The Near Northeast Side is the name that covers the mixture of neighborhoods between Schiller Park and Interstate 690, east of downtown and west of Sedgwick and Lincoln Hill. Working-class homes dominate the area. One Near Northeast enclave, Hawley-Green, has undergone a gradual facelift as property owners buy, fix and sell its stately Victorian houses.
We walked along Green and Howard streets, in the heart of Hawley-Green, to pose our question: "What's the one thing the next mayor of Syracuse should do to improve life in the Near Northeast Side?" Here's what four people told us.
The Hawley-Green Neighbors, the informal association that oversees the neighborhood, gets cooperation from City Hall on policing, code enforcement and the like when its members ask, said Peter Gembler, 48, of 403 Howard St.
The neighborhood is vastly improved, Gembler said, and prostitution and drug problems have gone down in the six years since he moved in. But it should be a two-way street, he said: "After all this effort, we’d like City Hall to give us a phone call and ask, ‘What can we do for you?’"
The Candidates Respond:
Matt Driscoll (D):"Our administration reaches out to this neighborhood in many ways. City departments attend Tomorrow’s Neighborhoods Today meetings and engage the neighborhood watch groups and NEHDA (Northeast Hawley Development Association). I also contact residents directly, visiting them in their homes, by e- mail and on the phone. I will continue to stay in touch personally, and my door at City Hall is always open."
Joanie Mahoney (R-C-Ind): "Last week I announced a detailed proposal to make City Hall more open and accessible, and as a councilor, I built a strong reputation as an approachable representative. Improving neighborhoods is a two-way street, and the mayor needs to solicit input, identify new opportunities and respond to resident needs and concerns.
Howie Hawkins (Green): "I will make city government neighborhood-directed. Neighborhood assemblies, open to all residents in each of the city’s 25 or so real neighborhoods, will elect representatives to citywide commissions to guide departments in delivering services, including police, code enforcement, public works, and neighborhood planning and development."
Other Voices:
Morgan Richards, 53, of 417 Howard St., said she’s pretty happy with the neighborhood she moved into from New York City three months ago, especially with the spirit that impels neighbors to fix up homes and gardens, pick up litter and treat the police who work with their neighborhood watch to an annual barbecue. The neighborhood has gotten better over the three years she spent visiting before she moved in, she said. If it needs anything, she said, it’s more streetlights.
"They need to try to get the drugs off the street and to stop people from hanging out on the corners in front of the stores, and in the park," said Teresa Snow, 30, of 202 Green St. She said she won’t send her four children to play at the local playground "because of the drug dealers there." Prostitutes and their customers also are a problem, she said.
While many of the neighbor- hood’s Victorian homes have been rehabilitated, the rest could use some city help getting spruced up, said Ema Hudson, 26, of 215 Green St., Apt. 2. Otherwise, Hudson said she’s happy and feels safe in the neighborhood, where she’s lived off and on since her student days at Syracuse University. The neighborhood association, responding to SU’s burst of new activity downtown, is succeeding in attracting students to move in, she said.
Posted by syracusegreens at October 17, 2005 11:57 PM