On Vacant Houses In Syracuse

It was  strange to wake up on a recent Sunday, pick up my copy of the Post Standard and see that the lead story on the front page was about vacant houses.  This is an issue that SUN has been working on for the past 14 years.   I have invested more time, thought and research into this issue than any other in my community organizing career.  

The article entitled “Nobody’s home” was highly misleading.  According to the reporter Greg Munno the story unfolds this way:  Vacant and abandoned houses are a nasty problem throughout the Northeast.  Buffalo is a good example of a city hard-hit by the problems.  Syracuse, while struggling with the problem, has made amazing progress and several new initiatives will actually help the city “turn the corner” on the problem. 

Bullshit.

Who did the Post Standard interview from Syracuse for this story?  A Tipp Hill resident, Kerry Quaglia, the executive director of Home Headquarters and Mayor Driscoll.  All of the people in the article conform to the preconceived story line of eventual triumph over the problem: the resident on Tipp Hill lives near a house that has been rehabbed.  Kerry Quaglia’s agency does rehabs and Mayor Driscoll is proposing the plans that will “turn the corner” on the problem.

The Post does admit that while Tipp Hill has avoided the fate of many vacant houses “other Syracuse neighborhoods haven’t been so lucky.”  But no information about these poor neighborhoods is given. The story may not have fit the already set thesis if the focus of article had been the poor neighborhoods on the city’s south and near west sides–the epicenter of the problem with vacant and abandoned houses. 

The Post is absolutely correct when it writes that “vacant homes tend to be clustered in the city’s poorest areas and are both a cause and consequence of poverty.” and “Even with that investment and more than 300 demolitions a year, the vacancy rate grew in the 1990s, according to the U.S. Census.”  The 2000 U.S. census documents that the ten low-income census tracts on the south and near-west sides comprise 15% of the city’s households.  City records show that these same neighborhoods harbor 45% of the city’s vacant houses.   

Unfortunately, the specific details about the problems that vacant and abandoned houses cause is all taken from Buffalo.  No mention of the crime, arson, vandalism, decreased home values and inability to get property insurance in Syracuse neighborhoods is mentioned in this article.  Of course, that would violate the premise of the article–Syracuse is getting better all the time.

The Post also uses questionable information to back up its “turn the corner” premise: 

1)  “In the last six months, for instance, the number of vacant residential structures fell from about 1,300 to just over 1,000.”

According to a computer print out dated January 2, 2008 provided to SUN by the Department of Code Enforcement, the city listed 1,225 vacant houses in the city of Syracuse.  This is an increase of 120 from a similar print out provided to SUN in January of 2007.  The Post cites Home Headquarters for its figures of 1,033 current vacant houses and “about 1,300” six months ago.  The Post overstates the top number of vacant houses and low balls the new number of vacant houses.  

2) This decline is “partially due to several large demolitions, such as the razing of the Shady Willows Estates apartment complex on Onondaga Creek Boulevard.” 

The Shady Willows development of dilapidated apartments was demolished many years ago.  In fact, Home Headquarters received $1,000,000 in SNI funding for demolition of Shady Willows in 2002 and an additional $250,000 in SNI funding in 2003 for cleaning up the toxic oil spill found underneath the buildings.  The Southside Charter school built their new building on that site in 2007.

3) “Nonprofit agencies have been snatching up homes to rehabilitate since Syracuse started a program last year of selling abandoned, tax-delinquent homes to nonprofits for a dollar.”

According to (PDF alert) the Mayor’s State of The City address, only 24 houses (two percent of the total number of vacants) have been bought–all by Home Headquarters.  The reason they haven’t been “snatched up” is that the city may only collect a dollar, but they require the non-profit to set up a $10,000 escrow account, scaring off smaller non-profits.  

So, are we turning the corner on vacant and abandoned houses in Syracuse? The city demolishes about 300 houses each year and another 20 or so vacant houses burn down each year.  Despite these subtractions the overall number of vacant houses hovers between 1,100 and 1,200 every year.  The city is proposing two programs–one for non-profits and one for private developers that may help rehab 60 houses next year.  It is unclear if the participants will have the capacity to maintain that level of commitment after next year.  That takes care of roughly five percent of the current number of vacant houses in the city. 

As Robert Redford’s character stated in the great political movie “The Candidate”:  “I don’t think we can see the corner, much less turn it.”

He Doesn’t Get Plato’s “Republic” Either!

Dani Rodrik is a Professor of International Political Economy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.  He recently posted a wonderful piece on his blog about catching the newly appointed New York Times columnist William Kristol making a flawed economic assumption in a recent column.

Wiliam Kristol was the former Chief of Staff for Vice President Quayle and is the editor of the right-wing opinion magazine The Weekly Standard. His political views fall slightly to the right of Attila the Hun.

However, Professor Rodrik was able to use Kristol’s weak economic argument to excorcise a longstanding demon and say the words that he has waited nearly 30 years to say: “Mr. Kristol, you get a C in economics.” He goes on to tell how Kristol gave him C grades for all his essays when Kristol was the teaching assistant at Harvard and Prof. Rodrik was a student.

The clear implication of his post is that Mr. Kristol gave low grades to students with whom he disagreed politically. The post warms my heart too, because in 1979 Mr. Kristol was an adjunct professor teaching my Intro. to Political Philosophy course at the University of Pennsylvania. I had no idea of Kristol’s background and the discussions in class were not that revealing since they rarely touched on modern politics. (Besides everyone was talking about our school’s trip to the Final Four that semester).

I had the same grade pattern though, C’s for papers that I thought were relatively well expressed and betrayed a modestly liberal political view. I even had other poli. sci majors read my papers to see if I wasn’t crazy. They all thought I was being graded harshly (of course, they were all liberals, too.)

So, Professor Rodrik, thanks for calling bullshit on Mr. Kristol. Of course, if Kristol had been any good as an academic, our nation might have been spared his forays out into the world at large.

P.S.: My bias against Mr. Kristol isn’t because of his politics, but because his politics clouded his opinion of students.  I had David Eisenhower as a teaching assistant during my junior year and he was awesome. He used to hold wonderful informal discussion groups and was always helpful. 

Harold & Kumar: Stoner Dudes and American Heroes

Guantanamo Bay prison has officially entered our culture as an icon–a picture of America at the beginning of the 21st century. Non-fiction books, novels and now a stoner Hollywood comedy: “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo.” Two ethnic-looking (Indian and Asian) stoner guys on a plane are overheard talking about a bong, people hear bomb, and our heroes are shipped to Guantanamo.

I loved “Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle” and I will be lining up to pay my hard-earned money to see the sequel at the multiplex. Two thoughts on this development:

1) The torturers and evil-doers at Guantanamo are upset that this movie will spoil their reputation. Too late, Jack. The waterboarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation, menstrual blood showers and the Koran down the toilet may trump the stoner dudes.

2) One of the sole benefits of the current presidential campaign is that all three of the remaining candidates are anti-torture, anti-Guantanamo. America weeded out the assholes like Romney, who bragged that he would double the size of Guantanamo and Guiliani, who would have continued torture and expanded the war to Iran.

Jeter Worst Fielding Shortstop In Baseball

According to a study presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers at Penn have determined that Derek Jeter is the worst fielding shortstop in baseball.

What’s more, A-Rod was one of the best fielding shortstops when he played at Texas, yet he got moved to third to accommodate Mr. Slow Motion, No Range, No Arm. Perhaps this is why the current century has two titles for the Sox and none for the evil empire of Steinbrenner.

Green Lights And Boats Against The Current

It has been argued that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the great American novel, The Great Gatsby, his masterful study of class structure and the pursuit of the seemingly unattainable. I happen to fall into the Huckleberry Finn camp, largely because Gatsby didn’t take on the great question of American society: race. However, you can’t deny the beauty of Fitzgerald’s writing and the powerful impact that the novel still carries.

In a recent NY Times article, “Gatsby’s Green Light Beckons a New Generation of Strivers,” students are shown discovering Gatsby and relating its themes to their own lives. The students profiled attend Boston Latin, one of America’s most competitive public high schools.

Syracuse doesn’t have an academically competitive public school, but these schools are commonplace in larger cities. Admission is based on hyper-competitive entrance exams and the curriculum is rigorous. Graduates of these schools will go on to elite universities and become the next wave of scientists, academics and professionals. The schools also are very diverse. Since the advanced schooling doesn’t come with a private school price tag, the schools are prized by hard- working immigrant families that see a top education as a way to advance in America.

It’s fascinating to see the themes of Gatsby work on these young minds. Is America really all about accumulating wealth? Can people of different backgrounds succeed in a society that still rigidly defines class, religious and ethnic barriers? Is hard work enough to guarantee success?

I Forgot Lesson Number One

The cardinal rule of a community organizer is never take on a task that can be done by your organization’s members. If you are serious about building an organization, the leaders of organizations need to continually step forward and take responsibility for its activities.

I forgot this lesson when I gave an interview to a Post-Standard reporter. I didn’t think of it as such, to me it was a wide ranging discussion on the phone about development issues on the South Side and the relative merits of various schemes to develop businesses and plan for future growth in the area. If you’ve read this blog, you’ll know I love talking about local issues and the arcana that piles up around the intersection where government, business and non-profit agencies meet. I bloviated awhile on a number of topics near and dear to my heart. I forgot that when you talk to reporters, stories are usually the result.

When the article came out I’m featured with a couple of non-quotes summarizing my feelings:

Phil Prehn, senior organizer for Syracuse United Neighbors, is critical of the Urban Design Center plan. Its focus on commercial and mixed commercial and residential development is wrong for the neighborhood because its identity is residential, Prehn said. Residents are telling SUN that the South Side needs better single-family housing, not the kind of mixed-use development proposed in the plan, he said.

Even though the comments aren’t exact quotes, I’m sure that they are accurate. It sounds like me. It’s only part of what I said, but its accurate. My qualms aren’t with the reporter, she did her job professionally. Why did I open my big yap? I don’t live on the South Side. I work for people who do live on the South Side. It’s my job to prepare those folks to be in a position to make the comments. Oh well, it’s only one story, something else will come along tomorrow and all will be forgotten, right?

Well, it got worse today. The lead editorial picks up on this story and writes about the importance of this particular development scheme. No argument there, we have to get serious about South Side development. Then I come across this statement:

“Syracuse United Neighbors has criticized the Gateway plan, which was developed by Urban Design Inc. SUN says neighbors prefer single-family housing rather than commercial development.”

So, my comments have gone from ill-considered bullshitting on the phone to official position statement by my organization. The editorial folks didn’t do anything wrong either. Why shouldn’t they expect the comments made by an organization to their reporter reflect the opinion of the organization?

Well, at least I know what the topic will be at the next public meeting of SUN’s Southside Coalition.

Too Weird Not To Be True

Reality television.  Bruce Springsteen.  Curling. MUST SEE TV!!!

SUN Chair Dick Breland Kicks Off Black History Month In The Post Standard!



photo by Li-Hua Lan of the Syracuse Post-Standard

cross-posted at the SUN On The Rise blog.

Dick Breland, the chairman of SUN’s Board of Directors, was recently featured in the Post- Standard to kick off the paper’s Black History month coverage. This year the paper focuses on local families whose photographs are in a collection of local African-American history, housed at the Beauchamp branch of the Onondaga County Public Library.

Dick is featured in photographs of his time growing up in the 15th ward neighborhood, his service in the Army and from his days working at the General Electric plant, when over 19,000 people labored out at Electronics Park in Liverpool. Dick became one of the first African-Americans to work in management at G.E.

Dick joined SUN when it first started and has served as an officer in both the Southside Coalition and on our Board of Directors. This is his second go-round as the Chair of our Board. Most importantly, Dick is the reason SUN works on financial justice issues, especially the bank discrimination that still has a negative impact on our community.

In the late 1980’s, Dick walked into the SUN office and complained that OnBank had turned him down for a home improvement loan, despite his good income and credit record. That led SUN to investigate the bank’s record in our neighborhood. At the same time that this was happening, OnBank was in discussions to buy out Merchant’s Bank. We discovered that OnBank had the worst record of making loans in our neighborhood, while Merchant’s had a much better record of lending.

SUN organized the Syracuse Community Reinvestment Coalition, a mix of community members like Dick, local business people, church pastors and academics from Syracuse University. The group filed a challenge to the OnBank/Merchants merger and successfully negotiated a five-year Community Reinvestment Agreement with OnBank. OnBank’s lending improved, but near the end of the agreement, OnBank was itself bought up by M & T Bank. SUN has since negotiated two separate lending agreements with M & T Bank. M & T continues to work with SUN today, even hosting seminars on credit issues and home purchase to help improve lending in our community.

When you see Dick Breland, thank him for being one of the pillars of our community, as well as the nicest person you’d ever want to meet.

Ishikoro–The State of Blogging In Syracuse

According to an article on blogs written by Sarah Boxer in the NY Review Of Books: “Today there are, by one count, more than 100 million blogs in the world, with about 15 million of them active. In Japan neglected or abandoned blogs are called ishikoro, pebbles.”

Unfortunately, more and more of the blogs that I like to read have become pebbles. It’s easy for me to find new blogs on the things that interest me–rock’n’roll, baseball and politics–it’s becoming harder to find blogs written about local issues. About the only new stuff being created comes out of the Syracuse.com world: newspaper writers that are reaching beyond the page to extend the conversation.

There’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve learned a lot and have been able to have conversations with great journalists like Sean Kirst, Brian Cubbison, Maureen Sieh, Mark Bialczak–something that would have been impossible pre-Internet.

But are we losing the spark of independent voices joining the fray? Look at the blogroll listing of 27 Syracuse area blogs on NYCO’s Blog, the acknowledged hub of local blogging about local issues: 6 are non-profit organizations listing events, 1 is exclusively on national politics and 4 are Syracuse.com blogs by reporters.

Of the 16 remaining independently produced blogs:
5 haven’t posted in 2008 and 3 have only a few token posts in 2008.

That leaves only 8 active, independently-produced blogs talking about Syracuse issues. Please let me know if I’ve missed any blogs or if I’m totally off-base. I’d really like to be wrong on this. Even better, set up a blog to criticize my point and to talk up the state of blogging Syracuse.

18 Wins; 1 Giant Loss!

OK, it’s been a great sports year for me. First the Red Sox, now the Giants. I am a Sox fan because of my annual summer trips to my grandmother’s on Cape Cod. But fall seasons were spent here and I adopted my Dad’s love of the Giants. I once was an intense fan, watching each Sunday and freaking out over the two Parcell’s-era Super Bowls. The “wide-right” victory over the Bills left me prostrate on my parent’s basement floor after I physically willed the ball to miss.

I’ve since grown less enamored of football as a sport. There was no seismic break, no righteous anger. Just gradual disillusion: football is not that cool a sport. Certainly nothing to compare to baseball, basketball or lacrosse. I rarely watch football during the regular season and find it hard to sit through an entire game, even during the playoffs.

Still, it was fun to watch the G-men dominate defensively, shades of LT and Harry Carson.