Walkable Eastwood » neighbors

Eastwood powerhouse Rebecca Fuentes

Lonnie — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:25:28 +0000

I met and wrote about Eastwood neighbor Rebecca Fuentes some time ago, but it wasn’t until we took the Community Foundation’s “The Leadership Classroom” course together that I got to know what a quiet powerhouse she is. Taking the course meant showing up for most of a Saturday, once a month for nine months. Plus there was lots of extra work to do putting together our grant proposal. While others fell away, she hung in there for the whole thing and we were able to secure funding for signs, banners and other improvements for Sunnycrest Park.

During the many workshops of the leadership class, I got to know Rebecca better and was seriously impressed by the many challenges she has faced and overcome, her willingness to persevere, and her deep compassion for those who suffer injustice.

It was Rebecca who you saw on the front page of Sunday’s Post-Standard. Read the story (below) and you’ll agree that Rebecca has once again been like a dog with a bone; she doesn’t give up until she’s made a positive difference in someone’s life.

She’s done all the heavy lifting. Now it’s our turn to add what amounts to a couple mouse clicks and maybe one minute of filling in an online form to simply request that the NY State Fair not approve Peter Karageorgis’ application to sell chicken – or anything – at this year’s fair. New York Staters have a proud history of opposing slavery, now called human trafficking. We can continue that history. Please read this letter from Rebecca:

Hi friends,
I want to share this link to the story of workers who were exploited at the NY state fair. We were lucky to support these workers in their fight for justice.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/vendor_abused_mexican_workers.html
The reporter was told that the vendor already sent an application to sell at the fair and that they are reviewing his application..
I am asking people to please send a message to the NY state fair to not allow this vendor to come back to the fair.
You can sent a message to the fair here:
http://nysfair.org/contact
We are working on setting up also an online petition so that the fair denies his application and also make sure that this won’t happen again to any other workers.
thank you so much.

Rebecca Fuentes, Coordinator

Workers’ Center of CNY
232 E. Onondaga St.
2nd. floor Plymouth Church
Office (315) 218-5708
Cell (315) 657-6799
www.workerscentercny.org
Like us on Facebook

A city united through performance art

Lonnie — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:26:58 +0000

The upcoming A-OK Weekend - that’s Acts Of Kindness – is a fabulous opportunity to get to know our city better. If all we do is read about what others in other neighborhoods are doing that weekend, it’s a start. But if we go visit other neighborhoods and get to know some other people, how much better! There are more and more fascinating things going on at the neighborhood level, and one of them I learned about recently.

A couple weeks ago, I was standing around at the Arts & Crafts Festival, dressed up like a flamenco singer, when I happened upon Dan Ward and a fellow who was introduced to me as Dennis Heaphy, of the Heaphy tinsmithing family here in Syracuse. Turns out, Dennis is three things interesting to me:

The resident tinsmith for the Statue of Liberty (read more)
A flamenco aficionado who had just been to the extremely narrow Ñ tapas bar in SoHo (so narrow, its name is only one letter long!) where he had been captivated by the same flamenco dancer, Rebeca Tomás, that we’d gotten to know the previous month.
The same fellow I’d been looking for to make replicas of the speaking tube whistle that neighbor Sig Snyder had given me when we discovered speaking tubes in our walls (they’re all over the city, by the way – you might have one, too, if you live on the second floor of a 2- or 3-family house!)

So a few days ago, Dennis stopped over to discuss the speaking tube. I think eventually he’ll help me put this whole thing together so it works again. But the really important thing I learned while standing out on the front porch is that he’s a singer and songwriter who loves theater and who has composed a song entitled No Matter Where You Put It© for the upcoming Tipp Hill Music Festival on Saturday, September 18.

So tell me folks, isn’t this city becoming cooler by the minute? Don’t forget, we also have the neighborhood-uniting Art In Motion Spectacular coming up on Saturday, Sept 11 at 2 pm in Armory Square.

I encourage anyone from Eastwood to visit other neighborhoods and especially their festivals. Not going to them is like never making it to Niagara Falls even though you live in Syracuse. Such a pity.

Who’s my neighbor?

Lonnie — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:40:55 +0000

We awoke in the middle of the night to a thunderous crash that sounded so close, I thought a tree had come through our roof. Within seconds, however, we saw the cause of the sound: a car across the street had plowed through a utility pole and hit a tree. Live wires were down in puddles and our neighbors were already out there, calling to the people inside the car, telling them not to move because of the wires. They kept talking to them while apparently someone else called 911. I called, also, not knowing if they’d been able to. The rescue squad arrived within a very few minutes.

Believing that the best help we could be was to stay out of the way, we stayed in our house. The rescue squad pulled one person and then another out of the wreckage, the police had arrived, we could do nothing. Of course there are many more details to a situation like this, but my purpose here is not to report. We all know, all too well, about accidents.

The next morning, I felt a great need to be around my fellow beings, my neighbors. We walked to Cafe Kubal for a cup of coffee. We walked to Mother’s Cupboard and sat at the counter, to be close to strangers and to watch one of the best shows in town (the chef). We chatted with a young couple who were seated right next to us. It was good.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my neighbors. I don’t necessarily agree with all of them about every subject, but that doesn’t matter. We’re blessed with good neighbors, people who care about each other. I will never forget the sight of my neighbor, picking his way through puddles with a live wire somewhere there in the dark, getting close enough to that car to call in words of warning and encouragement.

My neighbors are the people who I want around me when the world seems to have turned upside down, even if for a short time. My neighbors are the people waiting in line at the cafe and the young people at the diner counter and the old folks pushing strollers and commenting to us on our vegetable garden. They are the young people walking down the road with earplugs in or skateboarding on a warm summer evening. They are also the people of all types that have been coming to the accident spot, to look, to think, to pray, to talk with the friends or family they brought with them. Some come alone, and cross themselves.

My neighbors are also the people who must ride their wheelchairs in the streets because the sidewalks are in such disrepair. Since this city does not repair sidewalks and then bill the property owners, there are very few blocks where anyone can trust that the walk on the sidewalk will not be fraught with some level of danger or difficulty. The most courageous people I know are those who get around our neighborhood in a wheelchair. But all of us are at peril on some of these sidewalks.

As I watched the heart-wrenching scene unfold in the near-dark the other night, I winced as I watched the stretcher being rolled along the sidewalk to the ambulance. I know that section of sidewalk – it’s a mess. I could feel the pain of being jostled over it. The street is a mess, too, given that drainage in this block is so poor the water and ice that pool here eat away at the asphalt. Neighbors speculated about the deep puddles at Northcliffe and Homecroft having possibly caused hydroplaning that may have contributed to the accident.

I hope we can start to think more about some responsibility to our neighbors. A little conversation across generations, an effort to fix sidewalks and cut hedges away from them, some pressure put in the right places to get four-way stops at every intersection on Northcliffe Road. Of course there’s more, but if each one took on just one project, one phone call, one extra word to greet a neighbor… it would make Eastwood even better than it already is. Life is too short to believe our neighbors don’t matter.

Urban myths about Walkable Eastwood

Lonnie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:31:10 +0000

Written by Maureen Harding, published with her permission:

There are several myths floating out there in Syracuse that somehow mistakenly are taken as “fact” concerning the Walkable Eastwood group of neighbors:

Myth: Redevelopment at the northeast corner of James and Midler (the former location of Steak & Sundae ) is being prevented by the Walkable Eastwood group.

Fact: The owner of the building at that location, Mike Muraco, has a vacant building because he had doubled the former restaurant’s rent. The restaurant owner decided to leave and build his own restaurant on Teall Ave. There were no other tenants even though there was vacant space. After that, Mr. Muraco submitted a request to the Planning Commission to have the building demolished (this falls under the City Zoning Code and NOT the James Street Overlay District). The Planning Commission denied the request because, under the City of Syracuse Zoning Code, you must have a site re-development plan in place before you can demolish. The owner did not have a plan. The owner retaliated against the Planning Commission with a law suit and he lost. The owner has yet to bring a site plan application under the James Street Overlay District standards to the Planning Commission. Therefore, the Walkable Eastwood group is absolutely not at fault since they had no control over what the owner does with his property, including failure to upkeep the property, failure to pay taxes on the property, or failure to lease the property (which would ONLY fall under the guidelines if there was any rehabilitation and new use in the old building).

Myth: The Walkable Eastwood group is responsible for the tattoo parlors, bars, salons, and pawn shops.

Fact: These land uses are permitted as-of-right under the City of Syracuse Zoning Code regardless of the Overlay District Design Standards. Therefore, the Walkable Eastwood group is absolutely powerless over what or who decides to open a business on James Street.

Myth: The Walkable Eastwood group is against development of any kind on James Street.

Fact: There has been one development application for site plan review on James Street that falls under the James Street Overlay District Design Standards (other than those by Mr. Pomphrey of Pomco) who generally complies with the spirit and the intent of the standards), and that is Walgreens (Five Points Development formerly HDL). The developer of Walgreens, Guy Hart, Jr., was on his own schedule and failed to submit a sign plan with his original site plan back in 2005 (the sign plan was NOT approved before). Therefore, the Walkable Eastwood group simply made sure that the design standards were complied with when he did submit his sign plan four years later. The hold-up was entirely self-created by the developer as he requested 11 waivers from the design standards. Had he complied (as Mr. Pomphrey does) he would have been through the process in a matter of weeks (as Mr. Pomphrey is).

Myth: The Walkable Eastwood group is responsible for that “hole in the ground that used to be the Bowling Alley” (the southwest corner of James and Midler).

Fact: The owner of that property, Tino Marcoccia, had worked with the original James Street Overlay District Review Board back in the early 2000 period (prior to the review board being dissolved by the City) on a site plan. The funding for Mr. Marcoccia’s project fell through and he did not return with a site plan. Therefore, he never went through the review process to have it denied or granted. The owner was approached with purchase offers, the owner refused to sell.

The Walkable Eastwood group is simply a grassroots volunteer organization of neighbors who value pedestrian-oriented development. This type of development is what is revitalizing Syracuse’s downtown as well as many other cities and towns in the country. It is 21st century-style development. Unfortunately for Mr. Hart, the Walgreens development was the antithesis of a mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented, traditional neighborhood Main Street design of which the Overlay District Standards require.

Some of the Eastwood residents are willing to settle for less…or are desperate (which is not a requirement under the Eastwood Overlay Design Standards). The Walkable Eastwood group is willing to hold out for something better because it knows that it’s possible to develop something uniquely Eastwood that looks and is cohesive, pleasing to explore, and diverse in its businesses. The group, comprised of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, includes professional urban planners, civil engineers, landscape architects, architects, and college professors who know by their training, education and expertise that the alternative, design centered on automobiles, is no longer acceptable. Auto-centric design is unhealthy, unsustainable and bad for property values. Thus they are protecting their own property values as well as those of their neighbors by using the tools and resources available to them. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sunday Evening Strolls

Lonnie — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:00:21 +0000

Here in Eastwood we like to walk… as if you couldn’t tell. Given that, and in order to more easily meet our neighbors, we’re proposing folks take a walk at a particular time each week: Sunday evenings between 6:30 and 7:30.

If you don’t want to walk, you can just sit out on your porch or front steps or in your front yard at that time so we can meet each other. Got some baked goods or fresh veggies from your garden to share? Bring ‘em on out!

If we focus on including a certain couple of blocks in our walks, we’re more likely to bump into some of our neighbors. So here’s the line-up for this summer.

Update: All walks indicating two street names include James Street between those two streets.

June 14: Teall to Peck/Cook
June 21: Hillsdale to Midler (Laci’s Burger Joint and Cafe)
June 28: top-o-the-hill in Sunnycrest Park
July 5: Homecroft to Plymouth
July 12: Plymouth to Eastwood Plaza (OIP)
July 19: Sheridan Park (Nichols near Burnet)
July 26: Peck/Cook to Grant
August 2: Forest Hill to S. Collingwood (Laci’s)
August 9: Midler to Homecroft (Golden Crown Chicken)
August 16: Grant to Forest Hill
August 23: top-o-the-hill at the old Eastwood High (Sunnycrest and Mosley)

If you’re looking for a more serious work-out, just try this walking route through Sunnycrest Park. The basic idea is to walk up and down every set of stairs you find, then walk on to the next one.

Easter egg hunt at Sunnycrest Park

Lonnie — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:34:05 +0000

Sean Kirst: “Neighbors step up for emergency”

Lonnie — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:05:43 +0000

Sean Kirst, a columnist and blogger at the Post-Standard, has written great columns about various aspects of Eastwood. This is one you won’t want to miss, as it exemplifies what urban living in a close-knit community looks and acts like: people who care for each other.

Neighbors step up . . . → Read More: Sean Kirst: “Neighbors step up for emergency”

Support the Mia Sgroi Education Fund

Lonnie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:49:59 +0000

In memory of Joe-joe and Julia Sgroi

The tragic fire suffered by our neighbors some weeks ago will affect its survivors for the rest of their lives. So that they might be assured of our care for them, we ask that you go out of your way to buy as many of these bracelets as you can in support of the Mia Sgroi Education Fund.

Bracelets are $2 (or more if you like) and can be purchased at the Palace Theatre or at Sacred Melody Bookstore in the Eastwood Plaza. Each bracelet has both children’s names on it:

Neighbors come together at scene of fire

Lonnie — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:41:41 +0000

Eastwood is a tight knit community and there’s no greater evidence of this than when folks need support. Early this evening we walked the few blocks in a cold, penetrating rain from our house to 272 Burns Ave. Well before we got to that block we saw cars lining the streets, a few families walking toward us, and a couple news trucks. As we passed a damp mother and her preschool-age children, we heard a a sob.

We arrived at the house, austere and abandoned behind police tape. But in the front yard under two tall trees were dozens of people, some holding candles, some hugging each other, many talking quietly. There were toys piled up under the trees; a teddy bear swung from a round wooden tree swing. Two little girls comforted each other. We didn’t know most of the people there, not personally. But standing there in the rain, we felt comforted just as we hoped others might feel comforted by the gathering we were a part of.

There is nothing to do, really, at a time like this. But to be there, that’s the moment when you’re not on the phone, not online, not watching TV, not living through some electronic medium. You’re just there, listening to your neighbors’ stories, feet connected to the earth, water from the sky mixing with tears.

Of course there actually is much to be done. Tomorrow night, Friday, May 23, there will be another vigil at 7:00 p.m. And M&T banks all throughout Onondaga County will take donations for the family. Just mention that it’s for Mia Sgroi.

As we stood there, about to leave, a gentleman with a face full of sadness looked at us as he was about to get into a car and said, “Thank you for coming, all of you, it means so much. Thank you for coming.”

M&T Banks in Syracuse area:
View Larger Map

Eastwood mourns the loss of three neighbors

Lonnie — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:49:57 +0000

A terrible fire has claimed the lives of three of our neighbors, Lisa Epolito and her children, Joseph and Julia Sgroi. Our hearts go out to their family, especially to Lisa’s daughter Mia Sgroi and Lisa’s boyfriend, Sean Chetney, who were hospitalized but released.

Thursday evening, May 22 at 7:00 p.m. there will be a candlelight vigil at the house. Friends, family and neighbors of this family are encouraged to attend and show their support for those who have suffered this unimaginable loss.

MAP to 272 Burns Ave.

Please… show your own loved ones you care. Check your smoke detectors.

News video and story at WSTM