Syracuse Housing Authority board elects new vice chair; Simmons resolute as Owens’ appointees take majority
Rickey Brown, a close ally of Mayor Sharon Owens, was voted in as the vice chair of the board of commissioners at Syracuse Housing Authority on Thursday.
CITY AND GOVERNMENT
Sean Kirst: Early on Memorial Day, old friends, a rain-soaked monument and a solemn downtown task
Kevin Kane, who designed the Onondaga County Korea-Vietnam Veterans Memorial, lost a brother in Vietnam — and infused every inch of that monument with meaning.
Mayor set to appoint key ally to Syracuse Housing Authority board
Mayor Sharon Owens is set to appoint Monica Williams to serve as a board commissioner. Williams replaces longtime board member Christopher Montgomery.
Another key member of Syracuse Housing Authority board steps down
SHA Vice Chair Christopher Montgomery leaving SHA’s board paves the way for Mayor Sharon Owens to appoint another board member — who could make good on her calls to oust Bill Simmons.
FEATURED STORIES
Albany reins in police collaboration with ICE but doesn’t ban informal cooperation
The legislation comes after months of haggling over how best to protect New Yorkers from President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Onondaga County Legislature Democrats propose term limit for county executive
Last year, the Onondaga County Legislature voted to approve its own term limits. This year, legislature Democrats are trying to impose similar restrictions on the county executive.
Sean Kirst: Eileen Gannon’s product was ice cream. Her brilliant legacy is a place of true community, in Syracuse.
Whatever brought you to Gannon’s for the first time, she understood how quality, warmth and humor were the means to bring you back.
More News
Residents of Clay will elect their new town supervisor this year. The result could have an outsized effect on Micron
Two Clay town board members are vying to become supervisor. Democrats are bullish they can flip the seat and eventually gain control of the town board.
Sean Kirst: A Land Cruiser for Ukraine is Brad Clarry’s Navarino tribute to Hawaiian-born brother
The extraordinary tale of a Syracuse family with one foot in Elmwood and the other always rooted on the ‘Big Island’ of Hawaii.
Syracuse lawmakers pass law banning biometric surveillance in public places
The ban follows the 2026 discovery that grocery giant Wegmans has been using biometric surveillance in its New York City stores.
‘You must live’: Syracuse musicians, poet laureate to tell slain Gazan scholar Refaat Alareer’s story at benefit concert
Alareer, renowned for his depiction of life in Gaza under Israeli occupation, died in an Israeli airstrike. “Music for Palestine” is meant to spread the message of Alareer’s writings, organizers said.
Syracuse lawmakers hear from expert about dangers of biometric surveillance ahead of vote that could the ban technology
Daniel Schwarz, senior policy analyst at the NYCLU, presented to Syracuse lawmakers about the dangers of biometric surveillance.
President Donald Trump has been pushing Congress to pass the SAVE Act. What would its passage mean?
As Democrats campaign to flip control of the U.S. Congress, Republicans hope to heed Trump’s calls to pass a controversial voter ID law before the upcoming midterm elections.
Syracuse Housing Authority sees record interest in their Section 8 homeownership program
Afi Olowu, who runs the program, called their recent increase in Section 8 homeownership applicants a win.
Sean Kirst: Shot clock monument, in new spot, resumes its great eternal message for Syracuse
A few true believers, scribbling on napkins in an Eastwood bowling alley, transformed basketball and taught a lesson about possibility.
A Syracuse University DPS officer decertified after misconduct was hired again and again
A joint investigation by multiple newsrooms found that the decertification process has failed to stop wayward officers from donning the badge again.
Inside New York’s struggle to ban bad police officers from law enforcement
Thousands of New York police and peace officers were flagged for decertification, but some of them keep finding ways to don the badge again.
Sean Kirst: Fall leaves. Winter longs. On bridges, downtown messages rust away.
Contemplating the uncertain future of railroad bridge murals created 16 years ago in Syracuse by famed artist Steve Powers.
Is Central New York becoming a blue bunker for Congressional Democrats?
National and local experts expect New York’s 22nd Congressional District to stay blue. Candidates say different.
Backed into a corner, Onondaga County Legislature Republicans offer a trade on affordable housing. No deal, Dems say
Legislature Democrats replaced half of OCIDA’s board. Republicans offered $5M toward affordable housing to stop them.
Onondaga County Legislature unanimously passes law requiring more disclosure for aquarium donations
The law would require county leadership to disclose names of donors who gift more than $10,000 to fund the aquarium to the legislature’s chair.
Local advocates hope to avoid environmental inequality from I-81 demolition with new air quality monitors
Wary of past harm, three monitors will be installed at Syracuse community centers to boost residents’ air quality awareness as the I-81 viaduct comes down.
Syracuse lawmakers table local law banning biometric surveillance in some public places
Three city councilors want to block businesses in Syracuse from collecting, storing, and sharing customers’ biometric information through proposed legislation that exempts financial institutions.
I-81 local hire initiative was a success, advocates say. What’s next?
Urban Jobs Task Force of Syracuse released a report reflecting on the I-81 Local Hire Initiative’s success.
Sean Kirst: To celebrate rebirth of Lincoln Aud, STEAM school teens embrace the ghosts
An open invitation to an upcoming student-led performance on a stage once walked by George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.
Onondaga County Legislature Democrats set plans to overhaul economic development agency
Democrats plan to put four new people on the board of the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency.
CNY Decides 2026
Central Current and WAER Syracuse Public Media are joining forces to demystify the political process, bringing you the stories and information you’ll remember in the voting booth in 2026.
A progressive upstart faces an entrenched incumbent in the Democratic primary for the New York State Assembly’s 129th District
Maurice “Mo” Brown has called Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli “an obstacle to progress,” while Magnarelli has said his experience benefits Central New Yorkers.
In the U.S. Western District of New York, your judge may matter more than your immigration case
For detained immigrants filing habeas corpus petitions, the luck of the judicial draw could mean the difference between freedom and remaining in detention.
Pulitzer-winning poet and Gazan refugee Mosab Abu Toha criticizes Le Moyne president for letter about his speech
An email issued by President Linda LeMura to the college’s community avoids mentioning Abu Toha by name but called attention to his use of the word ‘genocide’ in a speech at Le Moyne.
A Syracuse man’s family got him out of ICE detention. He still lives in fear of deportation.
When ICE detained Rafael, his family relied on TikTok, Instagram reels and themselves.
What is a habeas corpus petition?
Explaining one of the only ways detained migrants can be released from ICE detention.
110 years after Ireland’s Easter Rising, Syracusans still gather to ‘read the names’
Since 2019, the city of Syracuse has commemorated the 1916 Irish rebellion with a flag-raising ceremony and reading of the proclamation of the Irish Republic.
Southside church leaders were blindsided by utility poles placed in front of their church. Now National Grid plans to remove them.
City officials reviewed whether National Grid properly placed the utility poles after Central Current posed questions about them and a pastor at Hopps Memorial CME Church sent letters to key stakeholders.
Another Syracuse-area Starbucks will vote on whether to unionize
The workers at the Starbucks on Erie Boulevard East in DeWitt will vote May 6 on whether to unionize.
Friends of the Zoo comes to agreement with McMahon after alleging the county was ‘threatening the very existence’ of the nonprofit
Friends Vice Chair Megan Thomas on Tuesday accused county officials of carrying out a “campaign of retaliation” after the nonprofit declined to contribute $1 million toward the aquarium.
ICE seizes advocate for migrant farmworkers
The 54-year-old grandmother was arrested at routine check-in as a fearful family waited outside. She was in the country legally while contesting a deportation order.
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