Blodgett School Success
by Aaron Hudson
The success stories of the Near West Side Initiative (NWSI) continue with the latest news about Blodgett School, located in the Northeast side of the SALT District. According to Central New York Real-Time News, Blodgett School has been removed from the State Education Department’s list of “schools under registration review” list. The schools of the Syracuse City School District are held to a state standard that requires its pupils to meet a Math and English Skill Requirement Level before being removed from this list. As of February 16th, 2010, Blodgett’s students have met this criterion for grades 3 through 8 in the Math portion of the standard.
State Education Commissioner-David Steiner says that schools under registration review are those farthest away from meeting standards on state-wide test and could face possible closure if improvements are not made. Blodgett has a long-standing history in the SALT District, having been constructed there in 1915. Sitting in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation, Blodgett is due for a makeover. With the help of President Barack Obama’s $819 billion stimulus plan, $30 million should filter into the city’s school district. $14.3 million of that is dedicated to school construction. Coupling this construction plan with the efforts of the NWSI, not only will these projects beautify a community, but it will also provide jobs to those within the community.
“Combining the power of art, technology, and innovation with neighborhood values and culture to revitalize Syracuse’s Near Westside” is the NWSI’s mission. Revitalization doesn’t have to only start from the outside; it can start from the inside as well. Blodgett’s student and the success of the administration have started their part to help revitalize their community. Congratulations!
Downtown Dining Weeks start Monday
Written on February 9th, 2010 by Don Cazentre of the Post Standard
A record number of downtown Syracuse restaurants will participate in this year’s version of “Downtown Dining Weeks,” a two-week promotion that offers 3-course meals for $25 or less at participating eateries.
The 19 restaurants will offer the discounts this year from Feb. 15 to Feb. 27, in what is otherwise a slow midwinter time for the restaurant business.
This year, the Downtown Dining Weeks promotion also offers participants the opportunity to make a donation for Haiti earthquake relief through the American Red Cross. At most participating restaurants, the cash registers have been programmed to allow the donation to be added directly to the bill.
This is the 6th year for Downtown Dining Week, and the second year that the promotion has been expended to two full weeks.
“We see about 25 to 30 percent more business during the Dining Week period,” said David Katleski, owner of Empire Brewing Co. “And this year, the opportunity to help the Haiti relief effort is awesome.”
At some participating restaurants, reservations are required. Here are the participants:
Ale ‘N Angus Pub 238 Harrison St. 426‐9672
Anthony’s Pasta Bar 126 E. Genesee St. 422‐4669
bc Restaurant 247 W. Fayette St. 701‐0636
Bistro Elephant 238 W. Jefferson St. 475‐1111
Black Olive 316 S. Clinton St. 399‐5599
Bull & Bear Pub 125 E. Water St. 701‐3064
Dinosaur Bar‐B‐Que 246 W. Willow St. 476‐4937
Empire Brewing Company 120 Walton St. 475‐2337
J. Ryan’s Pub 253 E. Water St. 399‐5533
Kitty Hoyne’s Irish Pub 301 W. Fayette St. 424‐1974
L’Adour 110 Montgomery St. 475‐7653
Lemon Grass 238 W. Jefferson St. 475‐1111
The Mission 304 E. Onondaga St. 475‐7344
Opus 218 Walton St. 701‐1351
Pascale Wine Bar & Restaurant 204 W. Fayette St. 471‐3040
Pastabilities 311 S. Franklin St. 474‐1153
PJ’s Pub & Grill 116 Walton St. 478‐3023
Syracuse Suds Factory 320 S. Clinton St. 471‐2253
Wise Guys Restaurant 201 S. Salina St. 214‐4596
Otisco Street ‘green’ home will be replicated nearby
Taken From Post Standard. Written By Marie Morelli
Syracuse, NY — While a construction crew builds the innovative green home named TED on Otisco Street, plans are being made to build TED’s brother in the same Near West Side neighborhood.
TED was one of three winners of the From the Ground Up architecture competition sponsored by Home HeadQuarters, Syracuse University School of Architecture and the Syracuse Center of Excellence.
The point of the competition was to come up with designs for sustainable, affordable, energy-efficient homes that would replace blighted properties and attract new residents to the Near West Side. The homes also would be a template for future development.
A second TED house is in the works, likely for Oswego Street, said Karen Schroeder, marketing and resource development manager for Home HeadQuarters. The group’s construction manager is working with the architects from Onion Flats, Philadelphia, to tweak the design.
“We’ve been looking to replicate some of these things,” Schroeder said Friday. “We just found a real response to the TED design.”
To read the rest of the article, click here.
Making spirits bright, one bike at a time
Via The Post-Standard, Written by John Berry
The 14th annual Central New York Family Bike Giveaway will be Saturday at Fowler High School in Syracuse. The doors open at 11 a.m. and reservations are not required.
Bike donations can be dropped off through Thursday at the Toyota Exhibit Building at the New York State Fairgrounds; Wayne’s & Meltzer’s Syracuse Bicycle, 2540 Erie Blvd. E.; the Cricket store, 3150 Erie Blvd. E.; and Advanced Cyclery, 118 Seeley Road, Syracuse.
The seeds for this effort were planted during the childhood of project director Jan Maloff, of Syracuse, while he attended Charles Andrews Elementary School.
“I lived near Le Moyne College and would ride my bike past Elmcrest. In the ’60s, Elmcrest was an orphanage,” Maloff said. “It was really for kids that didn’t have a parent, or maybe had a parent with a problem, but nothing like you’d see today. Those kids all went to Charles Andrews School.
“I think they had two or three bicycles for five or six cottages up there. So I would play with these kids after school. They would ask to ride my bike, because that was a treat for them. They didn’t have a bicycle.
Jan Maloff, a DeWitt funeral director, tests out an adult tricycle after making some minor repairs.
“That’s how you got around when you were a kid. If you wanted to go somewhere, you got on your bicycle and you went,” he said. “We did a lot on bicycles when we were kids. A real part of Americana was having a bicycle.”
Maloff is still seeking volunteers to help with this year’s giveaway. He believes the giveaway handed out 2,000 bicycles last year and he said donations are about 25 percent this year. But there are still plenty of repairs to be done at the work site, which for the second year is at the fairgrounds.
“Without this kind of space to say ‘this is this line, and this is that line,’ it’s impossible to do. You need to spread these things out,” Maloff said. “I hope we get invited back because I wouldn’t know what to do if we had to go back to the old way. We just couldn’t do the volume.”
Maloff can be contacted at 446-7570 for more information. Tax deductible donations can be mailed to the giveaway at 4612 S. Salina St., Syracuse, NY 13205.
Buyers lined up for all three “From the Ground Up” houses on Syracuse’s Near West Side
Taken from Syracuse.com Written by Marie Morelli / The Post-Standard
From a construction standpoint, it was a fairly quiet, and wintry, week at the three From the Ground Up homes being built on the city’s Near West Side.
Windy conditions stopped framing in its tracks on the two Otisco Street houses, R-House at 619 Otisco and TED at 621 Otisco. R-House is still just a foundation. TED’s four walls are up but it has no roof as of yet.
On Monday, the windows went in on the Live Work Home house, 317-319 Marcellus St., as you can see in the photo above provided by Home Headquarters. Also during the week, the basement floor was poured and the radon mitigation system was installed.
Home HeadQuarters, Syracuse University School of Architecture and the Syracuse Center of Excellence sponsored the “From the Ground Up” design competition that challenged architects to come up with affordable, sustainable homes to help inject new life into the Near West Side, a blighted urban neighborhood a stone’s throw from downtown.
Home HeadQuarters is acting as general contractor on all three houses and is marketing them to buyers — successfully, as it turns out.
Home HeadQuarters has letters of intent from “interested, engaged buyers” for all three houses, said Karen Schroeder, marketing and resource development manager for Home HeadQuarters. A purchase offer on the Marcellus Street house was withdrawn in mid-November but another buyer has stepped in.
Backup offers on all three houses are still being accepted, she said.
The Project
The mission of the Near West Side Initiative (NWSI) is to combine the power of art, technology and innovation with neighborhood values and culture to revitalize Syracuse's Near West Side neighborhood.
Properties
Seriously inexpensive home/studio ownership opportunities.