tobia, eo nomine

I’ve been talking with a couple of friends and work associates recently about the city of Syracuse and the neighborhoods within the city that are good places to live. There are generally four areas that you can consider the top places to live in the city of Syracuse, Sedgewick, Strathmore, Berkeley Park (part of the University Area) and James Street. There are other areas that are definitely becoming up and coming neighborhoods, with Hawley-Green being an excellent example of that. However, the question begs us which area of the city is going to be the next one to experience a renaissance. I have long been a proponent of living in the city. I find that the city offers much more than the suburbs do including proximity to many of the parks, restaurants, shops, and cultural centers of Syracuse.

What my friends and I have been mostly discussing, is the ability for a motivated group of individuals to purchase homes in some of the city’s other areas, or even in the outer regions of these neighborhoods, and to ensure that their community thrives. I would love nothing more than to gather a large group of people with a diverse background and willingness to create a sense of community and essentially take back one of the other neighborhoods in Syracuse and reshape it into the glory that it once was. I would love nothing more than to revitalize the Washington Square area. The George Zett House at 702 Danforth is an absolute gem and if the community surrounding it was just more concerned about the neighborhood it could be the prize of another historic revitalization area.

So I wonder what it takes to bring together concerned citizens like that and community organizations to reshape the face of a neighborhood.