Walkable Eastwood

Lonnie February 24th, 2007

“The village within the city”

Photo album

Tomorrow’s Neighborhoods Today (city website)
TNT - Area 6 Eastwood

See our own Eastwood TNT page.   MAP of Eastwood

Eastwood Community Center
401 S. Midler Ave, Syracuse, NY 13206
(315) 437-4011

MAP

Lunch for seniors served M-F 12:00 Noon

Eastwood Rotary

What is Eastwood like?

Start with the fact that, as reflected in the above sign, Eastwood really is a village within the city. That is, it was a village until the mid-1920’s when it incorporated with the city of Syracuse. This means that in Eastwood, there’s a “there” there! Our “Main Street” is James St. North and south of James there are residential areas laid out pretty much in a grid. The streets are lined with very tall, gracious old trees. The homes are a healthy mix of single-family and 2- or 3-family homes, with a few larger apartment complexes. Most commercial activity is concentrated along James St. toward the north and Burnet Ave. on the southern boundary of Eastwood.

But what makes Eastwood such a great place to live in? The people! There’s a healthy mix of people here and a lot of them care very deeply about Eastwood. In many families, the children who grew up and moved away eventually moved back - and that’s saying a lot for snowy Syracuse!

Okay, it’s also Eastwood’s good old-fashioned walkability that makes it so great. Within a fifteen-minute walk from nearly every house in Eastwood, you’ll find:
A movie theater (the recently-renovated Palace Theatre)
Two cafes
Many salons
A hardware store
Two music shops (okay, one is headed just over the city line, still on James St. but actually in East Syracuse)
Three independent book stores
A hat store
A dress shop
A donut shop
A couple convenience/grocery stores
A couple bars
Several restaurants (Eastwood’s White Tower)
Some of the best mechanics in Syracuse
An old-fashioned diner
Banks
Car sales
Antiques
A Brooklyn-style sandwich shop
A host of other services and businesses

Eastwood is not gentrified. It’s not perfect. It’s waking up to its own potential. Improvements on James St. are being done by the city. Some businesses are investing in improvements, too. We expect others will follow. A Chamber of Commerce is in the works.

There are a number of Neighborhood Watch groups, there is a very active TNT (Tomorrow’s Neighborhoods Today) group, and there is the equally active Eastwood Neighborhood Association. Eastwood has an elementary school, a high school, a golf course, ski trails and a skating rink! All within walking distance of the residential areas.

But if you want to get to other parts of the city or the world, I-690 and I-90 are less than a 5-minute drive from anywhere in Eastwood. Getting to Syracuse University takes all of ten minutes. Live in Eastwood and you go gentle on your gas expenses and gentle on the environment.

Syracuse ranked #14 in medium cities by Inc. Magazine!
Top 25 Cities for Doing Business in America
“If you’re looking for cities large, medium, and small where job growth is robust and economies are strong, head to the ones on this year’s Top Cities list.” One aspect listed as important to economic growth: diversity of businesses. Let’s keep diversity on James Street.

See more rankings - Syracuse is great!

“Developers have recently recognized opportunities in walkable shopping centers that offer a “sense of place.” Lifestyle centers (and “New Town Centers”) are being developed to replicate many of the community or neighborhood shopping experiences offered by downtowns. These new centers try to recreate downtown’s sense of place with small building footprints, multi-story buildings and an open-air environment. They are built to be pedestrian friendly, convenient and safe. Traditional downtown areas that are walkable already possess what many developers are trying to duplicate.”
- Economic Benefits of a Walkable Community

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