The numbers are in and as usual the Syracuse City School District doesn’t have enough money.
It’s not just the schools, officials hailed new funds from Washington to demolish dilapidated homes that are in the worst condition. Sales of downtown Syracuse condominiums are skyrocketing as are rents of soon to be occupied upper income domiciles in Franklin Square. Aren’t we lucky?
Not really. There seems to be an emerging pattern. Unless there’s a federal or state dollar attached to them, conditions in Syracuse requiring remediation don’t receive attention until things are so bad that there’s a “program” for them.
Have you ever lived next to an “abandoned” house? Watch as paint peals away revealing decades of care. Watch as Dr. Doolittle’s critters take up residence and start raising their young.
Neighborhood blocks that once resembled a city’s urban smile now have rotted veneer; once vibrant city blocks slowly disintegrate while awaiting a handout from Congressman Walsh’s leftover Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative funds.
Our ancient Syracuse City Schools physical plant waits for some educational parlay that gives some of the poorest kids in the state a pat on the head instead of desperately needed funding.
Here’s the question We’d like to ask: Have we Syracuse city
residents through our elected representatives ever established a base-line for what is the appropriate amount of money the City of Syracuse should dedicate to its crumbling “quality of life” infrastructure of housing and public schools? Are we to wait for the bottom to fall out of our neighborhoods, schools and businesses in order to “qualify” for some base level attention?
Whether it’s a tree on the city’s north side or an abandoned house on a little-traveled block on the west end, we all wait for the city to perform the basic duty of maintaining and improving quality of life for its residents.
Unfortunately in some neighborhoods we have to see the bottom of a rock before action is taken.
Over the last 40 years, more than 60,000 people got up and left this city and there ain’t no state or federally funded program that’s gonna bring them back. Until we wake up and prioritize what our city offers to its residents, we’ll continue to beg for neighborhood crumb-funding while anyone with two quarters left to rub together will leave.
