Top row (left to right): Kia Washington, Maria Laface; Bottom Row (left to right): Shayne Waters, Travis Hance (Kara Labs)
“There are a number of houses that should be knocked down. And I know it is expensive to demolish home. But at the same time the kids in the community, they have nothing to do. Maybe if you tore down some of those homes and created basketball courts or refresh some of the parks, the kids will have something to do and they wouldn’t involve themselves in gangs.”
(Kia Washington, 35, of the South Side of Syracuse, works for a non-profitagency, Democrat)
“Parking is always a problem down here and there is limited spaces. They are raising the rates on parking, which is just going to make it worse. The city claims they want people coming downtown to shop and move downtown . And I can tell you living downtown, it’s very, very inconvenient. And it’s cost me a fortune in parking tickets And it’s not really a good motivator for anybody to come down here for any reason.”
(Shayne Waters, 38, of downtown Syracuse, works freelance, unregistered)
“I think she needs to talk to all of the merchants and get together a meeting and possibly talk about certain days where it could be free parking or certain parking lots that would be restricted for people to come and shop in this area. That is the biggest thing that I am finding. My customers come in and they say ‘I just got a ticket; I was not even a minute late.’”
(Maria Laface, 47, of downtown Syracuse, owner of clothing store, Democrat)
“I think she should put towards the top of her agenda a thriving arts community in our city. I think that is what is going to reach out to young people, opinion leaders, the type of people that we want living in our community for the next 30 or 40 or 50 years.”
(Travis Hance, 30, of the University area in Syracuse, general fanager of organic food store)
“And another thing is for a city this size not to have a hotel is ridiculous. You have the Hotel Syracuse over there that got seduced and abandoned…That is a perfectly good hotel.”
(Irene Callisto, 60, of downtown Syracuse, lingerie store owner)
(Kara Labs is a graduate student in broadcast journalism.)
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