Upstate University Hospital Credit: Mike Greenlar | Central Current

Joe Driscoll stood in front of a crowd of stakeholders and community members wondering about Syracuse’s future this Thursday and pointed to plans for Syracuse’s Near Eastside. 

Driscoll, the I-81 project director, presented the city’s and Dover, Kohl & Partners’ Community Grid Vision plan.

He pointed to a street he says reconnecting could help make this area in the Eastside feel like a neighborhood again: East Washington Street. The street, which has long sat disconnected, could be reconnected by the city and Upstate, who own and reserve the right to pave their respective parts of the remaining section of road.       

The old East Washington Street used to run through the Near Eastside, a portion of the city’s old 15th ward, and was surrounded by a vibrant neighborhood. The neighborhood was gutted during urban renewal and after the raising of the Interstate 81 viaduct. 

The city and the firm’s plan included polished images of an idyllic walkable neighborhood. 

But unlike in the old 15th ward, East Washington Street is now surrounded by undeveloped land owned by Upstate University Hospital and Upstate’s Central New York Biotech Accelerator. The development the city outlined for the Eastside in their vision plan hinges on how Upstate intends to use the land it owns, making Upstate — another government entity — one of the chief institutions with the power to determine what the Near Eastside could become. 

Residents worry, however, about the plans for the land — whether they’re managed by the city or by Upstate. This concern stems from a historic distrust, dating back to when the Kennedy Square apartments were built on top of what used to be a predominantly Black neighborhood. 

Ken Jackson, a local reporter who runs Urban CNY, grew up in the 15th ward and Syracuse. 

“There’s always been a degree of tension. Now I believe that the real question now comes, who’s in control of the land and what benefit will it have to the community most impacted?” Jackson said. 

Looking toward downtown Syracuse from the unpaved portion of East Washington Street. Credit: Mike Greenlar | Central Current

Seeds of distrust

The distrust over how the land will be used is intertwined with the land’s history: Until the 1960s, the neighborhood was home to a predominantly Black community, vibrant and steeped in history.

It would then be gutted twice — first in favor of a potential post office and then after the Kennedy Square Apartments deteriorated. The apartments sat on land near the intersection of Forman Avenue and East Water Street.

In the late 1960s, the federal government bought and razed houses in favor of another project: a United States Postal Service location. About 50 families had to be moved for the project, according to a 1968 Syracuse Post-Standard news clipping archived at the Onondaga Historical Association. 

Renters and some business owners left the neighborhood.  

Charles Garland, who represents the 16th District in the Onondaga County Legislature, once lived in the Near Eastside. His family’s home and their funeral home business were both demolished, along with the homes of several of his relatives, he said. 

Garland describes the displacement as a seminal moment in his family’s history, splintering his relatives who moved to different parts of Syracuse and the country. 

Ultimately, the federal government never built the post office. The University Hill Corporation helped kill the post office project, according to an email from its executive director at the time that is preserved at OHA. 

John Frantz Jr., the executive director of the University Hill Corporation at the time of the post office plan, wrote an email in 2011 to the Preservation Association of Central New York about helping kill the post office project. 

“We were looking at the prospect of a light industrial plant rising out of the ground in what was then a residential neighborhood, with hundreds of trucks of all sizes coming and going daily,” Frantz said in the email. “Housing seemed like a great alternative; so with the help of the University, we managed to derail the Post Office plan.”

By 1970, the Post Office Department and the Syracuse Urban Renewal Agency came to an agreement to remove the land that was intended for the post office. SURA began acquiring the 14 acres of land. 

The post office plan’s death paved the way for the Kennedy Square apartments to be built.  

The apartment complex was under construction by 1972 and opened in 1975. 

Kennedy Square faced issues almost as soon as it was built. By 1977, then-Syracuse councilor Armond Magnarelli called for an investigation into the conditions at the apartment complex, according to a Post-Standard story from that time. Magnarelli alleged that flies and bugs entered apartments and doors lacked screens. Tenants had no door bells, he said. Eviction proceedings started if tenants were five days late on payments, Magnarelli alleged.

Over time, Kennedy Square deteriorated. In 2013, Upstate demolished Kennedy Square. 

The Kennedy Square apartments were located at what is now a parking lot. Credit: Mike Greenlar | Central Current

In the 2011 email Frantz, no longer the executive director of the University Hill Corporation, wrote, “I have to say anything, even a parking lot, is better than what was left after these housing developments reached the bottom of their decline.” 

Over the last 20 years, the land’s history has been muddied by a series of land transfers between Upstate, a nonprofit working as an arm of Upstate and the developer COR.

For people like Garland and Jackson, who grew up in the Eastside or the 15th ward, the saga left plenty of villains. 

“When you stand on that hill, all the places that we grew up, the streets that we grew up, we played on — that, they ceded over to SU and SUNY,” Garland said. 

An Unclear Vision for the Land 

While the community grid vision plan lays out an approximate future for the land, some city, county and state officials disagree on who should redevelop the property now owned by Upstate and what it should be used for.

Garland, the legislator, and Driscoll, the city’s I-81 project director, both say they hope the land becomes something beneficial for the community. Garland wants the land to generate revenue that could be reinvested into existing community services. Driscoll said the city hopes for the area to become a welcoming, walkable neighborhood.

Of the common council’s nine voting members, three said that they didn’t know enough about the land to comment. 

Four council members said that housing would be the best use of the land. One common councilor said that the land should be used to create a walkable neighborhood with shopping and entertainment, while another councilor said the land could be donated to the city.

Of the four council members that said housing would be their vision for the land, three said they had no comment on whether Upstate is the best steward for the land or who would be the best steward for the land. 

An image of East Washington Street from the Community Grid Vision Plan. Credit: City of Syracuse

Second district councilor Pat Hogan believes that the city should negotiate with Upstate for the land. Hogan would like to see tax breaks or other incentives created for private developers so housing could be built and the land could be put on tax rolls.

Syracuse’s delegation to the state legislature had mixed opinions about what should happen to the land. Assembly members Pamela Hunter and Al Stirpe believe mixed use and mixed-income housing could replace the vacant lot. While Hunter believes that if Upstate doesn’t have a plan they should allow the state to step in, Stirpe said he doesn’t know enough about the history of Upstate’s ownership to comment. 

State Senators Rachel May and John Mannion both said they didn’t have comments on Upstate’s ownership of the land but said they envision housing would best fit the land. 

New York State Assemblyman William Magnarelli was the only politician who believed Upstate to be the best steward for the land. Upstate could expand their facilities, he said. 

The land isn’t currently situated in the middle of a neighborhood and Magnarelli believes the city should treat unused land in the middle of neighborhoods with a higher priority, he said. 

Magnarelli initially bristled at being asked about the land’s future when contacted by Central Current, saying he doesn’t have power over its fate. However, it’s possible the money Upstate uses to develop the land would come from the state budget — something Magnarelli and the other members of the state legislature vote on every year. 

“I don’t think that’s in my bailiwick,” said Magnarelli. “It’s up to the owner of the land to figure out what they would like to do with their land.” 

What the future holds

Upstate’s plan for the land remains uncertain. 

In February, Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a press conference that Upstate’s failure to develop or make use of the vacant Harrison House on South Townsend Street was “pathetic.” Syracuse.com reported that Hochul told the newspaper’s editorial board she was pushing Upstate to make use of the land it owns on the former site of Kennedy Square. 

But when Central Current reached out to Hochul’s office for comment, her office referred a reporter to Holly Lapis, a spokeswoman from the State University of New York System, who declined to answer questions. 

“As Upstate Medical continues to finalize a master facilities plan to address future community needs, it is looking at all physical assets and carefully reviewing current capabilities,” Lapis wrote in a statement to Central Current. 

The statement is the same statement Upstate University Hospital sent Syracuse.com when it asked questions about its new plans to build an updated emergency room and how Upstate might handle the land in the Near Eastside. 

While Upstate waits to find a use for the land, some residents harbor concerns about the land’s future and the ability of the government to understand the needs of the community. All three levels of government — local, state and federal — have touched the land and twice gutted the area’s neighborhood. 

Jackson said he’s stopped envisioning what the land could become and likened redeveloping the land to unringing a bell or putting toothpaste back in a tube — two things that aren’t possible. 

“My entire peer group was washed up, was wiped out. All the kids I played with were suddenly gone,” Jackson said. “The school I walked to was suddenly gone. At second grade, everything changed.” 

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Anais Mejia is a freelance journalist covering economic justice in the region. She is focused on stories about housing in Syracuse, Interstate 81 and the redevelopment of public housing. Anais is currently...