Hi all,
Thank you for a great June meeting of the Syracuse Urbanism Collective on Tuesday!
We had presentations from various members of the collective of some of our favorite urban places. Thanks to everyone who presented! The presentations included:
- Sugarhouse, Salt Lake City, by Emily Roberts
- Barcelona by Caleb Kimble
- New Haven, CT, by me (Baxter Hankin)
- Perseverance Park & Onondaga Creekwalk in Syracuse, by Shail Patel
- Weesperzijde, Amsterdam by Vladimir Asriev
- Lisbon, Portugal, by Sam Stone
After the meeting, we had a happy hour at the rooftop of Emerald Cocktail Kitchen!
We also shared a few updates:
- Our board is looking for a new president. I (Baxter Hankin) will be stepping back we find a capable and committed replacement with enough time and creative vision to fill this role. I’ll move into a supporting board role (likely “policy and design coordinator”) to give myself enough time to focus more on the projects that I’m managing (policy and design teams) and to give others a chance to lead the collective, but I’ll continue as the president of the organization to manage things until then. I’ll also assist the new president to ensure a smooth transition once we get there. After the transition, I’ll continue to help ensure a strong future for this organization from my new role on the board. Thank you for the support over the last few years. It has been an incredible experience since I founded this organization just over three years ago watching all of you grow our impact on the community. If you’re interested in becoming the next president or joining our board in some other capacity, please reach out to contact@syracuseurbanism.org.
- The Community Streets Project street painting days are now moved to July 25 & 26, 8am to noon, with prep work on July 24 from 5-8pm. Please sign up again using the new form (1-2 min): https://forms.gle/mZbEAzJU8pynm8RW7
- We’re discussing a new possible collaboration with the City of Syracuse’s Parks Department to reimagine the permanent wayfinding, historical marker, and nodes of activity signage along the Onondaga Creekwalk! Stay tuned for updates on this.
- The Design team has been working on a hypothetical redesign for the plaza in front of City Hall. Please reach out to contact@syracuseurbanism.org if you have feedback or want to get involved with this project! The design is continuing to evolve. See a preliminary image of the design below:
- The Public Policy Team has our next meeting on Monday, July 13 at 6:30pm in Salt City Market, and we need your help:
- Please sign up to work on one of the policy memos that no one has signed up for yet. No experience is required! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-was-4nuBOhoF2BaIq3Q6W1gpDqaJDI8g4G9FHhWiow/edit?usp=sharing
- Please comment on other peoples’ draft memos and research to make sure our policies are as strong as they can be: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vVipgOJFwDhLSwk7HBSOsjmVLNUuNCAg?usp=sharing
- From our recent meetings with NYSDOT about the I-81 Viaduct Project, we have two updates.
- In the image below, pink lines show existing bike infrastructure, and yellow lines are some of the new shared use paths, trails, and bike lanes that were already planned to be included in NYSDOT’s designs for the I-81 Viaduct Project. Through our advocacy, we were able to get additional shared use paths added to their designs to help bridge some gaps in the bike network, shown in blue.
- In this image is our redesign of the intersection of E Genesee St and Almond St at Forman Park, which adds a pedestrian plaza to the park while simplifying the intersection by removing traffic from the southern side of the park and converting traffic north of the park to two-way. In our option, a driveway would maintain street access for 728 E Genesee St at the southeast corner of the park. NYSDOT sees this design as a potential solution that could solve some existing challenges with the current configuration, so they had their design team draw up their own version of our proposal. Currently, they’re evaluating the feasibility of this option, and we’ve gotten the support of some key neighborhood stakeholders. We’ll continue to share updates as we have them.
- In the image below, pink lines show existing bike infrastructure, and yellow lines are some of the new shared use paths, trails, and bike lanes that were already planned to be included in NYSDOT’s designs for the I-81 Viaduct Project. Through our advocacy, we were able to get additional shared use paths added to their designs to help bridge some gaps in the bike network, shown in blue.
- We announced a new member engagement survey! Please click this link to help us collect valuable feedback about what comes next for our organization and how we can better serve both our members and the community at large: forms.gle/c4ghpPG4KLu6U7Zm9
Upcoming events include:
- Design Team: Thursday July 2, 6pm, Salt City Market
- City Comprehensive Plan Meetings: 5:30, Thursday July 9 @ Hazard Library & Tuesday July 14 @ SW Community Center
- Public Policy Team Meeting: Monday July 13, 6:30-7:30pm, Salt City Market
- Moving People Transportation Coalition: 4pm, Wednesday, July 15 @ CNY Philanthropy Center
- Urbanist Book Club: 6:30, Wednesday, July 22 @ Salt City Market
- Community Streets Painting: July 24-26 @ Hawley Green
- General Meeting: 6pm, Tuesday, July 28 @ OneGroup Education Center
All events are also listed at syracuseurbanism.org/calendar
As always, you can reach us at contact@syracuseurbanism.org.
To join, visit syracuseurbanism.org/join.
Regards,
Baxter Hankin
President of the Syracuse Urbanism Collective
