Tim Rudd: Common Council Campaign

Syracuse, NY has been going through some tremendous changes over the last several decades; from losing many large manufacturers to a shrinking population. Instead of dwelling on the past, we decided to form a campaign aimed at the future. Bring in bright new ideas and show what the city could become as opposed to where we are now.

Each video produced had the goal of proposing a new idea to get conversations started about where the community can head. Some are fleshed out policy ideas, others are conversation pieces to make people think about making changes.

Expanding Summer Youth Employment

Being a city with some of the highest concentrations of poverty in the country, addressing this problem early with a proposal for expanding youth employment during the summer months felt like the right move. This program can be implemented within the first months of Mr. Rudd's tenure on the Common Council, allowing constituents to see he's a man of his word while also positively affecting many lower income residents. Summer employment helps to keep teenagers busy while also helping them provide for their families. This is the right message for a city struggling financially.

City- cOUNTY mERGER

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been adamant about encouraging local municipalities to dissolve and merge together to save money and improve services. The City of Syracuse has been considering a merger with Onondaga County for a number of years, but the proposals that have been discussed by the Consensus Group have not addressed many major issues and embrace many of the current mistakes of local governments. In response to these issues, Mr. Rudd has worked out a new blueprint for a metropolitan government that we have been working to introduce into the conversation. The challenge is to explain the details, but keep the scope broad enough to show the benefits of thinking as one economic region.

Connecting Neighborhoods

A passion of mine over the past few years has been understanding how communities are connected. This interest in infrastructure and community building was shared by Tim Rudd, and we decided we needed to find a way to express its importance to the community at large. We set out to identify multiple neighborhoods that have promise in becoming denser, more thriving corridors and present the faults and assets of each area and how to bring them together. We embraced the idea set forth by Janette Sadik-Khan, the former Transportation Commissioner of New York City, that we must look to underused blacktop to reclaim areas for pedestrians and cyclists, making the streets safe for everyone while freeing them from the need of having a costly vehicle.

The North Side

Growing up on the North Side of Syracuse, this video came from my personal experiences. The neighborhood has a long history, and along with it many assets to the greater region. Among these assets are the Regional Market, the Regional Transportation Center, NBT Stadium (home of the Syracuse Chiefs), and Destiny USA (one of the largest malls in the country), all within three blocks of one another. As close as they physically are together, its virtually impossible to safely get between these attractions. Yet, when we look at the area, all we see is possibility.

ERIE BLVD.

One of the greater blunders in planning around Syracuse was the decision to fill in the Erie Canal and make a roadway. At the time it seemed like the forward thinking thing to do as the automobile rose to prominence, but since then we begin to see how that water way could've been a recreational and tourist destination. Now, its impossible to rebuild what has been lost, instead we can reconfigure what exists today to bring that same destination feel to the route. With the proposal of the Empire State Trail, which hopes to mimic the historic path of the Erie Canal, we can bring that recreation and tourism through Downtown Syracuse, providing a vibrant destination along this statewide path. Not only will this bring in tourists, but will reshape how we experience the city along the route.

Park Ave.

A small, quiet neighborhood just outside of Downtown Syracuse, Park Ave. is home to some beautiful homes and parks, many of which sat vacant for years. This neighborhood is seeing renewed interest in development, but still feels disconnected from Downtown; Erie Blvd. cuts the neighborhood off with its highway-like construction, complete with on ramps to West St., there are few sidewalks, and even fewer in good quality.