• Alzheimer’s Association
  • 5 for CNY - Learn How
  • Land Bank - Restoring Properties
  • Hendricks Chapel General Banner
  • Syracuse Stage Murder on the Orient Express
  • CSEA_Help Wanted_Labor Relations

Celebrating Urban Life Since 1989

Menu Hamburger White
  • Syracuse Stage Murder on the Orient Express
  • 5 for CNY - Learn How
  • CSEA_Help Wanted_Labor Relations
  • Alzheimer’s Association
  • Hendricks Chapel General Banner
  • Land Bank - Restoring Properties

Crouse Health and Wellness Center at Sears Project Generates Conflict in Struggling Neighborhood

Why did the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance approve of the project when congregants and the resident community didn’t know about the deal?

What did the NAACP know and when?

List of local Groups and Individuals Selected to Participate in Process and Schedule of Engagement 

For decades, those familiar with the Southside recall the days when there was a Sears Roebuck and Company located in the neighborhood. Since that time the retailer abandoned the facility for Fayetteville, and then Dewitt. The S. Salina Street building with its unique design stands as a reminder of better days gone by. The Sears/Crouse project entails renovating the structure and transforming it into a drug rehabilitation center treating 1,400 clients per year.

When word of the Sears/Crouse Project began circulating around the city there were instant reactions, each on the opposite ends of the spectrum. There are those who maintain the Sears Building has been sitting there for years, why not do something productive with it? Many neighborhood residents, including interested community members had a visceral response to the facility’s location, “No, not here”.

Crouse Health and Wellness Center at Sears

The project seemed to appear out of nowhere with neighborhood groups active in the revitalization of the S. Salina Street corridor caught off guard. Due to the nature of the project, those in opposition appear to be saving their public comments for the TNT led meeting on the facility, scheduled for November, 17th at Danforth Middle School, 309 W. Brighton Ave. 1-3 pm. There’s fear expressed by many who don’t want to be identified, they don’t want the project but are in positions where they’re not free to speak their mind.

However, there’s a general consensus of residents and residential property owners in the area that they don’t want another non-taxable social services agency in the area. As one area property owner said, “Enough! look around the area and there are a number of facilities all located within walking distance.”  Upon review there appears to be a concentration of facilities as ominous as the city’s concentration of poverty.

“Click” on image to enlarge.

Rescue Mission has a campus that includes a homeless shelter, gym, state-of-the-art computer cluster for use by clients and a variety of other services in place for the vulnerable. Salvation Army has a facility on South Salina Street providing services. Then swing around to the Oxford Inn, homeless shelter located in the middle of a residential area. Clients are allowed in until a certain time and in the morning they’re put out, many hanging out in the neighborhood until its evening and time to check in. This doesn’t include the number of smaller facilities operated by SBH aka Syracuse behavioral healthcare; Syracuse Housing Authority is building within the same area to provide housing and services combined in a residential setting.  The Crouse/Sears project places a drug rehabilitation center in the center of it all.

The rejection isn’t about the projects need, its’ about location. When asked about land recently made available by tearing down Kennedy Square, a complex built specifically to provide affordable housing, Crouse/Sears Project response was interesting. The land that was once occupied by Kennedy Square is now “owned by New Nork State and COR Development”. The land is also within the area once pitched by Gov. Cuomo as a site of a dome, retail, and residential project. The massive project was scrapped when Syracuse Mayor Miner, nixed the idea.  Therefore, you can conclude that developing a project of this magnitude near the hospital becomes problematic. With the introduction of luxury living centers, owners of small lots in the area are being offered $200,000 the value of land in the immediate area has skyrocketed.

The building will be offering health related services therefore staff positions will be available to any applicant as the facility expands. In addition, the onsite Café will be hiring staff.

Rear view of Crouse Facility

As a medical facility, the center will pay no property taxes. The project claims the Café will generate $20,000 in Sales Tax revenue. The building fetches $16,000 annually in property tax, which is split between the city of Syracuse, Syracuse City School District and Onondaga County. If the building is no longer paying property taxes, replacing $16,000 with $20,000 is a net loss to the entire city as Sales Tax goes into the county coffers distributed to cities, towns and villages per a formula created by the Onondaga County legislature. Therefore, Sales Tax revenue to replace property tax means that our city and schools receive not one dime from the sale and reinvention of the iconic retailer’s building into a drug rehabilitation center.

Another reason being floated about the facility and its location, the Centro Bus Hub, the transit center is within walking distance of the proposed Sears/Crouse Project. With the explosion in opioid addiction in the suburbs it’s theorized that the location provides easy access for those coming into Syracuse for treatment from the surrounding suburbs which have been hit particularly hard by meth, bath salts, heroin and other drugs.

More Questions than answers regarding Crouse/Sears process

There’s a simultaneous silence and murmur going on within the Southside and throughout the community. Apparently, this project has been in the planning stages for a long time.  In July of 2018 Crouse/Sears Project began their campaign of meeting with stakeholders within the neighborhood. Recently, the list became public and what’s shocking is who is on the list, and who is not on the list. Why did they pick the suburban church Abundant Life to speak with before the African-American urban based churches? Why did the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance approve of the project when congregants and the resident community didn’t know about the deal? What did the NAACP know and when?

Records show that dozens have met with Crouse/Sears project representatives scheduled from July 3rd though the month of November 2018. In their statement about community involvement Crouse Hospital lists individuals and groups they’ve supported in the past in; The NAACP Annual Dinner and President Linda Brown-Robinson, Dunbar Centennial Gala, Crouse Health/George Kilpatrick’s Inspiration for the Nation, 100 Black men and more.

In the documents released to urbancny.com there’s a direct correlation between those receiving support for their ventures and inclusion in early briefings on the project. Many feigned ignorance when asked about the Crouse/Sears, “project, what project?” Many of those expressing support, live in pristine suburban neighborhoods that would never allow this type of development.

Sears CDTS meeting schedule 

  • Information regarding who met with who and when, the schedule that includes dozens of pastors, radio hosts, community groups and church organizations. Meetings began July 3rd, 2018

Sears-CH Partnering w Community

  • Crouse Hospital details what initiatives they’ve funded within the African American Community; NAACP – Freedom Fund Dinner, Dunbar Center, George Kilpatrick’s Power 620/Inspiration for the Nation, Abundant Life Church, and many more. There are questions surrounding community organizations possibly being compromised, disregarding  concerns of residents who’ve yet to be heard from. Who speaks for the Southside Community?

Sears CDTS site proposal

  • This document contains details of the project including size of facilities, magnitude of the drug crisis in the region and the benefits to having the facility located on S. Salina Street. Details including; swapping property Tax Revenue with Sales Tax revenue, a formula that contributes $0 to the Syracuse City School District, generating a net loss to the city.
E. Genesee at Irving Ave. a whole new community rises.

As we prepare for the decision on the future of Interstate 81, we need not look any further than the areas that once housed a black community. These areas are now home to “Communities-in-a-box”, expensive, upscale living centers complete with coffee shops and dog grooming stations.  Downtown, is growing with new renters and condo owners. Developers used their imaginations and created beautiful urban living centers on E. Genesee Street and Crouse, E. Genesee and Walnut Ave. These are for students and those who can afford $1,500 per bedroom, per month.

The concern of many in this neighborhood centers on colliding interests, institutions such as churches and outside organizations are threatening to usurp the authority of the resident community. This tension pits African American churches and pastors favoring the project in direct conflict with area residents.

Waltnut Ave. & E. Genesee St. “high end” Community-in a-Box

As consensus builds for the Community Grid, Interstate 81 option the opportunity is there to reconfigure our city in imaginative new ways.  That imagination could include the re-use of the former Sears Building, as roads are changed and new possibilities emerge.  Land once bound and restricted by the highway will be released for development.

There are some who dream that one day the S. Salina strip that includes the old Sears building could return to productive use. Productive use means different things to different people; residents wanted some configuration that included retail. The Sankofu Business District several blocks to the south, has constructed new retail space and there are plans to rehabilitate houses along that stretch of Salina Street.  The TNT concept of community based involvement and planning has a five year plan to bring back what was once prevalent on the city’s Southside, a functioning Commercial District.

With TNT handling the process, the Crouse Health and Wellness Center at Sears project is dead on arrival, if the resident community says, no.

 

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Inked at ArtRage Gallery

ArtRage 505 Hawley Avenue, Syracuse, NY, United States

Inked is an exhibition of new works by twelve graduate students & advanced students from the Print Media & Graphic Art program, in the School of Art at Syracuse University. […]

Easter Egg Hunt presented by Dunbar Center and Blueprint 15

Dunbar Center 1453 S. State St., Syracuse, United States

Easter Egg Hunt presented by Dunbar Center and Blueprint 15 March 30, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm. Kids of all ages are welcome, Egg decorating, Free Food and Refreshments. Contact […]

Local, State & National


Resources

Neighborhoods

Features

Contact Us