Syracuse NY: A Brief Overview

syracuse new york is a pretty cool place [Music] syracuse is nationally known by college basketball fans as the home of syracuse university but that school really accounts for only a fraction of the city syracuse is nearly 200 years old and at one time the majority of salt consumed in the u.s came from syracuse giving it the name salt city syracuse once had a population of 220 000 people now it barely crosses 140 000. meanwhile the population of the u.s has more than doubled in a lot of ways syracuse is a typical upstate new york city losing out on the economic growth experienced by the rest of the us in the second half of the 20th century all right it's time to hit the streets um i think the landmark that stands out most of all to me in syracuse is hanover square anne over square is very historic buildings here date back from 1834 the oldest of any buildings in downtown syracuse these row houses give the square a really cozy feel and the park itself is just the right size compared to the buildings surrounding it there are at least five restaurants facing the square which contributes heavily to foot traffic and keeping people's eyes on the square so it's pretty safe the tallest building in syracuse is also here the state tower building at 311 feet i'm actually not really sure why it's called the state tower building because there don't seem to be any new york state offices here currently they're actually apartments up there in addition office space going for about 1 900 currently there are only two vacancies which is a good sign uh there's even an exclusive penthouse which is apparently too prestigious to have its price listed online so yeah high marks for hanover square it's the best place and it even has its own website another really impressive area in syracuse is armory square this area and the surrounding blocks are highly in demand for retail and dining the streets are relatively narrow which makes for a great walking experience and buildings are in pretty good shape syracuse is a city that loves red brick and its shows new buildings around the most which is the museum of science and technology here or on the red brick style to blend in with the historic buildings nearby i also find the circular design of west jefferson street around the most to be very cool and definitely making for an interesting street view i personally recommend the restaurant possibilities it's a fantastic restaurant and i enjoyed a delicious meal of chicken riggis which is a dish native to nearby utica new york syria is a great place to just stroll around in now it's time to check out what someone call the main square of syracuse clinton square erie canal used to run right through the middle of here in 1920 the erie canal got filled in a road was built and that stayed there until 2001 when the road was closed off and today's clinton square was built and the architecture around clinton square is phenomenal [Music] unfortunately not all these buildings generate a lot of foot traffic something which is really important for a public square the clinton exchange building for instance used to be a post office a building where people would be walking in and out all day now it's the headquarters for the pyramid company a company that owns malls and other things including destiny usa syracuse's mall and the sixth largest mall in the united states a real estate company doesn't attract nearly as much foot traffic as a post office does and foot traffic is super important to the vitality of a public square like clinton square the post standard building next door holds the offices or at least some of the offices of advanced publications a group that owns the syracuse post standard and the website syracuse.com this building doesn't have a single door facing the square so obviously that hurts foot traffic when architects build buildings it's important that they consider not just the way their building looks but how it will contribute to the surroundings i want to now turn our attention to the highways running through syracuse like many other u.s cities syracuse is in my opinion plagued by the negative impact that highways make on downtown cities in syracuse interstate 81 runs directly through the city north south from canada on its way to binghamton and areas south meanwhile interstate 690 runs east west connecting interstate 90 which runs slightly north to interstate 481 obviously any municipality that wants to call itself a serious city needs good highway access especially one without inter-city rail transit i always come with consequences though they disconnect neighborhoods that would otherwise have foot traffic between them and cause a lot of urban blight for syracuse i think the 690 does the most damage specifically where it intersects with the 81. let's see what that looks like the presence of these highways running right through the middle of the city has curtailed development here at the intersection of the 690 and 81 all these highlighted boxes are parking lots the red represents area that isn't used at all on the other side of the highway labeled with green there is a residential area which is completely separated from the downtown there is way too much parking available over here in syracuse probably because the land under and near the elevated highways is worth very little and not desirable for anything else really there have been talks of removing or rerouting this highway but whether or not that will ever happen is unclear this video will not be complete without sharing one of my favorite tidbits of recent syracuse history amazingly syracuse used to have its own light rail built in 1994 on existing tracks making syracuse the smallest city in the u.s at the time to have its own light rail the train started at the mall destiny usa and then continued south on the onondaga lake shore this lake by the way was at one time more polluted by some metrics than any other lake in the united states swimming in it has been banned since the year 1940. the train then headed south towards downtown syracuse where it makes a stop near armory square in front of syracuse's museum of science and technology and then headed further south to syracuse university from there seasonally it would head south to a place called jamesville a municipality outside of syracuse in 2008 due to poor levels of ridership the train line was discontinued i hope that one day it will make a return well i think i've covered pretty much everything that i want to today i know i was all over the place the goal of this video is basically just to expose people to the topic of syracuse because i think it's a fascinating city and i hope that you do too that's all for today i'll see you next time on the dc show

Channel: The DC Show

Views: 103,307

Keywords: Syracuse New York, Syracuse NY, Syracuse ny, syracuse ny, Syracuse history, syracuse tour, streets of syracuse, neighborhoods syracuse, downtown syracuse, syracuse ny downtown, syracuse downtown, hanover square syracuse, clinton square, armory square

Id: ARohgpPL_PY

Length: 7min 37sec (457 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 03 2020