Secretary of State Walter Mosley began his new job in late May. His duties include supervising hundreds of millions of dollars of dream projects to try to breathe life into communities statewide.

With barely 60 days on the job, Mosley is touring and talking with stakeholders of the statewide Downtown Revitalization Initiative. To date, $1 billion of state taxpayers’ money has been dedicated to try to transform blighted downtown neighborhoods into vibrant centers and create a higher quality of life for residents.

Mosley toured the dilapidated Whedon-Schumacher house in Syracuse. The mansion, built in 1892, is an officially designated historic place in New York, as are other locations.

“Infrastructure is not only about what you build, but about the ideas that you can collaborate with in terms of proper planning so that we can impact our environment, impact our economy and properly educate our residents,” Mosley said.

The Whedon project in Syracuse, and many others in the state, sit in the poorest areas in the state, where many businesses and homes are abandoned.

“I’m seeing a lot of traffic. I’m seeing a lot of people coming and spending money, right?” said Shad, who said he’s a lifelong resident of southwest Syracuse. “So that’s good as revitalizing the neighborhood put money back into the community, so that’s always good … They’re opening up jobs, giving people opportunities to progress, you know, do things with their lives, because this is a tough neighborhood.”

Mosley, who has a degree in criminology, talked about the DRI and business development benefiting neighborhoods.

“We create more opportunities,” he said, “and with opportunity [comes] hope and aspiration so that there is no need to think about ‘who am I going to take advantage [of]’ or ‘what I’m going to do that might possibly get me in trouble with the law.’ ”

Lawmakers hope infusing taxpayer dollars focused on the neighborhoods will invite new life and prosperity.