I took the opportunity to speak with Onondaga County Executive J. Ryan McMahon about the proposed Aquarium at Syracuse’s Inner Harbor. The 84-million-dollar price tag for the project has been a conversation starter, to say the least. The proposal has been controversial from the start as advocates for the poor have stated their opposition to the Aquarium. Along with those that simply say, “we don’t need an aquarium”.
It’s been a tough sell for Onondaga County Executive J. Ryan McMahon, he’s had to fend off critics that have suggested replicating the Federal Governments Child Tax Credit and give money directly to families with children.
According to critics, there are human service needs that should come first. Onondaga County 7th District Legislator Mary Kuhn held a protest event where about 20 people gathered to listen to reasons for not supporting the proposal and their suggestions for distributing the surplus cash.
Some members of the Democratic Caucus have complained that they don’t have enough information and aren’t in favor of the aquarium. Onondaga County Legislator Charles Garland appears to have negotiated a deal the County Executive in exchange for his support. Garland’s argument is about the numbers. The republicans have their expansive majority, according to Garland, “they could flip, and our community is left with nothing”. (for mobile devices click here Urban CNY News Youtube Channel)
The Interview urbancny.com and Onondaga County Executive J. Ryan McMahon
In an effort to obtain more information about the aquarium proposal, I sat down with Onondaga County Executive J. Ryan McMahon. The interview is being edited into 3 segments. Part 1 is about the proposed Aquarium in Syracuse’s Inner Harbor. Other topics discussed include American Rescue Plan spending; how do we include inner city residents in suburban job creation? And McMahon’s response to the alternative spending “wish list” released by opponents of the plan.
urbancny.com: OK, we’re speaking with County Executive J. Ryan McMahon and in this interview, we’re going to talk about a variety of things. We’re going to start out with a topic that’s on many people’s mind(s), would be the aquarium project. So, could you explain the aquarium project so that people will know from you directly, what is this about?
Ryan McMahon: “One of the things we do is entertainment infrastructure. We run the zoo, we are in charge of the ballpark for the Syracuse Mets, we are in charge of the War Memorial for the Syracuse Crunch, we have the amphitheater which provides entertainment infrastructure on the lake. We are in charge of the Convention Center which brings thousands and thousands of visitors to downtown.
So, in 2019 when I got this job, the zoo came to me with an idea about an aquarium project, the friends of the zoo. And we looked at it and we loved it as an expansion on the zoo. At the time we didn’t have the money. Because if you have to borrow the type of money for that, you’re never going to really make enough money to pay the bonds.
So Fast forward, we enter into 2020 the global pandemic and we have to make very difficult decisions budgetary wise and really estimate very conservative revenue growth. And what happened was in 2020, we ended up producing a large surplus a $30 million surplus, and we prepared for the worst in 2021 and produced an even larger surplus.
For a unique moment in time, when we’re looking at how do we come out of the pandemic and what are some opportunities to come out stronger. Bring more visitors into county [government] because our largest revenue is sales tax. It’s not property tax, it’s sales tax.
We then looked at the aquarium project and we said we have the ability to pay cash. So, what we did next, is we hired the market expert in the field to tell us if it would work, is it feasible. Is this idea possible to have a successful aquarium here that will draw thousands of visitors, that will be here as a magnet for STEAM and STEM education for our young kids. But also, research and development opportunities for our higher Ed partners. And what the study said was “yes, all these things are possible.“
And then the second piece of it was well, where do we do it? And do we do it at the current zoo footprint? Do we do it somewhere else? And so, the market experts studied where to put the aquarium and they came to a location at the inner harbor. And the inner harbor is a really unique spot for a couple reasons. One, aquariums on water are more successful than those which are not. If you look at the New England aquarium, if you look at the Chattanooga aquarium, if you look at the Baltimore aquarium. Two, aquariums have been the stimulus for potential waterways that are underdeveloped in vacant property, and that’s kind of where we are with our own inner harbor.
And so, when you look at the project going to the inner harbor, there’s so many different synergies for what this project is. One, it gives us the opportunity to continue to tell the cleanup of Onondaga Lake story. It gives us the opportunity to talk about the history of Onondaga Lake with what has happened there before we were all here, with the Haudenosaunee. It gives us the opportunity to have that research component with our higher Ed partners and give our children here and out of the county the ability to have a world class experience. How many of our kids have actually been to an aquarium? So, then you look at those aspects, but then you look at, what are the other aspects? It’s a jobs project. When you look at the construction jobs with this. Hundreds of construction jobs for over a year. It’s a jobs project for permanent jobs in the community, at the aquarium, but for the businesses that this project will support.
It’s an opportunity to be a catalyst for redevelopment in that area which will create more jobs, create new neighborhoods and more tax revenue for both the city and the county. So, when you look at all these factors, it is something that is going to support the industry that was hit hardest by the pandemic, which is still struggling, our hospitality industry, our hotels or restaurants, our traveling partners. It will allow us to build off of the cleanup of Onondaga Lake, and the investments around Onondaga Lake, the investments at the State Fair, the investments at the amphitheater, the investments at the new ballpark. And it will give us an opportunity to help support across the street, Destiny USA which is starting to come back from what was a very difficult pandemic.
So overall, there’s so many good pieces here; redevelopment of a neighborhood, cleanup of Onondaga Lake. To tell that story of freshwater and saltwater aquarium, here. The ability for STEAM and STEM education for our young people. But also, that research component. The economics behind it, the new revenue that will be generated for governments and the new revenue that will be generated for businesses so they can hire back people and come back. There’s so many good things about this project, and it’s what we do in county government. That’s the thing too, there’s many things, ideas that come across our desk that we’re looking to do. But this is something that we do at the local level.
