Everybody crazy Monday.

We have two short budget hearings, so we'll get started right away.

We're here to do the downtown Syracuse and also Cross Marshall.

I'm joined by Councillor Aaron Reich, Council Moore, Councilor Nave, President Paniagua.

Hi America.

Hi.

How are you?

I'm well, how are you?

Good, good, good.

Um, I will let you take it away with downtown first, then we'll go to Krause Marshall after that.

And um you've done this before.

Yeah, yes, thank you.

What page are we on Jimmy?

What page?

Uh 157, I believe.

One, yes, for downtown.

Um so what I handed out was so we have uh the downtown uh committee of Syracuse and downtown special assessment uh budget numbers in front of you in your books starting on page 157.

Uh but what I did to give a little bit more context to the numbers that you're seeing is I handed out uh just a visual uh that kind of explains who we are, what we do, and then how we're funded.

Umtown committee of Syracuse, we are a 501c4 not-for-profit organization.

Uh we administer the downtown special assessment fund.

So uh procedurally, uh we talk uh in front of all of you about um the downtown special assessment budget.

This is part of the city of Syracuse budget, and then uh once the budget numbers are approved, uh we'll be back in front of you in July to ask for then a contract for the downtown committee to then draw down on those downtown special assessment dollars to administer the programs I'm going to review with you today.

Uh we have a couple members of our board of directors uh for downtown committee joining us today, uh Melissa Zell and Shayla Sarat.

Uh and then we also have shared with you um the full list of our board of directors on that cover page.

Um we provide services above and beyond the city of Syracuse services to an 82 block district, which is the central business district.

Um page two uh we provide a listing of our different staff members.

So uh we operate in uh several different program areas.

We have 14 full-time staff members and a number of seasonal positions as well with the downtown committee.

Um the bottom graphic gives you sort of an organizational chart, like an overview of who we are and what we do.

So uh the downtown committee is governed by a board of directors.

11 of the 15 board members have to be special assessment payers.

Uh they are all appointed by the mayor of the city of Syracuse.

And why it's important uh of our board composition is because they are the ones that are reviewing and approving and making the recommendations for what services uh should be provided to the downtown district, and they make that recommendation uh to the mayor.

So um the board of directors oversees myself, and then I oversee our staff members.

We operate programs primarily in economic development, marketing communications, which runs a series of public-facing events.

We uh offer uh security programs, environmental maintenance, which is our crew that works outside.

Uh we operate some parking facilities, and then we also are involved with neighborhood engagement.

So, in addition to our downtown committee board of directors, every month we convene uh a series of neighborhood and business association groups, and that is so that we can uh create that relationship and have the dialogue and understand what is happening uh in our downtown community.

Uh, if you turn to page three, it gives you an overview of what it is that we do and how we do it.

So uh the downtown committee of Syracuse, we've been around for now uh over 50 years, uh formed in 1975.

In 2012, we formed a 501 C3 Downtown Syracuse Foundation, which is governed by uh a separate board of directors.

Uh but in my role as executive director of the downtown committee, I also serve as president of our downtown Syracuse Foundation.

We started the foundation as a vehicle to secure additional resources for downtown that the downtown special assessment alone and the downtown committee were unable to raise.

So how we secure resources for a vibrant downtown is a special assessment, which is the budget item we'll be discussing today.

Uh we also the downtown committee and the downtown foundation can go after a series of grants that typically support programs.

So of our downtown Syracuse Foundation, about 90% of the revenue in that organization is restricted because it's secured for specific programs, such as the hanging flower baskets, such as the utility box art, such as the street tree lights that you see uh throughout Armory Square and Celina Street.

The foundation is the only entity that's able to actually secure tax deductible donations and contributions.

The downtown committee also enters into a series of fee for service or service contracts that pay primarily for additional security and environmental maintenance activities in the district.

We secure earned revenue through parking lot operations.

So we manage three different parking lots, and the surplus from those operations after paying for our operations goes back into the downtown committee budget, primarily supporting our marketing and communications activities.

And then we also, I mentioned, host a series of events.

So with those events, we secure sponsorships as well as ticket sales or booth fees.

So the surplus from those operations again goes back into the downtown committee budget.

Environmental maintenance on the bottom of page three is one of our probably most visible programs, and our goal is to ensure downtown is attractive, accessible, and clean.

So in the winter months, they assist.

We do assist with plowing activities in the winter months.

We do litter pickup, graffiti removal, you know, power wash sidewalks, clean out doorways as needed.

In the summer months, again, it's mowing lawns, trimming hedges, taking care of weeds, and then we partner with the city of Syracuse on streetscape maintenance and streetscape improvement items.

The next page on page four gives you an overview of the beautification and enhancements that we undertake.

So the hanging flower baskets is one of our most visible programs.

The downtown committee purchases the flowers, then through the foundation, we fundraise to fund the three employees that work throughout the summer, watering those baskets.

We also have a series of planters throughout downtown.

The street tree lighting is a newer and very visible program that we're working to expand.

More recently, we have built a program for utility box art, which helps emerging artists learn to go through the process of applying for and undertaking public art at a manageable scale.

And we also tend to secure funds for refurbishing murals and adding cafe lighting and brightness to activate different alleys.

They patrol downtown six days a week, and their goal is to proactively address constituent needs and quality of life concerns.

So we hire retired law enforcement that are employed by the downtown committee.

They patrol the downtown district typically 8 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

We act as a liaison between businesses and residents in the Syracuse Police Department as well as the behavioral health and social service providers.

We also have a special 423 help phone number that anyone in the downtown district can call with a non-emergency concern.

And our officers, their downtown, so it'll be a quicker response time than potentially calling 911 if it is not an emergency.

We also offer personal safety seminars, offering common sense safety tips to our businesses, and then we partner with the Syracuse Police Department to sometimes secure resources, but install security cameras throughout the downtown district.

So downtown committee has funded, I think 24 security camera locations to date, and those are tied right into the SPD system as an additional tool and resource for the police department.

On page five talks about our economic development program.

And again, our goal here is to further the development and growth happening in downtown by providing resources and expertise.

So our most valuable tool is our downtown database.

So we maintain a property database of all of the parcels in downtown Syracuse, use that to help provide information on if a business is looking for available space.

We can give them a list of locations that might suit their needs, as well as we track occupancy or vacancy so we can produce accurate market reports on downtown Syracuse.

We also more recently undertook a housing analysis to better inform development in the district, as well as our retail reports and office occupancy reports.

We can produce information that is important to property owners, businesses, investors on the trends that are being experienced here on the ground in downtown Syracuse.

Our marketing communications team, their goal is image advertising for downtown.

We maintain a website, downtown Syracuse.com, which lists all of the everything everything downtown, brochures, business directories, data resources.

Our businesses can be sought searched at by location, public parking options.

We maintain social media channels as well as a weekly newsletter.

So we have about 26,000 followers across our different platforms, and we use that to share information of what's happening in the downtown district.

We also have commercial campaigns that we run, encouraging people to come into the downtown district, as well as we organize a series of special events that are meant to support our constituency.

So on page six gives you an overview of those.

And there we can give the good news about what's happening in downtown and trends and development to get people excited about the neighborhood in which they live, work, and play.

Our Earth Day cleanup is coming up this Saturday with about 250 volunteers who help us address the gateways into downtown.

And then we're introducing a new event on May 16th called Open Up Downtown.

And this is an opportunity to build connections with the public and downtown Syracuse by providing access to spaces typically not open to the public, but want to showcase the cool spaces we have in downtown and get people comfortable and familiar walking around and exploring the new businesses.

Our farmers market takes place in Clinton Square in June.

We do an annual meeting where we give a state of downtown reports and recognize people that are doing great work in the community.

Our arts and crafts festival happens in July.

It's the second largest festival downtown after Taste of Syracuse.

But that brings people in and gets them moving throughout the district.

And then we go through our holiday program where we have a holiday cost sharing, a decorations program with the city of Syracuse as part of the budget, as well as a window wonderland contest.

Erica, you just made me think of it.

Is the construction gonna force you into moving the farmers market probably?

Probably.

Okay.

Yeah.

So we are waiting until we have DOT has a contractor in place, which will then provide us a timeline for what months would be affected.

But we have just like we do for all of our different events, you know, just look at opportunities that if we we need a backup plan, what would that be?

Yep.

Um and then I mentioned on uh slide 13, which is page seven, um, our neighborhood associations.

Uh so we engage um, and many of you have attended these meetings before, but a way for uh businesses to raise concerns or us to identify priorities for what we want to see.

Um primary sources of revenue.

I mentioned their special assessments, um, earned revenue, and then our service contracts.

And then on the final page, uh we have the top graph shows the budgeted sources of revenue.

So I mentioned the special assessment is a primary source of revenue.

Um, over the years, we have been effective at reducing our reliance on the special assessment.

And so this year comprises this proposed year comprises about 55% of our overall revenue compared to 10 years ago where it was 74%.

So through our different programs, we are trying to again raise additional resources for downtown because again, the special assessment alone does not allow us to do nearly uh enough of what downtown Syracuse needs.

And put a slide in the bottom as far as our return on investment.

So a summary uh for every dollar of downtown special assessment invested in the downtown committee of Syracuse, we generate an additional dollar 16, multiplying this initial investment and the impact on our community.

Um, and we accomplish additional programming through outside funding sources that we had gone through before, such as those beautification activities with the street tree lights, um, securing grant funding for other entities, uh, the events and revenue that we're driving in.

Um, and then grants and administration at the bottom.

Um we are a seven-time recipient of the state's New York Main Street grant program.

So in our first six programs, we've uh leveraged about 1.5 million dollars and leveraged 55 million dollars in investment.

Um we've also do grant writing support, and that's resulted in more than 17 million dollars of awarded grants to the city of Syracuse.

And then finally, um, we on behalf of the Syracuse Common Council and Mayor's Office, administer the Syracuse Cultural Festivals Fund.

This has been an extremely popular program.

This is a separate line item than the downtown special assessment.

Uh but we just wrapped up our third year of administering the cultural festivals fund.

I know um Council uh Councillor Monto and President Paniagua have served on our review committees before, but we put a review committee together.

Uh this year we awarded uh with 150,000 27 different festivals and events, uh, but they happen throughout the city of Syracuse.

So these are funds that are administered by the downtown Syracuse Foundation.

Uh those are that's not boundary restricted like the downtown committee.

But as you can see, they have been awarded throughout all sectors of the city of Syracuse, and we rely on our review committee members to help us make those recommendations of allocated funds to ensure that what we're selecting is impactful for each of those different neighborhoods and the organizations that we support.

1115.

That was a lot very quickly, Mary.

That was pretty good.

Yeah.

But yeah, happy to take any questions.

But again, this the programs I think help to contextualize what it is that we do with the funding.

Can you tell us a little bit about the residency density and growth in the downtown because that is surely impacts all of your uh different um bases of business?

Yeah, so with um we just completed a housing market analysis uh because we uh we keep track of all of the um apartment and housing opportunities available in the downtown district.

Uh we learned that we're still uh over 98% occupied in terms of the residential units, and there's additional demand for about 110 uh to 180, depending if you take uh the micron impact into account uh with additional housing request uh demanded in the downtown district.

Do you think we will need more housing in downtown or some of the items that came up?

So there'll be um like the Chimes building will be coming online with a mix of affordable apartments, the post, which is the old post standard building, uh, will be opening later this year with a series of apartments, and so uh there's still there is still additional demand for housing.

Um, affordability uh is one of those items that continues uh to come up, and what we are seeing is some of those um older apartment buildings that maybe came online 15, 20 years ago, uh those are becoming more affordable as some of the newer um apartments are more competitive.

Uh but it also depends what type of funding source the developers or property owners are taking advantage of when they're building their apartments.

Oracle.

Um I'm sure you work with neighborhood business development.

Is there any proposals or are we posing to get new businesses?

And I specifically thinking of the uh a drug store.

Whether it's independent or chain or getting a grocery market.

Because growing up, we had drug stores and we had we had supermarkets when there was no people, people are not living downtown.

So I just want to know what efforts will we make and you know to bring these businesses, which I are needed so that so many of our downtown residents are not going to the suburbs.

Yeah.

Yeah, we are um with the downtown housing.

So one of the benchmarks that we have always been told is that once we hit 5,000 residents, we become more attractive to those types of service operators.

With a pharmacy, a pharmacy is an item that is in high demand from our downtown residents.

Um, particularly when the right aid closed on Celina and Fayette years ago.

Um, our understanding is that there was unfortunately a limitation put on that property and that no uh pharmacy operation could operate there.

Uh but the pharmacy is something that is highly demanded, especially for people that maybe have restricted mobility and ability to access uh some of the additional pharmacies.

Um there's the Syracuse Food Co-op in the Salt City Market, which is an uh opportunity that we promote right now to our downtown residential base.

Uh and then I believe the uh newly announced um redevelopment with the Equitable Towers is also talked about a potential grocery operator.

One more question.

Um you work with the OHA on a dog historical association because we don't want to talk about our downtown.

I always like to think back of its history that people may not be aware of.

Yeah, so that is uh I think one of our um the history and the architecture and the culture are some of our biggest assets in downtown.

And so um we have uh I mentioned our open up downtown event.

Uh we have OHA is going to be a participant stop uh in that to talk about specifically the history of Clinton Square and how people understand when they're looking at the buildings, for example, why they were built the way they were because of how the canal ran.

And then as we look ahead, uh some of our bigger plans for this upcoming year is one a downtown vision and strategic action plan.

Uh so that'll be kicking off actually next week.

Uh and Councilor Moore is serving on our uh project steering committee for that, and then over the next 10 months we'll be doing more community engagement, uh, but then also with Interstate 81 and um how we not only communicate with the businesses but also come up with how we want to promote and build that connection.

It's a lot about like rediscovering Syracuse because um it is such a cultural connection that many communities don't necessarily have.

Thank you.

Everybody else.

Are there any um efficiencies or ways that we can support the downtown committee more in terms of some of the environmental remediation, for instance, or some of the art programs?

Yeah, we um and the city of Syracuse um has been it is a great we there's no way we could do what we do without the partnership of the city of Syracuse.

And so I feel like we have a um very strong working relationship with not only um neighborhood and business development, um mayor's office, the Syracuse Police Department, um, DPW parks department are our uh primary departments that we interface with.

And I think um it's everyone is pulling in the same direction.

Uh so I feel um that this is going to continue and we'll continue to look for ways to be efficient with both of our resources but also um information sharing and cost sharing.

So with the I-81, um Jamie was just um asking about Kington Square and that surrounding area, but how far is that surrounding area?

Do you have any knowledge of the impact beyond Cleanington Square?

So uh there are two two different contracts uh that we're keeping our eyes on.

Um obviously the Interstate 81 is happening um around the community.

The two most impactful ones for downtown are Contract Six and Contract 6A.

Um 6A is that stormwater trunk line that will be basically coming um if you start the west from uh Onadaga Creek, down Harold Place, um south on Celina, um, east on Erie, south on state, east on water.

Um so that'll be a fairly significant project.

And that is the one where as the work is not happening in Clinton Square, the work will be adjacent to it.

So depending on what time of year that actual work is scheduled, um then we'll have a better sense of what uh festivals or events will be impacted.

Uh but we have started to meet with the city of Syracuse and other partners about identifying alternate locations, but right now, because there is no contractor secured, uh we don't have a sense of the timeline of what will be but so once we have that, uh we're kind of moving both at the same time.

So it's not just about the festivals.

I mean, do the businesses also get impacted by these it would be.

And so I think we have experience with the um construction uh that happens and uh you know how we as a community can secure additional resources for the marketing, for branding for special events, ways to that we can uh continue to increase foot traffic um in our marketing budget or in our miscellaneous, you may have noticed a pretty significant bump compared to our previous years.

Uh we have requested funds um from uh New York State to help with a uh marketing and promotions campaign uh over the next two years for downtown uh because again, there is um we want to make sure that we're communicating accessibility but also creating opportunities and reasons for people to come into the district.

Great.

America, could you talk a little bit about parking and um where we are falling short and what we need to do to make it walkable and loiterable and also easy to park, particularly when we have such wonderful events happening at the same time during the summer?

So we have um one of the items, and we um some of the venues do this already, but we one of our brochures is a downtown public parking guide, so which we update um regularly, and so encourage people to use that as a resource for where you can find um parking in the downtown area.

Um so that's the only comprehensive resource for public parking.

Uh, we're also in the process of working.

Quick question on that.

Yeah.

Have we reached out to Waze or Google Maps to see if we could have them emphasize those availabilities?

Um we have not yet.

Okay.

Okay, yeah, that's a great idea.

Um along those lines.

Have we ever I thought always thought this would be a good idea?

Have we ever thought about having shuttle services when we're having events and having a place where people can park their cars outside of the city limits and maybe contract with Central or somebody and do shuttle services just to cut down some of the congestion?

So the uh Yes.

So the shuttle service is something um that we're looking at right now in terms of um what kind of frequency would need would be needed, the feasibility, um, who would who would ride it?

Um the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council um has two different studies underway for us right now.

One is a larger mobility parking and mobility study that looks at uh downtown, the inner harbor, and university hill, and how those um places interact with each other, what kind of demand is there?

Um, how do we easily move people and visitors you know through those areas and employees and residents?

They also are underway with more of a fast track study that is looking at um parking alternatives given some of the garage closures and parking needs uh that we have in the east side of downtown um has been hindered uh with parking, and so it's you know not only making sure we have parking for those that are already here, but if we want to continue with additional economic development, how are we going to because we are still very much a car community?

How are we going to uh provide the parking spaces uh for those new employees, ideally that we'd be attracted here?

Um we've been looking at lighting, um, you know, the condition of sidewalks.

Um if you go through downtown, you may notice some like art in the windows programs as one of our um like storefront programs to try and make um available storefronts more attractive for people walking by.

So there's a bunch of different components at work.

Great.

Thanks, Merrica.

Okay, thank you so much.

And if I if I don't say thank you enough for that festival for the work that you do, there's there's a lot of little festivals that are very thankful that we're doing what we're doing.

We keep them alive.

So thank you.

It makes that um it makes a significant impact.

And um, as you know, every year we get um significantly more um requests and we have additional funding to be able to provide to them.

We need some more money, maybe.

You know, yeah, year to year, Jimmy.

You know, we can see those festivals growing, you know, we can sell in the community.

Yeah, and so much of it raised to be able to start so with some of them um the boost that they need because festival funding, especially in this climate, can be very difficult to secure.

Exactly.

Thank you.

Thanks, America.

Thank you.

Thank you, we'll adjourn and we'll take two minutes for WC.