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Old 05-25-2010, 08:49 AM
 
1,544 posts, read 3,599,574 times
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Originally Posted by urbanplanner View Post
Council delays Connective Corridor legislation - YNN, Your News Now

True to form, the Syracuse Common Council delays Connective Corridor legislation because of a few misguided business leaders like Rothchilds. It seems that one project after another gets delayed, it is times like this I am so happy I left. I can understand issues like operations/maintenance, but those issues should have been discussed/finalized prior to any vote. In any event, Syracsue can't afford NOT to do these things! Unbelieveable!
I have to agree with you. There are many times I think Syracuse's demise is well deserved because of simpleton hick politicians like those on the Common Council and County Legislature that have no vision and little clue of what makes a vibrant city. It's very sad to see so many projects and initiatives that had potential to revitalize the city be squandered by parochial thinking political hacks that have never left the confines of LeMoyne College, Dominick's Restaurant and some stinky union hall. As much as I love Syracuse, it's people like those on the Common Council that give me little optimism for the future. In many ways projects like the Connective Corridor, Near West Side Initiative and Airport Authority are not politically palatable because the main constituencies of these thug politicians have never been on an airplane, have no interest in Syracuse prospering as it may lead to an influx of educated and professional people that would make it more competitive for the finite number of local jobs, and quite frankly many people living in their trashy sub-prime mortgage homes in a good number of towns would never venture downtown or on the SU hill because they despise the university and other pursuits like the Symphony, MOST, or Everson they view as "elitist."
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Old 05-25-2010, 08:57 AM
 
1,544 posts, read 3,599,574 times
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Originally Posted by ckhthankgod View Post
This unfortunate and I think this type of hesitation has been hurting projects in the city and area for a while.

With that said, I think that the economic situation does give some reason for some hesitation. I think the city should really stay focused and not get sidetracked when it comes to projects like this that can benefit many in the community.

Make no mistake, many small league hacks like Ryan McMahon are using the economic downturn as an excuse to scuttle projects that they never supported in good economic times. This project was proposed more than 4 years ago and had money set aside prior to the recession. By further holding up the process, it almost guarantees nothing will happen. What has Rothschild done for the city as of late? Everyone in that family under the age of 70 (aside from the lawyer who advertises on TV) has fled Syracuse en masse, probably because there are no business opportunities and they want to be in cities like New York, Boston, Washington, DC where there is plenty of money and "cultcha."
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Old 05-25-2010, 09:13 AM
 
2,440 posts, read 5,735,436 times
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Originally Posted by RollsRoyce View Post
many people living in their trashy sub-prime mortgage homes in a good number of towns would never venture downtown or on the SU hill because they despise the university and other pursuits like the Symphony, MOST, or Everson they view as "elitist."
Yes, this! When we had hardly two pennies to rub together, I had a very hard time making friends... all this before the recession, when frugality wasn't "chic", as it is becoming now.

I didn't fit in with middle-upper class moms because they were always scheduling expensive activities, birthday parties and "playdates." It seemed that the whole point was not to have coffee and chat, while the children played, but to out-dazzle each other, with their hostess skills.

I didn't fit in with lower class moms because they thought I was "uppity." Why? Because I didn't smoke, much less around the children, went to free or very-very low cost "cultural" activities (memberships to museums and the zoo are so inexpensive and street fairs are free), enjoyed taking the children to the library's free storytime and served everyone food and tea/coffee. I didn't have soda or bags of chips on hand. I offered wine and had lots of muffins and fruit and kid-friendly crackers and cubes of cheese. That's what we eat. I guess having food and drinks on hand, besides soda/chips/pizza/ramen made me uppity. <sigh>

Since the recession, however, it seems that people are grateful for company and have the simpler tastes that we have. There's no pressure to have some amazing craft for everyone to do or trays of expensive-to-make/buy food... the moms chat, drink coffee/tea/wine, eat and we keep a loose eye on the kids. Much, much better. lol

Sorry for the tangent but it's something I've noticed quite a bit, lately. And I'm grateful for it!
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Old 05-25-2010, 11:11 AM
 
92,012 posts, read 122,107,559 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RollsRoyce View Post
Make no mistake, many small league hacks like Ryan McMahon are using the economic downturn as an excuse to scuttle projects that they never supported in good economic times. This project was proposed more than 4 years ago and had money set aside prior to the recession. By further holding up the process, it almost guarantees nothing will happen. What has Rothschild done for the city as of late? Everyone in that family under the age of 70 (aside from the lawyer who advertises on TV) has fled Syracuse en masse, probably because there are no business opportunities and they want to be in cities like New York, Boston, Washington, DC where there is plenty of money and "cultcha."
That's funny you said that, because I was thinking that the people complaining are probably not going to be here too much longer anyway. So, how can they hold this up, unless the Council is too scare to actually have a project that might be successful?
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Old 05-25-2010, 12:11 PM
 
1,544 posts, read 3,599,574 times
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Originally Posted by ckhthankgod View Post
That's funny you said that, because I was thinking that the people complaining are probably not going to be here too much longer anyway. So, how can they hold this up, unless the Council is too scare to actually have a project that might be successful?
Has the council ever stopped a project out of concern for local businesses? I can't remember a particular occurrence in recent memory. The mentality of most members of the Common Council (not all) is a feeling that private enterprise is inherently evil, and Syracuse's hodgepodge of inefficient not-for-profits (or what Miner likes to call "Eds and Meds")is the only key to the city's salvation. I think the Common Council is fearful that their vote to increase property taxes will hurt their re-election prospects if they don't attempt to cut spending in other ways. Also, I think Ryan McMahon is playing politics as he is one of only two Republicans on the Council and has been largely ineffective. Perhaps he is priming himself for the next mayoral race against Miner. By creating inertia and holding back many of Miner's pet projects, McMahon can brand himself as a taxpayer watch dog. Syracuse will be in even worse trouble if a political neophyte and hack like McMahon becomes mayor. It will be Driscoll's third administration.
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Old 05-25-2010, 12:31 PM
 
92,012 posts, read 122,107,559 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RollsRoyce View Post
Has the council ever stopped a project out of concern for local businesses? I can't remember a particular occurrence in recent memory. The mentality of most members of the Common Council (not all) is a feeling that private enterprise is inherently evil, and Syracuse's hodgepodge of inefficient not-for-profits (or what Miner likes to call "Eds and Meds")is the only key to the city's salvation. I think the Common Council is fearful that their vote to increase property taxes will hurt their re-election prospects if they don't attempt to cut spending in other ways. Also, I think Ryan McMahon is playing politics as he is one of only two Republicans on the Council and has been largely ineffective. Perhaps he is priming himself for the next mayoral race against Miner. By creating inertia and holding back many of Miner's pet projects, McMahon can brand himself as a taxpayer watch dog. Syracuse will be in even worse trouble if a political neophyte and hack like McMahon becomes mayor. It will be Driscoll's third administration.
Yeah, it is unfortunate if projects can't get off the ground in the name of supposedly saving, in stead of thinking about how these projects can help attract people and business to the area.
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Old 05-25-2010, 12:53 PM
 
1,544 posts, read 3,599,574 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ckhthankgod View Post
Yeah, it is unfortunate if projects can't get off the ground in the name of supposedly saving, in stead of thinking about how these projects can help attract people and business to the area.
Meanwhile as the city claims poverty and wants to take more time to review the Connective Corridor they purchase 9 or 10 vacant apartment buildings from HUD for $1 a piece. The city claims at least 10 investor groups expressed interest in the properties which will continue to remain subsidized housing and blight the surrounding communities. Has the city reviewed the applications to ensure the developers are well capitalized and have the millions needed to rehab these properties? I initially thought the property on Stolp would be demolished and redeveloped into market rate housing. It appears the city has changed course and that property will stay infested with slum tenants. On a side note, I can only imagine the city will demand there be a subsidized housing component in the Kennedy Square Redevelopment Proposal which is sure to field very few if any qualified proposals.
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Old 05-25-2010, 01:14 PM
 
Location: DeWitt, NY
1,002 posts, read 1,986,133 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RollsRoyce View Post
Meanwhile as the city claims poverty and wants to take more time to review the Connective Corridor they purchase 9 or 10 vacant apartment buildings from HUD for $1 a piece. The city claims at least 10 investor groups expressed interest in the properties which will continue to remain subsidized housing and blight the surrounding communities. Has the city reviewed the applications to ensure the developers are well capitalized and have the millions needed to rehab these properties? I initially thought the property on Stolp would be demolished and redeveloped into market rate housing. It appears the city has changed course and that property will stay infested with slum tenants. On a side note, I can only imagine the city will demand there be a subsidized housing component in the Kennedy Square Redevelopment Proposal which is sure to field very few if any qualified proposals.
In this case, though, I think they're right - HUD wanted to foolhardily keep it packaged as one big deal for any developer (not gonna happen, not even in good times!) and refused to parcel it out. The last two HUD auction attempts for the batch as a whole failed miserably. So at least in this case they can generate *some* interest.

I commented on the Syracuse.com story about the idiot merchants' concerns with the following:

"Given that with parking along both sides of Genesee Street in that section (along Forman Park at least) it's nearly impossible to maintain two safe lanes of traffic in either direction, going to one lane in each seems perfectly reasonable. To fix the road to properly allow two lanes would require taking parking out - which I'm sure the business owners would like even less."

Notwithstanding, Rothschilds has its own bloody parking lot, so why they're worried about that I have no idea.
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Old 05-25-2010, 01:30 PM
 
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Originally Posted by acknight View Post
In this case, though, I think they're right - HUD wanted to foolhardily keep it packaged as one big deal for any developer (not gonna happen, not even in good times!) and refused to parcel it out. The last two HUD auction attempts for the batch as a whole failed miserably. So at least in this case they can generate *some* interest.

I commented on the Syracuse.com story about the idiot merchants' concerns with the following:

"Given that with parking along both sides of Genesee Street in that section (along Forman Park at least) it's nearly impossible to maintain two safe lanes of traffic in either direction, going to one lane in each seems perfectly reasonable. To fix the road to properly allow two lanes would require taking parking out - which I'm sure the business owners would like even less."

Notwithstanding, Rothschilds has its own bloody parking lot, so why they're worried about that I have no idea.
HUD lists all of their upcoming apartment building auctions in the Wednesday Real Estate section of the Wall Street Journal. It seemed that they advertised the Syracuse auction every week for many months with no success. I agree that keeping the buildings as a packaged deal hurt all chances of finding a viable developer. Although most of these buildings are in blighted and low income neighborhoods, a few including those on James and Stolp are in more transitional neighborhoods that could gentrify and / or help stabilize the adjacent neighborhoods if the right ingredients were in place. One of the two buildings on James Street has amazing gothic-like architecture that resembles some of the luxury co-ops from the gilded age that line Central Park on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It's a shame that building couldn't have been converted into market rate housing.

On a side note, do you know if the Family Video store planned for James Street near Midler is going to be approved? I was tracking some of the developments on the Walk Eastwood blog, however I haven't seen any updates. After seeing the one built in Fulton and the trash that frequent it, I hope that this can be stopped.
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Old 05-25-2010, 01:37 PM
 
Location: DeWitt, NY
1,002 posts, read 1,986,133 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RollsRoyce View Post
HUD lists all of their upcoming apartment building auctions in the Wednesday Real Estate section of the Wall Street Journal. It seemed that they advertised the Syracuse auction every week for many months with no success. I agree that keeping the buildings as a packaged deal hurt all chances of finding a viable developer. Although most of these buildings are in blighted and low income neighborhoods, a few including those on James and Stolp are in more transitional neighborhoods that could gentrify and / or help stabilize the adjacent neighborhoods if the right ingredients were in place. One of the two buildings on James Street has amazing gothic-like architecture that resembles some of the luxury co-ops from the gilded age that line Central Park on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It's a shame that building couldn't have been converted into market rate housing.

On a side note, do you know if the Family Video store planned for James Street near Midler is going to be approved? I was tracking some of the developments on the Walk Eastwood blog, however I haven't seen any updates. After seeing the one built in Fulton and the trash that frequent it, I hope that this can be stopped.
I believe that they haven't formally submitted anything to be approved or denied as of yet. One would hope that it would be stopped. It's a garbage chain in a dying industry that wants to sell/rent porn within 20 yards of a church and a block from a private school (and two more churches). In a design that flagrantly violates the design guidelines as well as the ordinance against the aforementioned sale/rental.

I'd love to see something done on that corner, but this ain't it.
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