Winter Wonderland here.

I uh sorry we're a little late.

I just came back from a Scene Ellis Lake watershed meeting and um didn't account for the winter weather.

So we're running a little little behind, but uh but but here we are.

So um just want to start out by acknowledging that this is uh this is gonna be my final community briefing as mayor.

Uh doesn't mean it's the last time you'll hear from me, but we've been doing these community briefings now since uh since the pandemic and have found them to be a useful way to get uh information out there to have an opportunity for the the media to uh to ask questions.

And so um this will be my last scheduled one, and appropriately I have our mayor elect Sharon Owens here, who you'll be hearing from in a little bit, but um uh I'll do so again at the end, but just want to thank the media for uh for being great partners with us uh over the years as we've conducted these briefings and um again look forward to answering questions after as we always do.

Um we've got a full agenda.

Big items that we're gonna touch on are public safety and housing, which is appropriate because those have been priorities of of mine and mayor elect owens for the past eight years.

So some good uh good information to share.

But you're looking at the agenda here.

Uh again, we started these with the pandemic, and what we would always start with uh was a health update.

And so we're gonna uh we've continued with that um since then, and we rely on uh Dr.

Katie Anderson at the Onodaga County Health Department, our health commissioner and her team for those updates.

So she's provided one uh for us, uh which we're you know calling the early winter health update.

We'll do Comstat like we always do.

Look at the look at the SPD data, uh brief update on uh automated enforcement in school zones, um, touch on parking amnesty, um housing, as I mentioned.

Um Deputy Mayor is going to share some updates on online permitting and code enforcement and a few other items that I that uh we don't need to go into in detail, but again, we'll answer questions at the end.

So let's start with the health update.

So um I'm sure everybody's noticing more people walking around with the sniffles or maybe a cough.

Uh tis the season.

So we checked with Dr.

Anderson and have the following updates.

So um flu, COVID-19, and RSV uh are all on the rise.

They're all increasing as they typically do this time of year.

Flu is rising the fastest uh of those three, both in terms of cases and hospitalizations.

A reminder there is still time to get vaccinated.

We know that vaccinations nationwide are down.

Um they are still the most effective way to um reduce the the risk uh and the impact of um of those viruses.

So encourage folks to get their flu and COVID uh 19 vaccines.

Um in addition to the usual seasonal issues, uh viruses, um, seasonally we also see an increase in depression and anxiety uh this time of year, as well as um people dealing with substance use problems.

Um the holidays tend to again exacerbate some of those issues.

So um health commissioner wanted to remind folks that the risk of overdose does increase this time of year.

Um there are things that people can do uh to help address that.

Um the county does offer free uh naloxone um as well as treatment referrals and crisis counseling.

So information can be found on the county's website, which is ongov.net.

So encourage people, you're you're struggling, going through some issues.

Please avail yourself of the many resources that we have out there.

Everybody struggles in different ways, uh, and it's important that you uh you take advantage of the resources and support that's out there.

Um finally, another challenge that becomes particularly acute this time of year is around food access um as well as um um uh heating costs.

So food and heating costs are we know are a significant burden on many of the family, many of our families here in the city.

And again, um the county is a great partner in providing support uh for individuals uh um uh facing those increases in costs.

So uh encourage people to reach out to the Department of Social Services at the county as well as um the Onodaga County uh community food connections.

Um so information on local food pantries, meal sites, and other programs across the county can also be found on their website uh at ongov.net.

So hopefully uh we'll get the screen back up here momentarily.

Um, but we're gonna we're gonna keep moving.

Okay.

Would you push the accept button for some reason they wanted to knock us out?

Okay.

Um so uh hopefully momentarily you will see our CompSTAT report.

So as a reminder, uh SPD provides the weekly Comstat reports on their website on the city's website.

So go to SYR.gov, go in the search bar, type in Comstat, and you'll get the weekly reports.

So uh wanted to highlight a few things from the uh from the the weekly report.

Overall crime is down 23.7 uh percent compared to the same time last year, uh which is uh really positive.

Um we've seen 1,200 fewer calls to police.

Um specifically, come on in.

Uh welcome, Scott.

So uh specifically violent offenses are down 19%, and property crime is down 24.6%.

So significant decreases in both uh violent crime and property crime year over year.

I want to certainly acknowledge the good work of the Syracuse Police Department.