Syracuse’s Poverty Level is “Suddenly” Local News

• by Ken Jackson
• September 17, 2018

This was once an African-American Neighborhood, now replaced with upscale residents  “CNY Rising: From the Ground Up” is Not Working in Poor Communities After years of being complicit, local print news has discovered poverty in Syracuse, as if they’re telling us that Admiral Peary just discovered the North Pole. What’s even more ironic is that our local print media has ignored this issue as they’ve glowingly reported details of gleaming new downtown apartments and condominiums. There’s been an absence of local print media pressure on our institutions, and elected officials, to do more than pay lip service to the quandary Syracuse finds itself in. There’s no collective outrage when loopholes in our State and Local economic development agencies allow millions and millions of dollars to go uncollected, based on fake assertions of creating retail jobs. One of 40 Syracuse area projects with such exemptions has produced a cadre of vending machines, enabling a 33 million dollar property tax break.  Now we’ve been informed, “Syracuse’s Dismal Poverty Ranking Should Ring Alarm Bells”. Ding, Ding, Ding, (insert crickets chirping here) the alarm’s been ringing for 30 years. As I walked to Syracuse Stage, from Irving Avenue, I had to pause, and note the transformation is now complete. What was once an African American neighborhood has made the transition to luxury living. High-end apartments now stand on land that once housed the William’s family and many more. I see Phoebe’s Café, once a place where you could play numbers while listening to the latest soul hits, has been long converted into a bistro for fine dining. New housing popping up all over is great, but these tax breaks shifts the burden to those remaining Syracuse residents, since it will be years before new developments pay their fair assessment. In the meantime, neighborhoods are riddled with dwellings that wouldn’t stand another 1998 Labor Day Storm, they’d fall over. In silence, hundreds of affordable housing units have disappeared once their post Urban Renewal mandate was over. Kennedy Square was allowed to just deteriorate to the point where even rats moved out. Within 30 feet of what was Kennedy Square, is now a full city block of luxury living. The now extinct affordable housing complexes, built to replace properties destroyed by Urban Renewal are now prime real-estate.  Most of those units built to replace housing destroyed by Urban Renewal and Interstate 81 construction, no longer exist. The New Orange is Green: 27 Million Dollar Parking Lot Vs 1.2 Million South Ave. Price Rite We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the name of economic development and yet, we don’t see results in our poorest of neighborhoods. There’s a problem when these large investments fail our inner-city residents. These are people who need these jobs more than anyone to escape the clutches of poverty. 1.2 million Invested by New York State in developing Price Rite on South Avenue in Syracuse created more jobs in that neighborhood, than the 160 million dollars in redeveloping the New York State Fairgrounds of 375 acres. The new Orange lot alone cost 27 million dollars. These figures don’t include the new marina planned for Onondaga Lake, with access to the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Lakeview Amphitheater. And Yet another Poverty List For the umpteenth time, Syracuse is mentioned on a national list as being plagued by poverty. Then our predominately white local media clutch their pearls as if they had discovered something ghastly, new and offensive, “We must do something” is their cry.  And then we return to the trite and hackneyed style of economic development, that’s nothing more than socialism for capitalists at the expense of the common man and woman. Through these projects, is something is supposed to trickle down other than an abundance of training for low wage entry jobs? Is something supposed to trickle down and make it safe to travel on S. Geddes Street after dark? Is something supposed to trickle down to repair your car after driving over pot holed roads to reach one of these sparkling new venues? It’s been well documented for decades; Syracuse was on a downhill coaster ride from the old Suburban Park. It has been documented that African-American youth in Syracuse, N. Y. face more violence per capita than their counterparts in other similar sized American cities. There’s no sense of urgency in anything we’re doing for the poor. CNY Rising: From the Ground Up Our city, state and county Economic Development agencies give out exemptions and credits like doctor’s writings scripts for opioids. Developers have built their massive residential complexes and lined with their project balance sheets full of economic goodies saving them millions, while many Syracuse impoverished residents are struggling to hold on to their modest homes. It was with great fanfare when it was announced that Central New York would be the recipient of 500 million dollars in economic development assistance. Once you delve into the details you’ll soon realize that this spending would be allocated primarily to businesses to expand, improve, and invest; all in the name of retaining and creating new jobs. Many pinned their economic improvement hopes on an Inland Port which would employ hundreds. However, at the end of the day, New York State funded CSX rail transport expansion into something far less ambitious generating few, if any urban jobs. By looking at the funds that have been expended across the state, it appears as though Governor Cuomo has embraced trickledown economics, democratic style. I’m beginning to doubt that any of the 500 million dollars being invested in CNY Rising: from the Ground Up, will enhance the fortunes of our poorest. Perhaps the 13 million spread between 5 counties will help people find entry level jobs, but it’s a far drop from the 500 million dollars, which appears to be going to companies with the hope that they’ll create 5,000 new jobs. Click on the following link to find out how the first 13 million was allocated. Who got what and why? Projects to