All Cities Are Beautiful

January 1, 2025

At the beginning of each new year many of us find ourselves making resolutions on how we’d like to change for the better. This could be going to the gym more, taking up journaling, traveling, or being more present with your friends and family. It's a time to reset, take stock of everything that came before, and decide how we’d like to begin anew. Many times to begin this process of change we must also change our mindsets. As 2025 begins, I’d like to take a moment to reset how we view our cities and remind us that all cities are beautiful. All cities are home to joy, sadness, excitement, the mundane, and the beautiful. Let’s remember to look for the beauty in all of those emotions and see how our environment shapes them.

When we travel, we often are open to seeing the beauty in the places we visit. We notice the vibrancy of a downtown district or the way an urban canyon forms as you look down a crowded street. We notice the unique restaurants, cafes, and bars that we visit while wandering around a new place. The cultural touchstones unique to each city. Even the everyday places (corner stores, gas stations, laundromats, etc.) spark interest and intrigue as we compare them to the ones we see in our neighborhoods.

Naples, ITA

North Berwick, UK

Florence, ITA

Kilkenny, IRE

Rome, ITA

Yet, when we’re home, in the city we are most familiar with, we continually overlook these same values and beauty. Our everyday experiences, from home to work and school, blind us from the beauty others may see when they experience it for the first time. So, in 2025, I challenge each of us to look for the beauty in our everyday lives, in the cities we call home.

This goes beyond the places we all know as beautiful - the cathedrals, historic buildings, stately homes, and park space - and ventures into the everyday beauty. How the street trees look in the fall. How the sunlight hits the houses in your neighborhood at the right time of day. The utilitarian structures that someone put a little more effort into to make them unique, even a parking garage.

Santa Monica, CA

Los Angeles, CA

New York, NY

Rochester, NY

Cincinnati, OH

This includes the events that gather our neighbors into common spaces to enjoy a shared experience. Festivals change how we experience our cities, pedestrianizing them, allowing us to experience new vantage points otherwise off limits or fleeting when you drive by in a car. Slowing us down and allowing us to look at the details on each and every building.

New York, NY

Syracuse, NY

New York, NY

Syracuse, NY

Pittsburgh, PA

But this doesn’t mean we should preserve our cities in amber. Our cities are beautiful because they change and grow. In Syracuse, so many of our historic buildings have been changed in recent years, bringing new life to them through conversions and rehabilitations. New buildings add to the fabric of our cities, demonstrating vibrancy through contrast.

We’ve expanded ways to see our cities. New shared use paths, bike lanes, and transit have given people new found access to their communities, at a pace and scale that connects us to our surroundings. We’ve preserved our waterfronts in ways to give everyone access because everyone deserves a chance to enjoy it.

New York, NY

Pittsburgh, PA

Denver, CO

Syracuse, NY

New York, NY

We’ve found opportunities to bring color into our streets. Murals, both on buildings and in the streets, have given people a chance to put their mark on their neighborhood. They’ve brought people together and showcased different cultures. While we often see graffiti as a nuisance, it can also be beautiful, defining a space and time.

Naples, ITA

Chicago, IL

Washington, DC

Rochester, NY

Minneapolis, MN

In 2025 we must take moments to appreciate this beauty and find ways to keep infusing life into our neighborhoods. We should be open to welcoming new neighbors and allowing them to add to the shared beauty of our cities. Always be looking around as if this is your first time seeing your city. See it through fresh eyes and look for your chance to make your mark. All cities are beautiful, if you look for it.

The Market Commons at the CNY Regional Market.

A Healthy Future for the Regional Market

November 6, 2024

Since 1938, the CNY Regional Market has called the City’s Northside home. Nestled between Park St and Hiawatha Blvd, the Regional Market has easy access to I-81 (soon to be Business Loop 81) and the Parkway, yet feels disconnected from the City neighborhoods that surround it. Traditionally an industrialized neighborhood, many of the industrial buildings that remain along Hiawatha Blvd are either underutilized or vacant and act as a barrier between the nearby residential neighborhoods. But it remains an essential anchor within the neighborhood and a regional attraction.

In 2023, the Regional Market released a $90 million plan aimed at addressing many of their long time maintenance needs as well as investing in new infrastructure that would help bring the facility into the modern era. While these repairs and investments are sorely needed, they were soon overshadowed by a State audit that revealed questionable financial practices by the individuals running the Market that have greatly jeopardized its future stability. As there is renewed focus on the Regional Market and concern for its future, let’s dig in to what what that future could look like.

Market Commons

Market Diner

Commission Houses

Market Commons

The approximately 50 acres controlled by the Regional Market includes five “sheds” where vendors sell produce on Thursdays and Saturdays, as well as run a flea market on Sundays. Three larger warehouses, known as the Commission Houses, sit between the sheds and Hiawatha Blvd, while a strip of commercial buildings, the Market Commons, line Park St. The Commons includes Market Diner, an M&T Bank office, and a Wendy’s, with large vacant spaces currently available for lease. Additionally, the Market controls a vacant warehouse across Tex Simone Dr that sits just outside of the NBT Bank Stadium parking lot.

Surrounding all of these structures is asphalt. Acres and acres of asphalt with few dedicated spaces for pedestrians. In fact, the only sidewalks within the Market area line roughly 1,300 ft of Park St near the commercial buildings. Otherwise, pedestrians intermingle with vehicles as they circle the sheds either looking for a place to store their car, dropping/picking someone up, or picking up large purchases they may have made that day. For individuals who may have parked further afield, a shuttle provides an easy, accessible way into the Market, making stops outside of each shed.

The mural within the Market Diner illustrates an idealized walk from the Market to NBT Bank Stadium. Currently visitors are fenced in within the Market with poor pedestrian connections to the stadium area.

Lining the perimeter of the Market is a dilapidated chain link fence, further severing the grounds from its neighbors. And the Market has a lot of neighbors. The Regional Transportation Center (RTC), NBT Bank Stadium, Destiny USA, as well as one of the denser neighborhoods of the City of Syracuse all lie across the street from the Market, yet feel completely disconnected from it.

So what can we do to reconnect the Market with its neighbors and set it on a course for a healthier, livelier future?

First, let’s start by tearing down that fence. While there is a desire to control the space within the Market grounds, the existing fence fails to enclose the entirety of the property and sends a visual signal of disinterest in its neighbors. This is not to say a fence should not be part of the property, but only where absolutely necessary and it must be thoughtfully designed. Instead, it is encouraged to expand the Market’s facilities to include buildings that line Hiawatha Blvd and NBT Bank Pkwy, creating a barrier between the heart of the Market and the street, but in a way that welcomes visitors.

Now, these structures do not need to be market specific, but can bring in other uses that compliment the mission of the Market, including housing. New York State is in the midst of a housing crisis, as is the Greater Syracuse Area. With historic growth coming to Central New York as a result of the Micron investment, Syracuse is in need of more quality affordable housing. As a State sanctioned authority, the CNY Regional Market should be tapped as a resource to address this crisis. Not only would this address a need in our community, but it would also be good for the Market itself. Developing a mix of affordable and market rate apartments would provide a reliable source of income for the market as well as create a captive audience for their vendors to sell to. Food deserts are often discussed extensively in planning circles, and yet the Regional Market offers an opportunity for fresh food and produce oriented development (maybe not as catchy as transit oriented development, but still providing direct access to needed resources).

Gateway entrance to NBT Bank Stadium and the Regional Market at the corner of Hiawatha Blvd and Tex Simone Dr, as shown in the Hiawatha - Lodi Brownfield Opportunity Area plan.

The cornerstone of these new structures should be the vacant warehouse across Tex Simone Dr. Back in 2012, the brownfield opportunity area plan for Hiawatha Blvd saw this corner as an opportunity to create an appealing entrance to the market / ballpark district, including a large welcome sign that straddles Tex Simone Drive, announcing your entrance into a true destination. I support this vision, and I believe anchoring that corner with a large, mixed-use building, provides the best opportunity to truly transform how we view the entire district. Building off the success of the Hiawatha Heights Apartments next-door, which converted an old industrial building into residential lofts, the construction of a new, mixed-use building can help solidify the transition of the neighborhood away from its industrial past and into a modern, urban center.

In addition to the new mixed-use buildings lining the Market, improved pedestrian and bicycle connections will be sorely needed. Currently, the only sidewalk available on Hiawatha Blvd sits outside of the new CubeSmart self storage facility (not my favorite commercial property use, but better than a vacant building). Tex Simone Dr has no sidewalks to speak of. And NBT Bank Pkwy only has a sidewalk along its northern curb from Tex Simone Dr to the RTC. Pedestrian connections into the Market area are non-existent, while crossing any of the surrounding streets is a dangerous task. The first step to addressing these gaps is to fill them. Every curb should be lined with sidewalks, providing easy pedestrian access to all of the key anchor destinations in this area. Next, we must address the lack of safe crossing opportunities. In 2019, SMTC conducted a mobility study of the Market area that highlighted potential opportunities to narrow some of the surrounding roadways and improve crossings.This includes adding pedestrian islands at the Park St / Hiawatha Blvd intersection and bike lanes along Hiawatha Blvd. It’s encouraging to note that many of these changes are being pursued by the City of Syracuse in the coming years.

One thing the SMTC study does not address is the potential narrowing of NBT Bank Pkwy. The street, from curb to curb, has a typical width of around 50 ft with 4 travel lanes. With around 3,500 vehicles per day, this street is extremely overbuilt and encourages drivers to travel over the speed limit regularly. While turning lanes are needed at the Park St intersection, the majority of the street’s length can and should be reduced to one lane in each direction, with a turning lane into the RTC to assist the movement of buses. With this extra space, on-street parking can be implemented along with wider sidewalks and street trees. A mid-block crossing, with curb extensions, from the Market to the RTC should be implemented to improve connections for transit riders and travelers alike while slowing drivers through squeezing the roadway.

Now that we have addressed access around the Market, we should turn our attention to its interior and focus on improving the mobility of visitors along with the overall experience. This begins by restricting vehicle movements and expanding pedestrian spaces. First, we must remove the parking lanes that directly line the Market sheds. These spaces are highly coveted due to their close proximity to the vendors, but also encourage drivers to circle close to where most people are walking, creating conflicts and spewing exhaust right where people are mingling. Instead, these spaces should be converted to green spaces with sidewalks and trees. Some vehicle access will need to be maintained to allow vendors to access their stalls and for the Market shuttle to drop visitors off. Minimal access should be provided for customers. Some additional parking can be added in the far northeast corner, but a better option would be to utilize the parking lot at NBT Bank Stadium, while expanding the shuttle service for visitors in those lots. Syracuse Mets games typically start at 6:35pm, with gates open at 5:35pm. With the Market closing at 2pm, there should be no overlap in the use of the parking lots. The fewer parking spaces within the Market property, the more land that can be repurposed as park space.

One type of parking that should be included within the Market property is bike parking. Currently, the only bike parking available sits at the corner of Farmers Market Pl and Park St, a truly unpleasant place to be let alone leave your bike. Instead, the Market should consider providing indoor bike parking / lockers, as well as a large bike corral directly behind the Market Commons building that sits along Park St. It’s imperative to provide convenient, safe bike parking if you hope to encourage more people to ride to the Market.

As we look at the uses inside the Market grounds, we should take some inspiration from the revitalization plans that were released last year (and are currently removed from their website). The plans called for the redevelopment of the Commission Houses into a food hall, similar to the Salt City Market in Downtown Syracuse. While this is an intriguing idea, a food hall may be better positioned at a location along the edge of the property, providing easier access throughout the week. This could occupy one of the larger empty spaces in the Market Commons building, or even the first floor of any new development at the vacant warehouse on Tex Simone Dr.

Market Commons would benefit from more dining options, and potentially a sports bar that ties itself into the local sports history of the ballpark down the street. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, there are no good dining and drinking options near the ballpark, which prevents fans from lingering in the neighborhood before or after a ballgame. Finding ways to tie the ballpark closer to the Regional Market is key to the future of the district. This may include working with the Syracuse Mets to hold more afternoon games, perhaps even calling them Market Days, to tie into the energy of both community anchors.

Market Commons vacancy with windows.jpeg

At its heart, we must improve the areas used by vendors, including providing more space for refrigeration and electrical hookups. These are functional items that vendors have expressed a need for and that more modern markets are providing. If this requires the demolition of some of the older structures, we should be open to that, as long as their replacements offer the better amenities and functionality. We should preserve as much of the historic structures as possible, but we should not let their histories prevent us from creating a more functional market space for vendors and visitors.

The Market area, and the greater Northside neighborhood in which it sits, has a lot of potential. From the Market and the RTC to the ballpark and Destiny USA, so many of our regional assets sit close together, yet feel completely disconnected from one another. As we have discussions surrounding the future of the Market, it’s the perfect time to dream big and create a true destination on the Northside.

An active market day, despite the rain in May.

Smaller apartment buildings can easily fit into neighborhoods with single family and multi-family homes.

Renters Matter, Too

July 31, 2024

Housing continues to be a hot topic, both locally and nationally. The cost of housing, both to rent and to own, continues to rise, putting pressure on individuals and families. Organizations, activists, and planners have all been working to expand housing in hopes that abundance may help regulate price increases. At the same time, just as many organizations, activists, and other community leaders have focused on blocking development they deem out of character with their communities. As a result, after many years of being ignored, the discussion about housing is finally front and center, and the public comments are not always pretty.

After every local news story about a housing development or housing study, one thing becomes clear in the comments on social media: a vocal disdain for renters and rental properties.

While just a small sample, the above Facebook comments are not uncommon. Rental properties are seen as a burden on a community and renters bring quality of life problems for homeowners and have no investment in their neighborhoods. As a renter myself, this obviously does not reflect how I view renters and I believe the perpetuation of these views negatively impacts our communities. So let us respond to some of these concerns and offer up a defense of renters as our neighbors.

One of the primary arguments individuals make against adding rental housing, or more dense housing in general, is that it does not fit with the character of their neighborhood. In their new book, Escaping the Housing Trap, Charles L Marohn Jr and Daniel Herriges argue against this view:

“Shouldn’t a community have the right to say ‘no’ to unwanted change? Buried in the premise of the question is that refusing change is an option. But that’s not the case. Change is inevitable. A community that has lost all affordable, starter housing already has changed, irreversibly. It is only the buildings that have not. Cities must be living, evolving, complex things…Preservation is taxidermy.”

While the authors are specifically focused on addressing the lack of affordable housing, defined as affordable for varying levels of income not just low-income housing, the emphasis on allowing change in all neighborhoods is key. Families have moved to suburban areas seeking homogeneity and stability. As a result, they fight to prevent the community they have moved into from changing. But this is not sustainable. Others deserve the opportunity to move into areas that offer access to services they desire and need, such as school districts, medical care, and job opportunities. Refusing rental housing blocks many individuals and families who were not lucky enough to buy property decades ago at lower prices and ride the wave of rising home values from moving into areas of opportunity.

But we will come back to the need for more housing. Let us instead focus on the arguments against renters themselves.

A lot of rental housing in Syracuse and smaller cities include two-family homes and single family homes.

Often you will see people describe individuals who rent as less invested in their respective communities. The view here is that because they have not purchased their homes, they are less tied to their communities and more likely to leave after only a short period of time.

While this argument may sound reasonable on its face, it forgets the many renters who spend decades in the same apartment or home. It forgets the many reasons someone may choose to rent long term instead of buying. It forgets that renters are also tax payers, and pay into the same property taxes (through their rents) that homeowners do.

So why do people choose to rent?

Renting offers individuals flexibility. Recent articles in the New York Times discuss when people should consider buying versus renting and it often comes down to long term plans. Unless you plan to live in a neighborhood for 10+ years, buying a home ends up being a worse financial decision. This is a result of down payments, broker’s fees, interest rates, and repairs.

Repairs and home maintenance are underappreciated costs. For many individuals who do not have general repair skills (myself included) the cost of hiring qualified professionals to take care of plumbing, electrical, and other maintenance issues can run high. Renters, provided they have responsive and organized landlords, usually have these maintenance fees baked into their rents and can expect prompt corrections to issues as they arise. Yes, plenty of landlords do not live up to these expectations. In fact, some landlords in Syracuse are suing the City to prevent code enforcement officers from inspecting their units without warrants. These inspections are aimed at reducing lead exposure and other hazards. These landlords must be held accountable as they are responsible for the safety of all of their tenants. Allowing one- and two-family homes to avoid this level of inspection is irresponsible at best, and criminal at worst.

Common Space offers smaller apartment units with large, shared spaces geared towards creating more communal living in urban centers.

Many renters also choose to rent due to the lack of diversity in housing stock. In most American cities, including Syracuse, you either have the option to rent an apartment or buy a detached single-family home. While this has been billed as the “American Dream” for several decades, it no longer fits the needs of many American households. While our country has grown, family sizes have shrunk, even while our homes have grown larger. In 2020, I wrote about the need to redefine what the “standard American home” means, arguing that most homes do not need 2,000+ square feet of space to accommodate 2 or 3 people. Townhouses, rowhouses, smaller multi-family buildings can provide needed and more appropriately sized space for these smaller households that are may desire lower levels of upkeep. These denser housing types also create opportunities to provide transit and active transportation facilities that larger lots and houses make difficult. Unfortunately, many townhouses within the Syracuse area today are not built in an urban context, but instead in suburban subdivisions which continue to separate people from their day-to-day needs. Providing a homeownership option that fits their needs in a truly urban setting may convince many renters to buy, but currently their only option to live in these types of neighborhoods is to rent.

While not traditional townhouses, the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse mimics traditional townhome and brownstone construction seen in larger cities and in Syracuse, historically.

And yet, many view anything smaller than these large, detached homes as squeezing people into tin cans or barracks. They view urban settings, including apartment buildings and townhouses as inhumane. Yet zoning that restricts the development of denser housing more often leads to overcrowding as the number of housing units does not keep pace with the number of households. As a result, extended families crowd into single homes and people must live with more roommates than they would desire otherwise. The below graphic from California YIMBY illustrates these differences clearly.

The final argument against renters I will discuss in this post, is one I have addressed in numerous other posts - the lack of parking. People will argue that denser housing, usually apartments that do not provide off-street parking, will cause neighborhood streets to become clogged with cars. While there may be slight increases in on-street parking usage in the short term, as we promote density, more residents will find themselves closer to their day-to-day needs, perhaps even within walking distance, and opting to own fewer vehicles. If concerns arise over the overuse of on-street parking, residential parking permit programs with caps on the number of vehicles can help limit the number of vehicles on the street. But it is important to note that renters and owners are just as likely to park on the street in many neighborhoods.

We must remember that we all have different needs and desires when it comes to housing. Many people will desire home ownership, but many others find renting fits their needs better. In the end, we are all part of the same community and should welcome having more neighbors, especially if they are looking to invest in their neighborhoods, be it through money or time. Renters matter in our communities so let us open our arms to more of them.

Many of Syracuse’s historic buildings have been converted into apartments and mixed-use developments over the past 20 years.

The Valley of the Sun - A Land of (Sub)Urban Extremes

March 21, 2024

The desert - a place we often associate with vast, seemingly empty space. Where animals are often nocturnal to avoid the daytime heat and cacti have adapted to live off the minimal amounts of rain that comes each year. It's more associated with surviving than thriving. And yet, one of the United States’ fastest growing cities has sprung from the desert.

Phoenix, Arizona is sometimes derided as a suburban hellscape. Just an endless sea of sprawl that reaches for miles in all directions, sucking up the few resources that surround it, resulting in never ending conversations around drought and water supply. Yet, while it receives harsh critiques, many of which are warranted, there are signs that things are changing and a more sustainable version of the Valley may be on its way.

As I like to do when I visit different urban environments across the country, let’s take a look at what’s working, what’s not working, and some of the promising changes greater Phoenix is experiencing. While you’ll be hard pressed to find a city more different than Syracuse in terms of climate, that does not mean there aren’t things we can learn from it. It is also important to remember that these are really only first impressions, as no amount of short visits can tell the lived experience of the region.

With that in mind, let’s start with the bad - Lanes, lanes, and more lanes.

Los Angeles, often considered a car centric city with its wide highways cutting through the Hollywood Hills and its bumper to bumper traffic, is nearly 3x as densely populated (8,304 people/sq mile) as Phoenix (3,104 people/sq mile) when just looking at the central cities. Daily transit usage is roughly 8x higher in Los Angeles while the metropolitan area is home to roughly 2.5x more people. As a result, Phoenix amplifies these roadway issues as nearly everyone drives. Many neighborhoods are bordered by major arterials with 5-7 travel lanes and vehicles moving at 40+ mph. Add on top of that the incredible amount of highways that criss cross their way across the region. Traveling across the Valley, you run into multiple highway expansion projects, a signal that the region is doubling down on car infrastructure, enshrining personal vehicles as its primary mode of transportation into the future.

Not only are the streets and roadways built for ever increasing car traffic, your destinations are increasingly oriented around never leaving your car as well. Drive-thru salads, cafes, and even liquor stores line many of the main streets outside of the city center. Cars queueing up to wait 10-30 minutes wind their way onto side streets, backing up traffic and block crosswalks. In many ways, suburban Phoenix shows what suburban Syracuse is approaching if changes aren’t made soon. Tully’s has proposed a drive-thru version of its restaurant and Chick-fil-as are sprouting up with increasing frequency throughout our suburbs.

As a result of these development patterns, it should come as no surprise that Phoenix and its neighbor, Mesa, are considered two of the 10 most dangerous cities to drive in, ranking 6th and 8th respectively. In my short time in the metro area, multiple car crashes blocked intersections and rerouted traffic. Fast moving cars, weaving across multiple lanes are simply a recipe for disaster.

On top of the dangers for drivers, Arizona is ranked as one of the deadliest states in the country for people walking. As dangerous as it is for drivers to traverse multiple lanes in order to turn, the extremely wide intersections leave people on foot and on bikes exposed to danger for longer. Multiple turning lanes also make it difficult for people walking to be confident that all cars are stopped, reducing the feeling of safety. Ultimately, when you do not feel safe walking, you work to find another way to get around, often in a car, leaving the streets more dangerous for those without any other option. Most people in Syracuse would choose to avoid walking on Erie Blvd E or Genesee St in Fayetteville or Rt 31 in Clay. But when your neighborhood is encircled by roadways of that scale, it is hard to avoid.

While sidewalks are almost always present, providing a dedicated space for people to walk, bike lanes are still expanding their reach. Where they do exist, the quality ranges dramatically. For every wide, protected lane, there are multiple skinny lanes pushed into the gutter that drop out suddenly before reappearing hundreds of feet further down the road. This is not just a problem around Phoenix, Mesa, and Tempe, but across the country. This problem is especially acute on the multi-lane arterials where drivers are racing, leaving people riding bikes vulnerable whether they are riding in a painted lane or on the side of the road. In Tempe, which has a Vision Zero program, at least one of its Safety Corridors, W University Dr, does not do much to prioritize safe movements of vehicles and includes very little room for its bike lane. I’ll come back to this area again later in the piece as there are some really positive things happening nearby.

And the final piece of bad news before we start looking at the positives - never ending seas of car storage.

As a metropolitan area that is dedicated to the personal vehicle, there’s an overwhelming need for car storage at all destinations. Angled street parking was a common sight around Mesa, but often that parking simply lined the curb outside of a parking lot. Even the roomy parking-protected bike lane primarily ran next to businesses surrounded by their own parking lot, reducing the likelihood of cars acting as a barrier between riders and moving vehicles. To give you a sense of the problem, there is an estimated 2.4 million cars register in the State of Arizona, but there are over 12 million parking spaces in just the Phoenix metropolitan area. All of that asphalt not only makes it unpleasant to walk in most parts of the metro area, but it also intensifies the incredible heat the area experiences during the summer months. Anyone who has ever walked through a parking lot in the summer knows just how hot it can be, but now imagine that walk when its 115 degrees out and there are no trees to shade you. The heated asphalt can even result in severe burns to those unfortunate enough to touch it with their bare skin.

But this is where we start to see some positives, and it comes from an historic form of architecture - the stoa.

Mesa - Covered walkways

Tempe Marketplace

Stoa are covered walkways often found in ancient architecture in Greece, Rome, and Spain. Downtown Mesa, which exudes traditional southwest charm in its architecture, employs stoa throughout. The coverings create pleasantly shaded paths and often include both public benches and outdoor dining opportunities. While the stoa are used to help combat the intense sunshine and heat the Phoenix area experiences, the same technique can and should be used in our colder, wetter climates to provide people walking with cover from rain and snow. In New York City, sidewalk sheds, while intended to be temporary, often provide this benefit during storms. Downtown Syracuse has lost many of its awnings and coverings over time, which becomes apparent when you see historical photos and paintings of the area.

While stoa offer up much needed shade, they also help to expand outdoor dining opportunities for bars and restaurants. As a city that enjoys sunshine nearly all year round, outdoor dining and drinking is a common occurrence - on sidewalks out front, patios in the back, and roof tops. While northern cities like Syracuse can’t as easily provide this level of outdoor activation, we can do more than people often think. By including more covered spaces, outdoor patios and rooftops can be activated for most of the year, especially if heating lamps are strategically placed throughout. Unlike Phoenix, whose residents are spoiled with sunny days, our northern cities see all available outdoor spaces filled from the first sunny day in spring to the last grasp of warmth in the fall. We should identify ways to make these spaces work in all weather.

Sticking to this desire to be outside in social settings, suburban Phoenix has increasingly embraced outdoor malls with pedestrian centers. Tempe Marketplace, while surrounded by a moat of car storage, provides a dense, walkable environment for visitors. Yes, at its core it is simply a mall, primarily occupied by national chains and privately controlled, but it offers the possibility of becoming more than just a mall. As the need for housing expands, the large parking lots that surround the shopping center can easily be developed into housing, allowing residents to live within easy walking distance to many of their daily needs. Enclosed malls can also see some of this infill and conversion, but the focus on interior access makes redevelopment more difficult.

Now I may have been harsh on mobility across the Valley, and rightfully so, but there are some bright spots that deserve some attention.

Let’s start back with that parking protected bike lane mentioned earlier. This concept is not new and has been used extensively throughout New York City and other cities across the country. But I want to highlight the use of this technique in Phoenix, one of the most car obsessed metro areas in the country, in contrast to Syracuse’s reluctance to explore their use after neighbors caused an uproar over one near Syracuse University over a decade ago. While the execution of that bike lane was less than desirable, it is beyond time to revisit their use as a low-cost and effective way to protect bike lanes throughout the city.

In Tempe, some neighborhood streets are utilizing raised intersections to slow vehicles, making it safer for people to ride bikes and walk across the street. By spreading these intersections along a street, cars are never able to pick up speed before they need to slow down once again, reinforcing safer speeds. Similar techniques have been used closer to Syracuse, with a high profile example in Philadelphia’s City Center neighborhood. Concerns will always be raised about maintenance, especially regarding impacts on plowing, but those concerns are truly unfounded. Similar to raised intersections, the City of Syracuse has been piloting speed cushions on neighborhood streets throughout the city. After 2 years, there has been no documented evidence of issues with plowing. If anything, a fully raised intersection may be even easier to navigate for plows as they should be moving through intersections at slower speeds to begin with.

Tempe - Raised intersection

Tempe - Scooter drop zone

Mesa - Valley Metro Rail station

Valley Metro Rail

Beyond improving the movements on our streets, Tempe is setting an example of how to handle dockless scooters. In spring 2022, social media around Syracuse was lighting up with complaints over where the new e-scooters were being left - blocking sidewalks, in parking spaces, on front lawns, etc. Since then, there has been little movement on providing better spaces for scooters to be left when they’re no longer in use. In contrast, Tempe has taken action in its downtown core by creating simple drop zones near intersections. These drop zones are painted spaces with a scooter symbol in areas already signed for no parking. As a result, they act as an additional reinforcement to daylighting regulations, where cars are prohibited to park in order to enhance visibility within an intersection. Similar techniques have been used with great success in Hoboken, NJ, which has not seen a traffic death in over 7 years. To encourage the use of these new drop zones, Tempe has worked with the e-scooter providers to enact fees and penalties for not leaving their scooters within the designated areas. Syracuse, and other cities with micro mobility options, should explore similar policies once drop zones are implemented and widely spread across neighborhoods.

All of this begins to add up to some of the more promising projects occurring around the region, all of which are building off the investment the region made in light rail. While Valley Metro Rail is fairly limited in scope, dense development has followed in its wake.

Five and six story residential buildings are popping up across the Valley within easy walking distance of the light rail corridor. While they are primarily residential only, some mixed-use development is popping up as well, with many buildings facing the main corridor while placing whatever parking they do provide in less visible locations.

Culdesac interior street

Culdesac bar / restaurant

Culdesac secure bike parking

Other housing construction near Culdesac

As a sign of what may be possible in the near future, a much talked about new development, Culdesac, is aiming to show that even in this car dominated region, you can live car free. This development, located directly at a light rail station, emphasizes car-free living, providing secure bike parking throughout, narrow pedestrian only streets, small courtyards, and commercial/retail outlets sprinkled along the first floor of many buildings. While the development was in soft launch mode while we walked around in early March 2024, you could get a sense of what the place was aiming to be - a fully integrated community. The small shops are meant to serve not only residents of Culdesac, but also the hundreds of apartments popping up nearby. A bar/restaurant sits at the entrance to the development as you cross from the light rail station, with outdoor seating lining the sidewalk. This choice emphasizes the need for social third places for neighbors to come together.

Now this type of development may not be possible everywhere, but its staking out a claim in a region that has been hostile to pedestrian and transit oriented developments. As the Syracuse region eyes significant growth for the first time in decades, we should look to ambitious developments like Culdesac for ideas on how to increase walkability even in more suburban environments. Locate your developments where transit investments are occurring, emphasize access to daily needs, and create spaces that are human scale.

Even though the Valley of the Sun mostly remains a cautionary tale in terms of urban development, there are plenty of lessons we can learn, both good and bad, from its growth. Let’s make sure we learn the right ones.

The Movie Theater at the Urban Core

January 31, 2024

A common theme that we hear in recent years is that we are always connected but never truly connecting. Our phones and computers allow us to constantly check in on friends, family, news items, and go down rabbit holes of our own. But it is often lamented that this ultra connection has severed our connection with the here and now.

I agree with this sentiment to a certain extent, especially as someone who struggles to put down their phone throughout the day, and that’s why my interest was sparked on a recent episode of the Ezra Klein Show podcast. The episode, which focused on how to find your own aesthetic taste, took a short detour to talk about going to the movies. In 2024, the movie theatre is one of the last places where being on your phone is frowned upon, and often results in people expressing their displeasure vocally. The importance of this is not the public pressure to stay off your phone, but the result that you are forced to engage fully with the story in front of you, developing your own meanings and takeaways, before you are able to be influenced by outside sources.

Obviously you may be influenced by a review you read or the opinion of a friend before you go. But at the moment, you’re focused on the screen. Developing questions, forming connections, and determining your opinions on the work in front of you. This is why the movie theater is important and why we should find ways to work them back into our urban fabric.

For over 100 years, movies have brought strangers together and the movie theater has been at the center of the action.

Former Brighton Theater

The Palace Theatre

Starting out as novelty where crowds famously feared that a train was barreling down on them, the medium quickly became an artful way to tell stories and explore new ideas. By the early 1900s, small neighborhood theaters and nickelodeons (named after the price of entry) were popping up across cities and towns. Due to their limited space and small screens, these first small theaters filled storefronts in neighborhood business districts, playing collections of short films (15-20 minutes typically). By 1908, over 8,000 of these nickelodeons were spread across the US, with many packed to the brim with customers in standing room only conditions.

But soon, these small theaters gave way to larger venues aimed at playing longer films and providing more comfortable settings. In the later 1910s and into the 1920s, larger neighborhood theaters, akin to Syracuse’s still standing Palace Theater, began to anchor their respective urban neighborhoods. When looking at lists of theaters across the City of Syracuse during this time, as provided in Norman O. Keim’s Our Movie Houses: A History of Film & Cinematic Innovation in Central New York, you see this mini movie palaces popping up in each neighborhood, such as the Brighton Theater on S Salina St or the Westcott Cinema on Westcott St.

While these neighborhood gems served their communities as gathering spaces, the true palaces were reserved for urban downtowns.

The RKO Keith’s, the Paramount, and, of course, the Loew’s State Theatre, now known as the Landmark, were grand cinema houses that lined S Salina St in Downtown Syracuse. Their opulence set them apart from all other movie theaters in the region and formed the core of a theater district who’s impact is still felt today.

Pantages Theater - Minneapolis

James M. Nederlander Theatre - Chicago

Movie palaces of this scale allowed the average citizen to escape into a world of royalty for a few hours, as most feature films were accompanied by short films and news reels before the main attraction rolled. Movies were events that allowed you to stay informed and engage with the culture of the day.

Throughout the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, a select few films, often musicals or big budget historical epics, would utilize a promotional technique known as the roadshow. Roadshows would travel the country to these magnificent movie palaces and be presented on the scale of a live performance. Often props, or replicas of props, would follow the film to create buzz around the community. Classics such as the Sound of Music, the Ten Commandments, and Gone with the Wind were all presented in this fashion.

Slowly this elevated place of movies within the culture would fade. The advent of TV in the 1950s, home video in the 1980s, and the swift currents of suburbanization would zap the cultural relevance of the movie theater. Soon, multiplexes, especially in suburban shopping malls, would come to dominate the industry. In Syracuse, many of our neighborhood theaters would close, from the Genesee Theater in Westvale Plaza to Cinema North in Mattydale, or transition out of the business, as the Palace Theater in Eastwood has. Movie going habits would continue to shift and the experience would become more common place and less of a to-do. In many ways, this is a positive, as more and more people were able to take part, but the importance of the theater in our lives would diminish as it would become buried the commercial landscape.

This decline would accelerate even further over the last several years as TV screens have grown larger, streaming services have taken over, and our attention spans have dwindled. When I talk to friends about going to the movies, often they’ll opt to wait for the movie to come out on streaming so they can watch it at home. They’ll complain about the cost, the uncomfortable seats, the unwillingness to travel to the mall (or fear of the mall as some unfortunately feel), or the belief that their TV is a good substitute.

So why do I bring this up? Movie theaters still exist. Even in Syracuse we still have a few options (Regal, Movie Tavern, the Manlius Cinema, and the Hollywood). Why should we care about movie theaters? And how does this relate to our urban fabric?

We will never go back to the golden age of cinema, and it probably is not desirable to. While going to the movies was an event, it wasn’t always accessible to everyone, and it still isn’t. Multiplexes, like Regal and Movie Tavern, allow people to see a far wider variety of movies than the single screen theaters of the past allowed, and streaming allows for even more variety.

While our viewing habits may have changed permanently, we should still celebrate the moments we are able to gather together as a community and have a collective experience. We should be given moments where we are fully engaged in a cultural event that we not only shape our own views on without constant distractions, but also connect with others as they do the same.

The legacy theaters, such as the Manlius Cinema and Palace Theater, should be preserved and encouraged to keep working as movie theaters. They should be encouraged to curate content that is distinct from the multiplexes and provide experiences typically only available in larger cities. We should encourage the development of other neighborhood theaters that tie into local coffee shops, restaurants, bars, etc. The Little Theater in Rochester is a prime example of a local theater acting as its own center of gravity to benefit the community around it.

For our former cinema palaces, such as the Landmark Theatre, explore opportunities to revisit their legacies of hosting roadshows. While many have been converted to handle traveling Broadway shows, which has seen tremendous success, there are opportunities to re engage with their cinematic histories. Schedule special screenings of movie musicals or grand epics, both new and old. Host film festivals, including for local student filmmakers, providing them an opportunity to see their work in a unique venue.

In the end, this is really just a call for each of us to find new, or old, ways to engage, as any good city should allow you to do. Our best urban spaces and experiences will give you a reason to disconnect from your devices and embrace a shared experience. But for now, maybe let’s just start by seeing a movie. And don’t forget the popcorn.