Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh delivered his third State of the City on Thursday night.
Walsh introduced newly elected officials in their positions to start his address. From there, Walsh continued his confidence in Syracuse as a surging city as he listed numerous accolades, such as increased population, growth in employment, increased law enforcement and fire fighters, and more.
Later on, Walsh spoke about the success of the Syracuse City School District. Walsh, who said his greatest joy as mayor is the time spent with the students, listed the accomplishments that took place in the district in 2019.
“In the last year alone, we made remarkable progress on what may be the single-most transformative period of investment in the history of our district,” Walsh said.
As the snow fell outside of Upstate Medical University Thursday night, Walsh continued his address about the expanded snow removal program.
“Wherever I go in the winter, I hear two things regularly,” Walsh said. “How great it is to have sidewalks cleared on our busiest streets, and that there are still too many sidewalks covered in snow or cracked and broken to the point they aren’t usable.”
Walsh then announced his commitment to work with the city council to implement a city-wide municipal sidewalk maintenance and snow removal program. Walsh looks to begin the program in 2020.
Other topics Walsh covered during his address included helping city neighborhoods grow, the STEAM school in the area, and the bright future for the city of Syracuse.
The goal is to keep Syracuse surging.
And one way to do that is to prepare children for the future.
“We have incredible young people that deserve the very best,” said Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh. “That’s why I thought it was important to highlight the investments we made through the Joint Schools Construction Project, those capital investments combined with all of the efforts on the programmatic side that school district has been doing are working."
Walsh says over the last 10 years, they’ve invested more than $450 million into the Syracuse City School District, which has helped the District reach the highest graduation rate in a decade.
“The hard work of our students, our families, our staff, that they have been working together with our kids providing support and commitment from the board of education and commitment from the community at large to support our kids,” said Jaime Alicea, the Syracuse City School District superintendent.
Major school renovations are expected to start this year, including Henninger High School and Brighton Academy.
“I think that positive clean learning environments are instrumental to get the kids engaged,” said Alicea. “They want to come into buildings that are bright, clear and we think this is going to continue to make a difference."
The mayor’s office also wants to help children outside of the classroom, by improving their quality of life and providing better housing.
“Where you sleep it needs to be safe, clean, affordable and it needs to be a place for our kids,” said Sharon Owens, the Syracuse deputy mayor. “Those rising graduation rates are a part of people needing to be in clean safe affordable housing.”
The Resurgent Neighborhoods Initiative will create 200 affordable homes over the next two years.
Walsh says they’re making progress on housing instability, too. Eviction petition filings were down 75% in 2018.
They also want to keep homes safe, and a new lead ordinance will protect children most at risk.
“We need to give our code enforcement officers the tools they need to more proactively be able to get into properties where we know lead exists, test it and remediate it before it gets to the children,” said Walsh.
“Rochester implemented an ordinance like this in 2005 and over the following 15 years they saw a 90% reduction in lead poisoning levels for children in the city,” said Joe Driscoll, a Syracuse common councilor. “So, we believe this is something that’s long overdue.“
They hope to see the same lead reduction in Syracuse.
The mayor says they'll continue to focus on the quality of life issues through a new group made up of city leaders and community members.