[Like a disease, hundreds of abandoned buildings slowly rot away and infect Syracuse neighborhoods with a lot of problems. People have been abandoning their homes and businesses for decades. Shelly Schwartz of Democracywise explains how vacant buildings harm neighborhoods and what’s being done to help revive decaying parts of the city.]
A doctor’s office. A hardware store. A five-bedroom house. At one time, these abandoned buildings were successful businesses and welcoming homes in Syracuse’s South Side neighborhood. But not anymore. Eddy Brooks has lived in the South Side for most of his life. He remembers when the neighborhood was like a family.
[“We had grocery stores and the five-and-ten stores. It was just like a small little community. Everyone knew the people who owned them and you walked in there they could call you by name. Everyone knew everyone,” Eddy Brooks, South Side resident.]
Today, abandoned buildings are a haunting reminder of what used to be. There are more than 1,000 vacant buildings in Syracuse. Nearly 500 of them are located in the city’s Near Westside and South Side neighborhoods.
[“It makes me feel sad because I know how it used to be,” Eddy Brooks, South Side resident.]
These dilapidated buildings are more than an eyesore. They’re a plague that brings about many neighborhood problems. For one, vacant buildings are a magnet for crime. Amanda Pascall has lived in the South Side for 12 years and works for a non-profit group called HomeHeadquarters that renovates abandoned buildings. She says the drug trafficking at one rundown, corner store near her house was out of control.
[“The drug dealing was happening in front, behind, over the counter, in front of my house, you name it. The litter was just phenomenal. Stuff blowing everywhere. Guns. It was crazy,” Amanda Pascall, South Side resident.]
Empty, decaying buildings bring down the worth of all homes in the area. A study by the Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative found that the average home value in the South Side neighborhood dropped $10,000 from 1990 to 2000.
Ben Walsh works for the Metropolitan Development Association as the director of urban development. He says that just one abandoned home can lead to the downfall of a neighborhood.
[“People don’t want to live next to abandoned houses. If one house becomes abandoned, then the person living next to it doesn’t feel as safe and it negatively impacts that person’s home value. And then they want to move out. Now you have two abandoned properties, and so it really becomes a domino effect,” Ben Walsh, Metropolitan Development Association’s director of urban development]
Demolishing abandoned buildings is one solution to stopping the downfall of some neighborhoods. But in his State of the City Address Mayor Matt Driscoll said it’s not affordable. Driscoll says it costs about $25,000 to demolish a vacant building. Bulldozing all of them would cost more than $25 million. Driscoll says renovating the buildings is more cost-effective. But he says the city’s money is tight.
That’s where the federal government comes in. Republican Congressman Jim Walsh started the Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative seven years ago to renovate neighborhoods and increase homeownership in the city. Through this organization, Walsh has brought nearly $50 million in federal funds to Syracuse to help fix up blighted communities. Ben Walsh—the director of urban development and the Congressman’s son—says city neighborhoods have come a long way in just a few years because of federal funds.
[“The amount of money he has been able to bring into the community through SNI is really unprecedented, and I don’t think many if any communities across the nation have seen that kind of investment along a similar time period,” Ben Walsh, Metropolitan Development Association’s director of urban development.]
A recent study by the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University examined the first three years of the Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative’s work. The study has not yet been released. But Congressman Walsh cites some of its findings about the initiatives’ first three years:
- More than 1,200 housing units were renovated or built.
- New households generated about $61 million in income for the city.
- And the city’s tax base grew by $14 million.
South Side homeowner Eddy Brooks says he sees progress in his neighborhood, but he wants to see more.
[“It’s just been kind of slow coming. Slow coming in our community,” Eddy Brooks, South Side resident.]
Tomorrow we’ll look at what Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll is proposing to revive abandoned buildings and bring life back to the city’s neighborhoods.
For Democracywise, I’m Shelly Schwartz.
(Shelly Schwartz is a senior broadcast journalism major.)
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