Walkable Eastwood

Eastwood – and Syracuse – first

Lonnie March 2nd, 2010

Do you know who in your neighborhood is running a business right here in Eastwood? Are they people who might also be hiring people who live in our neighborhood? Doesn’t it make sense to make our purchases from them instead of from an out-of-state chain?

I just culled this from the October newsletter sent out by Syracuse First, a non-profit organization promoting the development of a local living economy:

Studies have shown that for every $100 spent at a local-independent business $73 STAYS IN THE COMMUNITY versus $43 at a non locally-owned business. If we were to commit a small 10% shift in spending in Onondaga County we could erase the debt, create over a 1000 new jobs, reduce our collective impact on the environment and generate $130 million in new economic activity. All without a single taxpayer dollar or spending more then we already do. It really is that simple.

Some fifteen years ago, I happened upon Roadside Magazine, which was then publishing a small review of diners. Their byline was so appealing, I started using it as a signature on my emails:

Recipe for an American Renaissance:
Eat in diners. Ride trains. Shop on Main Street. Put a porch on your house. Live in a walkable community.

I’d like to add: shop in locally-owned shops on Main Street. We’ll all be better for it.

Recipe for an American Renaissance:
Eat in diners. Ride trains. Shop on Main Street. Put a porch on your house. Live in a walkable community.

Hydrofracking = dangerous jobs

Lonnie March 1st, 2010

There’s one way to get upstate New Yorkers to turn off all reasoning ability: just say the four-letter word: JOBS

There’s no doubt about our need for them, but we’ll believe even known liars if they just whisper “jobs!” in our hopeful ears.

Remember all the jobs that were supposed to be produced at the Mistake on the Lake? Used to be called Destiny, then it was just a mall expansion, and then Mr. Congel’s bank figured out they were going to lose a lot of money. Banks are in the business of knowing what’s a good deal or not. But I’d bet there are still people out there who believe that “Destiny” is destined to rescue jobless Central New Yorkers. Oh, please.

So here’s the siren song again: JOBS! …in one of the most dangerous businesses there is: gas and oil. Never mind the environmental catastrophe hydrofracking is, never mind the loss of our clean drinking water, our clean air, our natural resources that all enjoy and that attract tourism. Are these fracking jobs really a boon? Just ask the people who are defending those who have suffered unimaginable loss trying to earn a living in gas and oil:

Oil and Gas Accidents

People employed in the oil and gas industry are subject to some of the most hazardous industrial conditions in the US. Serious injuries occur to even the most experienced oil and gas workers and the severity and duration of injuries, with recovery times that are nearly twice as long, are far worse than in other industry sectors.

Nearly half of all fatal injuries were attributed to highway motor-vehicle crashes and workers being struck by machinery or equipment. Gas explosion injuries, fires, chemical burns and dangerous falls or falling objects or equipment– workers are often hit on the head or back by tools or equipment—are just a few of the dangers occurring on a regular basis in the oil and gas industry.

The oil and gas extraction industry employed about 380,000 workers in 2006 and employment is growing. However, increases in oil and gas activity correlate with an increase in the rate of fatal occupational injuries, particularly when inexperienced workers are not sufficiently trained in safety and precautionary measures.

Hydrofracking promises 20 years’ supply of natural gas.

What we’ll get is the destruction of our water supplies, the poisoning of our agricultural and recreational land and, as a result, a drop in the tourism dollars that come here because it’s clean and beautiful in upstate New York.

When that 20 years is up, WHAT WILL WE HAVE LEFT???

A writer in Cooperstown’s Freemason’s Journal has said it very well:

Ask the mayor of Dish, Texas, folks in Dimmock, Pa., or other places where gas drilling problems are documented. Discuss alternatives to fossil fuels and ban gas drilling. Gas companies are temporary, but cancer is permanent.

MAUREEN CULBERT
East Springfield

SIGN THE PETITION
BAN NATURAL GAS DRILLING IN NEW YORK STATE

Can you do this with your tap water?

Lonnie February 15th, 2010

Only you and your neighbors can stop hydrofracking in Onondaga County (our drinking water’s watershed). Your government (Albany) is dysfunctional and too busy figuring out the economic mess.

Think this (below) can’t happen to us?

If not, what are you thinking?

CAN YOU DO THIS WITH YOUR TAP WATER? from JOSHFOX on Vimeo.

Read and learn:

Catskill Mountain Keeper WORKING TOGETHER TO PROTECT THE CATSKILLS
Damascus Citizens Working to Protect the Watershed Region
NY H2O Defending water for all New Yorkers
ShaleShock Protecting our communities and environment from exploitative gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network Defending the Delaware River
un-naturalgas.org Why Natural Gas is not the Answer

What’s our water worth?

Lonnie February 3rd, 2010

Hydrofracking:

lease income for land owners: $

jobs created: $

taxes to local/state govts.: $

contribution to energy independence: $

total costs of economic, health, environmental damage:
……………$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$

Our ground and surface water systems: Priceless

Upcoming events

How green was their valley…

$fracking landscape Wyoming$: Hydrofracking sites scattered around the Upper Green River Valley, Wyoming. Onondaga County could look like this, too.

Natural gas: not clean, not the answer

Lonnie February 1st, 2010

When my son used to “clean” the kitchen, what was left behind gave me more work, not less. The dishes had to be re-washed. The sponge would be full of junk. The stove had cleanser spilled in unreachable spots. The floor was wet in spots and he would have tracked his dirty shoes through it.

He was eager to tell me, “Mom, I cleaned the kitchen, can I go now?” but I knew better. What he said was not true and I was going to be left with a real job.

This is what we have with the hydrofracking process that threatens to remove “clean” natural gas from the earth in a most unnatural way. It brings to our surface water and our air hundreds of chemicals to contaminate the only natural resources we have of value in upstate New York: clean water, clean countryside and clean air.

We’re going to have an unimaginably large job on our hands if we allow this to to happen to our land. Remember when our parents thought it was fine to dump waste into Onondaga Lake? Do we want to leave this kind of mess to our kids?

We don’t have a seaside, we don’t have a big desirable city (check the real estate values if you disagree on that last part), we don’t have anything but the one thing New York State has been seriously developing lately: our beautiful and historic towns, parks and byways. Frack the land and frack the water and we have NOTHING LEFT. People, our other natural resource, will continue to leave. We already know what a problem that is.

Cornell may be full of those annoying academic types, but heck, there are a few really smart people who just may be good at research. They have put a moratorium on hydrofracking on their land. Would it not be a good idea to find out why before we allow it to start anywhere else in New York State?

Action step:

Attend the Citizen’s Community Forum on Hydrofracking.
Wednesday February 10, 2010 at 7pm
Nottingham High School, 3100 E Genesee St, Syracuse, NY

$Anti-fracking cartoon$

An orienting sense of place

Lonnie January 16th, 2010

Where are we?

Well, just look around. Wherever you are right now, take a look. What tells you where you are? Probably anything that is both familiar and unique. If it’s some place you call “home”, you are likely to be taking rather good care of it. And if it’s some place you recognize as someone else’s home, you are likely going to treat it with some respect.

Obesity: combat it with healthy diet

Lonnie December 6th, 2009

With this post we start a multi-part series on combating obesity, which presents higher risks for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and a host of other ailments. We’ll structure our series based on suggestions made by the Baltimore Sun in an editorial entitled Big and Getting Bigger. I’ll highlight below the ideas we might tackle here in Walkable Eastwood: Continue Reading »

A gas station used to be there

Lonnie November 25th, 2009

“A gas station used to be there.” This is true of the corner of James and Midler. A gas station used to be on approximately every corner in Eastwood, based on some comments I heard at TNT Monday night. And that might have been true. But saying “a gas station used to be there” as justification for a new one being put in at the same location is like saying “An oil city used to be there” as justification for putting in even bigger, taller, brighter oil tanks at the northern entrance to Syracuse. Just because we used to do it doesn’t mean that it necessarily is or is not a good idea. Let’s debate this one on its own merits, not the merits of a period of cheap, plentiful oil, now fast waning. Continue Reading »

Gas station proposed for James and Midler

Lonnie November 23rd, 2009

At tonight’s TNT meeting, Mr. Tino Marcoccia and his architect, Mr. Michael Wolniak, presented plans for developing the parcel of land at the southwest corner of Midler Ave and James St in Eastwood. Currently, only one small building, Kristen’s Ice Cream, is located there. The pizza shop on James St. is also part of the parcel to be developed. Approximately 45 residents were in attendance, along with the usual representatives of city government and the police force. Continue Reading »

Disaster response vehicle fundraiser

Lonnie November 23rd, 2009

Last August a Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle caught fire and must be replaced. There will be a fundraiser for this on Saturday:

November 29, 2009
2:00 – 6:00 pm
VFW Post #3146
2000 Le Moyne Ave
Mattydale, NY

This is at the corner of Le Moyne Ave. and Factory Ave.

$15 for adults
$5 for children 6-12 years old
$35 for a family of four

Entertainment, food, beverage, raffles, silent auction

Advance sale tickets can be purchased at the No Name Diner, 3900 New Court Ave, Syracuse (Eastwood). All the information and a picture of the new vehicle can be found at Signal99.

Demand safer streets!

Lonnie November 13th, 2009

I am always amazed at the sheer courage it takes people using wheelchairs to navigate the streets of Eastwood. In the summer, they have to work their way up and over or around broken or heaved sidewalks, sidewalks made narrow by encroaching grass and dirt, and cars parked over the sidewalks. And in the winter, just one house on a block with its sidewalk made impassible by snow means anyone trying to get from point A to point B must then walk in the street. Continue Reading »

BPA: now this is scary!

Lonnie October 31st, 2009

Some time ago I started posting about our efforts to get the plastic out of our lives. One of the reasons was to avoid BPA, bisphenol-A, which is toxic and is found in water bottles, baby bottles, toys, even the lining of tin cans. All of the drinks in our household now are held only in glass: Continue Reading »

The city isn’t just a business

Lonnie October 29th, 2009

Sent to the Walkable Eastwood email group and reposted here with the permission of the author:

For the last few days I’ve been staring at this sign on the Steak and Sundae, trying to understand what’s really being said. Mr. Kimatian is a Republican and a former broadcast executive at Chanel 3 TV. At the primary mayoral debate, in part sponsored by Walkable Eastwood, Mr. Kimatian made it clear he would run the City as a business. I think that is an important point and I definitively agree. Over the 30 plus years I’ve called Syracuse my home the City of Syracuse has been operated as a disconnected series of fiefdoms with one part of the City not caring about the others. The political system has always promoted one part of the City at the expense of the others. Continue Reading »

A Spirited Halloween Season

Lonnie October 22nd, 2009

Sent to the group by Gia Palermo:

Saturday, October 24th, Noon to 3pm. Sunnycrest Park Association’s 5th Annual Halloween Party: “Potter in the Park”. Sunnycrest Park. Eldorado Street (off Teall Ave.) Games, Treats, Prizes, Pumpkin Painting. Wear your costume!
Free. Rain site- Sunnycrest Golf Clubhouse, Caleb Ave Entrance into Park. Continue Reading »

Ideas from other cities for next mayor

Lonnie October 20th, 2009

I posted the following over two years ago, but the ideas are good ones that the next mayor would do well to look at. They’re concerning how to deal with property owners who allow their business-district buildings to rot and bring down the values of all our properties.
———————–
James Street is our main business district. It has a number of really super businesses on it. What happens there affects all of us, as residents, as business owners, as property owners. Those who allow their vacant buildings or lots on James St. to remain in their present ugly condition are affecting your property values. It’s time the Common Council acted more decisively to get owners to fix up these properties or sell them to someone who will develop them within the James Street Overlay District Zoning Standards.

While searching the web for what other cities are doing about vacant buildings , I came across a website simply titled “AMCBO Member Call Summary.” (AMCBO is the Association of Major City/County Building Officials.) It appears to be a summary of a meeting that took place in 2005. It’s worth a thorough read. Below I’ve pasted the ideas I found most appealing: Continue Reading »

“Bye Day” Litter Pick-Up this Saturday!

Lonnie October 13th, 2009

Neighbors Matthew Richard, Cindy Seymour and Vicki Chappell found each other in our email group. Matthew has spearheaded a “Bye Day” litter pick-up that Sean Kirst has suggested should be city-wide. Cindy and Vicki, in concert with Laci’s Burger Joint, have helped to make it an event. This is what Eastwoodians are reading in their email: Continue Reading »

Pitch in on Oct. 17!

Lonnie October 8th, 2009

From Matthew Richard, one of our neighbors and member of the Walkable Eastwood email group, and the driving force behind this effort:

On Saturday, October 17, everyone in Eastwood, and throughout Syracuse, is encouraged to spend an hour to “Pitch In” and collect litter on your street, or wherever you may happen to be.

This is a “bye” date on the Syracuse University football schedule.

This link will take you to Sean Kirst’s column about this activity:

Thank You.

All together now: zoning overlays = $$$

Lonnie September 17th, 2009

A number of our neighbors are revisiting the James Street Overlay District guidelines, put in place as part of our zoning laws to prevent runaway suburban-style development such as the Dunkin Donuts and the Wilson Farms businesses that were allowed in before the guidelines were written.

Turns out, despite our needing a little time to get used to the idea, having just such an overlay helps to keep our real estate prices in our neighborhood going strong. Continue Reading »

In Memoriam: Verifiable Media Reports on 9/11

Lonnie September 11th, 2009

Blogger’s note: I did not write the following. I pass it along today, September 11, in memory of those who died.

To verify statements, click on links to articles on major media websites. Join in powerfully building a brighter future for all by spreading the word

America’s top military leaders drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in US cities to trick the public into supporting a war against Cuba in the early 1960s. Approved in writing by the Pentagon Joint Chiefs, Operation Northwoods even proposed blowing up a US ship and hijacking planes as a false pretext for war. [ABC News, 5/1/01, Pentagon Documents]

1996–2001: Federal authorities are aware for years before 9/11 that suspected terrorists with ties to Osama bin Laden are receiving flight training at schools in the US and abroad. One convicted terrorist confesses that his planned role in a terror attack was to crash a plane into CIA headquarters. [Washington Post, 9/23/01, CBS, 5/30/02, more] Continue Reading »

Rededication of Sheridan Park Sept. 11

Lonnie September 10th, 2009

Sheridan Park is located on Nichols Ave. at Burnet Ave. MAP

Walkable Eastwood

Sustainable living in "The Village Within The City"