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Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh will deliver his annual State of the City address Thursday evening at Corcoran High School, marking Walsh’s sixth time delivering the address as mayor.

The address will highlight the city’s “successes and challenges,” Walsh wrote in a press release. A live panel discussion, moderated by David Lombardo, host of The Capitol Pressroom, will follow the event.

Here’s what to look for on Thursday in Walsh’s update on Syracuse events and policies.

COVID-19

At the time of last year’s address, a surge of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 had pushed up case counts nationwide. On Jan. 23 2022, 400 people tested positive for the virus in Onondaga County — on the same day a year later, 60 people tested positive in the county, according to county data. As of Wednesday evening, 20% of adults in the county have received the bivalent booster vaccination against the virus, according to the organization COVID Act Now Coalition.

Over the past year, Walsh has worked with the Syracuse City Common Council to appropriate the funding to various areas in the community, including job development and investments in neighborhoods and infrastructure. Walsh has since dedicated $2 million of ARPA funds to local independent businesses recovering from the pandemic.

The city of Syracuse secured $123 million of pandemic relief funding from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Ecoonomy

According to the most recent available data for the end of 2022 published by the Federal Bureau for Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in Syracuse was 8.7%, over 5% higher than the national unemployment rate of 3.5%.

Despite the disproportionately high unemployment rate in Syracuse, recent plans for projects in the Syracuse area are slated to bring thousands of job openings to the area.

Following Micron’s October announcement of its selection of Clay, New York as the location for its newest microchip fabrication plant, Walsh said he expected that the city’s continued efforts for workforce development would help fill the projected 50,000 jobs the plant is set to bring. Construction for the plant, which will be built in the White Pines commerce park, is planned to begin in the summer of 2024.

Another major economic change since last year’s address is the Onondaga County legislature’s August approval of an $85 million plan to build an aquarium in the western region of Syracuse near Destiny USA mall. The plan, which ignores a 1794 treaty stating that the land slated to be used for the aquarium is property of the Onondaga Nation, has faced backlash. While supporters tout the added jobs, opponents say the funds should be invested into underfunded areas of the community.

Last year, Walsh dedicated a majority of his address to recognizing new projects for community development in Syracuse, such as the Syracuse Surge program and a new STEAM school. He also announced his plan to prioritize cracking down on “nuisance properties,” or properties that are unused or dilapidated and “create eye-sores.”

In October, the Syracuse Common Council approved Walsh’s application to the Restore New York Communities Initiative, which gives funding to rehabilitating and reconstructing residential and commercial properties that have been abandoned or blighted, according to its website.

I-81
In last year’s address, Walsh emphasized the impact of the Community Grid alternative for the I-81 viaduct removal project. However, recent legal action in the fall has threatened the future of the plan.

In November, a New York State Supreme Court justice Gerard Neri temporarily blocked all progress on the plan in favor of local group “Renew I-81 for All.”

At the time of the decision, Walsh wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange that he viewed the delay as “unnecessary,” as well as that his office would continue work with the New York State Department of Transportation to navigate the future of the project.

Published on January 26, 2023 at 12:17 am

Contact Stephanie: spwright@syr.edu