What's Wrong With This Town?

It's time for me to finally load up and take aim at the locals here in my hometown of Syracuse, New York. Not that it's something I've always wanted to do in a forum like this, but right now they need a good public flogging more than ever. See, we here in this town were hit particularly hard by the economic changes of the past few decades, and especially the recession in the early 90s. While the rest of the country pulled out and had its huge recovery and boom time, we fell deeper into recession and have only managed to pull out in the past couple years. This has all created a feeling of hopelessness amongst the populace, which in turn causes all of the younger people around here to have the same common dream: to graduate from high school, go to college (preferably somewhere else), and ultimately get the hell out of here. The remaining older people seem to reject any attempt to change the landscape for the better because they are either convinced that we're doomed anyway, why bother doing anything to prevent it, or they are perhaps waiting for some economic knight in shining armor (Bill Gates?) to bail them out by making Syracuse the next hub for some megacorporation.

Their surly attitude is matched only by their ignorance, which results in a good number of inaccuracies in their arguments against change. Naturally, people accept these inaccuracies as gospel and use it to reinforce their movement against change. Let me give you a "for instance": the federal government recently plopped over $6 million in our laps, cuz we had asked for it in our hopes to turn Clinton Square (which is not named for Bill, but rather former governor DeWitt) from something you just drive through on your way through downtown into a central city showplace. So, Uncle Sam gives us the $6 mil, which is marked specifically for the square redevelopment. Predictably, Average Syracusan has kittens over it. "Why isn't this money being used for education?" they scream. Easy answer; as I just mentioned, the government gave us the money SPECIFICALLY for the renovation of Clinton Square.

So the new battle cry against the redevelopment becomes, "We'll have traffic jams downtown now!" As the man whose talk show I produce notes, Average Syracusan thinks having to wait through more than two red lights is a traffic jam. I would add here that I am often guilty of that. If I have to sit through at least two red lights going the two miles from Camillus Mall to Fairmount Fair, I get peeved over how much longer it took me to get there. Then again, this might also explain the overwhelming tendency of Average Syracusan to road rage (see column #12). Why even today someone wrote a letter to the editor explaining that our maniacal drivers may well be the reason she and her husband have to move elsewhere. Not bad, but I'm sure you're reasoning is also somewhat based on the other problems of the locals that I mentioned earlier.

Anyhoo, back to the "traffic jams". Average Syracusan has never really had REAL traffic jams. They've never been backed up 20 minutes at the Lincoln Tunnel. They've never even had to experience Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend on the Strip (US 11 & 15) outside of Selinsgrove, Pah, which is where I went to college. If you don't know alternate routes, you could be sitting there for a good half hour. And this is in a comparatively RURAL portion of the country. Which brings me to the point of alternate routes: use them! We are very set in our ways here, I'll admit, but variation can be a good thing. Sure enough, however, some guy calls the show I produce asking my host if he's happy now that the renovation has caused daily "traffic jams" in downtown Syracuse. It should be noted that the caller refused to answer the host's inquiry as to just how many lights the guy had to sit through.

Of course, getting stuck at a red light isn't what's really got Average Syracusan steamed these days. No, no, it's the (add a menacing dun dun DUN if you wish) CAROUSEL CENTER EXPANSION PROPOSAL!!! The locals' first response was that "we don't want to be exclusively known for having a big mall." What, are the Orangemen leaving town if this thing gets expanded? They then blamed the existing Carousel for killing (insert mall here). After Local Talk Host successfully debunked those myths by showing that it was a combination of bad management and our tendency to build too many malls right near each other that killed them, Average Syracusan took aim at the proposed agreement. Apparently, they had issues with our "local boy makes good", Mr. Robert Congel, head of Pyramid, builders of the mall. Not that he reeks of trustworthiness (if that's not a word, I just invented it); he's accused of tweaking assessments of other malls and bribing local officials in other parts of the state. Still, I don't see other people lining up to put down $900 million of their own money (and I should reinforce that it's Pyramid's money, debunking another myth that it's actually partly or completely financed by taxpayers) to build stuff here. Average Syracusan does not believe that anyone should have to get a deal to avoid paying yearly property taxes, and if someone should, it sure as hell should not be Congel. Then some have gone so far as to say that the scrapyard Carousel replaced and the oil tanks that formerly were in the proposed expansion area should have never been removed, because "at least they paid taxes!!!" I don't care if blight paid taxes, there is no room for blight in a city trying to pick itself up off the canvas of economic troubles.

The leader of the Average Syracusan movement against the expansion is one of our local state senators, Mr. John DeFrancisco, who it should be noted does legal work for Wilmorite, Pyramid's main competitor in the local mall business (can you say "conflict of interest"?) DeFrancisco's vocal opposition to the mall has led some more sensible locals to wonder why a state official is taking interest in a local issue that he has no effect over. Simple, as Local Talk Host has predicted, DeFrancisco's going to run for mayor, and what better way to get Average Syracusan to vote for you than to be as anti-mall as possible? The city council approved the mall expansion, 5-4, and now its fate rests in the hands of the county legislature. The head of the legislature approves of the deal; however, there are naturally some members who buy all of the ridiculous and often inaccurate arguments of the locals against the mall. It has even led Local Talk Host to predict that despite his wishes to see the mall expansion approved, come Monday the 22nd when the "leg (pronounced LEDGE)", as we affectionately call them, votes on this thing, they will shoot down the proposal, and that's it. No expansion. Nothing.

Things like this are what drive people like one Paul Finebaum to write a book called (I am not making this up) "I Hate Syracuse: 303 Reasons Why You Should, Too." To that I can only say one thing:

You only came up with 303? I can name more in my sleep.