now, well, maybe they're serious.

Pyramid's imagined Destiny complex, which would start with giant additions to the existing Carousel Center, would have included the 18-acre property that drew an estimated 50,000 people total to weekly concerts this summer.

This comes as something of a kick in the teeth to Pyramid, because last week, the company cleared the last legal hurdle to expanding the mall (which is not to say that practical hurdles have been cleared).

Carmella Mantello, the head of the Canal Corp., said that Destiny (which many doubt – and few hope – will ever happen) "may be a little smaller scale."

Mantello said that by January, she will come back with a plan for the property. That plan will likely be one of these three things:

A land auction
A new RFP
Awarding of the contract to the partnership between Norstar Development and Sutton Cos., which was the second highest bidder in the 2002 RFP that Pyramid won.

Personally, I'm hoping for number three, which would get something going as soon as the ground thaws.

Connections or Apophenia?

2006-10-26T14:52:00.000-04:00

Josh has done an excellent job of chronicling the destiny fiasco (including the myriad claims disparaging small businesses) and pointing out the mayor’s proposal to raise the certificate of use fee. Now, the Syracuse New Times’ Best of Syracuse 2006 featured two categories with national chains nominated where national chains have no business being nominated: Best Coffee Joint and Best Record Store.
Perhaps it’s the snob in me, but music stores and coffee shops are personal. I shudder to think I live in a city that can’t do better than Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts for Best Coffee Joint—conspicuously missing from the nominations is my local coffee shop Recess and probably one or more of your favorites. (I haven’t had the chance yet but soon I’m hoping to get out to Sertino’s Café in Liverpool—it’s new to the area, so hopefully we’ll see it on next year’s Best Of list.) NOT TO MENTION, Barnes and Noble, Best Buy and Borders for Best Record Store?!?!?!?! (Shudders are now uncontrollable convulsions.)
National chains serve a purpose. Yes, I understand this. But it’s a supplemental purpose. Just as your multivitamin shouldn’t be your sole source of all those necessary vitamins and minerals, neither should national chains serve as any city’s Best Of.

UpdateI removed the link to Recess' site. It might contain a virus. Their coffee is still good though.

Pressing News

2006-10-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

I have been preoccupied for a bit publishing 2 books. The first was the long awaited Monday Night Poetry Anthology called Coevolution -funded in part by a grant from the DeFrancisco Arts & Cultural Grants administered by the Cultural Resources Council. (It can be purchased for $10 at Monday Night Poetry or at Follett's Orange Bookstore in the Marshall Square Mall.) We received our 200 poems from a whole bunch of poets living near and far. Here's me Name Dropping: Rick Lupert, Mary McLaughlin Slechta, Jane Cassady, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Paloma A. Capanna, Therése Halscheid, Daniel J. McGinn, Omanii Abdullah-Grace, Martin Walls, Gregg Yeti--and that ain't even the half of it. (All the folks I didn't link to are very Google-able.) I was and am totally blown away. Special thanks to Rachel Schlesselman for all her editing help.
The second is a collection of poems by Jane Cassady called An Awkward Kind of Faith . (It can also be purchased at Monday Night Poetry or Follett's Orange Bookstore in the Marshall Square Mall for $5.) This is my review:
"From the completely (un)biased editor of Turtle Ink Press: Sometimes the reward for having done the homework is the knowledge that water’s moving under snow, sometimes that instant evaporation is a possibility, sometimes knowledge sits somewhere between. Jane juxtaposes these bits of knowledge, wrestles with their implications, wrings them out, dips her pen into the drippin’s and writes into the morning. She proves that there are no still life's, no still lives: cities make us hot and sticky; history reminds we all have damn spots; the quest is worth passing on the bucket. Pay attention, Jane says, pay attention. Indeed, we should."
I certainly lead a beautiful life.

Carousel stores told to go home

2006-10-25T06:33:00.000-04:00

A state appeals court yesterday got rid of the last legal hurdle to the building of an 848,000-square foot expansion of the Carousel Center mall by tossing out an appeal by 10 of the mall's tenants. If you know the area malls, they're basically going to take ShoppingTown and stick it in the parking lot.

What the court didn't do was clear practical hurdles.

In order to qualify for tax breaks, construction has to begin by the end of the year. Which means really soon, because the ground will be frozen in not too long.

It'll be interesting to see what the city requires for "construction must begin." Because this expansion would take up a lot of parking and block some major entrances to the mall (including direct entrances to some of the stores who lost their appeal), and the Christmas shopping season is nigh, it's not really a good time to be pissing off your retail tenants any more than you have to.

My question still remains, though. What happens if Macy's, Lord & Taylor, Borders, Circuit City, J.C. Penney, and all the other stores that will lose direct entrances and nearby parking, lose too much business and decide to close? I highly doubt Pyramid can fill those spots and and entirely new mall. It takes steady tenants to recruit new ones, and when your biggest stores become Best Buy and Ruby Tuesday, well, you're not exactly setting yourself up to become the most successful mall on the planet.

Oh, and let's not start talking about the Destiny project yet. This initial expansion holds none of the promise of being green construction or using green energy, does not involve taking half the North Side by eminent domain (which, when it comes time, the city may well not do), and isn't promising $60,000 a year jobs that require training for positions without job descriptions.

And the Inner Harbor? Don't bet on Pyramid plopping down any money any time soon, despite the fact that it put in the most attractive bid four years ago and the next-highest bidder actually would do something with it if given the opportunity.

I hate to see development projects fail, but I could stand to see this one go south.

Wingnuts and NY-24

2006-10-22T20:45:00.000-04:00

Also at BlogJosh.

With U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert – a moderate Republican – retiring this year, there's a chance that control of the House could swing on the seat he's vacating. With less than three weeks left until election day, Republican candidate Ray Meier and Democrat Michael Arcuri are in a dead-heat.

But the National Republican Campaign Committee has stooped to a new low in campaign advertising – such a new low that when I saw the story about the new ad against Arcuri (via Sean Kirst), I just glossed over it..

And then I saw the ad.

The ad – which Meier, the Republican, has asked the NRCC to pull (the NRCC has declined) – takes Arcuri to task for calling a sex hotline from his hotel phone while in New York City on business, and charging Oneida County taxpayers for the call. The P-S investigated the claim (it's in the story), and the AP looked into it, too.

Turns out that an aide mis-dialed the call – the Department of Criminal Justice Services in Albany has the same seven-digit phone number, but with a different area code. Phone records show that the correct number was dialed one minute after the incorrect number was dialed.

The P-S story says many of the stations approached with the ad declined to run it, but I saw it on the local Fox affiliate, which is owned by Sinclair, a large media company run by people who donate heavily to Republican campaigns.

And never mind a distaste for accuracy, Sinclair has an evident distaste for actually informing the public. In those markets served by Sinclair that still have local news shows, only about 15 minutes of every half-hour is done locally (with 10 of those minutes being weather and sports).

Other stations – like our local Fox affiliate – rely (or, as in this station's case, relied) on other local stations to produce their news. The CBS affiliate here, WTVH, owned by Granite, used to produce the Fox affiliate's local news show. When the CBS affiliate decided to focus on its own news, the Fox affiliate ran a nasty-gram on its web site asking viewers to write to WTVH.

Because WTVH should have to program someone else's news. Right.

Here's Fox affiliate WSYT's contact info. Tell them to at least purport to tell the truth.

th3

2006-10-21T12:32:00.000-04:00

Angela and I braved the rain Thursday night for The Third Thursday (th3). Eight months out of the year – all except for December, January, July and August – a dozen local art galleries open their doors for free from 5 to 8 p.m. They have bread, fruit and cheese, wine, coffee and tea. Some artists are on hand.

Since we opted to park downtown and walk, rather than take the Connective Corridor bus (a free ride, incidentally), we only got to five of the participating venues before we decided we were too soaked to continue. We made our first trips to Delavan, The Red House, the Warehouse Gallery, Eureka Crafts and the Thinc Gallery at Lincoln Center.

We'll just have to try to get to more next month.

Near as I can tell, Syracuse Arts Net has something to do with the event, but I'm not sure in what capacity.

Anyway, it's a fantastic event. Try to make it out next month – the next date is Nov. 16, and then you're going to have to wait until February.

Because we don't want small businesses here

2006-10-18T10:23:00.000-04:00

Buried at the bottom of a story on Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll's proposal to modify the Certificate of Use requirements in the city is a doubling of the fee for a certificate.

A Certificate of Use is a permit, obtained every two years, that allows a business to operate in the city. Much like a driver's license, there's a point system, and as a business accrues points, eventually it's denied a permit.

Things that will help accumulate points include selling alcohol and tobacco to minors, operating outside of legal hours, and prostitution.

The fee for a Certificate of Use is $100; Driscoll proposes changing that to $200. An extra $100 every two years is not likely to break an established business, but it may be the straw that breaks the camel's back for those considering opening a new small business in the city, particularly if they can get similar permits elsewhere in similar-traffic areas for what would have been a comparable rate to the $100.

What burns me most about this is that Driscoll was a business owner before he was elected to the mayoral post. How can he not recognize that high startup fees are a barrier to small businesses opening here?

Proposed bus station, plus more

2006-10-14T09:10:00.000-04:00

When I first got here, I was really confused by the bus system. Not that it's gotten a whole lot better – the route maps (and names, too) don't really make any sense if you don't know the city really well (go download a couple of schedules) – but at least I've sort of figured something out: The Regional Transportation Center is not the same thing as the city bus station.

In my experience, that's unusual.

Of course, the city doesn't actually have a bus station. You can catch a Greyhound or a train at the RTC, but the hub of the hub-and-spoke mass transit system is the always-cluttered intersection of Salina and Fayette streets. You have to know at which of the four corners your bus stops, and downtown traffic is always stalled.

It also means a lack of visibility for store fronts (with buses stopped in front of them) and a shortage of parking – so people who are driving through downtown are likely to not stop there to do errands.

On top of that, it means that if you're taking the bus, for six months of the year, you are uncomfortably cold, and subject to the elements' effects on the sidewalk. Not great if you've a compromised immune system, aren't in really good physical condition (try navigating an icy sidewalk with bad hips and a walker), and unattractive if you could just drive to work instead, even if you typically would prefer mass transit.

But the city's stepping up, and may soon buy a building for a bus station. It would mean relocating the Red Cross Blood Center – which I don't think would be a bad thing; I know that if I had easier access to it, I might actually take a lunch break to donate blood, but it also means that the buses would clear out of that intersection, and people would have the comfort of a roof over their heads (and walls around their bodies) in the harsh CNY winters.

There are two exciting possibilities here. First, for novice bus takers, there's no wondering which corner you have to stand on – and having to wait another hour if you guess wrong after 6 p.m. And more importantly, it lightens traffic at Salina and Fayette, which could lead to more downtown development.

And if you've been reading, you know we think that's a thing.

Also in the news

• We wrote Thursday about a pact to clean up Onondaga Lake that involves a $451 million promise from Honeywell, which now owns the company that dumped a lot of toxic sludge in there. But there's a lot of doubt about the effectiveness of the planned methods.
• Here's a little more on the AXA lease.

Register!

2006-10-13T10:44:00.000-04:00

If you're in New York, today is the last day to register to vote in the November election. You can register online here, or go to your local elections office – party headquarters will probably also have forms today, and I know in Syracuse, there will be people downtown with forms.

Things do happen; even reporters get jaded

2006-10-12T11:26:00.000-04:00

We've been writing a bit about AXA's desire to stay in Syracuse, and with a couple of smart moves by the city – beautifying public space and finding 600 parking spots for AXA to pay for – the financial company today signed a 15-year lease to commit to staying in Syracuse until 2023.

In development news, you know the whole Pyramid dropping the ball thing is really pervasive when a story about a really cool $80 million sports park/hotel complex starts like this:

Here's a new twist for the Syracuse area: A big development that promises to draw people in large numbers from hundreds of miles away is being built.

In other news, Honeywell, which bought Allied Chemical in 1999, is ready to put almost a half billion dollars into cleaning up Onondaga Lake. The state sued Allied for dumping its toxic sludge into the lake all the way back in 1989, and the company's finally stepping up to start making it right.

A cleaner Onondaga Lake means (a) the Haudenosaunee can feel a little bit better (read: less resentful) about one of their really old sacred grounds, and (b) we can eat the fish, finally. Assuming the clean-up happens, of course.

Catching up: Mall, AXA, more

2006-10-10T06:13:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the extended absence. It's been a busy week.

It didn't take long for 10 tenants at the Carousel Center to do something the city just didn't have the guts to do: appeal an unjust ruling [more].

The stores want to be able to negotiate with their landlord for the things they paid good money for in their leases – access to mall entrances and parking. In the public version of the plans, the mall's biggest tenant, Federated Dept. Stores, would lose the direct entrance it has at Lord & Taylor, and all associated parking; its other store, Macy's, would lose about half its nearby parking.

The stores have in their lease agreements the ability to re-negotiate for these things when the mall plans an expansion, and Federated alone puts the value of that clause above all else in its leases. Federated told a court that if the city can take that clause by eminent domain (along with other clauses that allow it to negotiate with the mall owners when major changes could affect the stores), it should just take the whole lease and require the mall to pay a $24 million buyout.

I'm going to reiterate something I asked head of economic development David Michel in a letter: If the city is willing to take lease rights away from businesses without allowing them to negotiate for those rights, who would want to sign a commercial lease here? His response: Don't worry, we're not going to take your house.

Which would have no value in a city with no businesses in it anyway, I'm sure.

Not coincidentally, Federated's CEO praised the Lord & Taylor store at the Carousel Center last week. I'm sure Federated doesn't do this often, but when it's faced with losing a lease it values at $24 million, a little PR campaign is in order.

In related news, John Centra, the judge who ruled against the city in March in Syracuse's battle with the mall owners, is now an appeals court judge.

AXA

Meanwhile, we wrote last week about the city's negotiations to keep AXA financial in town [story]. AXA has promised 300 new jobs, and has asked for a PILOT program similar to the one it's had for the last few decades, some beautification to public space on its grounds, and that the city find it 600 parking spaces it will pay for at market value.

Interesting development last week: The city's not sure it can find the parking. With the promise – in writing – of more jobs and the guaranteed funds from parking, you'd think the city would push a little harder to make this happen. Instead, they're pushing hard for a mall expansion for a company that is alienating existing stores, claiming that it's negotiating with tenants for the expansion (it won't say which ones, and won't say how the possibility of existing stores leaving would affect those negotiations), and talks about job growth but won't put anything in writing.

Updated, 2:45 p.m. Tuesday: Oh, look at that. The city decided to find the parking spaces. Huh. Good idea.

In other news

• Syracuse University is shuttling its students downtown for free. While this gets the students to the architecture school, it also gets them to downtown businesses. It's a great boost to the downtown economy that should have happened years ago.
• It looks like that convention center hotel they've been talking about building at the OnCenter since 1992 is finally ready to happen, with about a half dozen grants coming in to get the project rolling.
• The city is talking to Kingston, Ontario, about forming a tourism alliance [NYCO].
• Lastly, NYCO's got a great post up about community commitment, including how it relates to that mall expansion I keep complaining about.

Destiny promises nothing; AXA promises growth

2006-10-03T06:11:00.000-04:00

Last Friday, an appellate court ruled against 12 stores who were fighting to keep parts of their leases – the parts that give them negotiating power over their access to mall entrances and nearby parking, for instance.

There's been no word yet on whether those stores plan another appeal, but CompUSA, which was one of the 12, was already planning to close its Carousel Center store. Federated Dept. Stores, which owns both the Lord & Taylor and Macy's (formerly Kaufmann's) in the mall, asked the court to just require the city to take its entire lease (which Federated values at $24 million); that might be a sign that they're not willing to stick around if and when they get to see the expansion plans.

According to plans distributed at a public information session (which are not necessarily the final plans, or what's on file with the city, if anything), Borders would lose its entrance and parking, as would JC Penney. Macy's and L&T would be in the same boat.

Meanwhile, Dick Case has some questions about just what the heck this thing might be, and he doesn't seem to understand the city's motivation on this. And when I say Dick Case has these questions, I mean a lot of people do, but Dick happens to have a column.

So, the first plan is to build out from the existing mall to Hiawatha Boulevard. That'll be a very large expansion, and about a 50 percent reduction in parking (or, at least, there's no plan drawn up for parking). Carousel's management has not said with which stores it's negotiating for spots in the expansion – never mind if anyone will be willing to come if the major tenants involved in the lawsuit decide to walk away from their leases.

And then there's the question of what, if anything, Destiny plans to do with the Inner Harbor, now that the Canal Corp. has really dropped the ball on its threat to seek another developer. Destiny still hasn't put down any money, and hasn't sent a letter of intent on the property.

At the very least, the city is starting to plan events for next summer – the weekly block parties at the harbor this past season drew an estimated 50,000 people. Doubters: Please stop telling me (a) nothing happens here and (b) no one goes out to anything. Step outside your front door occasionally, huh?

Meanwhile, downtown...

The city is negotiating a new tax and lease deal with AXA Financial Services.

AXA owns two towers downtown with 950 employees (200 of whom were added over the past two years). They have a PILOT program in place until 2018, but the company's lease expires in 2008. (Wow. Tenants and landlords negotiating – and before the lease is up!)

A new lease would keep the company in Syracuse until 2024, and the PILOT agreement would extend until 2028. Highlights of what AXA wants:

A guaranteed maximum assessment of $27.5 million, with the ability to decrease payment if the value of the property goes down
A guarantee of 600 parking spaces in city lots, for which AXA will pay market value
The city to beautify the walkway between its buildings

AXA, for its part, plans to add 300 employees locally in the next year. With 500 new follks working downtown over a three-year span, that can only lead to more people coming before the end of its lease.

Let's review: Destiny wants tax breaks without saying how it's going to bring jobs or boost the local economy; AXA is promising actual jobs, the guaranteed purchase of parking spots, and wants a prettier space to live in. Destiny is using the city to bully its tenants, perhaps driving them away entirely; the city is negotiating with AXA for a mutually beneficial deal.

Someone please let me know which is the proper way to do business.

New York hates small distilleries

2006-09-25T19:08:00.000-04:00

When I first moved here, it was strange to see beer ... well, everywhere. In Massachusetts, a handful of grocery stores are licensed to sell beer and wine (beer, malts and wine are on a separate license from booze – I think in New York only beer and other malt beverages are separate), and until recently, only one store in the state could sell alcohol on Sunday (except for the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day).

It never occurred to me to make a run to the gas station for a six-pack. But I can, so sometimes I do.

But if you're a small distillery – in or out of New York – trying to get your product on the shelf, well, good luck.

Local favorites Beak and Skiff Apple Farms wants to make apple vodka – a reasonable request for an orchard, I think – but Governor Pataki vetoed legislation that would have allowed small distilleries to sell their products.

The deal here is that if you want to sell booze in New York, you have to go through a wholesale distributor. So, you make the stuff, and you have to sell it to a middle man, who stores it in a warehouse until someone orders it.

This does two things: (1) It adds a step increase in the price. (2) It means you have to produce enough product to sell in bulk to the wholesaler.

That means small wineries and breweries can sell their own stuff across the counter, but not in stores. Distilleries can't even do that.

And it's only in-state vintners and brewers who can sell directly to customers. If you're out-of-state, forget about it. Which means no ordering a case to be shipped if you're touring California wine country, and no joining a wine-of-the-month club on the Internet.

You get big booze, or nothing.

Which brings us back to Beak and Skiff: Why shouldn't a small business be able to produce a product that the market can support and sell it responsibly to responsible consumers?

Oh, right. Because this is New York, and we like it bigger, faster or not at all. Small business is for sissies.

Banned Books Week

2006-09-25T12:44:00.000-04:00

Also at BlogJosh.

It's banned book week. Here's a (probably partial) list of books that have been banned at some point in the last 100 years. Bold: what I've read. Italic: on my reading list. Join the fun, and give me recommendations (whether I should read something I haven't indicated is on my list, or not read something I have). The ALA explains why the books have been banned.

This post has local relevance: The Vernon-Verona-Sherill School District challenged The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, A Farewell to Arms and A Separate Peace.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Ulysses, James Joyce
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Lord of the Flies, William Golding
1984, George Orwell
Lolita, Vladmir Nabokov
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Their Eyes were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Native Son, Richard Wright
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
Go Tell it on the Mountain, James Baldwin
All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Lady Chatterley's Lover, DH Lawrence
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
Sons and Lovers, DH Lawrence
Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
A Separate Peace, John Knowles
Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs
Women in Love, DH Lawrence
The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
Rabbit, Run, John Updike

Thanks to Sassy Pants for cluing me in.

Coevolution

2006-09-25T11:45:00.000-04:00

Come out tonight to celebrate the release of Coevolution: The MNP 2006 Anthology. It's being released during Monday Night Poetry at the Coffee Pavilion. Some of the poets in the book – including the three authors of this blog – will be on hand to perform their pieces and sign copies.

Here's more:

Just a quick reminder that Coevolution: The MNP 2006 Anthology debutes tonight at the Coffee Pavilion, 133 East Water Street, Syracuse, NY. Signups for the reading begin at 8:00 pm and the reading will begin at 8:30 pm. Everyone is invited to read their poems, included in the book or otherwise. And what better place to obtain some poets' autographs. It should be a phenomenal evening.

We are hoping to pack the place to celebrate and support the awesome poetic talent not only featured in this anthology but also featured at the open mic every Monday at Monday Night Poetry. We also want to show our support to Senator DeFrancisco and the DeFrancisco Arts and Cultural Grants and the Cultural Resources Council. I certainly owe them a debt of gratitude.

Be sure and get to the reading early because we are hoping andplanning on it being standing room only. I can't wait to see everyone there.

Thanks and here's to the wonderful poets.

Amy L-C

(Coevolution: The MNP 2006 Anthology was funded in part by a generous grant from the Defrancisco Arts and Cultural Grants and administered by the Cultural Resources Council)

Copies of the book, by the way, are $5 if you're in it, $10 if you're not. If you can't make it out to buy your books in person, get in touch with Jane Cassady.

More on the Connective Corridor

2006-09-19T11:22:00.000-04:00

For those of you who missed it, I had a great back-and-forth with an anonymous commenter about the Connective Corridor.

The commenter brought up a great issue: Why use the L-shaped route from the University that takes E. Genesee into downtown, when there are more direct routes through the city's near-south side.

The commenter certainly had a good criticism that the designers were intentionally avoiding a low-income neighborhood. I thought it was really just a matter of geography; to take the more obvious route – Adams and Clinton, you'd have to change traffic flow patterns (both are one-way in the wrong direction).

In his column today, Dick Case brings forth the criticism that overall, the scope of the project is too broad, and he had trouble with the tiny drawings on display over at the NIMO building. (I saw the much-larger renditions over at the Marshall Square Mall, but I think today may be the last day they're scheduled to be on view over there.)

He also, though, explains why the E. Genny path was chosen – there's going to be something of a sub-campus over there, beyond just the Center for Excellence building, which is currently under construction. So, the Connective Corridor would connect the campus with its sub-campus, and then continue to Armory Square.

That makes some sense to me.

In terms of a longer vision, though, here's what I'd like to see (Anonymous, are you reading? I'd love your input on some of this.):

Rather than making Armory Square the terminal destination of the currently proposed corridor, make it Hanover Square. Stick some bike racks in the square; there's already plenty of parking in the area. People can always walk on to Armory Square, and I'm sure the businesses from Hanover to Armory would be happy for the increased foot traffic.
Take down I-81 from the I-690 interchange south to the I-481 interchange. Make Adams Street two-way; taking down the highway clears up all the traffic headed to the on-ramp; people will either head down South Salina, or will take I-690 to I-481.
Make the Regional Transportation Center the center of Centro's hub-and-spoke system, rather than the Salina-Fayette intersection – or at least supplement it, to alleviate some downtown traffic.
Make a second Connective Corridor down the newly two-way Adams and up Salina. It could take a left onto Fayette, which would no longer have a no-turns restriction, since some traffic has been alleviated. That puts its terminal point in Armory, and the option to go two more blocks up Salina to Clinton Square and Hanover Square.

We're a solid 10 years away from taking down I-81, but I think something along these lines should be in the works for the second that corridor is developable.

CNY weekend, wherein I eat too much

2006-09-19T10:25:00.001-04:00

Friday night found me at Jazz Central, at Rarely Done's production of Torch Song Trilogy. Going in, I must admit I was a little daunted by the prospect of a three and a half hour play. But true to its reviews, the play seemed to fly by, thanks to its excellent pacing and the strength of its cast. I'm hardly the least biased person in town where this company is concerned, having performed in two of their shows last spring, but I strongly recommend checking out the rest of Rarely Done's 2006-2007 season.

Saturday morning I went with my sister to the Regional Market, where we bought entirely too much produce and were charmed by the coffee shop that offered, and I quote, "free butts" of bread and whose hours were advertised as 8am to 4-ish. (I'm a big slacker who can't remember the name of the place, but i'll find out and post it.)

(One note on the Regional Market: Somebody needs to put a sidewalk down Tex Simone Drive. Before I do it myself.)

Later that evening, I headed down to Festa Italiana downtown. And I must say, I was a little disappointed. Once you've eaten, there's just not a lot to do. And unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess) I don't eat that much in one sitting. There was a stage set up at one end of the festival, and I'd heard a rocking band coming from that direction the night before (from inside Jazz Central, actually), but when I attended early Saturday evening, there was a woman performing standards by way of karaoke machine. I grabbed my tiramisu, and Josh and I headed toward Armory.

Going apple-picking has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. So, even though my mother moved away from Syracuse years ago, she drove down Sunday to take her godchild and me to Beak and Skiff in LaFayette.

When I was growing up, there was a house-looking shop where you could buy candy apples, watch bees in a hive, and see cider being made. And there were ponies. And a tractor that would take you to the apple trees. And that was it. Later, they added hot dogs and popcorn. Now, in addition to all that, you can get your face painted, make sand art, get a root beer float, watch mountain goats (at least, I assume that's what they are; I'm not the best judge of livestock) climb up this really tall staircase thing...it's pretty much the Xanadu of family-style apple-picking places.

I got my little basket of apples, knowing full well I already had too much produce in the house (see above), and spent the rest of the afternoon in the mall, which almost seems treasonous, given how beautiful the weather was on Sunday. But I've been trying to cut down on my extraneous driving (definitely took the bus downtown Saturday night), and transportation arrangements made it prudent for me to stay at Carousel until my sister got out of work and could drive us both to Liverpool, where we joined up with two of our friends for dinner at Ichiban's.

And here is where I realize I must retract my former statement about not being able to eat a lot in one sitting.

Ah, well. Good times.

The last Inner Harbor block party of the season

2006-09-15T09:20:00.000-04:00

I made an unscheduled trip down to the Inner Harbor last night. After locking up my Schwinn, I dutifully submitted to a bag check (a copy of Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas and a not-blank-anymore book) and an ID check, bought a 24-ounce can of Blue Light (my beer standards have fallen mightily since I moved to the'Cuse, despite some great locall breweries), and cozied up to the rail.

And spent an hour and a half enthralled with The Lunachik Fringe. You have to do a lot as a cover band do keep my attention for more than a couple of songs, but let's face it, if Robyn's going to sing Janis, I'm going to listen.

I didn't stick around for Under the Gun (but fantastic performers, them), but I did get to watch the crowd swell to something over 500 – and people were definitely still pouring in when as I was leaving.

Next summer, there's a pretty good chance that either the Pyramid Cos. or the Sutton Cos. will own the Inner Harbor. I hope the new owner lets this series live on. It's bringing hundreds of Central New Yorkers of all ages (and I do mean all: I stood next to an elderly woman for a little while, watching the six-year-olds dance) out to a gem in the city for what is, plain and simple, a good time.

Update: Dick Case is thinking that maybe Pyramid's waiting for a new governor (and, presumably, the opportunity to wrangle for concessions from the state on regulations and prices) before putting up some cash.

Federated: If you're gonna take it, take it

2006-09-14T16:07:00.000-04:00

The stores that are asking an appellate court panel to stop the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA) from taking parts of their leases with Carousel Center were in court today.

SIDA is saying that it's only planning to take the parts of the leases that would stand in the way of Pyramid expanding the mall.

The stores, naturally, want their landlord to renegotiate those parts of the leases, or simply ask for approval, since that's really the issue.

Federated, which is the mall's biggest tenant with a Macy's store, a Lord & Taylor store, and whatever the Kaufmann's Furniture store is now that they've put the Macy's name on all the regular Kaufmann's stores, has told the court that the wording is too vague, and that if SIDA is going to take parts of the stores' leases, the agency should just take the leases.

The value, in Federated's estimate? $24 million.

And if they get their way on that, the other 11 tenants – which include large stores like JC Penney, Best Buy and Borders – are going to expect to get theirs.

And suddenly that $60 million Pyramid promised the city (well, $53 million, since $7 million goes to the county) in exchange for 30 years of tax breaks, will all go toward the eminent domain taking.

After that, the mall will be stuck with either having to renegotiate those leases from scratch, or else will be entirely without those tenants. And who's going to be the first moron to sign a lease for the expansion when almost half the leasable space in the original mall clears out?

Updated: The full story this morning lists the parts of the leases SIDA wants to take. Basically, it's all the parts that give the tenants the right to voice concern over the expansion (such as a loss of parking outside anchor stores). Federated says they want to keep their stores in Carousel – but Pyramid is going to have to negotiate with them to keep them there.

Inner Harbor photos

2006-09-13T15:58:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to get these up for a while now. I took about 20 photos last month on a lazy Sunday morning (when there was nothing going on), and I just threw a few of them up on flickr, so go take a look.

$19M in actual investment

2006-09-12T09:51:00.000-04:00

For those of you still waiting to see if Pyramid gets the OK to go ahead and consider possibly investing some money in Syracuse, I want to direct your attention to Southern Wine & Spirits, a company that has been renting two spaces – one in Clay and one in downtown Syracuse – will invest $19 million to build something they own over in Lyncourt, near Syracuse China.

The company's 135 local employees will move there; target date for shovels is Nov. 1, and for opening, Sept. 1, 2007.

The new building will displace three little league baseball fields, so the company is donating money to the city to replace them.

Holy crap! Investment and responsibility. These are the companies we want here, folks.

Primary Day

2006-09-12T09:13:00.000-04:00

If you're a registered Republican or Democrat, or with the Working Families Party in the 25th U.S. House district, get thee to the polls. You have some voting to do.

After the polls close at 9, the AP ticker results for local races will start working.

Connective Corridor

2006-09-10T09:48:00.000-04:00

One fantastic piece of work that's going on here is design of the Connective Corridor, a proposed project that would connect Syracuse University with the city's downtown.

This is different from the project examining whether to tear down I-81.

The designs are touring the city over the coming months. I saw them at Marshall Square this week, and there are some great ideas. Each plan has some sort of mixed-transportation built in; in addition to the existing roads, bike and walking paths are on the designs, and some designs include rail service.

One of the designs also includes an LED wrap of a highway overpass so that the underside would be lit, with the possibility of light shows and anything else you can put on an LED display.

Above that, though, the corridor utilizes existing parks and public cultural centers like the Everson Museum of Art, Jazz Central, The Erie Canal Museum, and the Downtown Writer's Center, among others.

Some designs also create outdoor performance spaces for the warmer months.

The project stems from one of Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Kantor's ideas. Her first year, it didn't appear that people were doing anything more than humoring her in her ideas for getting the university more involved with the city. But now, at the beginning of her third year, it's starting to take shape.

And it's a lovely shape.

This week: Mall, development, harbor, bloggers and Bruce

2006-09-10T09:04:00.000-04:00

We've been loaded this week, and there's a lot to talk about. Let's get to it.

Mall expansion

About two weeks ago, the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA) asked a court to lift a stay that was holding up the expansion of Carousel Center.

The stay was put in place because 12 of the mall's tenants have asked a court to require their landlord, Pyramid, to negotiate the terms of their leases, rather than allowing the company to run to SIDA and take the leases by eminent domain.

SIDA is apparently more interested in having a bigger mall, not the stores to fill it.

Friday, though, the court declined SIDA's request. The 12 stores are due to have their hearing this upcoming Thursday.

The bad news on this front, though, is that the Common Council folded. Faced with an impending battle with the mayor over paying the outside lawyers it hired to continue its appeal, the council agreed to stop fighting and the mayor agreed to sign the check.

Never mind that the mayor also hired outside counsel – despite the fact that he already had someone on the city's payroll to represent his interests.

Way to stick to your guns, there, councilors.

Development: Downtown and south side

The Pioneer Cos. own two lots in Armory Square, on either side of The Warehouse, which houses the Syracuse University School of Architecture and an art gallery. The company is planning to spend $70 to $90 million to build housing, retail and office space on those lots.

And even better than the fact that the company is planning the development project, CEO Michael Falcone has put up some money to sponsor a class this fall at the architecture school. The course objective: Students will design buildings they hope will meet Pioneer's needs, and the company will consider actually using a design or two that comes out of the class.

In other downtown news, there are more people living in downtown Syracuse, and there is more residential space being built.

The furniture company Dunk & Bright this week opened a new 25,000-square foot retail space on the city's economically depressed south side. D&B has been down there for a long time, and Jim Bright, a member of the eponymous Bright family that owns the business, has been very active in economic development, including sitting on the board of the South Side Entrepreneurial Connect Project, a cooperative effort between Syracuse University's Entrepreneurship & Emerging Enterprises department and businesses to help revitalize the area.

Inner Harbor

Post-Standard columnist Dick Case continues his call to action for development at Syracuse's Inner Harbor. I'm afraid, at this point, there may be some shady dealings taking place between the Canal Corp. and Destiny.

Bloggers

I wrote last week about meeting other CNY bloggers at the fair, along with P-S columnist Sean Kirst.

Ellen found a post over at The Blogging Journalist declaring this meeting to be wonderful – the writer believes that reporters and local bloggers should meet regularly.

Well, of course they should, but not just bloggers. Columnists should be out in their communities talking to people. That's what makes Sean a much better columnist than Jayson Blair, who invented his meetings with people.

Bruce Campbell: Support independent theaters

Actor Bruce Campbell made an appearance this week at the Palace Theatre, and spent a fair bit of time urging attendees to continue to support independent theaters. Angela's got more here.

Bruce in the Cuse

2006-09-07T12:43:00.000-04:00

My sister once went to two Borderses (as grammarians cringe in unison) and a Barnes and Noble to find his book for me and sped all the way to the book signing she heard about on a Vegas radio station. My college boyfriend stalked him in a hotel to get him to sign a photo for me. (And no, I didn't ask him to...) The teenagers I used to work with in 4-H bought me his bobblehead for my 24th birthday. And at one point in my life, I even owned a copy of Maniac Cop.

But until last night, I'd never seen Bruce Campbell in person.

So, I was more than a little giddy when the man himself walked into my neighborhood movie theater, down the aisle and up onto the stage for the Q and A session that was to precede the book signing and movies (Army of Darkness and Evil Dead).

He was funny as hell, with honesty and irreverence in his responses to people's questions. I can't tell how long the Q and A went on, but pretty soon we fans (over 400 of us) were lining up for the book signing. I handed my camera to Josh and stumbled forward to meet Bruce Campbell.

Anything I write of our conversation is going to paint me as either star-struck or cheesy, and you don't need to see me like that. But I will say that he was as amiable a person you'd ever want to meet and really seemed to be enjoying himself. I felt relief that his real life persona didn't clash with the way I always figured he'd be. Easygoing, competent. The kind of guy you'd ask to help you build a deck.

There is one thing that he said during the Q and A that I want to quote, or at least paraphrase. Regarding independent movie houses like The Palace Theatre, he said, "Keep coming to cool, old theaters like this, or they'll tear them down." There was kind of a shocked silence in the audience after he said that. As though they were upset that he'd kind of placed the responsibility in their hands.

Which is where it is, and must be, of course.

Bloggers at the fair

2006-09-04T09:06:00.000-04:00

OK, so I'm three days late on this. Forgive me, won't you?

Sean Kirst invited some of us CNY bloggers to dinner at the fair Friday (invited, lured with the offer of Dinosaur on him, same thing). It was like a coming out party for people who have keyboards but, until Friday, not faces. In attendance:

Steve Balogh, of BaloghBlog and GeddesBlog
Ellen Edgerton of NYCO
Phil Prehn of Racing in the Street
Jesse Harasta of York Staters, who is 23, brilliant, and will probably be famous someday
Sean Kirst, a columnist and blogger for The Post-Standard, and
Josh Shear, of BlogJosh and Alive in CNY, who occasionally likes writing about himself in the third person

We all talked about how we got into blogging, we talked about The Treehouse, we talked about transportation, which is one of Steve's pet issues, and we shared some ideas for reforming government at the county, city, town and village level.

Wow, I do have to say, it didn't feel like we said all that much in two hours – it really just felt like a getting-to-know-you session, which it was, sort of – but I guess we did get a lot of ideas out there. I didn't take notes, but if you want more info or want to share ideas, leave a comment or shoot us an e-mail.

You can read Sean's story here, and check out Steve's take here.

Reflections on Joan Jett at the state fair

2006-08-31T21:36:00.000-04:00

Also at BlogJosh.

I first spoke with Joan Jett in July of 2003. It was a quickie – even as quickies go: she was hiding in an airport, not wanting to draw attention, and willing to fulfill the interview her label's management had promised me. They gave me 10 minutes; I got her on her way in seven.

Looking back on the interview (done for a now-defunct publication I was editing for Reminder Publications), so much of what she said really hasn't changed. The record industry was hurting, illegal downloading was (in her words) "really screwed up," and she wasn't hearing much new music she liked – except a band called The Vacancies.

Angela and I got a little face time with Jett last night at the state fair, before being joined by Kristen and Rebecca, watching the show from backstage. I'll get back to Jett in a moment, but I spoke to Julie Rader, a member of Blackheart Records' management team, and she talked about the impending death of major labels, piracy, and noted that Jett (with her band, the Blackearts) will be playing with The Vacancies in the fall.

There were some things I would have loved to have gotten to in that 2003 interview, but didn't get a chance to. Now, three years later, I had a couple of minutes. But instead, really got into things that I wouldn't even have thought about. And it didn't feel like an interview, it wasn't set up as such, but I definitely am not in the category of the fan who shakes the rock star's hand and says, "ooh! I love your work."

I do love her work, but I don't feel the need to burden her with that – I'm sure she's got plenty of fans who let her know. So I made small talk. And I unexpectedly hit on something I wouldn't have thought to ask about: Fame.

"Have you had a chance to check out the fair at all?"

Well, no, she hadn't. She grew up with fairs, she loves fairs, but she just wouldn't be able to handle it out there.

The band had just finished the Warped Tour. And while everyone probably knew who she was – she definitely reaches people of all ages – she was able to ride her bike from tent to tent and to the stage and around and no one bother her.

At the fair, she said, she'd be surrounded, mobbed, and wouldn't be able to move. There's no fun in it.

Which is a shame, really, but she's clearly not having a problem with her fame.

I used to pity people who were known best for a few songs they did 25 years ago. How many times do you think Van Morrison has sung "Brown-Eyed Girl" in his lifetime? Moxy Früvous got so sick of doing "King of Spain" they turned it into a power ballad – and they didn't even last that long.

But looking out on the Cheverolet Court at a couple of thousand people waving their fists in the air and screaming, "Oh yeah!" during "Do You Wanna Touch Me" as the band just clapped out a rhythm, I realized that reaction could never get old. [Aside: Ain't it a great thing that she managed to be the one known for that song, now that Gary Glitter's rotting in jail for molesting 12 year olds?]

Kurt Cobain was a fool.

Jett – and guitarist Dougie Needles, as well – might be fooling nature with their bodies. Jett will be 48 in a few weeks; Needles has to be close. But they're both still bounding around the stage like they're 23.

But as Jett's aged, she's matured. She still has every little bit of energy she ever had – or at least her stage persona does – but her songs have evolved from rebellion to revolution. She'll always be shouting, "Don't give a damn 'bout my bad reputation" from on stage, but she's not really doing teen angst anymore.

No almost-48-year-old should be.

The new album, Sinner, launches with a piece of brilliance called "Riddles," a hard-hitting anti-war tune, complete with audio of Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush blathering on. It did well at the early show, but at the later show last night, it got a little bit of a cooler reception (this is a very red area, despite the blue showing the city of Syracuse generally has).

It's smart, it's effective, and it's not the only one on Sinner that's like that.

It's not entirely a political CD, but there are definitely undertones throughout. In the 2003 interview, we didn't get to talk politics – we started, but she said she'd spend all day, and there was, of course, a plane to catch.

Now that I've heard the disc, I'd love to get more into how Warped went – so many young minds to teach.

And fortunately, Jett shows no signs of slowing down. Her tour schedule (check the web site) has her doing 21 shows in 37 days between Oct. 12 and Nov. 19 – going from Philadelphia to San Francisco and all the way back to Atlanta in just over a month. And I wouldn't be surprise if other shows are added in the meantime.

I've babbled long enough. Get out there, support independent music. Buy the records. Listen to the words. You'll learn something along the way.

Next up: Ember Swift and Lyndell Montgomery at Jazz Central Saturday night. Musically, does one have a better week than this?

Carousel expansion update – it's a doozy

2006-08-29T19:19:00.000-04:00

The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA) has given interested parties notice that intends to ask an appellate court to lift a stay holding up construction on the mall expansion.

The stay was put in place because 12 of the mall's current stores have leases that require management to run expansions by the stores. Rather than do that, the mall's owner, Pyramid, asked SIDA to take the leases by eminent domain. The agency – a board appointed by the mayor – agreed.

The stores – which include the likes of JC Penney, Lord & Taylor, Kaufmann's (which will by Macy's next month), Circuit City, CompUSA, Borders, Bon Ton, H&M and others, haven't come out against the expansion. They simply want to negotiate with their landlord.

David Aitken, an executive at Pyramid subsidiary Destiny, tells the P-S the company is negotiating with the stores. Federated, which owns L&T and Kaufmann's – and leases more space than anyone else in the mall – calls bullshit:

"We have had no further discussions with Pyramid which advance our concerns related to the loss of our rights at the Kaufmann's and Lord & Taylor stores or the expansion of Carousel Center," said Sharon Bateman, operating vice president for Federated.

But wait – there's more!

A little catch-up in case you missed it.

For this eminent domain taking to happen, an agreement was reached between Pyramid, the mayor and the county executive. It needed the approval of the city's common council, the county legislature and SIDA. When the council voted it down, a new agreement was reached that excluded them from the chain of inclusion.

But there were some, er, shenanigans with the "meeting" during which SIDA approved the second agreement. Various members approved it in separate locations so that they didn't come together as a quorum. And one of the SIDA members, Terry Bright, who was removed from the board later that same day, didn't get prior notice of the meeting (rather, the mayor came to her house that day, and left a notice on her dining room table while she wasn't looking). And the public wasn't notified of what probably had to be a public meeting.

The state Committee on Open Government has rendered an opinion on the meeting: It might have been illegal, and if it was, the action taken at the meeting would be void. So, that might explain why SIDA can't wait two weeks for the stores' hearings, scheduled for Sept. 14.

When a decision is reached in the stores' complaint, the stay will be lifted (unless Pyramid's required to negotiate in good faith with its tenants, but how dare we hope for good faith negotiations with this crowd?).

Another thing that might also have been illegal? The councilors who voted against the first agreement were in a room for a couple of minutes before the meeting at which they voted it down, and they closed the door. Because there were six of them (enough for a quorum), it might have been considered a separate meeting, and since it wasn't posted, it would have been an improper meeting.

There is, of course, no way to know what was discussed at that meeting, though since no official action was taken, nothing can be voided.

You can read COG's opinions on both cases here [if you're using a browser other than IE, search on the page for "Freeman looks at meetings"].

What if...?

What happens if SIDA takes the stores' leases by eminent domain, and the stores decide to pull out of the mall? If the landlord isn't held to the leases, the stores can't be either. And if some of the mall's biggest stores – including both anchors – pull out, (a) other tenants are likely to follow, and (b) what stores would even consider coming to the existing mall, never mind a giant expansion?

More harbor hogwash

2006-08-26T15:53:00.000-04:00

In our ongoing coverage of the drama surrounding the Inner Harbor...

The P-S reports that Destiny has big plans for the harbor – and that they submitted an environmental assessment.

But no one's talking about whether they've put a down-payment on the land, which means, probably not.

No one's talking about the details of the meeting Destiny lawyers had with the Canal Corporation, either, so hopefully we'll hear something on that soon.

Meanwhile, columnist Dick Case is back on the, er, case, and the headline says it all: Inner Harbor needs new developer. Yes, it does.

If you want to see the Inner Harbor in action, pop in tomorrow for VegFest 2006.

Minority-owned small business a national trend

2006-08-25T14:48:00.001-04:00

During the picnic with the mayor at the end of July, we noted that the biggest growth in business in the city was small businesses, most of them women- and minority-owned.

Great news.

And not only is it great news for Syracuse, it's not even unique to the area. USA Today has a piece about the national trend of minority women starting their own businesses. Awesome!

Jill does note, however, that much like in the corporate world, where women frequently earn less than men for doing the same work, minority-run businesses owned by women take in less revenue than those owned by men.

What I'm not sure of, of course, is if that trend has anything to do with the varying industries in which women and men may choose to start businesses, but I'm betting that even across similar industries, those numbers hold up.

USAT article via Broadsheet.

Minority-owned small business a national trend

2006-08-25T14:48:00.000-04:00

An open letter to Mayor Matt Driscoll on political maneuvering

2006-08-22T08:51:00.000-04:00

Mayor Matthew J. Driscoll
City Hall
233 E. Washington St.
Syracuse, NY 13202

Mayor Driscoll:

I'd like to say congratulations on your recent court victory over the Common Council, but I if I did, it wouldn't be entirely honest of me. I disagree with your views on the mall expansion settlement. But I believe that reasonable people can disagree.

What really smells rotten here is the revised settlement agreement you reached with Pyramid Management Group officials that bypassed the Council.

Let's do a quick review of grade school civics, shall we? At the federal level, we have three branches of government: the executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch is headed by the president, a person who is elected and then appoints most of the rest of the branch (the vice president is also elected). The legislative branch is composed of the Congress, which is also elected. The judicial branch is appointed by the executive branch and approved by the legislative.

City government, for the most part, mirrors the federal government, except for the judicial branch, which isn't a part of city government. The mayor, who is elected, heads the executive branch; the Common Council comprises the elected legislative branch.

There are, then, two bodies elected by the people who are to work together in representing those who elected them. If they can't reach an agreement, they work toward compromise.

Normally, when two parties are going to attempt to reach agreement on something, let's say a legal settlement, they work together on something they're both comfortable with. It's unusual for one party to draft the agreement and expect the other to agree to it, without having had any input.

It came as a surprise to me that you were shocked – shocked – that the Common Council would have voted down an agreement into which they'd had no input.

And so you did what anyone who just wanted to get the thing done would do: You cut them out of it altogether.

I don't want to pretend that this is on the same level, but what we call the Vietnam War, was not a war. It was a police action. The president does not have the authority to declare war without the consent of the Congress, and neither Johnson nor Nixon sought that consent. They listened to their appointed boards.

Much like you've done with your recent political maneuvering on the settlement agreement. If the president only had to go to the Department of State, which he appoints, to get approval on his desired actions, there would be no point to electing – and paying – members of the Congress. Nor would there be a point in calling the president, "president," because at that point, he'd be an elected dictator, until one day, someone decided to get rid of elections.

I'll say it again: I believe reasonable people can disagree on matters of opinion. But what you've done is betray the trust of not only the electorate, but also of an elected board you still have to work with for three more years. Please include them in your future plans for the City of Syracuse.

Yours,
Joshua N. Shear

Councilors' motion to appeal denied [Updated]

2006-08-17T21:02:00.000-04:00

An appellate court today denied the Common Council's to continue an appeal of a decision that a private mall expansion is a public project [story update].

The decision (PDF) is brief, and basically says that the Council has no authority to litigate on behalf of the city.

Let's review what happened here. The city sued the owner of the Carousel Center and lost. The city appealed, but negotiated a settlement that required the approval of the mayor (elected), the county legislature (elected), the Common Council (elected) and the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA – a board appointed by the mayor).

The mayor, having negotiated the deal, approved it. SIDA rubber-stamped it, as anyone who could be fired for going against the mayor would have. The County Legislature, for the first time since I've been here, said, "this is a city matter, we'll support the city's decision." The Common Council did not approve the deal.

So, the mayor drafted a new deal, which didn't require the Common Council's approval. He went behind the back of an elected board, met with SIDA members individually so they didn't have to post a public meeting and got their approval, and then rushed it onto the County Legislature's agenda – and they approved it, against their prior announcement.

I'm generally pretty rational about things, and can reasonably disagree with someone. But the mayor broke the public trust. He went behind the backs of the members of an elected council, and even those who agree with the mayor in principle on this issue should be angry as hell. The mayor has already proven to me that he doesn't value his constituents' input.

Common Councilor Stephanie Miner told the newspaper she doesn't know if there's a next step, but at the very least, we can all let the mayor know that he needs to listen to the people who pay him once in a while. You can reach him at:

Mayor Matthew J. Driscoll
City Hall
233 E. Washington St.
Syracuse, NY 13202

I'll be writing a letter this weekend, and I'll post it here for you to draw from.

And let's remember to call this what it is: A mall expansion. This is not DestiNY USA, the proposed massive development without design plans, rights-of-way or approvals that the owners think will create $5.1 billion in salaries for CNY residents.

County cooperation and entrepreneurial development

2006-08-17T14:50:00.000-04:00

Jill points us to a piece on North Carolina's Research Triangle – a 13-county region that encompasses Duke University, NC State, and UNC-Chapel Hill.

The secret to the Triangle's success is a lot different from what some people are envisioning here in Central New York.

First, let's get it out there: The Research Triangle is nothing like any other area in the U.S. You pick any given area in the U.S., you'll find that about between 20 and 30 percent of the residents have a college degree. In that area, the number falls somewhere around 70 percent. [They also happen to have a really great progressive blog.]

But that doesn't mean it's not competing with other areas in the same way we are.

Over the past 50 years, the Triangle has seen a significant drop in manufacturing, and has realized it needs to start looking elsewhere (this is being driven home even more here, as Deluxe announced today it's closing its call center).

What the Triangle is doing: Luring businesses with tax breaks.

What the Triangle is not doing: Shopping for a cure-all. Or a shopping mall.

More specifically, what the Triangle is doing right is creating development and training, and working with its universities.

There's also the realization that competition for development is global:

A first step was to develop a coordinated strategy for the entire region. Previously, each of the 13 counties in the Triangle region essentially competed against one another for investment with its own economic development agency and strategy. "Now we have one overarching strategy that all 13 countries have bought into," says [Research Triangle Regional Partnership CEO Charles] Hayes, who, before joining the Research Triangle Partnership 10 years ago, led one of those county agencies.

Several counties now even share the same tax base. "None of them sell their counties anymore. They sell the region. We have come to grips with the idea that before County X beats County Y, we had better make sure that project doesn't go to Austin, San Diego, or Singapore," Hayes says.

We have disagreement on some issues between even county government and city government (think the proposed Armory Square sewage plant); we need to get everybody on the same page with development. And if we could get Utica, Rochester, Ithaca, Oswego and Syracuse all selling Central New York in an effort to bring realistic development to the area – including sharing in the economic benefits – wow, we'd be right up there with the Triangle.

Constituent appreciation for dummies

2006-08-16T21:43:00.000-04:00

Instructions for mayors. Hypothetical mayors, of course.

Do:
When a constituent writes you a letter, have an aide type up an acknowledgement that includes some kind of hint that someone's read the letter. Take the four seconds to sign the letter yourself. Even the head of your Industrial Development Agency took the time to personalize a response, actually touching on a concern your constituent brought up. Hypothetically, of course.

Don't:
Collect addresses at an official gathering, then send a form letter with a stamped signature that says, "I appreciate your input." You've already made it clear that you don't. Hypothetically, of course.

Dick Case on Destiny and the Harbor

2006-08-12T09:09:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, we wrote about Destiny USA's failure to meet the New York State Canal Corp.'s deadline for putting a down payment on Syracuse's Inner Harbor.

Canal Corp. head Carmella Mantello has agreed to have a sit-down with Destiny execs to talk about the whole thing, but I hope no one involved with that meeting expects the harbor will always be open to Destiny. Sutton Companies would probably do a fine job managing the harbor, and while their vision is different than mine – they see primarily residential, while I see more of a commercial, educational and recreational opportunity – I'm definitely OK with them taking the ball and running with it.

If they were to hand the Canal Corp. a check first thing Monday morning for the $1.8 million it required Destiny to pay, I don't see how Mantello could say no.

And local columnist Dick Case today has a couple of suggestions:

Bring the mayor in on the project.
Let Sutton have a go.
Tell the folks at Destiny the ship has sailed.
When real entrepreneurs want to see fulfillment on a project, they don't have meetings, they write the check.

Point A: I'm not in a position to trust the mayor much right now. He's been reworking the way civil government is supposed to work, and even if you think his views are correct on the mall expansion (I don't), you have to admit that his methods aren't what they should be. I was underwhelmed with the way he handled a crowd and didn't seem to understand half the questions (including one from a man who works sun-up to sun-down, and just wanted to not have a ticket on his car every day, since he can't switch which side of the road his car is parked on at dinner time, as he's at work).

Point B: Amen. While my initial impression of Sutton was not a good one – they bought the building I was living in and were nothing like the landlord they had bought from – I know from subsequent dealings with them and seeing them in action that while they may not be caring and generous, they can get things done and done well.

Point C: I don't think there's a better way to say that.

Point D: Having worked in an entrepreneurship department, I can vouch for that. Academically, even. And, as Jill Hurst-Wahl, herself an entrepreneur, noted in a comment on this blog, "DestiNY is not currently creating jobs, but hundreds of small businesses are."

That all said, I'm planning to spend much of the afternoon in the grass at the harbor with a trashy detective novel. Because really, what's the point of having such a gorgeous area right down the street if you're not going to absorb it?

Anybody wanna buy a harbor? No, seriously...

2006-08-11T11:07:00.000-04:00

What I wouldn't give for $2 million cash-on-hand and another $18 million in financing.

The folks at Destiny USA failed to meet a deadline yesterday for putting a $1.8 million down-payment on 36 acres at the Inner Harbor. That's 10% of the purchase price they agreed to as part of a $230 million development proposal.

Destiny became the preferred developer in 2002 after the Canal Corp., which owns the harbor, put out a RFP. Earlier this year, the Canal Corp. told them to poop or get off the pot, or the Canal Corp. was going to use a different rest room.

The Canal Corp. held off until the harbor has been used successfully for a number of events this summer, and two weeks ago demanded a down-payment from Destiny by the 10th, which was yesterday.

Rather than send a payment, Destiny said, "let's talk," which Canal Corp. Director Carmella Mantello agreed to do – but said that the Canal Corp. wasn't backing off a deadline.

So, my thought is, if someone comes by with a development plan, a better offer, and a down-payment, there's no way Mantello could say no. Anybody want to buy a harbor? We've got some great ideas for you.

Wilson Building

2006-08-07T12:02:00.000-04:00

People claim all the time that there's nothing going on development-wise here, and they blame the fact that there's a slow-down on a proposed mega-mall expansion.

But Below 40 has put together a group called Adapt CNY, which will buy and develop the Wilson Building, which stands in the 300 block of South Salina Street. The plan: 33 apartments and 7500 square feet of retail space.

Not only does that not sound like "no development," it sounds like there are young professionals sticking around working toward positive change in Syracuse. Gasp.

UPDATE: Someone has tipped us off to the existence of a new web site designed to help save the Wilson Building.

A DestiNY update in three parts

2006-08-03T14:13:00.000-04:00

Part the First

You may have seen this mornings Post-Standard article on David Garber, an attorney with the firm Mackenzie Hughes who is advising ~~the city~~ the mayor on matters related to DestiNY USA.

Among Destiny's lawyers: the Mackenzie Hughes law firm.

A quiz: Why does Garber say he doesn't have a conflict of interest? Is it:

(a) The mayor and Destiny execs have given him the verbal go-ahead
(b) Not only does he not know how much the city is paying Mackenzie Hughes for his time, he's not taking any of that money for himself
(c) a and b

If you said (c), give yourself a subpoena and a pat on the back!

(a) Is it possible that two different lawyers from one law firm could represent both sides in a case and not talk to each other about it? Absolutely, especially if the firm is big enough. Garber is one of 32 attorneys listed on the Mackenzie Hughes web site. It's not exactly the Hud. But is there always going to be the appearance of impropriety? Absolutely, especially to a public paying a couple of hundred dollars an hour.

(b) If Garber is going to take any money from Mackenzie Hughes (and I can't imagine he's skipping his paychecks), how can he be sure it's not coming from the city – or, worse, from Destiny? Worse, because he's taking money from the people on the other side in the case. As I understand it, checks come in, get deposited, and then paychecks get written. You really can't claim to work for the business and at the same time claim not to take money from its clients.

And for as guilty as Garber is in this case, the fault really lies with the mayor, who can't possibly think this even looks clean.

Part the Second

I nearly dropped my coffee this morning as I walked past the pile of New Times near the shop's door. The cover story is an interview with Bob Congel as to what Destiny is and why we need it. You'll want to read the whole piece, but there are a couple of things that absolutely need discussion.

First off, there's the assertion that Destiny would create 68,000 jobs at an average of $75,000 a year. My calculator might be broken, but it says that's $5,100,000,000 in salaries a year. That means Destiny would have to bring in $5.1 billion a year just to cover salaries. Not benefits, not light bulbs, not small repairs to the infrastructure, not gas for the buses that will have to shuttle people from the parking lot to the complex, not toilet paper – and this assuming that 100 per cent of the energy is generated onsite through green technology, and I definitely have my doubts about that.

This, I'm just going to drop in verbatim:

Q: The major criticism of your Destiny project seems to be that it is constantly changing and you can't be pinned down about the exact details of your vision. Is that a fair criticism?

A: That's not only fair, but it's accurate. We spent a major part of our life figuring out how to make this better for the community, how to draw more people to it. Our goal is to draw visitors.

Let me translate: So there's thing, and we need to build it, now. But we don't know what it is. It keeps changing. It always has. The main thing is, we need to approve the concept so that whatever we decide it's going to be on the day that we start digging up earth, that's what it'll be, until we change our minds again.

If this is going to actually be a public project, there has to be a public process. And that means public input and firm plans and all that good stuff.

Congel goes on to say in the piece that 50,000 people a day will visit Destiny, and 95 per cent of them will be from out of the area. That means that of this market's nearly a million people, only 2,500 people a day will visit. That's fewer than visit the current mall that sits on that site. So not only does this "public" project not involve the public in its planning, it doesn't even involve the public as a target customer.

Part the Third

And now for the good news.

Back in February, the New York State Canal Corporation, a division of the Thruway Authority, told Destiny to shit or get off the pot with development of the Inner Harbor. In 2002, Destiny submitted the favored proposal: they'd buy the harbor property and drop about $260 million in development there – including a 600-room hotel – as part of the DestiNY USA project. The Canal Corp. earlier this year threatened to look for a new developer.

Today, the Canal Corp. gave Destiny an ultimatum: By next Thursday, put a $1.8 million deposit on the property and sign papers saying you'll reimburse us for an environmental study, and by August 14 (the following Monday), get the ball rolling on the environmental study, or you're off the project.

I was rather upset that the Canal Corp. had taken this long after its threats earlier this year to finally start backing those threats up. But in retrospect, it's a work of genius. There have been quite a few really successful events at the Inner Harbor this year, and if it turns out Destiny doesn't want it, someone else surely will.

Developers already know that Baltimore's Inner Harbor is an enormous tourist attraction that also manages to bring in locals for ice skating, concerts, the local aquarium, and plenty of restaurants that aren't all chains. And without investing tons of money in marketing and no money at all in development this year, Syracuse has shown it can get people down to the Inner Harbor for events. Imagine if there were day-to-day things to do there – and then if there were a rich development firm marketing it as an attraction both locally and afar.

Wow. I think I just wet myself.

Irony?

2006-08-01T13:39:00.000-04:00

I stopped trying to figure out irony back in the mid-90s when Alanis Morrisette started singing about it. Most of my friends majored in either English or education (or both!), so the debate raged in our apartments as to which lyrics of 'Ironic' actually were.

I mean, raged. Diagrams were drawn.

One of my roommates finally explained irony to me like this, courtesy of George Carlin:

If a diabetic is hit by a truck, it's a normal death.
If a diabetic is hit by a sugar truck, it's an odd and tragic death.
If a diabetic is hit by an insulin truck, it's a coincidental and oddly poetic death.
But if a diabetic is on his way to get some insulin and he gets hit by an insulin truck, then that's ironic.

So, I don't think the odds are probably very good that it was ironic that one of the songs played at the Mayor's picnic last night - where the second question asked concerned the mall expansion - was Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi.

I was amused, though.

Hats off to Crunch's Brandon Sugden

2006-08-01T10:24:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted from CNY in the Pros.

We wrote last week about Floyd Landis' alleged doping. The Tour de France winner's first urine sample from the 17th stage came back with an "elevated testosterone level" – which doesn't necessarily mean he was taking anything he shouldn't have; his body could have been pumping out testosterone at high rates, which isn't unheard of for people who do crazy things to their bodies. Like riding their bikes a hundred miles a day over mountains in summer heat.

Of course, when the body is pumping out extra testosterone, it's not usually synthetic, like the testosterone found in his test. His back-up urine sample will be tested, and results are due back Saturday, so I guess we'll find out then if he's guilty.

In any case, the sport of cycling has been tainted, and Landis is getting all sorts of reactions, from sympathy from partiers to R-rated tirades.

But not all the doping news in sports is bad these days. Just days after actor Mel Gibson wound up in rehab after going on an anti-Semitic tirade following a drunk driving arrest, The Post-Standard has a piece on Crunch enforcer Brandon "Sugar" Sugden's battle with alcoholism and drug addiction.

Sugden's been clean for three years, and working hard to not only be off the drugs and alcohol, but also a decent human being. It appears to be working. He's even running a summer hockey camp for kids and getting involved in other community activities.

It's definitely good to have a guy like that stick around during the off-season.

Update: Further congratulations to Sugden – he's getting married tomorrow!

Picnic with the mayor

2006-07-31T20:37:00.000-04:00

Mayor Matt Driscoll continued his series of neighborhood picnics, featuring people asking questions and the mayor dodging them inartfully.

What he said to start the meeting: Sit back, grab a hot dog or a donut, relax. We'll get started shortly.

What I heard: All workers line up and get your soma tablets. Praise Ford.

It comes down to money: The city is $48 million in the hole. Read: Don't ask us for anything, there's nothing we can do.

This is why the mayor's been advocating what he called Destiny, but what even the developers are calling the mall expansion. But here's a major part of the problem: Only 50% of the city, says the mayor, is on the property tax roll. Anyone know of list of what's been exempted?

One resident asked if the city was courting major employers, but Driscoll came back with something that I feel (and I know I'm not alone in that) should have made everyone happy: The biggest growth in the city has been small businesses – and guess what? – mostly women and minority-owned. Wake up, folks, this is fantastic!

The mayor also touted an "urban renewal plan," with an aim to "instill bold change." This urban renewal plan comes with no details – at least not details he's willing to share with his constituency.

I'm willing to give the mayor an 'A' for effort, but I have to say, I was left wanting, and no number of questions I could have asked would have left me satisfied in the end..

The gubernatorial race

2006-07-27T15:04:00.000-04:00

Or, why I quit politics and became a washing machine salesman.

But seriously. Thanks go out to NYCO for digging up a transcript of the Democratic primary debate – which may likely be the only one before the September primary – between Eliot Spitzer and Tom Suozzi.

That certainly did make it easier for those of us who happened to be more interested in Jeopardy! Tuesday night.

What did we learn from the transcript?

• We will not be changing our affiliation from unaffiliated to Democrat for the sake of the primary.
• We can't vote for either the pro-death penalty Spitzer or the anti-gay marriage Suozzi.

And we definitely can't vote for that fascist the Republicans are putting up.

Howie Hawkins should drop his senatorial bid (though he'd be my man in that race, too) and run for governor. He'd do us more good in Albany than in Washington – and Hillary Clinton does us less harm in Washington than Spitzer, Suozzi or John Faso does us in Albany.

It pains me to say, but I may be leaving the governor line blank in November.

UPDATE: Ooh. The marketing machine is rolling. We got an e-mail from the campaign of actor and author Malachy McCourt (yes, that's Frank McCourt's brother), who is running as a Green Party candidate. He claims an endorsement from the New Paltz Times (you'll remember New Paltz as the progressive town that first started marrying gay folk in New York state), and has what I'm afraid is a really bad campaign slogan:

Don’t Waste Your Vote. Give It To Me.

UPDATE II: So that campaign slogan I don't like so much reminded me a bit of the film Brewster's Millions, with its "Vote for none of the above" campaign. Funny thing is, McCourt was in the film.

UPDATE III: I don't mean to ride McCourt so hard. He's got a good vision for the state, though it's a vision that would probably be better accomplished from the Senate. Maybe he and Howie could switch campaigns.

I must stop reading the Destiny forum

2006-07-27T13:41:00.000-04:00

Another day, another installment of angry villagers with torches.

Cruelty. Gleeful cruelty, and wishing evil to befall others. Some voices of reason put their two cents worth in when they can, but mainly, I am overcome by the irrational mentality, the ride-'em-out-of-town-on-a-rail (both from Destiny supporters and opponents) thing I'm seeing day in and day out.

The obvious solution would be to stop reading. But sometimes it's like a car accident you just can't look away from. As is the project itself, in my opinion.

The latest news has District Attorney William Fitzpatrick receiving 25 complaints about an alleged secret meeting of the Common Council prior to their June 22 vote on whether or not to accept the settlement the Mayor and the Destiny folks hammered out this spring. (They voted to reject it.) Since then, he has also "received a petition with 40 or 50 signatures asking him to open a similar probe of the SIDA meeting."

Ah, the SIDA meeting.

There was a letter in the paper today suggesting that the city and the Destiny executives bring in third-party arbitration from another part of the country. And I quote, "Then they should all go behind closed doors and find a solution. No lawyers, no press, just the county executive, the mayor, the councilors, the Pyramid people and the mediator."

At first, this makes sense. After all, isn't that what they teach in conflict resolution workshops? Getting a neutral party to help you sort out the emotions from the issues and work toward a compromise?

But given the amount of scandal that has ensued from the last two times doors were closed, maybe it's best to keep everything nice and out in the open. Well, out in the open, anyway. I won't hold my breath for nice.

NYRI

2006-07-22T17:29:00.000-04:00

The authors of this blog are all city of Syracuse residents, and as such, there are definitely issues in our region we're a little out of touch with – mostly, obviously, issues that don't come into play in the city proper. One of those issues is the New York Regional Interconnect (NYRI), a proposed high-voltage power line that would run from Orange County to Oneida County. Of course, the purpose would be to benefit New York City.

There has been an amazing amount of organizing regionally against the project. NYCO has been blogging about NYRI since the proposal first was made public. Read NYCO's coverage here.

Tonight's Craziness, Slam Poetry and Austin in Aug

2006-07-17T14:22:00.000-04:00

So, I haven't written (it seems) in a thousand years, but I have been designing like crazy. Tonight (Monday, August 17) at the Coffee Pavilion, I will be guest hosting Monday Night Poetry. We're doing a fundraiser to benefit the the Ithaca Slam Team that is headed to the National Slam Poetry competition in Austin, TX, in August, no less. What does this have to do with anything? Well, we will be conducting a Silent Auction for three 11x17 Broadsides--one poem for three of the four team members--all designed by me. We will also have some smaller copies available for sale. Also, the poets will have chapbooks for sale.
This is my first attempt at Broadside designing, so all you folks out there go easy on me. But, all of this is not about me. It is about the Ithaca Slam Team and making sure they eat as they are representing CNY to the rest of the country--travelling is expensive these days. Their first bout pits them against the team from Bar13 in NYC--how's that for representing?
So ALL of you come on out and show some love for these poets (including Monday Night Poetry's Jane Cassady).
(PS--Not to get ahead of anything, but there are rumors that Syracuse might find itself home to a Card-Carrying SlamMistress who is thinking about fielding a home-town team. These are only rumors, mind you, but if you want a local slam (to watch and/or perform in) be at the Coffee Pavilion TONIGHT (133 East Water St.)

Nothing to do?

2006-07-16T08:01:00.000-04:00

And even if I had a car, all I could do is drive out to some stupid mall, if I'm lucky, play some fucking video games, smoke a joint and get stupid.

- Christian Slater as Hard Harry in Pump up the Volume

I bumped into R— on Saturday morning, and we had our usual conversation. It goes something like this:

R—: How's your week been?
Josh: [Prattles on for five minutes, summarizing the socially active week that covered a wide scope of activities with at least half a dozen different people.]
R—: Why are your experiences always so much more positive than mine or anyone else's I know?

Maybe I just look harder, but I know I'm not alone. Angela and I were out on Saturday with RBR and the Geech (now that sounds like a sitcom), and the topic came up. I think Angela's words were something like this: "I'm so sick of people saying there's nothing to do here!"

This was said after we met at the Coffee Pavilion, wandered over to Pastabilities for dinner, stopped in at Sound Garden, and then plopped ourselves on chairs in Armory Square to listen to live jazz – after they had blocked off all the streets so restaurants could put tables on them and serve people dinner while they listened to music.

And then we went over to Ohm. And I bumped into G&K at Bull and Bear on the way back to the car, so I spent a little longer downtown, this time getting to hear some live music in Hanover Square.

Yeah, I really do wonder why my experiences are so different from R—'s, but I just can't imagine not having anything to do in this town.

CNYers play in World Lax Championships

2006-07-13T14:52:00.000-04:00

This is a repeat from CNY in the Pros, but it's relevant. There are a lot of players from Central New York playing for the Iroquois Nationals (that's right – the Iroquois have their own team to play in international competition!) in the World Lacrosse Championships. I'll be mostly following the tournament – which starts tomorrow – over on the CNY in the Pros blog (and Donna Ditota will probably follow it here and here). Here's a round-up of the tournament, with some history and such.

If you picked up a copy of the Post-Standard this morning, you probably noticed the spread on the front of the sports section on the World Lacrosse Championships, which kick off tomorrow in London, Ontario.

The stories are about the Iroquois Nationals, the only Native American team playing in the tournament, which features 21 national teams (including Latvia, Hong Kong and Bermuda).

The Iroquois team has been ranked in the top five internationally three times, and this year they've got a slew of players – 18 – with college lax experience. Plus, the roster's full of people who played locally.

In May, the team hooked up with Nike for new uniforms, which feature the nation's flag.

The Championship happens every four years, with this year's being the 10th. The U.S. team has won eight of the previous nine – in 1978, they came in second to Canada, which won the championship game 17-16 in overtime. Australia and Canada have split the runner-up position in the other tournaments.

The tournament schedule (PDF) is on the brutal side. While college teams and the pros tend to play one game a week, the World Lax Championships start tomorrow, and most teams will play nine straight days (losers may get a day off toward the end of the tournament).

Notes: Canadian star Gary Gait, who recently retired from the National Lacrosse Leage, is suiting up again at the age of 39. Canada issued a postage stamp for the Championship.

We've got a bunch of places we'll be following the Championship, so feel free to play along at home. Here they are:

U.S. goalie Trevor Tierney is blogging his experience on Major League Lacrosse's web site.
Lax Power isn't the easiest site to get around, but it's got a bunch of good info.
ESPN has coverage at Inside Lacrosse and in a special section of its main site.
U.S. Lacrosse has some extensive info (though, obviously, it's U.S.-centric).
You can also search Google News or blogs at Technorati for more coverage.

The original tax agreement

2006-07-10T15:50:00.000-04:00

One of the points of contention with the new tax agreement is the amount of money the city would see through a PILOT program. People were holding signs at the June 20 public info session that said $60 million or nothing. Well, that's not exactly true – the $60 million promised with the current tax agreement means that the mall will stay off the tax rolls, and the developer will pay the city and county $60 million (actually, it's more like $54 million) a year, as a guarantee for sales tax. It doesn't replace property taxes.

In Councilor Stephanie Miner's letter to the mayor regarding the 2002 tax agreement, it becomes clear that the city and county get the actual sales tax amount they're entitled to and the mall has to get only private financing. That private financing, assuming it's done the traditional way (and any bank putting up $300 million-plus is going to do it their way), would require that the mall gets built and it has tenants in it. The new tax agreement requires no such guarantee.

To read the letter, go here and click the link at the bottom of the page.

More mall wrangling

2006-07-10T15:09:00.000-04:00

Today, the Syracuse Common Council made it official: They've hired their own lawyer to "pursue mall expansion matters" (P-S - WSYR).

What does this mean? Well, no one really knows. See, the state court of appeals today accepted the mayor's withdrawal of the appeal of the lawsuit that Pyramid won March 9. The Common Council – which hasn't hired its own lawyer since 1984 (when I was eight, and had never heard of Syracuse, so I couldn't tell you what for) – could appeal the lawsuit on its own. But it's not clear they'll get anywhere, what with the city having technically already dropped the appeal.

The council could conceivably sue Pyramid for something, the mayor for shutting out a branch of government, the county legislature for breach of trust (the legislature had said it would follow the Common Council's lead), SIDA for pretty much anything, since it's an appointed board and really just does what the mayor tells it to do.

What I can say for sure: The next three and a half years are going to be hell at the city level in Syracuse. When the mayor decided to exclude the Common Council on the biggest issue facing the city, he screwed up royally – he'll either have to figure out how to avoid the council on every other decision he makes for the rest of his term, or he'll have to at some point come groveling back and convince the council to work together with him. And in fact, the settlement deal probably would have been approved if the mayor had taken the time to include a couple of members of the council in the negotiations and addressed their concerns.

Instead, he just decided he didn't need to be accountable to anyone but himself.

The bad movie that is the mall expansion

2006-07-09T08:48:00.000-04:00

I posted earlier in the week about the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency's (SIDA) vote to approve a new mall expansion settlement deal, and added some details a little later.

It's erupted since then, and it really does read like a movie script.

To recap: On Wednesday, with no public notice, SIDA – an appointed board – met and voted 3-0 to approve a settlement deal that would exclude the Common Council – a group of elected representatives – in any dealings on the expansion. Not present at the SIDA meeting was the city's corporation council, Terri Bright, who was against the settlement.

Bright was entertaining the mayor at her home, because for whatever reason, he wanted to meet there, instead of her office. He asked her to withdraw an appeal of a court decision reached March 9 in favor of the mall's developer, Robert Congel and his Pyramid Management Group, which she did. Then she asked her to sign off on a statement that said she believed the vote SIDA was taking was legal, as was the settlement they were approving. That, she would not do.

So, Driscoll brought in another lawyer to sign those documents.

Later in the day, the six common councilors who had voted against the settlement deal asked Bright to continue with the appeal, and as she felt she represented the council as well as the mayor, she faxed a letter to the courthouse asking the court to ignore the previous document withdrawing the appeal.

The mayor was asked about the move at a press conference, and had not heard anything about it. Later that evening, Bright was fired.

You can read about the oh-so-dramatic deception here.

But, wait! There's more! On Thursday, now without a lawyer to continue the appeal, The Common Council hired its own lawyer to help the city.

Friday, it came out that a grand jury is investigating whether the six common councilors who voted against the settlement agreement might have met illegally before the meeting at which the vote was taken, though it's not clear that even if they did, any effect would be seen on the settlement agreement, since that was a separate meeting and held legally.

The council may also challenge the legality of Wednesday's SIDA meeting, at which they took the vote on the new agreement; if they did meet illegally, the vote will be nullified – and the later vote of approval by the Onondaga County Legislature will also be nullified, because they technically will have no document on which to have held that vote.

This is that life imitating art thing again, isn't it?

Rally for equal marriage rights

2006-07-07T00:28:00.000-04:00

By now, most of you are aware that New York's top court today said that only heterosexual couples can get married. I won't go into the absolute ridiculousness of this decision, but I want to applaud Empire State Pride for getting their rally on.

I headed down to Hanover Square tonight to meet up with Kim and 250 other people in a rally for equal marriage rights. That's right. The decision was handed down this morning, and by 7 p.m. there were 250 people rallying in downtown Syracuse.

I just don't see the apathy and withering here that other people seem to see – except among our elected representatives: none of the locals came out tonight. Not one.

My favorite sign tonight, and I'm paraphrasing, as the memory is now five hours old:

Dear Pataki,

Thanks for supporting the court's homophobic ruling. My partner and I are proud second-class citizens of N.Y.!

Here's a not-so-novel-anymore idea: No more state-sponsored marriage. Civil unions for everybody – straight or gay. You want to get married? Have it witnessed before your own god in your own house of worship.

Update: Here's a story on the rally.

Update II: Discussion has begun at Feministing, including a report on the Greenwich Village rally last night. Keep checking that post. The comment threads get really good over there.

Playing dirty

2006-07-06T10:38:00.000-04:00

Well, folks, I'm nearly at the end of my patience.

Reading the Destiny forum is admittedly an exercise in frustration, but I came away from it today practically out of breath with indignation. In my entire life, I've never seen real people treat each other with such disrespect and anger over something as inconsequential as a mall expansion.

I understand that people can lash out when they feel their values are being stepped on, and I've certainly done that. But that's not really what I'm seeing, which is spite for its own sake, and it disheartens me to see it.

Disheartens me because I think there can only be two reasons for it, neither of them okay.

The people posting don't know any better. If you use the anonymity of an internet forum to spew insults without having to be accountable for them, and don't realize how ignorant you sound, then the joke's really on you. But still, that the juvenile nature of the posts prevents any sincere and thoughtful discussion of a topic that is clearly important to the people on the forum truly distresses me.
Posting irrational and nasty comments on a public forum is a deliberate political strategy to discount not only the key players in this debacle, but anyone who asks an intelligent question, thus discouraging people from doing so. It's playing dirty, but I wouldn't put it past anyone at this point.

Whichever it is (and believe me, I wish I could think of better reasons apart from ignorance and political manipulation), it is a poor reflection of the community of which I am otherwise proud.

In brief: Details on yesterday's happenings

2006-07-06T06:45:00.000-04:00

More on this tonight, but since there are details out on yesterday's Carousel Center shenanigans, I thought I should pass some along. You can read stories here and here.

Open meeting laws were not broken. The mayor intentionally did not gather a quorum of SIDA so that the meeting would not need to be posted.
The city's appeal was withdrawn by counselor Terri Bright at 8 a.m. at the mayor's request. Later in the day, the Common Council asked Bright to reinstate the appeal (since they also represent the city and were named in the lawsuit). She did so; the mayor found out through the press that it had happened, and he fired her.
Even a councilor who supported the settlement deal was upset with the mayor for circumventing the council.
Much of the council found out about the deal from the press, who called seeking comment.
The Onondaga County Legislature's meeting was interrupted by the mayor in an effort to file a vote with the courts by a 4 p.m. deadline.
The County Legislature decided not to honor a previous decision to follow the Common Council's lead on the settlement agreement, and approved 12-5 the items before it.

It's cliché to say one does not trust politicians these days. They turn back on campaign promises. They betray the public trust. Mayor Driscoll was applauded in November for successfully turning his campaign against Republican challenger Joanie Mahoney and Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins into a campaign against the developers of the Destiny USA project. And one has to admire his cunning throughout the day yesterday. Of course, cunning is not something you want in a politician, nor is backpedalling on the single campaign issue that got him elected.

I'll be expanding on this stuff a little bit later – and I'm sure there will be more comment throughout the day from the Common Council and others. Keep an eye out.

The problem with appointed boards

2006-07-05T18:33:00.000-04:00

The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA) today voted to enact a tax deal for an expanded Carousel Center, taking the mall off the tax rolls for 30 years.

In doing so, SIDA went around the Syracuse Common Council, which rejected a settlement offer two weeks ago. The agency may also have broken open meeting laws, as it's not clear the meeting was posted in time.

The problem with SIDA as an agency in general, is that its members serve entirely at the whim of the mayor. They do not serve at the will the people, and the people they are supposed to serve have no way to ensure that SIDA members have any expertise in their field. If they do something the mayor doesn't like, it's bu-bye.

The thing to do now is write to the Common Council, asking members to follow through with an appeal of Judge John Centra's March 9 ruling. For more info and sample letters, click here.

A trip home

2006-07-04T07:35:00.000-04:00

I was in my native Springfield, Mass., and nearby Northampton, for a couple of days (Saturday through Monday), and walking and riding around, it became clear that Syracuse could learn a lot from the Pioneer Valley.

Northampton is undergoing a lot of changes right now, but I'll share a short bit of history of downtown to give it context.

In the mid-1980s, downtown Northampton was dead. There were a few shops open on Main Street, but nothing special. With nothing there, rents were cheap, but people had to travel to obtain items they needed. And then the artists moved in, as often happens when you get a place with very cheap rents. They built a community, they made art (and music). And where there's art, rich people frequently follow. Main Street filled up in a hurry, and by about 1995, there wasn't a vacant store front in sight. If one place went out, it was snatched up in hours.

In the past few years, rents – especially business rents – have skyrocketed, and it's bringing more chains to Northampton. But still, there are very few vacancies, and there's lots to do.

Northampton's downtown consists of about a quarter-mile of Main Street, and then shops and restaurants that extend a few blocks in each direction. There are half a dozen places to buy coffee within three-minute walks of each other; four places to get sushi; at least a dozen and a half independent, creative restaurants; four bookstores (new and used, all independent); and plenty of other stuff.

This success comes from two things: Artists and musicians being encouraged to live there and make a living at their work without having to travel; and the city's welcoming of the Smith College community into the commercial aspect of the city, even though most students live on campus.

Minus a lot of artists living and plying their trades downtown, Syracuse certainly has an active, walkable downtown, from Hanover Square stretching to Armory – especially in the summer, when Clinton square is full of festivals. And while we don't think of Salina Street as a place to hang out (short of the Landmark), there are definitely places to shop and eat.

One of the major obstacles to pushing the envelope a little on downtown is Interstate 81, which cuts off the university from downtown. If the elevated part of the highway were removed, there would be a flood of people from campus walking down the hill and patronizing downtown business – and more businesses would likely spring up along the walking route.

But we really should talk about Springfield, because it has so much in common as a city with Syracuse.

It's slightly smaller – where Syracuse is about the 91st largest demographic area in the country, Springfield is the 109th. Both cities have similar media structures (though Springfield has fewer major network affiliates), and both are mixed economically and racially. Springfield has three small private universities and a community college, while Syracuse has a large private and a small private university, a couple of small public universities and a community college. Both have AHL hockey teams that play downtown.

I rode my bike yesterday morning through my alma mater's campus, and then pointed my bike toward downtown. I hadn't yet seen the Dr. Seuss memorial exhibit, which sits on the Quadrangle, the area between the main library branch and the museums. And while I didn't go downtown from there, the whole of downtown is walkable from there, two blocks away, and it extends about six blocks north-and-south, and two blocks east-and-west. The riverfront, which is cut off by the elevated Interstate 91, is also developed with a park, restaurants, the Basketball Hall of Fame, and some businesses.

And the bus station in Springfield is downtown, so the hub-and-spoke system makes more sense there than it does in Syracuse, which has a transit center in a pocket on the north side, and clogs up downtown's streets using the area as its hub.

I think it's time for the mayor and common council to get in the car and take a little road trip.

Fireworks at the Inner Harbor

2006-07-04T07:13:00.000-04:00

Alive in CNY contributer Angela and I went down to the Inner Harbor for fireworks on Friday (along with Angela's sister). A few thousand people turned out, and I was left wanting for this place to be developed. In a hurry.

NYCO's safety concerns are things that could be addressed pretty easily, I think, so long as someone takes the time to notice them, which any private developer likely would.

The other complaints people had would be solved as part of development:

Parking: Obviously, if you want people to come to a place often, you'll need to give them more than a few hundred parking spots spread out throughout the area. People had backed up over curbs to leave their cars somewhere, and traffic was insane getting out. Thankfully, we were able to walk down, so that wasn't an issue for us.
Bathrooms: Again, if you develop Inner Harbor with the intention of having hundreds or thousands of people come down every day, you're not going to have eight port-a-loos for everyone to use.
Food: People had to wait in long lines for food – this was certainly a lack of faith on the part of vendors, who must not have thought people would actually show. Now the city knows it needs to draft more vendors for events like this, and vendors will know that people come out.

The show was fantastic, and sitting across the harbor from the launch site had us sitting in falling ash, which I actually enjoy when I'm seeing fireworks.

NYCO's flood coverage

2006-06-29T15:15:00.000-04:00

For those of you from outside the area, you might not know that much of upstate New York has had some massive flooding this week. NYCO has had some wonderful coverage, linking to stories, accounts, and photos. Check out her posts here and here.

What was actually rejected Thursday: Not Destiny

2006-06-25T06:46:00.000-04:00

There have been extreme responses from both sides in regards to the settlement deal the Common Council voted down on Thursday. And considering what the council rejected, the responses are really not-at-all thought out.

This was not an up-or-down vote on Destiny. It was not even an up-or-down vote on the mall expansion.

In 2000, the city and the developer reached a tax-break agreement that would extend the Carousel Center's status of being off the tax rolls by 30 years, after its then-current 15-year deal expired at the end of 2005. In exchange for 30 years of no taxes, Pyramid, the mall's developer, would have to build a large expansion – and it would have to show the city it had the financing to build the expansion. This deal was reaffirmed in 2002.

Sometime between 2002 and 2005, Pyramid lost its primary development loan – a loan that was promised to be about $360 million. In 2005, another bank came up with an offer about half that, and release of the funds was contingent upon the city selling construction bonds.

Mayor Matt Driscoll felt in December of 2005 that the promised construction loan was not enough financing for Pyramid to build the expansion required of the tax deal, and so he ordered the Carousel Center back on the tax rolls on January 1, 2006.

Pyramid believed it had enough financing in place, and so the first Monday of the new year, the company filed suit against the city to (a) take the mall off the tax rolls, and (b) get on with the things it had to do in order for the financing to be released.

On March 9, Judge John Centra ruled that Pyramid had met its requirements, and that the city should proceed selling bonds and taking some mall tenants' leases by eminent domain, so that construction could begin (some tenants had clauses that allowed them to approve or reject expansions; others had parking space requirements that would make construction in the parking lot difficult without first building a new lot to add spaces).

After that ruling, the city had to decide if it would appeal, and lawyers for the city and for Pyramid worked on negotiating a new agreement that would avoid an appeal. The company waited until the last possible day to file the ruling (after the filing, the city was legally required to take some action – including working on an appeal), and negotiations continued.

The mayor, the developer and County Executive Nick Pirro – the county also has a tax stake here, as we work on a county government system in New York – sat down and worked out a settlement agreement. As part of the agreement, the city would not appeal Centra's ruling.

The agreement required the approval of the mayor, the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (the appointed board that would be in charge of selling bonds and taking the leases), the Common Council, and the County Legislature. The mayor, having negotiated the agreement, quickly approved it. SIDA, having been appointed by the mayor, did the same. The County Legislature said (wisely), "This is really up to the city; if the Common Council approves it, we'll follow."

Thursday night, the Council decided not to approve it.

Rejecting the settlement leaves open the possibility that the city may appeal Centra's ruling. It doesn't mean the mall won't get the expansion, and it doesn't mean Destiny – which is still only a concept with no actual plans – is off the able. It may not even hold up the process at all, because the tenants who would lose their leases are due in court Sept. 14.

There's still a tax break agreement out there that has been activated. Pyramid has some financing, though not as much as the city would like. And for 30 years of tax breaks and city assistance in the eminent domain proceedings, Pyramid is remaining awfully tight-lipped about what it's planning and who may be part of the mall plans.

For those of you in favor of building a gianter mall in Syracuse, don't worry. Pyramid still very much has that option. For those of us who don't want the mall, we have several points we need to keep fighting – for me, it will primarily be the eminent domain taking of both the leases and a number of businesses along Hiawatha. We should not be using a public process for private gain – especially when there's no legal recourse if there happens to be no public gain from the project (and you can say all you want about how it will bring jobs, but if it never gets built, or if it never gets populated, all we've done is kick a bunch of people out of their businesses and taken more land off the tax rolls, and we can't sue Pyramid for it).

EXPANSION SETTLEMENT FAILS!

2006-06-22T20:28:00.000-04:00

The Syracuse Common Council has done the right thing. They voted down the Carousel expansion deal with a 6-3 vote. Yesterday's reports said it appeared to be 3-2 in favor, with four undecideds.

I dropped off 10 copies of this letter at lunch today, and the receptionist was on the phone, trying to get e-mail inbox limits raised because councilors' boxes were full. Everybody was trying to get heard today.

And enough of the right people did. Thank you, councilors.

Hope

2006-06-22T12:08:00.000-04:00

There has been one time in my whole life that I have ever applied passion to activism, and the thing I was picketing for was voted down. Since then, I have embraced a sort of gloomy fatalism, a sense that the things I believe in never have a chance when put to a vote, but that I'll find ways to adapt, no matter what.

The Syracuse Common Council votes on the Carousel Center expansion (or Destiny, depending on your source) tonight at 6pm. And, strangely, I can't help but be hopeful that just this once, the things I believe in - namely, neighborhoods and local landmarks NOT being replaced by an insulated bubble of national superchains surrounded by a sea of parking - will have a chance.

I sat down and tried to write a letter to the Common Council last night, urging them to consider the city and how a giant mall expansion will in no way benefit Syracuse's urban fabric. But I had to stop after an hour and a half, because I'd already written that letter before. Twice. And that's when I realized that all I can do now is hope that our local government will give neighborhoods and small businesses and city schools the priority they deserve as vital elements of our community.

Priority over a really big mall.

It sounds so obvious when I type it out like that.

Common Council letter on Carousel expansion

2006-06-21T20:06:00.000-04:00

The Common Council will vote tomorrow night on the Carousel Center expansion agreement (see the post below for more info). As such, there's not time to mail this; I'll be heading downtown on lunch to drop it off. Feel free to join me in Council chambers with your own letters.

Syracuse Common Council
City Hall
233 E. Washington St.
Syracuse, NY 13202

22 June 2006

Dear Councilor:

I’m writing again to encourage you to vote against the proposed Carousel Center expansion settlement.

I sat at the public input session on Tuesday, unable to voice my opinion in front of television cameras due to an employment policy. And while I’ve written before to let you know my feelings on the mall expansion, I wanted to chime in again before you hold a vote.

I want to focus primarily on the arguments we heard Tuesday. Those who are in favor of this expansion deal seem to have been given talking points.

You heard laid-off Destiny employees encourage you to “vote for Destiny.” Destiny is not the project before you. It is a mall expansion, and the developer has refused to put in writing a commitment to hire back those laid-off workers.

You heard someone tell you that the public perception of what Destiny will be is incorrect. If this is truly a public project, we shouldn’t have to form a perception – we should have every detail necessary to know precisely what it is. And again, you are not being asked to approve Destiny USA.

You heard more than one person tell you that the guaranteed money the city will receive from the Carousel expansion is better than property tax money from small businesses, because small businesses are unstable and frequently go under. The truth is, the more small businesses a city has, the more likely it is to thrive, and small businesses beget other small businesses. Malls beget parking lots – and the parking lot on the rendering we were handed Tuesday replaces much of the oldest neighborhood in the city.

You heard someone tell you it was her lifelong dream to buy a car, and her maintenance job at Carousel has allowed her to do that. I understand that it’s important for people to reach their goals, but most jobs at an expanded Carousel will be retail positions and will not afford people the opportunity to purchase new cars.

You heard people tell you that mall jobs are great jobs for single mothers and for their children to grow up in. A gallon of gas costs what most mall employees take home in exchange for a half hour of work. A meal at the mall the worker eats on his or her break will cost at least a full hours’ take-home pay. The price of these goods will rise faster than retail wages in the coming years. These are not good jobs that will help people live well throughout their lives.

You heard people tell you that people are leaving Syracuse because of a lack of opportunity. You heard people tell you that their taxes are too high. According to the rendering, the city will be required to take an awful lot of homes in the North Side by eminent domain. By doing so, you’ll be taking homes away from people who live here, and taking their properties off the tax rolls when you hand them to the mall developers. The city will not be able to afford to offer those displaced people incentives to stay in Syracuse; the city will not be able to afford to not raise taxes after taking so much more land off the tax rolls.

If the Carousel expansion is to go through one way or the other, it needs to not have the city’s explicit stamp of approval. The mall is good for the developer – it is not likely to do any good for the city.

I can’t think of a worse way to harm the future of Syracuse than to approve this deal. Please vote no.

Carousel Center expansion input meeting

2006-06-21T05:46:00.000-04:00

The Syracuse Common Council held what they were calling a public info session on the mall expansion last night at Henninger High School. It was, instead, primarily a misinformation shouting match (story).

We were told at the outset that during the day, an appeals court had scheduled a hearing on an eminent domain taking of some mall tenants' leases for September 14 – a ruling that will probably hold up the process somewhat.

The speaking audience was primarily in favor of the project, though for quite a few of the wrong reasons (we'll get to them below). I rather figured this would happen, as the 'for' contingent is fairly organized – some 200 former workers for Destiny USA who were laid off when it turned out they were hired mainly for show, and the businesses that have been working in some capacity as contractors with Pyramid (the mall owner) for the past decade or so.

The 'against' contingent, however, is a group of primarily emotional people, some of whom can't get up in front of a television camera without company approval – which kept them from speaking.

Here are some of the arguments (with counter-arguments) for the project we heard last night:

Vote for Destiny; I need my job back. The Council is not being asked to approve Destiny. This was made very clear when settlement talks started. It's a mall expansion. It takes an exisiting large mall, adds a smaller mall, a 1,000-room hotel, and then another small mall. This is not the mammoth theme park-type thing called Destiny USA. In fact, Pyramid has been very keen on making sure we know this is a "Carousel Center expansion."

One Carousel Center maintenance worker, a 63-year-old woman, said it was her life's dream to be able to buy a car, and that her job at the mall has finally allowed her to do that. Honestly, great, but I know I'm not living in a city full of people who want to get no further in life than buying a car. Some of us would like to eliminate the need for them altogether. [And an interesting aside: The drawings handed out at the meeting put the parking lot to this expansion about 3/4 of a mile from the mall, so after driving to work, this lady would still need to hop on a bus to get to the building. Why not cut out the middle man?]
A $60 million annual PILOT payment is better than the $0 annually promised in a 2002 contract. Maybe, but the PILOT money can go toward paying back investors. Even money guaranteed to the city is way under what the property tax assessment would be, and, as more than one person pointed out last night, none of the money goes to schools. ShoppingTown Mall, in DeWitt, pays property taxes, and the Jamesville-DeWitt schools get about $1 million in revenue from the mall. The much larger Carousel Center, however, puts no money at all in Syracuse schools' coffers.
Small businesses are bad for the city because they're unstable. I don't think you'll actually find a city official anywhere in the country who would agree – even in towns full of strip-mall development, it's the independent, locally-owned businesses that show a community is thriving.
My property taxes are too high, and the money promised to the city will help alleviate them. Nowhere in the settlement agreement is there a request for an ordinance to keep property taxes flat. And the PILOT money guaranteed to the city will be less than the property tax assessment. If Carousel were on the tax rolls, there would be a lot more property tax income – and if the expansion does roll south to Bear Street, it takes a lot of houses and small businesses off the tax rolls.
All the naysayers are misrepresenting what Destiny is. Again, the council is not being asked to approve Destiny. But if this is going to be such a public project, why don't we have enough information to know exactly what this is going to be?
I want a better future for my kids. Angela scribbled down something rather accurate: Working at The Gap? Really. Or maybe they can get maintenance jobs and fulfill their life-long goals of buying a car.

Notably absent from the supporters' arguments were previous assertions that the wealth would flow into downtown. Lawyers and architects locally said they would benefit, but it appears that no one is under the illusion anymore that people will actually leave the mall to shop and eat downtown.

A notable against argument: Developer Robert Congel, with whom the city would be contracting on this, is due in court Oct. 3. His former business partners at other malls are suing him for some $100 million. Does the city really want to contract with this guy before we see what this is all about?

If this giant mall expansion is going to happen, it needs to be without the city's blessing.

A little more on the Inner Harbor

2006-06-17T15:25:00.000-04:00

Just a brief follow-up to this post. Alive in CNY contributer Angela and I went down to the Block Party on Thursday. There were easily 800 people there. If we could just do a little bit – really, a little bit – of smart development down there, there would be an average of 800 people there every day for many hours a day. The Canal Corp. really needs to get off their duffs and kick Destiny off the project. I'll be writing them this week. Won't you join me?

Saturday in da 'Cuse

2006-06-17T15:02:00.000-04:00

If you head west on Onondaga Street from South Salina for about three-quarters of a mile, you'll see a good cross-section of the economically depressed near southwest side of the city. Stay straight onto Onondaga Ave. (rather than doing the dog-leg thing to stay on West Onondaga), and you'll start seeing larger structures. Right on Bellevue then a quick left onto Summit, suddenly, you're in Strathmore, which looks like a wealthy suburb with huge homes with huge yards and two SUVs in every driveway.

It's enough to make a boy on a bike with a "My bike hates your SUV" bumper sticker just a might bit uncomfortable.

The good people of Ruskin Avenue, however, close off their street and open up their porches once a year for Art on the Porches. There's music at each end of the street, and the lawns and porches are covered in art (and maybe a little food).

Thankfully, I didn't bring much money – enough, though, to grab a spring roll at Lao Village's stand (thanks, Angela, for that suggestion). I might have spent far too much money on hand-painted percussion instruments from John Heard, pen-and-ink sketches from biker John "Jaw's" McGrath, tile work from Loudeac, and hand-made journals from Concepcioun (though everyone knows now what they're getting for their birthdays and hanuchristmakwanzaa).

After an hour and a half at Art, I swung back downtown for a breve at Coffee Pavilion – thanks, Justin, for knowing what the heck it is, as it's not on the menu – and some quality time at Juneteenth.

And quality it was. A parade, a gospel choir, some note cards (it seems you just can't get decent blank cards anywhere anymore). And the best damn lemonade on the planet. Actually, if you're in town, you should stop reading this and get to Omanii's Lemonade Heaven at 1206 South Ave. right now. Why are you still here? Go!

I got to spend some time talking to the folks from the Eastern Farm Workers Association (I may have to donate a web page). They're pushing for fair wages and subsidized health care for mainly minority workers. I also spoke a bit with the 40 Below folks, who are pushing to keep young people here.

Condolences go out to Lyndell and Ember. Sorry we're going to have to miss you tonight – doubly so, considering the reason. We'll catch you Labor Day weekend.

Inner Harbor

2006-06-14T19:01:00.000-04:00

The Inner Harbor is just an unreasonably gorgeous part of the city – and most people only get there getting lost on their way to or from that giant pile of concrete across the street from the giant pile of steel.

The New York State Canal Corp. – a part of the New York State Thruway Authority that is trying to become independent – is responsible for what goes on at the harbor.

What's there, roughly, is a short but beautiful walking path, an amphitheater, a dock, and plenty of space ripe for development &nadsh; development along the lines of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, which has an aquarium, a mix of local and national shopping and food, outdoor ice skating in season, and music.

Syracuse is having music there this summer – a weekly block party, in fact. And hundreds of people are showing up. If hundreds of local residents are showing up for a weekly concert every Thursday, imagine what would happen if it were in use every day, and for multiple purposes! It would even be – are you ready for this? – a tourist destination!

So, what's holding it up? I'll give you one guess. That's right. A few years ago, the Canal Corp. put out a request for proposals, and Destiny USA came back with the winning bid – a $260 million development project. Other than some loose change that may have fallen out of someone's pocket on a tour, the company hasn't dropped a dime on the Inner Harbor.

Back in February, the Canal Corp. sent a letter to Destiny's developers, saying it would seek a new developer for the harbor. That hasn't happened, and no one really knows what the next step is – whether the second developer gets the bid, whether the project can go back out to bid, or whether there is some requirement that Destiny remain on the project.

Dick Case had a great piece on the inner Harbor in yesterday's Post-Standard.

For more on Destiny, including actions you can take, click here.

Freakishly Small-faced Woman of Leisure

2006-06-14T18:03:00.000-04:00

Today was my first day in my new job. As such, yesterday was my last day as a woman of leisure. To my credit as an enthusiast of this town, I enjoyed the following:

1. Public Transportation: I hopped on the bus and headed downtown in pursuit on cheap, cute sunglasses. After checking out both Joette's and Razzbarry's, I learned that not only do the large, aviator styles that are popular right now look absurd on me, but also that I have a freakishly small face. But in keeping with the actual heading of this item, I did help a nice couple from Oregon get the right bus to Teall Ave on the way home.

2. The Farmer's Market: Grabbed up a Thai spring (or summer?) roll for a mere buck seventy-five and reveled in the sweet chili dip that accompanied it. What luck! I'd had no idea it was already time for the market. They even had a country/blues band playing. (Yes, I know, a real writer would have found out who they were; I am content to just have heard their cover of Ring of Fire.)

3. C.L. Evers: Downtown's only grocery store, brand spankin' new as of March, I believe. Now, I'm not saying I'd trek down there on a Saturday morning or anything, but I was downtown anyway and needed chocolate chips and vanilla to bake cookies later, and it was nice not to have to navigate a supermarket parking lot for something like that, AND nice not to have to pay exorbitant convenience store prices. (Vanilla's expensive enough as it is...)

4. The Bull and Bear Pub: Later in the evening I met Josh and his card-playing crew down at the Bull and Bear, which remains one of my favorite meeting places, along with the Coffee Pavillion. If only I'd not eaten so much raw cookie batter earlier in the day, I might not have been too full to order their fantastic sweet potato fries...

Ah, well. Next time.

The people in this town

2006-06-12T01:32:00.000-04:00

You meet the most amazing people here. Really. You might be able to tell that from the time stamp.

I dragged out RBR tonight. She's a PhD student, and has been working endlessly. I dragged her out on promise of reading a chapter she's been preparing, and of course, I will read it. But see, the real reason I dragged her out is, she's just amazing.

She's spent six years here, and she's never been to a SkyChiefs game. So we watched them pound on Columbus 10-3. Then, we went to Change of Pace for wings and fries, and then to Cerio's, where she promptly trounced me in two games of darts. And then we came back to the house for scotch and singing. And now it's past 1:30 a.m., and in six hours, I'll have already been working for a while.

And speaking of amzing people, you'll note that there are two new authors to this blog. Amy Lawson-Cassady is ABD in philosophy, works at a book store, and is perhaps the only person who has ever made me feel uncomfortable from an intellectual standpoint (through no fault of her own, as she happens to be a fantastic human being who is overly humble), and Angela Newman, who is that amazing combination of brilliant, observant and funny that always keeps me on my toes. I'm looking forward to having them on board. You should, too.

Rows of tiny objects

2006-06-11T20:32:00.000-04:00

(Also posted at Turtle Ink)
I think the title of this entry was the theme for Friday night, though I must admit that not all the objects were tiny and not all of them were in rows.
Sometimes, if I'm lucky, when I'm at an art show I want to break the rules and touch a painting. I had this feeling a couple of times this weekend. First, on Friday, Jane and I attended the opening of The Syracuse Salon de Refuse (put together by the Visual Arts Committee of the Cultural Resources Council) at the Syracuse Technology Garden. My fingers itched to just reach over and touch one of the bare tree branches in Margaret Olney-McBride's painting "Shore Reflected." I didn't but I did look at it from quite a few different angles. Also, noteworthy in this exhibit were Donal and Shel Little's print "Felix Anas/Lucky Duck," Jacqueline Adamo's "Market Place" (Jane says think Munter) and an unknown person's (no placard) painting with blue blobs. All these works were in rows, except for "The Chips of Time" by Angelo Puccia, wrapped around a column. (Does the phone work? Was it part of the piece? I am very tempted to find out.)
After the exhibit we went to the Little Gem Diner for some exceptional plates of food and cups of coffee. Jane thinks it was the first time she had been there during daylight hours. Heading back downtown, we stopped at Sound Garden to pick up some Artic Monkeys and peruse the cds. Here is where the theme of the evening became especially apparent. Several cd covers had rows of tiny objects pictured on them. At some point in the near future I will go back and find those cds. Also drawing attention, the vintage t-shirt--on the side of which were technical drawings of a moth with text about behavior, some of it crossed out. Brilliant.
Finally, the evening ended in a movie theatre, art and intrigue in front of us and yapping girls behind us (you paid $8 apiece for a ticket, why aren't you watching the movie?). Yes, the Da Vinci Code. Can I just say Paris we're coming. Ian McKellen is simply brilliant, portraying the grail scholar willing to resort to almost any means to achieve his end. I wished for a little more with the mystery, a little more with cameras lingering on the art and the tombs. But, all in all, a decent flick.
So, here are my recommends for an artful, tiny objects in a row evening:
Salon des Refuse at Syracuse Technology Garden
Little Gem Diner
Sound Garden
The Da Vinci Code

Pride

2006-06-11T10:10:00.000-04:00

The anti-gay protestors were out in full force at the Syracuse gay pride parade yesterday – all six of them. That should tell us that not only is LGBT community alive and well here, but the community and their allies is winning the battle.

The good news about those six protestors? Jane and Amy totally made out in front of them. And Amy will be making them cookies next year (you know, because she belongs in the kitchen).

The strawberries are up!

2006-06-10T10:55:00.000-04:00

My quest to eat primarily local foods – especially produce, since this is an agricultural area – got a boost this week.

I do frequently enjoy heading to the farmer's market on Saturday mornings, but this time of year, it's slim pickings – mostly flowers and the last of the winter's root veggies and some stuff left over from last year. As such, my visits are infrequent.

But the strawberries are up early this season, and so it was off to the farmer's market for me this morning. If you're in Central New York (or if you know anything about geography), you know that any strawberries eaten here between, say, October and late June, are from California. But I have a quickly disappearing basket of strawberries grown by an elderly couple in Baldwinsville.

The berries are not uniformly red. They are not uniform in size. They have varying levels of firmness. These would be no-nos in a carton of California strawberries. But of course, in that carton of California strawberries, it's hit or miss with the sweetness. You will pucker on more than one occasion. You may think you just ate a decent carton of strawberries, because you're used to being disappointed by sometimes-sour, medium-sweet berries. But these Baldwinsville berries? Holy crow. The only things that are going to stop me from eating the whole basket before lunch are the weather and the crock-pot – I have a crock-pot full of chili on the boil, and at 50 degrees, it's chili weather.

Update: Greenblade's got strawberries, too!

Harriette McDowell

2006-06-09T11:53:00.000-04:00

Harriette McDowell died of cervical cancer on May 26. She was a local business owner and mentor. People really liked her.

I was one of those people. When I was working with the South Side Entrepreneurial Connect Project, Harriette was a big part.

Condolences go out to Kiwi and everyone else who knew and loved her.

Latest Destiny update

2006-06-09T11:45:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted from blogJosh. Previous Destiny posts are here.

It's been a couple of weeks since we checked in. In this time, there have been a couple of advancements.

Settlement sent for approval

The settlement agreement reached between developer Bob Congel, Mayor Matt Driscoll and County Executive Nick Pirro has been sent to three different groups for approval. The groups are the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA), which would be required to carry out eminent domain takings and sell construction bonds; the Syracuse Common Council (which serves the same function as a City Council or an Aldermanic Board); and the Onondaga County Legislature.

SIDA is scheduled to discuss and probably vote on agreement Wednesday of this week. The meeting is at 11 a.m., which means they don't want public input – at least from people who work a normal day. As a city agency whose members aren't elected, there are no political repercussions either way, and whichever way SIDA votes (they'll probably approve the settlement), they'll get hassle from the other side. Assuming they approve it, people will yell, and they'll have some work to do. If they don't approve it, Pyramid Managament Group goes ape, and probably takes them back to court.

The Onondaga County Legislature has already put off their vote until the Common Council votes. In my nearly three years in this city, this is the first time the county has ever correctly said, "This is a city issue. We'll let the city decide."

The agreement will likely be in committee for the Common Council this week, and probably won't get a hearing before the full council until the second half of June. One sticking point is that there appears to be a clause in the settlement that would exclude the council from any future decisions on the Carousel Center or Destiny.

Mall tenants get stay

One of the requirements of the settlement is that SIDA take the leases of 12 of the Carousel Center tenants by eminent domain. This, for me, is the big issue – if the city starts taking leases by eminent domain for private development, who would want to sign a business lease here? These leases have clauses in them that include availability of parking (number of parking spaces per thousand square feet of retail space within the mall) and a requirement that store officials approve expansion plans. While the latter sounds like the bigger deal, that's usually a rubber stamp process.

The former, however, is trickier. Since the first phase of the expansion will be built in the southern parking lot, new parking would have to be open before much of that lot is closed. One of the subsequent two phases would likely fill in the underground parking garage, which, obviously, would lead to a need for more parking.

The 12 tenants have each asked for a stay on the lease-taking; temporary stays were granted for 11 of them, and arguments for long-term stays for them will be heard June 19; decisions on those long-term stays probably won't come until the fall. The 12th tenant, JC Penney, will have a hearing for the temporary stay on June 19. This means it could be close to December before Pyramid's allowed to put a shovel in the ground (an act which is increasingly physically difficult come December in these parts).

It's a mall, people!

Right now, we have a massive mall. It's called the Carousel Center. Eventually, Pyramid is planning what is essentially an enclosed entertainment-and-shopping neighborhood called Destiny USA. Some renderings have it taking over most of the North Side of Syracuse.

Much ado has been made over Destiny – and much of the ado over the mall expansion has been Destiny-related. That ado has come from both sides. But in the end, the three stages of construction in the settlement agreement make a big mall even bigger.

Here's the thing. I'm not at all against development. But a big mall? What's the point? Giant malls are not the way to bring people into the city. They're a good way to get people off the interstate and then right back on it (which is why many malls tend to be built in suburbs or in far-off corners of cities – lots of room right off the highway). And this particular development is holding up the works on so much other advancement in the city.

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