Greetings.

Hello everyone.

I'm Sharon Owens, mayor of the city of Syracuse.

And welcome to the Bob Lonsbury Show on News Radio 570 WSYR Radio.

Bob is taking a few days off.

So thank you, Bob, for allowing me to host.

So you're with me from now until through the five o'clock hours.

So it is an amazing opportunity for me to be on the show.

I've been on here before with Mayor Walsh.

And now here as the mayor of the city of Syracuse, I thought it was a great opportunity for me to introduce some of the key players in my administration, department heads, my key senior staff.

And we're gonna start off the show with the fun department.

We are the fun.

The parks department, um, the amazing uh commissioner of parks, Aisha Bird.

And uh how you doing?

I'm doing great, mayor.

Getting ready for the summer.

We are spring and summer program schedules will be out April 1st.

Yes.

And and those spring and summer programs tell people how they can sign their their family members and their children up.

And those slots go quickly, don't they?

They they fill up really fast.

Um we ask that our families register on Recdesk.

Um and get your um registration in now.

Sign up now so that you have an account within Recdesk so that as soon as we release those dates, you can sign up.

And how do people find Recdes?

It's Rackdesk.syr dot gov.

Yep.

But they can go on the website and Google Recdesk and they get where they need to be.

They can.

We also um have an open door policy.

If folks are struggling to build the account on Rack Desk, come on down to 412 Spencer and we will help you set up your account.

And there are online payments available that people can sign up for, which was new a couple years ago to make uh registration easier, correct?

It that's correct.

You can register right online.

Awesome.

So um something exciting going on that uh residual of Mayor Walsh that we heard from our young people.

Um many of them are teenagers, and so we talked about how um how do you like our parks?

And they said, well, if we don't play basketball or sports, there was nothing really for us to do.

And so the suggestion was east gaming.

So like the mother and me immediately was like, I don't want you sitting in front of a monitor.

And then I shook myself and said, Well, you did ask them.

And they said e-gaming.

And e-gaming is a huge industry now.

It is, and they're not sitting as much as you think.

But when I have sat and observed watching the kids in our Wilson Park, um, we call it the eSports Lounge, watching them play.

They're up and running to each other.

Like, did you see that?

Did you see that move?

They're all over the place.

I would say it's an active space.

And they're also learning about the business of e-gaming as well, correct?

They are.

Um, we're partnering with partners like Elite that are coming in helping teach us, you know, how to run e-gaming, but they're we're learning from them, and so are the ch the youth.

Yeah.

And where are the two locations now?

Currently, we're at Wilson Park.

That one is up and running.

Southwest community center's um esports suite will open next week.

Amazing.

And in my state of the city, I committed to two more sites.

So we're looking at locations now to make sure we can distribute this amazing opportunity to our young people throughout the city.

So I want to thank you and the whole team, particularly the skilled trades team who do all the amazing work behind the scenes that make our spaces amazing.

Yeah, it took a lot of effort between API, IT, skilled trades, architecture, parks.

It's it's been a team effort to make sure that these spaces are up and running.

And it's not just uh gaming, it's podcasting too, right?

Tell me about that.

So we have um Wilson Park has a podcasting room.

So similar to what we're doing right here, our youth are gonna learn how to public speaking, how to interview.

They're gonna be calling you mayor for an interview.

Amazing.

I'm looking forward to that.

Southwest community center, we're we're switching it up a little bit.

We're putting a music studio.

Kids love music.

Yep.

Yep.

Long as it's positive.

Positive music.

That's right.

That's right.

Yes, yes, yes.

Do you foresee any gaming leagues happening?

So we just did ran our first Fortnite tournament, which was really successful.

Um, in April, we're gonna run a public tournament.

So we're gonna open Wilson Park to the public um and and have people register on Recdes to participate in the tournament.

So for the record, I know none of these games, but my son knows them all.

So he probably will be coming to some of your uh your leagues and your tournament.

Yes, I've invited him.

So another thing that was um for listeners who may not know, I lost my my dear mother.

She was 82 years old.

I lost her a couple weeks ago.

And for me, I've been thinking about growing up um with her and all the family things we used to do.

And one of the family things we used to do is um your mayor is not an ice skater.

I I do not love the cold.

So I am not an ice skater, but I remember roller skating and and roller skating the songs and having team roller skating.

And uh, so I said to our uh amazing commissioner, uh, any way we can convert Clinton Square into a roller skating ring.

And she said, I'm on it.

That's right.

Tell me about what's been impossible.

Nothing impossible.

Tell me about what you envision for that.

So my my vision is a week-long opportunity to provide roller skating in Clinton Square with maybe a DJ and some good music, uh, old school day where we play old school music that you would have skated to when you were younger.

Um skating, roller skating isn't just a community opportunity to bring intergenerational folks together.

It's also also cultural, right?

It was, you know, my mom and teaching me how to skate.

It was your mom teaching you how to skate.

And it's so important to bring generations together and not, you know, young people separated from the other people.

Because between roller skating and falling and getting back up, there are their conversations that can have hopefully barbecue and some some really um great um memories for people roller skating in in our town.

So I'm I'm looking forward to it.

I'm looking forward to that opportunity in our community, just uh try something different.

Just always try.

And there have been people that say we have so much um snow in our community, particularly this year.

You've been talking about some snow activities as well.

Yeah, there's so many opportunities to challenge families to get out there and build snow sculptures or snowmen, snap a picture of it, send it to us.

Mobile Rec is offering some of that stuff now.

We're we're ordering things to put on mobile rec so next next winter, winter is gonna be different.

We're gonna play in that snow instead of run from it.

Okay.

And and I'll be your first convert to play in the snow.

Um, also um just some up and coming part programming you anticipate for this summer for our folks.

Um again, our our summer camps will be opening April 1st.

We'll make that announcement.

Um, we have partnered with 4 H camp to run a program.

Um, we have the 16 to 19 year old basketball league at Magnarelli.

Um, we have three um aquatic fitness classes, outdoor pools this summer, two Zumba, one aquatic fitness.

Speaking of aquatics, public service announcement.

We are always looking for lifeguards.

Tell us how you uh you or a young person in your in your family could sign up.

Most of our folks come in through the door asking for their jobs.

You can go on the Syracuse website and apply.

We like to meet our people.

Come visit us at 412 Spencer Street at the Parks Building.

We need all the lifeguards, all their summer recs, rec staff we can get for our summer programs.

I called the parks department, the fund department, but they work extremely hard.

Every festival you see downtown or in other neighborhoods in the city, the parks department are running the show there.

And so um, commissioner, um, thank you for your work.

Thank you for the work of your team and everything that you all do.

Thank you, and thank you for leading us.

Oh, thank you so much.

Um, it it's amazing just to have so many amazing people around me who are working very hard every single day.

Um, the parks department is just one of them.

You're gonna hear from more of the individuals in my senior team uh what during my stay here today.

Um, again, thankful to Bob for allowing me this opportunity.

I used to come in here and watch Mayor Walsh and just be marveled at how he could keep it all together.

So I'm gonna try to keep it all together for you all today.

We got great team here in the studio helping me keep on pace.

But um thank you again, uh, commissioner, and um keep it fun in Syracuse for me, okay?

Yes, keep it fun and exciting.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

So you're gonna be hearing um um as we move into the next section.

You're gonna be hearing from our fire chief, you're gonna be here from our water commissioner, you're gonna be hearing from the folks who um implement economic development and housing, which is a huge issue.

Our new police chief will be on today, and the new president of the common council will be uh here with me today.

So I'm looking forward to all of these conversations as we continue uh forward during the show.

Um, so we can uh move forward and uh uh have a good time today.

Thanks.

Alan Bayer Volvo, the Bob Lonsberry show on News Radio 570, WSYR at 1069 FM.

Hello, Mayor Sharon Owens here, and I am joined now by our amazing uh Syracuse Fire Chief, Michael Mons.

Hi, Chief.

Hello, hi Mayor Owens, how you doing things.

I know you've been on the show before um with Mayor Walsh.

Um, Chief, you're entering in after me begging you your ninth year as chief of the city of Syracuse, and in the 149 history year history of the fire department, there's only been um four chiefs that have been on this long.

Uh yes, um, I think it's uh a great privilege for me to be able to be a fire chief in the city I grew up with, and we talk, it's all about the people, the people we serve.

Um, there's a lot of needs that our department provides services for, so making sure we can identify those needs.

And uh the other beautiful part about my job is the people that I work with on my staff and our all of our firefighters um to make sure we're able to give them the resources to provide the services to the constituents.

And so um that's what makes being here for nine years so special is the people that we interact with as civilians and our staff who do an amazing job of treating um our folks with care in our community.

And Chief, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna ring this cowbell.

You were New York State Chief of the Year in what year?

Uh 2023.

Yes, sir.

Um, you all um have answered last year nearly 26,000 emergency calls.

They're fire, but tell us the whole wide gamut of things that the fire department does.

Well, um, our frontline firefighters, they respond to fire calls, EMS calls when somebody's having a medical emergency, any hazardous materials calls um that could be anything from an issue with a propane tank, natural gas leaks, um substances that are unknown, um, any type of hazardous materials call.

We have a technical rescue team and our hazmat and our technical rescue team are the countywide response team, and they are highly trained, very professional.

What I love about our department is our um firefighters are empathetic and sympathetic to the needs of our you know of our constituents, and they use their training to be able to use their empathy and sympathy to like help them in their time of need.

And um I was talking with Sol earlier and at a fighter when one of our firefighters has a break, he's over talking to one of the children, taking pictures.

So they know it's a community-oriented service we provide, and um they do a good job of doing that.

So that's what the frontline firefighters do.

Um, we have staff firefighters who are fire marshals, and um we have about 37 firefighters on our staff with our civilian staff that support our front line by doing fire marshal inspections, making sure um when our firefighters go to calls and they realize that there's um houses or buildings that are not code compliant.

Um, we have our staff that follow up the next day during business hours.

So we definitely have a lot of um work that we do amongst um our department, and um we work collaboratively with the other departments with code enforcement to make sure that um we're doing our best to make sure people have a safe um co-compliant building that they're living and working in.

Yeah, it's been my um honor not only as mayor now to have you continue as the chief, but we worked close together in the previous eight years uh when I was deputy mayor, and that work really put um us in the position of taking a look across the city about our response times and particularly whether or not um we had enough fire stations in strategic locations, and so now um based on that work, um there is an average uh response time of two minutes and 42 seconds, and um you have um fire departments within how what what parameter uh all over the city within three miles of each other and um the response times are important and because um you know we were able to open up engine 12 and uh we were able to complement that with ladder one went in service.

We were able to provide uh quicker service, um, especially on fire calls because a fire doubles in size every 30 seconds, and we were able to trim our response times from the previous year by nine percent, which um decreased another 30 seconds off of those times.

So, you know, when the fire is doubling its size every 30 seconds, the faster you can get there to mitigate whatever situation is going on, um, the better for whoever may be trapped in the building, and it makes our job easier when we can get there and identify um the risks and life threats and be able to do the work.

So um the response times are really huge.

Well, thank you, Chief Mons, for being here, and one last thing is that you guys are moving into a new building at 1153 East Fayette Street.

It's gonna be stay of the art.

It's what you and police deserve, a stay-of-the-art um building coming out of the older PSB building.

So I'm very happy for you all in the coming months moving in there, but I appreciate you stopping by today.

Well, thank you for having me.

Thank you.

Woo!

Hello, you're back with Mayor Sharon Owens from the City of Syracuse.

So you're gonna have to have a the opportunity to hear from some of our great team from the city of Syracuse, but you're also going to hear some conversation today from some of our partners here in the city of Syracuse.

And one of those partners are uh on the line with me, Johanna Rogers is a Center State CEO, senior vice president of racial equity and social impact.

And she also served as a co-chair during my transition of my generation next tax force in uh I call it Gen Next.

And and the premise for that task force was to be able to focus and understanding the desires of our residents in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.

Um I'm a long way from that uh age now.

And so I wanted to hear directly from that population and and hear from them what's so important, what's important for the city of Syracuse now.

Hey Johanna, how are you doing today?

I'm good, Mayor Owens.

How are you?

I'm good.

So when we I asked you to come on board to kind of lead the charge to gather the thoughts and wishes and hopes of our 20, 30, and 40 somethings in Syracuse.

Um, what did you see as the top priorities when you spoke with them?

Um having spaces where they felt um safe and empowered to gather.

And we thought that was a really um incredible theme across that age group.

Uh and when when they talked about a place to gather, um they weren't just speaking in regards to you know, dance floors and and um parties, but they were interested in having gathering spaces where they could network with one another, where they could learn more about what type of leadership opportunities or uh business opportunities there might be.

And they spoke about understanding that sometimes it's in non work or school related spaces that those conversations could happen.

And so the uh myself, my co-chairs and the committees decided to host it host some gatherings for this particular group.

And they said this is exactly what we want to see more of.

And so uh what we thought was just gonna be a great data gathering point for us really turned out to be kind of a model of what that age, um, those age demographics want to see more of here in the city.

Yes, and and out of that great work, uh you guys had a couple hundred people engaged in uh series of meetings over the course of probably the uh Christmas holiday for the most part.

Um, really what came out of that, one of the things, just one of the things to start us off is this uh nightlife coordinator position that uh we are creating at the city of Syracuse.

So before we talk about what it is, I want to make sure I tell people what it is not.

It is not a party planner.

You just spoke about why um when we talked to 2030s and 40 somethings, it was about safe spaces.

It was about eclectic opportunities when the lights go off when I'm actually getting ready to go to bed in the 20, 30s and 40s.

It did still want something interesting and fun to do.

And I heard more and more from young people that um whether they drink or not, they also want spaces where alcohol isn't the focus of the space, correct?

Yeah, yeah.

And it's interesting, there was recently a lot of talk going on about this idea of the ocean of admin night.

Where can people get together and you know, do the things that you know I used to see my mom do at the dining room table, right?

Just take care of you know, personal life tasks or understand how to navigate application for certain things.

It was conversation about understanding how governance works.

And who they should be calling, and who are the people they could ask those questions, like where are the spaces that you can go to, whether you're from here or born here, um, to have some of some of those conversations that make life happen or help you better manage your life um in different ways and in relation to like goals that you have set, right?

And so if they want to talk about, hey, what type of economic opportunities, entrepreneurial opportunities, right?

You need kind of quieter spaces.

Right.

Um spaces that are open, um, you know, past four o'clock to sort of kind of do those things and to come together.

And and that is what they felt um was really missing, needed and necessary, and having people there that could help make those connections, right?

Not just the space, but intentionally programming the space or having specific type of activities that would appeal to this audience that would keep them informed um as they're trying to be growing responsible citizens here in the city.

I mean, I love the the the way you described it about kitchen table time to do the administrative functioning of life.

That means balancing your checkbook and paying your bills.

And uh my daughter, I remember when she graduated, she came into the house with a packet from her first job.

It was all her health and um retirement information.

And we literally went to my kitchen table where I could help her fill out this paperwork because it was the first job she had ever had that actually had benefits, you know, health and pension benefits.

So that that's a absolutely great point.

Um just winding down here with you in this segment, but in five years, what do you hope to see?

Oh my goodness, in five years, I hope to see uh some of the young people that are coming out of the university here and have already chosen to make Syracuse home.

They're live in the world.

Like I did.

Right.

Like more of them happening.

Um hearing more success stories around um MWBEs having businesses located that are that that have sustained themselves, almost like you see in Salt City Market or some of the other projects that we've worked on for those happening across different corridors here in the city.

And I think the last thing that we want to see is more civic engagement from the population showing up and and participating on boards and finding opportunities to not just work and live, but also to grow here.

Well, thank you, Johanna, for the work, not only at Center State, but also in the uh Gen Nex uh Task Force.

Your work is not done because we have more work to do.

But thank you so much for uh spending time with us.

No, thank you for having me.

FM.

Hi, uh Mayor Sharon Owens here, and we are joined today uh in the studio right now by Pastor Latif Johnson Kinsey.

He's the director of the mayor's office to reduce gun violence.

Welcome, Latief.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh listen, um you apply for this job and and we we got a short segment, so I'm trying to get to the meat of it.

But I just need people to understand the background for you is that you as a pastor had the unfortunate job of conducting and officiating way too many funerals for victims of gun violence.

Yeah.

So when this job became available, um, it was a no-brainer to me that you under have seen the residual effect of gun violence in our community.

And so you're on the side now working with community members and our police department to reduce our violent um our violent crime, which has been reduced significantly under that partnership.

And the retired great Joe Cecil said it is an amazing partnership.

But I want to give you an opportunity to talk about the newest um element of uh your office, the mobile outreach unit.

Tell me what's that about and what inspired the idea.

Yeah, so back um back earlier last year, last summer, we talked a lot about that when you were deputy mayor at the time about um securing the mobile unit so we can go out.

I think one of the crises that we've seen was when the young man uh uh was murdered at the pool, homicide of the pool, um, and we were doing outreach out there.

Um and we were able to get the the mobile unit for the for the first time.

And I think it was uh impactful, uh not just for um the people in the community, but also the outreach organizations to get out, um taking our community violence intervention uh ecosystem outside of this, you know, what we do inside, but taking it out um to the community, which is impactful.

And and and tell me why that's why that's important.

So number one, um having the therapist provided on that on that mobile unit or when crisis occur.

Also um during times of where we just want to do outreach when we want to meet with people where they are before there's an incident, before there's a crisis, so that that they know there's some programming there or there's outreach organization there, and really again that to really make a stronger ecosystem, let them know that we have organization out here that are really doing the work um hands on.

Um, to the listeners to understand that um during the times we may wake up and hear about a tragic violent situation, we probably didn't hear about ten others because of the work that the people on the ground while at least I'm sleeping.

I know you're not sleeping, but when I'm sleeping, um they're out on the ground doing the work on the ground, and that's what this outreach is all about.

Yeah.

And so that they they they are people see them and get to know people and folks that they've never seen or heard of before now.

Um we go out to different and just talking about events, uh, we latch on to different events.

We just did a event at the YMCA uh where we partner with them and we went and got the outreach workers to get involved with young people again before there's a crisis.

Right.

It's all about prevention.

Yes.

It's all about getting out there with people known to the community, known by the community to engage.

And then also with you uh working uh for people who don't understand it is a very um intricate relationship with the police department.

Right.

And they call on you and many times um to be able to intercede and intervene to prevent uh retaliation and violence working.

Number one number one word prevention.

We can prevent it.

That's powerful.

Absolutely.

Well, I thank you for um this time.

Um I hope to get more information as we go into we're preparing for the summer.

Yes, ma'am.

When when it gets hot and heated.

And so we want to prevent these shootings.

Yeah, we'll be ready.

All right.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you so much, Latif.

Yep.

Welcome to our second hour.

Once again, um, Syracuse Mayor, Sharon Owens filling in for the day for Bob Lonsbury on News Radio 57D WSYR.

Thanks uh again, Bob, for allowing me the opportunity to spend some time with their listeners.

And we continue on this um this afternoon introducing you to some of my amazing team members.

Um I cannot do this work of running this city alone.

And so um uh here with me is my chief development officer, Eric Ennis.

Uh, prior to this role, Eric was the deputy commissioner of business development for the city of Syracuse, and I saw his excellence in that area about economic development in this community, and absolutely knew he needed to come on to the senior team.

So, welcome uh to the studio, Eric.

Good afternoon, Mayor.

It's great to be with you.

So, Eric, you you have two primary roles.

One is um um intergovernment relationship relations, which has um taken up way too much of your time this first month in office that we need to shift you to really why I brought you on my senior team is the economic development future, um uh charging that map forward.

Um tell tell us and tell the listeners what makes you most excited about the economic opportunity here in Syracuse.

Yeah, well, it's a pleasure to be here today.

Pleasure to be, you know, part part of the team here as we uh really hit the ground running in the first six weeks.

You know, I think what what makes me so excited about you know Syracuse in this moment that we find ourselves is that we are finding our community is is popping up on a lot of people's radar across the country, across the world.

Uh, I think you and I had the opportunity to both be privileged enough to be at the Micround groundbreaking that took place last month.

And you know, I think there was a fair dose of skepticism from this community and beyond our community about is this is this really happening?

Is this really gonna happen?

Well, I think we're we're both here to say uh you know it is happening, it's happening right now, and and we're in work has started.

You know, I think when you think about the communities that have have been selected or through a process for these communities that are building semiconductor fabs, it's Phoenix, Arizona, it's Austin, Texas, it's Columbus, Ohio, and it's Syracuse, New York.

And what I always would say is it almost feels like an SAT question, like which of these communities does not belong in that list.

And and yet we have the largest semiconductor investment being done by Micron yet.

We're the smallest community on that list.

So I think that a lot of intentionality is being done right now about preparing ourselves for the infrastructure for the housing, for the workforce opportunity, real meaningful things that will create meaningful impact for people who live in Syracuse and Central New York.

And so I think that I look at that, and I think that the way in which it's making waves throughout the United States, people are looking to invest in Syracuse that never may have imagined it.

Philanthropic organizations are interested in Syracuse in a time that years ago that that was never going to be possible.

So how we capitalize on, and I think as you use you always like to say, maximizing the moment, though those are things right now that we're doing in real time.

I mean, the special thing about Syracuse in this moment is that we're the purpose-sized city.

We're not too small, we're not a big metropolis like New York City.

So it really is an opportunity for whether it's business or philanthropy or or or any other entity to that's looking to do something in a in a city that they can see a return on investment in real time.

Syracuse is is the place.

Um also, Eric, can you speak to so people are like uh micron, micron, micron?

But it's just not micron.

It is all the residual industry that's coming to our community, not just in the semiconductor um industry, but also um people who are going to come to our community or from our community that will work at Micron and other residual um companies also need places to eat.

That's right, places to shop.

Absolutely.

Yeah, you know, I I think that it's just the amount of opportunity right now that that we have.

You know, it's we're thinking about how do we create thriving business corridors and how do we really leverage, you know, it it's it's not just the site within Clay, you know, City of Syracuse is 12 miles south of the actual site, but where we have a tremendous amount of opportunity is whether it's class A office space or thinking about supplier companies or just simply thinking about other firms when we look at population growth, we look at people that'll be migrating into this community, and and there's real opportunity there from a business perspective.

But at the same time, empowering our entrepreneurs, we work closely with with community partners like Center State CEO, like some of our workforce training partners, so that people who are living here right now can can capitalize and position themselves to benefit from all this investment that's taking place on a regional basis.

Absolutely.

You also um your history with us has been with um SIDA and SETCO.

Can you tell listeners what is that?

Oh, absolutely, yes.

And it may sound a little bit of uh like alphabet soup with these acronyms.

But you know, so I've I've uh still oversee the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency or CIDA, which is spelled S I D A.

You know, that is providing it.

We have a limited number of tools in our toolbox, as I like to say, that we can help support economic development, particularly large-scale real estate development projects.

And so CIDA has the ability to extend tax abatements and financial resources to really help projects get over the finish line.

You know, we've never been in a moment like we are right now where the cost of building, the cost of projects has been as high as it has due to some of these inflationary and borrowing costs.

And CIDA is one of those tools that helps address um getting over the hurdle to get projects under construction and and breaking ground.

We have hundreds of housing units right now in mixed-use projects that are actively building in the city of Syracuse, despite some of the issues from an economic landscape that is because of some of the tools like CIDA that we have.

Um so that that is an immense tool that we use really strategically.

The other one is SEDCO, which is spelled SEDCO for those listening, and that is that serves as the city's revolving loan fund.

You know, we think a lot about entrepreneurs and small businesses and access to capital.

And so what to the city's perspective, where we can strategically uh provide small business loans, lending, and almost act as a city's municipal small bank that can help support small businesses and entrepreneurs.

So SEDCO is uh our revolving loan fund is something where we support a lot of different projects, particularly small businesses that are having trouble getting traditional bank financing.

If you're a project or a business or a loan or a small business loan that can go through the traditional lending process, that's great.

We we don't necessarily need to be involved, but where we use SETCO is to say if you're struggling getting traditional bank financing, what are some ways that we can help you?

And SEDCO is one of those tools.

Any city must have a thriving downtown, and ours is um people who come back uh to Syracuse, friends of mine will come in into town and they're uh in a hotel downtown, they get up around, you know, I'm gonna go out for a walk at nine o'clock, and they call me and say, Sharon, what all these people are downtown.

Oh, yeah.

Just, you know, downtown is really thriving.

But you and I have always had the conversation, and I've always said that downtown is the beating heart, but our commercial corridors are the life's blood in and out of downtown.

You want to talk about that a little bit?

I can.

Yeah, you know, I I just think that vibrancy is is really something that I think we are focusing on in hammering home.

And I think it is looking at underutilized spaces under underutilized storefronts, and how do we empower entrepreneurs to be able to take advantage of some of these spaces that are underused and creating more more vibrant corridors?

I I know you know from one of your previous guests talked about the nightlife coordinator.

That's just one example.

You know, it's in our entertainment districts and creating more vibrancy within our communities within our neighborhood business corridors.

The physical place is also really important.

It's the quality of sidewalks and streetscape and well-lit areas that you know can address perception of safety.

So when we look at these areas, particularly that are commercial or entertainment or mixed use areas, we need to make sure that the physical place is really uh welcoming and vibrant, and that can help welcome in new business opportunities as well.

So um the this economic boom and this opportunity in Syracuse is fine, but it means nothing if it doesn't hit the persons and wallets of the people who live in Syracuse.

And so uh that includes not only jobs from the private industry, not for profit industry, but the city of Syracuse, and we have a job fair coming up, right?

We absolutely do.

You know, I I think for for anyone listening to this, the city of Syracuse is an employer, an important employer in our community.

Um, we are excited that we have vacancies, particularly that we are interested in the city.

And a great benefit package.

That's right.

And there's so many benefits.

I've I've been a city employee for 11 years now, and truly it has been, you know, the benefits that come along with it are really impressive, including the the state pension plan.

But you know, things to think about.

We are hosting a community citywide job fair.

It's gonna be taking place on February 26th from 10 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

at CNY Works.

And the address for that is 960 James Street.

We have a number of different positions that we currently have posted.

You can find that information as well on the city's website at SYR.gov forward slash jobs.

And so that has those listings.

But the thing I would just say is that if you're listening to this, and maybe it's not you directly looking for employment, but you have a family member or you know of someone that may be looking, or you have somebody that you've been recruiting to try to come back to Syracuse in Central New York, there's never been a better time to do that.

I have personal friends of mine who have young families who are moving back to Syracuse.

We have employment opportunities and you know, particularly really focusing on um the opportunity of of in a lot of cases city residency and living in the city, and there's there's a lot of ways that we can achieve that and welcome you into this community.

But really, there's so many job opportunities available that are currently posted, and we also have positions we're going to be posting soon.

So a number of different things to keep an eye out and look for with that website.

Um and the last thing is, you know, if you know someone that's a CDL driver has a commercial driver's license, Mayor, you talk about this all the time you talked about in State of the City.

We are actively looking for people with CDL drivers positions right now available.

So please come out to this job fair.

And if there's someone you know that's a CDL licensed driver, we we wanted to talk to you yesterday.

So please, you know, come out and come join the city team.

Economic growth, economic opportunity in the city of Syracuse.

Thank you, Eric.

Thank you, Mayor.

Hello, you're back here with Mayor Sharon Owens.

Um again, thanks to Bob for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today.

Um I wanted to take a moment and just the nation is recognizing the death of Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Um I was thinking about this um all morning, and I was probably three years old when Dr.

King um was assassinated.

And so my generation of growing up and understanding what was going on in our country, I really heard the voice of Dr.

King through the voice of Reverend Jackson and through his actions in our community.

Um, remember growing up and being told I am somebody and watching him run um for um watching him run for president and and just the thought that hmm, you know, he ran for president.

And I'm wondering if some in some way that resonated with me and a little spark was in me deep down somewhere that told me that, hey, you know, you can run for mayor as well.

Well, we just think about legacy people in our community um and in this country that have really made a mark.

And um, Reverend Jackson is absolutely one of those people in our community um who really paved the path for me and to understand what commitment to community is all about.

And there are so many um people in Syracuse in our community whose name you'll never see in the news, who's um never will get an award, but they are the the people on the ground every day helping individuals, particularly during these uh this winter we've been passing through just watching and witnessing individuals helping each other shovel and and helping each other maneuver through the snow.

Um, and the other thing is that we had um the uh fire chief on, and I just send my condolences out to the family of the gentleman um who who passed away in the fire, just I got the notices on my phone early, early this morning, and just a tragedy and just reminder of just um just fire prevention and making sure that your smoke you have smoke detectors and making sure that there's working fire systems in whether it's your apartment building or your home to ensure, particularly the carbon monoxide, which is the silent killer in our fire department, just make sure um fire safety is huge component to uh what they do.

And they spent a lot of time passing out free um carbon monoxide detectors and fire smoke detectors, so um, you can get get those as well by letting us know you're interested in getting one.

Um, if you just reach out to us at City Hall and we can connect you with the fire department.

But just uh thinking about uh that gentleman who lost his life in the fire and the legacy of Reverend Jesse Jackson uh is just um in a wonder, wonderful legacy for our community.

Thanks a lot.

Hey, uh Mayor Sharon Owens here, and as we wrap up this hour, I want to welcome Stephanie Pasquale, my uh administration's new chief strategy officer.

And uh Stephanie, welcome back to City Hall.

Oh, so glad to be here.

Thank you.

Oh my goodness.

Stephanie used to be the commissioner of neighborhood and business development under the first term of the Welsh administration, and then she left for a while, and then I wooed her back.

And uh I am so thrilled that she's here now.

Stephanie, you oversee neighborhood and business development, constituent services, our research bureau, which is our grants development, and the mayor's office to reduce gun violence.

Um, but there's two things in seven minutes that I want to talk about.

Okay.

One is I I felt the need for my background to really create this care team, constituent assistance resource employee team.

And the and the preference behind that is that we have City Line, which is amazing.

Everybody download the app because that helps us with all of our infrastructure assistance.

But people who have human service needs call the City Hall, whether we provide the service or not.

And so talk to me a little bit about the care team.

No, I'm so thrilled to have the opportunity to create that with you and to and to bring that to the residents of Syracuse.

Many of our constituents and residents see the mayor's office as the place to start with an issue or concern.

And just in these first six weeks of work, I've had the sort of privilege to see through emails and phone calls just the diversity and the complexity of calls that come through.

And for many families that are experiencing some form of an urgent or emergent issue that's complicated and they just don't really know where to turn, they turn to City Hall.

And I think it's great to use the brains and all the connections and the information that some of our staff have that we can help connect families, not just to pass on you know a phone number, but really to say, hey, let me dig a little deeper on what that issue is and let's really find out how we can help you craft a solution that works for you and your family.

Absolutely.

It's almost like uh in an emergency going to the emergency room, you're triaged, and then there's a medical plan, there's an action plan that will be formulated.

So I'm I'm I'm thrilled that this is going to happen, and I gave it to the best person possible to make sure it's the best it can be.

Um so for the rest of the time, we're gonna talk about housing, housing, housing.

Stephanie is probably one of the best housing minds, not just in Syracuse or Onadaga County or New York State, but this country.

She is just has her fingers in all things housing.

And so we hear this all the time.

We're we're in a housing crisis.

Peel that back a little bit, Stephanie.

Yeah, so in in Syracuse, much like the rest of the country, in recent years, we've we've experienced such a seismic increase in both rent and home values.

And in some respects, it was part of it was overdue, right?

Our community perhaps had undervalued real estate.

Um, but income did not keep up with that increase.

So what have we seen?

I think in 2024, I think we had one of the highest, if not the highest rent increase in the country of 26%.

And when we see those kind of increases where the income's not keeping up, it does create the perfect storm for families who once were perhaps, you know, we have stories through through City Line and through the mayor's the mayor's calls that share with families every day.

I've been living in the same apartment for 10 years, I've been paying my rent on time every time, and all of a sudden I'm told I gotta go because they want to clean it up and uh you know, increase the rent, sometimes double.

And we've that's not a one-time case.

We're hearing that every single week that families are experiencing those kinds of increases.

So that affordability gap is something we definitely have to grapple with, and I think we're in the best state, perhaps in the country to do that.

There's so many tools at our disposal, and we have an incredibly friendly um governor to this issue, and who who continues to um highlight Syracuse and support us in all kinds of ways so that we can advance both high-quality rental that is safe and healthy for families and affordable homeownership, and that's what we're poised to do.

She uh last week or two weeks ago, I met with uh superintendent uh of the Syracuse City School District and some of her team, and that was in that meeting that they shared the data point that 10% of the school children in the district are defined by HUD, the federal government, as homeless.

Can you talk about a little bit of what that means?

They may not be living under a bridge, but what does that mean?

No, it's an alarming statistic that so many of our kiddos and our youth are facing in their families, this housing instability, and you're absolutely right.

They may have a couch to lay on, but if they don't have a permanent address to call home, they don't have places and spaces they can tell their doctors and all their different appointments and the school where where their permanent address is, and it places an incredible burden on the schools, but let's think about what it does to families and having that instability and that um sort of traumatic episode of I'm not knowing what the next day is gonna hold.

So I I know um under your leadership, we've talked a lot about how do we encourage and incentivize people to build housing that fits these families that is a little bit larger in unit size and that's affordable and that families can access and prioritize those households and families to accessing those opportunities.

Many of our development projects and shout out to our development community, particularly those that create um affordable housing in our community, are building one and two-bedroom units, and we really um are working with Stephanie and our partners to find ways through the state or local incentive uh uh opportunities to be able to build three bedrooms and four bedrooms so we can get families with children out of hotels.

She has to drive to Cortland County to pick up the child for a Syracuse City school district.

So I was, you know, my mind started going, and I was like, my goodness, they probably have to get on a bus at six o'clock in the morning to get here on time for school.

I mean, how can students be ready to learn when that is their existence?

No, exactly.

And you think about there's that transportation issue, there's um again there are medical appointments, but they're stuff and they're um their possessions and the things that make us all feel like where we put our head at night is home.

So while we know we have a housing crisis, that there is some good news.

We have about a thousand housing units under construction.

Let's talk about some of the projects going on.

No, there's some really exciting projects going on throughout the city, um, including opportunities for families who maybe who could never afford to live downtown can afford downtown.

Um so there's a really great project of 152 units at the Chimes Building at the Allen Foundation and Seed Syracuse are developing that'll have you know very deeply affordable, moderate and market read housing options for families, and there's ones, twos, and three bedroom units in that building.

So we're really excited about that project coming online later this year or this summer.

Um obviously in the East Adams neighborhood where there once was about 25 housing units in one area, there'll be 125, and another area just south of there that'll have another about 125 or 123.

So having that 250, 256 new units of housing where there once was only um 25 or 50 is a real ad, and those will have a family focus.

Right.

We're also learning um modeling how to build differently with modular homes, you know.

So um I think the number is like 450,000 to really buy build a three-bedroom, one and a half or two bedroom, two-bath house, and then we have to put hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money into those um units in order to make it affordable at still about one fifty, one forty, one fifty thousand dollars to purchase.

But um let's talk about um what the land bank is doing with crossmod development.

No, it's really exciting, just like you mentioned that we need to both we need to have a lot of options for families.

We have all different families and all different needs in this community, and we need the ability to quickly be able to deliver on homeownership options, right?

That have their you know energy efficient, they're affordable, um, and they can go up quickly.

So the land banks pilot um that we hope um they're able to construct 52 new homes that would um the one pilot that existed that they put together last summer went up in about a couple of weeks, and I think from end to end it was about 90 days uh to create that opportunity.

Like you said, it's much more affordable and less of a subsidy needed to get people into those homes.

And if we can put 52 families in in one year, that's pretty exciting.

Housing, a small word, but a huge issue.

Thank you, Stephanie, for being on board with us.

Oh, so glad to be here.

Thank you.

I'll admire Volvo, the Bob Wandsberry show on News Radio 570 WSYR at 1069 FM.

Hi, back with Sharon Owens, Mayor of Syracuse.

Uh you've been hearing from my um amazing team, a few more people to come.

But at this moment, uh the lines are open.

You can ask me, call in and ask me a question.

315 4219797, 315-421-9797.

That last segment with Stephanie really speaks to um my background in community service and particularly around housing.

Um before coming to government, I work for a home headquarters where I taught first-time homebuyer classes and um really a proponent of people buying their first homes.

It is the first step towards generational wealth and creating a legacy of financial stability for you and your family and for uh the children, our children and their children to come.

And so the housing um development that's going to be happening in this community is huge.

And it it it we really are focused on mixed use development, meaning um buildings that have both uh commercial or retail spaces in it plus living spaces.

Um every building that we're building, whether it's market or not, um, our zoning laws require affordability.

And when we talk about affordability, let's say um you're uh a single person uh in the city looking for an apartment and you want to live downtown or buy a new house, and and affordability really means that you're earning about 50 or 55,000.

So it is a uh uh living wage type of salary that still makes it affordable for you.

And affordability really speaks to not being what the industry costs housing burden.

So what does that mean?

All of your income comes in, you know, you bring your your disposable income home.

Hopefully you sock a little bit away in a savings account, but that disposable income, if you spend more than 30% of that income on your housing costs in totality, you are housing burden.

And that doesn't matter if you um it doesn't matter if you're earning 20,000 or 200,000.

We have we have a caller.

Hi, Sharon Owens.

Oh, hi, Mayor Owen.

Hi, I've been a resident of the city um for 29 years now.

And I actually have a question.

Do you know if the city is going to plan on um implementing um a citations or anything for homeowners that are not clearing the sidewalk?

Children are walking in the road.

It's just been very frustrating this past winter.

And there's really nowhere to call to report this because every time we call, they get transferred to different departments.

And I was just wondering if the city is gonna make a change for I mean, it's safety reasons.

I mean, these children are walking in the road, and I watch kids walk every day with their parents, and they don't have the luxury of being driven by a car to school like some other students do.

So it's really heartbreaking and it's very frustrating.

Excellent question.

Uh absolutely.

Um one of the first things, probably the first week I got into City Hall.

Uh I walked into my office, met with my senior team, and I said, who the heck is plowing our sidewalks because they're not doing a good job.

And so um we began a process of really evaluating that and looking at um changing the vendor because it is unacceptable.

You are absolutely right.

Um, I just want to also point out while we have the sidewalk vendor, it is still the responsibility of property owners as the first line of defense to plow sidewalks.

We don't want our children, you're absolutely right, walking in the street, um, putting themselves in danger, especially when the roads are slippery.

Thank you very much for that call.

Hello, welcome back for our third and final hour of the Lonsbury Show on News Radio 5 and 70 WSYR.

If you're just joining in, maybe on your ride home from work, I'm Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens.

Uh I have the opportunity to fill in for Bob today.

And thanks again, Bob, for the opportunity to spend some time with your listeners.

So I have the great opportunity and pleasure to introduce our new chief of police, Mark Russin.

How are you doing, Mark?

Thank you, ma'am.

I appreciate you uh being here.

Uh congratulations on this appointment.

So chief of police, that sounds good on you.

I appreciate that.

So what what does uh this new role mean to you personally and professionally?

You know, professionally, um, I don't think you ever really set out to uh to become the chief of police.

I think uh st things start to happen along the way along your your career where you start to have development.

I had a lot of good uh uh chiefs ahead of me, leaders, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains that help develop develop me throughout the years.

So I think it just it it it just came along.

Uh I don't think it was preordained by any stretch of the imagination.

You know, you and I worked uh, you know, for a long time together for eight years on a lot of different projects throughout the city, uh, you know, projects to reduce violent crime, improve quality of life, things like that.

So pre professionally, uh I I appreciate the opportunity that you that you gave me.

Um, you know, it's a big role.

I I uh I feel the weight sometimes, even in the first 35 days, the you know, tr trying to do as as best you can by the by the officers and by the community as well, too.

And you know, personally, I'm I'm very fortunate.

I have a very supportive family that uh that has taken care of me throughout this time, and and so I think uh personally I'm um I'm very proud of it, but uh I'm really focused on the profession.

Yeah, I've had uh wonderful opportunity to meet your your family, and they are they're a beautiful family and very supportive of you in this role, and you need a supportive network around all of us do in order to do this job on a day-to-day basis.

So you're stepping into this position in critical time for public safety, our numbers have gone down, um, violent crime is done down.

Tell me tell us some of your immediate priorities as you begin in this role.

Yeah, the you know, I think um it's sometimes easy to get lost in the day-to-day, so I think you have to have a uh a big vision of a big plan to to create some operational guideposts for for your commanders.

There's a there's a big chain of command in the Syracuse Police Department, so you have to have operational guideposts and then allow your people to make strategic decisions along the way.

And so I I really break it up into four big categories.

There's the operations of the police department, the administration of the police department, officer wellness, and and and development.

And so uh, you know, when it comes to the operations of the police department, it's really how are you going to continue reducing violent crime, specifically gun crime, you know, how are you gonna improve quality of life-related complaints, improve your response time for calls for service, and and how are you gonna reduce any kind of property crime larcenies, real retail theft, things of that nature.

This week uh I signed 35 letters uh that are going to go out to some of our top offenders in the in the city.

And it's part of our focus deterrent effort with um that we work with with the mayor's office to reduce gun violence and and um Latif.

And and um, you know, we get incredible funding through the state to to help us with that.

But that's really a focused deterrence to to put uh people that have been identified through um through uh evidence-based practices that we think are gonna be our top offenders.

And and you know, it's a balanced approach.

I feel that as I read the letters and we're putting them on notice on direct notice that it's coming right from the chief that hey, there's an off-ramp here.

We're gonna give you that off ramp if you so choose, but if you don't, you're on notice that that uh the Syracuse Police Department, the district attorney's office, and the mayor's office reduce gun violence are are taking this seriously.

And it's been an incredibly effective program.

Just this morning, I I I got an email from um some of our special investigators that were out doing uh what we call street ops and um just had incredible work, recovery of a handgun, recovery of guns and drugs.

Uh I mean the men and women of the Syracuse Police Department do incredible work in that in that space.

So I think operations is uh is a big one.

Um administration is really making the police department run smooth and and you know, your human resources, your out of budget control, how do you make those things happen?

And the officer wellness is is a critical component as well too.

Um the men and women of the Syracuse Police Department, as I said, are amazing group of people, but they take a lot of calls for service.

And there's a lot of uh times where there's acute stress, and there's a lot of times where there's chronic stress.

And so, how do you manage and balance those things and try to provide an environment of stability for them so they can continue to serve for for 20, 25, 30 years?

And and that really has to be a primary focus of uh of the chief of police.

I know is a primary focus for Chief Cecil, and uh that's a primary focus for me and my team.

And then and then the last thing is I mentioned was the development.

Uh we have a lot of new deputy chiefs that are joining, joining the ranks.

We have new captains and lieutenants.

How do you develop those people for the next generation of of uh of the police department?

You know, one thing Chief Cecil told me when he was leaving is is you day one should start preparing for who's gonna take your spot.

I think that's a little bit odd to to uh to think about that you're gonna be picking your replacement or or developing your replacement is better way to say it.

But I do I do trust his guidance and and advice, and I think the development and training of our uh middle managers is is critical to the success of the Syracuse Police Department.

You you mentioned our work together when I was deputy mayor and you are a deputy chief um of various different initiatives.

One of the ones I think I'm most proud of is the work we were doing around diversionary response.

Um we have uh the best trained police uh force there is, but they're not mental health counselors and they're not substance abuse um uh counselors either.

Let can you talk a little bit about what you created this initiative for us?

Yeah Yeah, I appreciate the um the the you there, the emphasis on the you, but there was a big team there and and a lot of support from from the uh county executive's office, from the mayor's office, you know, great partners that that I've worked with at 911, um the commissioner up there, Julie Korn is amazing, Ann Rooney from the county executive's office, her team, and and even internally with the mayor's office, uh, neighborhood business development, Mike Collins, and and really the whole goal, you know, to put it to put it succinctly is if you call 911, you have you have police fire and EMS as your traditional responders.

So, how do we create a system where if someone is calling about a quality of life issue that isn't necessarily in need of a police response, how do you divert that to a to an agency that already exists?

And that that has been the work for the last three years because ultimately what that does is is allow police to do law enforcement.

Right.

Right.

And and part of law enforcement is the enforcement of the laws, but part of that is also building trust within the community.

The more legitimacy the police department has in the community, the better while better off we are.

That that street operation detail that that um I just told you about was the result of communication between a community citizen and ultimately law enforcement.

So when the community trusts in their law enforcement uh agency, they think that there's legitimacy there, they're going to want to take ownership over their community and then and then advise the police department when things are not going correctly.

So I I think that that allowing to the time to build that off ramp, that fourth lever that I've called it, that diversionary response, uh, as you called it, I think is is critical to ultimately having police officers do traditional police work at the same time.

At the same time, there's going to be crises where we have to get involved.

That's never going to change, and we're going to train our officers the best that we can.

Absolutely.

And I think it's important for the listeners to know that, you know, when we wake up in the morning, we hear about some some violent crime that goes on.

It is the proverbial five percent of the population driving a lot of this um violent gun crime or activity.

Um, and the 95% of us from all walks of life are law-abiding citizens just trying to live every day.

Yeah, I think you're I think you're 100% right.

It it it um unless you're in the weeds, like the police department is in the weeds, it it can become a l o uh overwhelming or consuming.

But the the gun violence initiative, uh, the strive program that we're getting up and running, which is an intimate partnered violence um program, it's it's all focused deterrence.

It's data driven, it's focused deterrence because all the evidence shows us exactly what you just said.

And so we don't want to spend the resources that we have unnecessarily on areas that we don't need to spend them.

And so we'll give people an opportunity.

We put them on notice, but it but at that point you're you're on notice and you you gotta make a decision, right?

These are uh these are adults that we're dealing with.

But it but you uh you make a very good point that um it can become a little bit overwhelming and sometimes consuming, but at the same time, the what the data shows us is that this is a very small uh percentage.

Well, um I am thrilled to have Mark Russin as the chief of the city, chief of police of the city of Syracuse and uh city of Syracuse.

Uh you should uh feel the same way.

He's an amazing, amazing officer, and this has been a well-deserved uh opportunity for you, Mark.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for the uh from the promotion, and thanks, Bob, for uh for allowing us this time.

Blood fire Volvo, the Bob Lonsbury show on News Radio 570 WSYR at 1069 FM.

Hey, you're here with uh Mayor Sharon Owens, uh City of Syracuse.

I have been introducing you to members of my team.

I'm so proud of them.

And right now I have with me in the studio Kevin Henry, the chief operation officer for the city of Syracuse.

Thanks for being here, Kevin.

Thank you for having me, Mayor.

So, Kevin, congratulations on becoming uh the new chief operation officer.

Uh you've been with the city for 20 plus years.

When people look at you, they'll never imagine that.

You must have been two when you started with the city.

But um, you were leading building maintenance, building operations.

You are now overseeing all of what is considered the infrastructure work of the city.

So public works, engineering, parks and wreck, water, fleet operations, facilities.

Um, you bring all these departments together.

And um, what does this new role mean to you, Kevin?

Oh, this uh new role means a lot to me.

Um at first I was a little nervous, and um, after a little over a month, I'm starting to see exactly why you need to have a person who knows a lot about the infrastructure of the city and with the institutional knowledge that I've had.

Um, there's probably been about five different occasions where the mayor's office was told no to something that I knew the answer could be yes if you knew the right folks.

So I just pulled the right folks in the same room and got to where you need to be.

So I'm like this this role is fitting for me.

I I can see where it's gonna be a good thing in the future.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I absolutely uh knew.

Um, Kevin from um way back and um in and really working boots on the ground, um uh fixing things and and not only physically fixing things but fixing problems.

And so Kevin probably was looking at his phone before he got in here to make sure to see whether it was gonna snow tonight as we as we've been trying to get through this snow.

Talk talk to the talk to the listeners about the mechanics.

Uh we got a couple minutes here about we could talk about this for an hour.

Just how do we move snow in Syracuse?

Yeah, she is right.

Before I was headed in here, I was definitely thinking about the snow.

As a matter of fact, I was texting the uh first deputy commissioner Ann Ford, I can tell her, you know, it might not be snowing like crazy outside, but it's getting cold and it's raining, and I mean ice can come.

So we're gonna monitor um how we distribute the salt tonight.

And um, but yeah, as far as moving the snow out of Syracuse, it's kind of ironic that we're where we're at right now because I remember working for the city for so long, our problem was not having enough plows.

Now we got more than enough plows, we got an issue with the drivers.

So we'll we'll get it together.

But I think, you know, with some of the this is one of our worst winners in a lot of years.

I want to give DPW a pat on the back for um, you know, the way they have been handling this, it's it's been truly a challenge here.

Absolutely.

They are doing some long shifts, and I'm so thankful that they have a break right now.

But like you mentioned, rain combined with uh uh colder weathers produce ice.

The other thing about snow, when it starts melting, we shift into a gear of um making sure we're trying to clear out catch basins and to prevent flooding.

So the work of the DPW water and engineering uh crews never stop.

Right, those are some of the things that constituents don't think about that we have to think about.

And it went from below zero to 40 degrees.

And with all that snow we got this winter, we have to make sure it's someplace for it to go.

So we try to stay ahead of it as far as like the mayor just said, making sure there's no leaves or debris in our catch basins.

We were busy making sure that everything was open to receive all the water that was gonna go from the snow melting.

Cameron Henry, the man on the ground, our chief operations officer.

Thank you for being here.

You're welcome.

Thanks for having me.

She didn't reinvine me.

Hello, Sharon Owens, uh mayor of Syracuse, and I am so proud to be sitting next to me, our newly elected council president, Rita Paniagua.

Hi, Sharon.

Thank you for having me in this show.

Are you gonna be doing this uh a lot or is this a one-time thing?

I hope Bob invites me back.

I think near Walsh did it multiple times.

So this is this has been great.

So we have been spending the afternoon introducing my team to uh the listeners, and so many of my team have been coming here, and part of the city hall team is the executive wing, which is the mayor's office, and the legislative wing, which is the common council.

And so it's a pleasure to have you here.

And I just want to level set that you have been a long standing public servant in Syracuse.

You people may have forget you served on the school board for many.

Yes, I did four years, yes.

Yes, and then you became a counselor at large, and now you're the president.

Exactly.

Now you're president.

So you're stepping in the position.

We're in a um I really believe, and I know you do too, just a very special moment in the city of Syracuse about that uh for growth and potential.

So what are what are your um top priorities as president?

Well, I'll tell you this.

Uh to be able to navigate that growth and potential, the first thing I think we need to do is modernize a little bit or to be efficient and effective for our residents and everybody in Syracuse in general, your office, not to mention.

Yeah, uh, we have um new new people in in our office that are very well trained in in technology and things that we we can implement that will definitely help us approach and achieve that goal.

Also, one of the things that is always very important to me is to continue to bring the voices of our communities that are most challenged or not necessarily challenged.

They could be people, you know, people in our community that lack the language skills, or it could be it could be anything, but those voices that that are usually left behind because they're just silent.

Yeah.

And I think that we have to do a better job in reaching out to them.

And I think that's one of the things I really want to work on.

Absolutely.

And speaking of technology, the listeners should know that all meetings in your chambers are live streamed on YouTube.

So if you go to the City of Syracuse website and um just Google YouTube, the YouTube page will come up.

Not only are they live streamed, but they're archived with all the meetings.

So if you couldn't, you know, take time during the day to watch a meeting, you can go back into YouTube and uh veg out on some some governments in the in the uh in the uh chambers.

And so they are.

Um the things I'm looking forward to, and I really appreciate you and your leadership team in particular at the council, is um as we go into um one of the major roles for the mayor is creating a budget, and one of the major roles of the council with your leadership is approving a budget.

Absolutely.

And so I'm I'm glad, Rita, that you and I and and members of your team are committed to coming together now.

Absolutely.

I tell you that again, one of you asked me for one of my three, you know, main goals.

That is definitely one of them, build that relationship and bridges, you know, that I think that in the past we've lost some of that communication.

So we need to bring that back.

Yes.

And I think that's definitely one of my goals.

Particularly when it comes to the city budget, which drives everything that I've been talking about on the station um all day today, whatever initiatives we have, it all starts with the budget that we have in the city and the ability to come together with council members to talk about um uh uh priority agenda items of mine, priority agenda items of you and the council.

We're going to we know that housing is a huge one.

They can't.

Efficiency that you've talked about.

Um really talking about our permitting so we can continue to grow.

Um, but really, from my perspective is is starting that process um uh in March and April.

So we're not presenting a budget to you two weeks before you have to.

Exactly.

And and I think we've already started that process.

I think your new budget director has been very um eloquent and animated, you know, with us the council.

Yes.

And we've been invited to meetings already, and we the commissioner of of finance as well.

So I think all just by doing that, you know, we start building that relationship.

Absolutely.

And you know, and another very important thing, I think, Sharon, is that build also the relationship with your department heads.

Yes, so that we can have channels of communications when we we can have broken communications at a time of of change and growth.

Absolutely.

And as fast as it's going, because it's moving really fast.

Very quickly.

I know.

We uh um have uh our department uh meetings with our department heads regularly, and I suggested to them to invite you in, and then yes, bring her in.

And then you came in and just a little intimidating, I'll tell you that.

But you should know when you left.

I said, you know, I asked the question, did you feel that was useful?

And they absolutely said it was and and encouraged me to invite you again.

Oh, absolutely.

I would love to come back.

Yes.

Yep.

Um, you also had you're also a queen of the arts in this community.

I am.

When I was uh well, many, many pounds and years ago, I was a prima ballerina with a Virginia with one of the Virginia Company Ballet companies.

So the arts has always been embedded in me.

Yes.

And I am a big arts proponent, and I believe that every healthy community starts, you know, definitely the arts is a big component.

The artist is any vibrant city has a a thriving art community.

Exactly.

And and your work with uh CNY arts and yes, right now I I I just I was the their president of their board for about six years.

So now I am the board emeritus.

Okay.

They still let you come today.

They do.

Yeah, I mean, I come as much as possible, but in this new role, you know, I I'm adapting my time my time to so many things at the same time, you know, at the same time.

Well, you get a pretty big job now.

Yes, and then and then you we also have a job.

Yes.

So to sustain because we need to be able to pay the bills.

Yep.

Absolutely.

Yes.

No, but I'm I'm looking forward to working with the council, working with you.

We have been friends for a long time.

Um that gives us an in on, you know, when you don't agree with me, you call me on the phone when I don't agree with you, you call it the phone.

We have that kind of relationship.

We do.

You know, if you go back, if we remember, I mean, when I was the executive director at La Liga, you were the executive director of the Southwest Community Center.

Yes.

So our relationship it's building since then.

Yes.

You know, and even then we had our disagreements.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

But we're still hugging and talking and everything.

We're best friends.

Thank you, Council President Paniagua for taking time to come on.

Thank you for having me.

Hi, Sharon Owens here on Bob Lonsbury Show on News Radio 570 WSYR.

Uh Bob, thank you so much.

It has been an amazing opportunity for me to uh host the show today, really giving uh the listeners an opportunity as a new mayor to introduce my team to you from both of our chiefs to the person that I'm looking to help me uh craft the policies around housing, around our infrastructure, um, around how we are going to move snow in this city, uh, our economic development opportunities, our parks and recs department.

Um that is just a glimpse of the people who I'm surrounding myself with at the city of Syracuse Soul who's here in the studio with us, who's uh with our communications team.

Uh I am um so humbled to be uh elected by the people of Syracuse to serve as the 55th mayor, historic moment in our city is the first black mayor of the city, um, eight years before that to serve proudly with Mayor Ben Walsh, who I've sat at this table in this very studio with multiple times on this show.

Um I wish him all the best.

He's working for the state now, doing some good stuff.

So I'm calling him fine to find out what he can do for the city of Syracuse in his new role.

But um uh this is um our city is amazing as city, and we have to believe and know that we are on the precipice of greatness for our community.

Um sometimes when you're living within the confines of the moment, you can't see the force for the trees.

But I tell you, I there is not a community that I go into now that people are not pointing their finger at me and saying, You're the mayor of Syracuse.

Let me talk to you about some things that we find interesting about your city and investment that people want to take a look at our city for.

So I I say to all of us, embrace this moment.

Uh we need to ensure that it is a moment for all of us, a moment that we can all um um uh grow from and prosper from, that we can create a city where our children are educated, safe, where people are living in uh spaces and places that are healthy, affordable, where businesses can thrive and where we all feel safe walking down our streets.

And so that is my job to work with these team members, just a fraction of them that you've met today, uh, and working with you are uh not just our residents, but our our neighbors on all sides of our city who uh work with us every day because we are Syracuse in Onondaga County in central New York.

And I have said repeatedly that Syracuse, uh while Syracuse is the center of New York State, we're right in the middle of New York State.

We're the center of New York State.

We have become central to the prosperity of this state.

And so we should embrace that, know who we are in this place.

We're Syracuse, we're here, we're making our moves in the city for all of us together.

So I thank you again, Bob, for this opportunity.

I thank you for the listeners that have tuned in.

And uh everyone, stay warm, stay safe, and go cuce.