That's hilarious. But it wasn't always so. Some years ago, the city dumped so much snow in Onondaga Creek they caused an ice dam. The Army Corps of Engineers had to blast the creek open & damaged the walls of the creek bed which helps prevent flooding in downtown. Oops.
What keeps many forgotten places like Syracuse alive? Student loans. ... and that folks is why the, "junk" majors will never go away because it is not about getting a skilled education - only a few people major in the hard stuff - It is about keeping forgotten places like Syracuse alive.
Ummm?? Nope God him self keeps Syracuse alive and all those who do good. This place is thriving and building every single year.. this dude googling what?? Lol from Wisconsin?? Lol Nobody would say this place is anything but blessed if they lived here.
Born and raised in Syracuse and it’s a shithole compared to how it was. You saying it’s blessed is wild. How many kids die from shootings a month I’m syr? Get real
I moved to the area recently. I think that it’s at a turning point. People who can work remotely are looking at the city and its environs and seeing a really vibrant place with lots of potential. If you like festivals, seasons, town and suburbs where there is a sense of community. Amazing food, a rich sense of culture and a celebration of peoples roots - this place is great. The countryside is amazing - lakes, waterfalls, hills and mountains within easy reach. It needs and is slowly undergoing rejuvenation. New industry is moving into the area - along with a growing realisation that remote workers can live anywhere - especially here where it’s VERY affordable - I think it’s best days are still to come.
I grew up in Syracuse but effectively moved away permanently when I enlisted in the Army in 1972. I always wanted to return to Syracuse but was never able to for economic reasons. I've now lived more than half of my adult life in California and expect to die here. Still, I miss my hometown and I remain a loyal fan of the Syracuse University Orange.
Same happened with me and NYC when I went into the military. It became too expensive and crowded for me to consider moving back even though there's a lot of friends and family still there. It's truly become a place to visit, but not live.
@@popi2971 I lived in the NYC area for a few years in the late 70's and early 80's. It was fun because I was young, but I wouldn't choose to live there anymore.
That’s wild I grew up in Syracuse and I live in Southern California but I spent last month back and Skaneateles as I still have family there as well as New Hampshire. As much as I love the weather in LaJolla California out of all places to live it’s just amazing but the cost of living is crazy since I do not own real estate and I’m 63 years old so not sure how much longer I’ll be able to life here. Plus, I really don’t like the politics at all and the high income tax not that I’m working any Longer, but it will affect my 401(k). What part of California do you live in?
I am from a LARGE family who was born in Syracuse, ALL my aunts, uncles, cousins have since moved to other states as the major employers closed. It WAS a great city and I will forever be grateful I got to experience it in the 70's and early 80's.
I was born and raised in Rochester, NY, and the exact same could be said for there. I'm glad I grew up there during the golden years of Kodak and Xerox in the 70's and 80's, because now it is a shadow of its former self. I move to NYC in 1993 and never looked back. Same with all of my relatives under 50. All have left for warmer climates years ago. Very sad to see former industrial cities like Syracuse and Rochester fall apart.
Same here, it's sad to see how poorly kept our city is, it was once a great city with many values, reasons to visit, good jobs, good schools. It's now become a crime riddled and unforgiving city
I come back from time to time after moving away after graduation. Always so insanely depressing, quite literally shocked at the conditions the city and the people live in.
I attended graduate school (MBA, 95) at Syracuse. My wife and I enjoyed our 2 years here and found the area nice, even in the winter. If not for the winter, it would have been on my lists of possible retirement sites but I was born in the South and like to look at winter but not stay there. Thy have serious winters in Syracuse!
Lived outside Syracuse in the 70's and graduated from the SU Business school in 77. Went to Houston after two years working in Syracuse. My parents move south to Ga. as soon as my dad retired. Anyone thinking about living there should look at the TAXES! Go on Zillow and look at the property TAXES, Our old house was $10,000 plus, compared to $3.000 for a much nicer house on a private island in Ga.) besides the state Income TAXES! Beautiful country 10 minutes outside of downtown, but a crying shame how the State has driven productive people to move.
I am from further north of Syracuse and I remember about 15 years ago Oswego county had 12 feet of snow dumped on them in 72 hours. It was nuts, but the plows will run 24/7 if needed. People up there usually own two cars, one is called the "winter rat" because the salt rots out the vehicles so fast and the other car is used for the rest of the year. People who have never been to NY only think of NY city and have no idea how beautiful the rest of the state is.
Worked in Syracuse for over a decade in 70s and 80s...lived south in Tully, NY. Still fly into Syracuse once a year. Not the same city any longer but new industry is moving in. Always enjoyed Syracuse..especially the University's basketball team. Worked at Carrier and GE for a brief period. Good memories. Beautiful countryside south on I-81.
Nice comment! I'm from up in Northern Ontario near Sault Ste Marie and am soon gonna whisk myself through these areas as I've met an old friend (biker) through online pinball tournaments whom lives near Clifton Springs...anyways I'm no stranger to winter but more so I'm intrigued in how all these areas having striking similarities to up here! I love the rolling meandering hills and valleys down there! Definitely going to chug on my bike in them areas soon!
I grew up in Syracuse and worked in Rome NY for the Air Force Research Lab. I had to leave in 2014. The writing was on the wall. Moved to Northern Virginia and I make way more than I ever did in NY. I’m so thankful I left.
I live in Syracuse currently and have lived here my entire life (in my late 20's). I've traveled quite a bit and have been to many different areas of the country and really do think Syracuse has unique offerings. The grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side. I truly feel like one of Syracuse's biggest issues is videos like this lol. No shade to the maker of this video as nothing was historically innacurate it just paints a depressing picture imo. Lots of doom and gloom amoung mostly people who don't even live here. The older vocal crowd in the area complained of a lack of progress for years and now that substantial development is occurring they do what many elderly people do and fight the change. Fortunately, the local government is ingoring these emotional people and improving the city regardless. I have a close-knit group of about 20 friends and not one of them works in the service industry anymore. In my opinion Syracuse is not some desolate area with no good jobs, in fact, decent jobs and a low cost of living is what has helped the close suburbs of Syracuse thrive. Syracuse University has definitely held the city together for many years but it's slowly becoming a true developing city and will hopefully not rely on the college as much in the future. The metro area of Syracuse has around 650,000 people, many of these areas being relativly nice, low crime, good schools, and low cost of living. I was able to buy my first home at 26 which just would not have been possible in most areas of the country. My three bedroom house is only $1045 a month including taxes. Not many areas of the country left where that's possible. Yes...we get a lot of snow but the trade off is no natural disaters. Home owners insurance tends to be cheap here as a result which makes up for some of the home tax burden. We obviously will never have to worry about water either given that we're surrounded by the great lakes. I've watched many areas of the city and surrounding suburbs develop over the years, especially in the last 5. I lived in the east side of the actual city for years and loved it! We're getting an insane 100 BILLION dollar investment from Micron for a fabrication plant here, the biggest project of it's kind in American history. This factory will directly employ about 8,000-9000 people and the adjacent industry's that provide the plant with essentials is projected to create an additional 30,000-40,000 jobs in the coming years. Lots of new residential development in the area for the incoming population increase. Syracuse is getting a premium level aquarium as well. The highway infrastructure is getting a rebuild as well, although we're partially unsure what that's going to look like after many revisions. Lots of other smaller projects in the works. I'm generally a pessimistic person but I just don't understand a lot of the negativity aimed at Syracuse.
Syracuse’s problem has and continues to be the growing crime. Loved on the west side for 10+ years and it’s only gotten worse. Everyone focuses on the Economic part of “Socioeconomic” it’s hard to have a nice place to live when the society living there actively makes it a worse place to live.
@@simplyketolife2716 I agree, I'd say about half of the city is a place most people would not want to live. I lived in the east part of the City "eastwood" for two years with zero issues though. Id walk around around and ride my bike around the neighborhood at night all the time. The good thing about small /medium seized cities is that you can live in a nearby suburb that's 10-20 minutes away from the city and avoid the vast majority of crime.
Grew up in the Utica, NY area (Syracuse Lite). It's a very pretty and scenic area with tons of interesting history. The job market in CNY is small and tough unless you know someone. Many leave and then end up coming back. I like upstate NY a lot, except for the 5-6 months of winter. I am hoping to become a sunbird someday and be there during the summer months rather than in Phoenix AZ
I moved to Syracuse 6 years ago. Grew up in Dutchess Co. something about a mid sized city seemed more appealing to me then the big Apple. I love living here. Close to the finger lakes and Adirondacks too.
Once freshwater shortages in other parts of the nation become an issue -- something that is already starting to happen -- you'll see the entire Great Lakes region rebound. The future is where the water is.
How interesting. I moved from Kansas to Phoenix, just north of Syracuse, in '80 with a job pre-arranged at a machine shop there. I worked only three days and then there was a lay-off, me included. I roamed the Syracuse area for the next 8 months looking for work and was totally disheartened with the labor and social climate of the area. I lived in Central Square much of this time and it was depressing. At that time, New Process Gear was doing fairly well but the GE operations were definitely taking the spirit of the area down.
I grew up in Central Square, my dad worked at Miller in Fulton. We were knocked on our back when they closed that plant. Sorry to hear about your experience.
yep...when GE left it was the start of the slide. My Dad was a Radar Guidance Engineer with GE Aerospace and taught a class for ARMY trainers at Syracuse before being transferred to Huntsville, Al. and then to The Cape in '57. i was too young to remember but I have seen pictures of us as very young kids on a cabin down on the lake when Dad was working in Syracuse. Strangely, though I grew up in Cocoa Beach Florida (Beside the Cape) and worked my Engineering career around central Florida, I ended up marrying a girl who is from a nearby town (Rome, NY) just an hour from Syracuse....small world.
I think it is also worth noting that there are two huge industries/employers building and setting up shop to open very soon in Syracuse that will likely have a huge impact on the city. One is Amazon with a major distribution and logistics center for the Northeast and the other is Micron, which is opening a huge plant that will have hundreds of very good paying jobs. Both of these projects are being built now and should open within the next year (if not sooner).
Great news for Syracuse, i went truck driving school in Liverpool had a great time, i'm also a huge Racing fan and when they torn the Syracuse Mile that really hurt but i love upstate n.y grew and lived here all my life except for winter unless you like winter sports the weather is great spring, summer and fall, and of coarse have been a huge Syracuse orangeman fan, my high school coach played with Boehaim at Syracuse!
Amazon warehouse is open and running now, but I’m willing to bet Micron will never happen; it’s already stated that it needs millions in federal money to move forward and is in competition with similar companies for the money……..some political shuffling going on here and I’m certain Micron will not build/open here, at least in the “glory “ ways they/politicians are promoting!
@@johnfpotega2017that’s kind of the rub isn’t it. If Amazon is just offering jobs that pay similarly to fast food chains it isn’t really a boon for the area, especially when Amazon got such ridiculous tax breaks to be there.
I grew up in Mattydale, a suburb right outside Syracuse and moved to Clay when I was 13. I’m 21 and still here and work on the Southside. I love this city and this video was really interesting! I hope Syracuse grows bigger than it once was soon.
It’s really interesting I’m from Kingston Ontario about 2h away in Canada and it’s about the same size as Syracuse. But I was shocked the first time going to Syracuse to see the massive highways and office buildings. It was more like a 200,000 person city but was so empty. It makes sense now.
That is an interesting perspective. I am from Syracuse and my family, build a log cabin, cottage, near Tweed and Madoc and we drive by Kingston all the time. Many fond memories of both cities and sad to see the place where I grew up decline. I will be driving by Kingston at the end of July to go to my cottage and to a lacrosse game in Peterborough. Enjoy your summer.
i went to college in syracuse and loved it. i was coming from new york city and the change of scenery and pace kinda changed my life. i live in upstate new york these days and i LOVE it.
I currently go to school at SU. There are a lot of tech jobs on the way via JMA and Micron which should greatly help the local enconomy. The prevalent issue is how it's still a very segregated city and nobody can agree on the I-81 renovation project that directly ties into fixing those lines. Plus the public transit is super understaffed, the huge Destiny mall is losing/evicting tennants, and even the University area has break-ins and car thefts.
As an SU employee in the know, there has been “break ins” due to students not securing things by leaving doors unlocked or windows wide open. There have always been such incidents, as the students are marks for being a bit “lax” when it comes to security initially. Also, the city isn’t necessarily as starkly segregated as made out to be, as there are some relatively integrated areas of the city and suburbs. If anything, people may want to develop the neighborhoods regardless of the makeup.
You didn't bring up Albany politics which is a Huge reason for it's decline. The majority of population is in NYC which gets the most seats. Year after year of money being directed to NYC for growth led to Upstate cities to decline. Decades of neglect from Albany cause the population to flee. If it wasn't for major upstate colleges and universities, Upstate NY would be in much worse condition.
I checked biggest employer in ea state, in NYS I think it’s SUNY, in many states it’s hospital system, otherwise university systems, in a few states it was Walmart. Sad, interesting
good video, but you failed to mention how ononadaga lake (you don't pronounce the second on) is one of the most polluted lakes in america, so the city can't even have beaches
It’s getting much better, with major projects like what Honeywell and Parsons have done. Programs like Save the Rain also focus on reducing the amount of pollutants that enter the lake through green and gray infrastructure projects around the city.
The polluting of Ononadaga lake was bad when I lived there in the early 80's. The lake was nearly dead. I am depressed it has not been cleaned up as you infer.
Thanks for the video. I lived just the other side of Electronics Parkway near Liverpool. My dad worked for Mohawk Airlines, and I went to Chestnut Hill elementary! It was a great place to grow up!
Moved to Liverpool from California in 1986 and loved it! Lived in neighborhood between John Glenn and Liverpool HS. I left for Ole Miss in 1988 and my parents moved to Georgia in 1989. Unfortunately I've never been back but loved every minute there.
I was part of this exidious 1988 to be exact! I loved the area still do to this day but I had to leave for economic reasons. All of Central N.Y. has so much to offer recreational wise and beyond if you can prosper economically it is a great place to live. The region is great for daytrips and weekend getaways 💗🌄
True but the crime in Syracuse is through the roof ever since the BLM riots in downtown Syracuse. Last year (2023) over 1,000 vehicles were stolen and then there are all of the rapes, burglaries, robberies, assaults, car break-ins, litter, NOISE (i.e. filthy rap) and reckless driving by people who I doubt even have a drivers license. I live in The Valley and crime has skyrocketed due to a certain demographic. We want to move, possibly out of state even though we do enjoy Clark Reservation State Park, Pratts Falls, Morgan Hill State Forest and numerous other parks, forests and waterfalls.
My old employer GHI/Emblem Health opened an office there in the mid. 2000’s and I used to love going to the Syracuse office for company business and dining in the downtown area at Dinasaur Bar-B-Que on west willow street . The office is still there though there may not be as many people employed .
A crucial reminder that the success or failure of communities isn't always about government and politics. Businesses can and do make decisions that harm a given area.
You left out the legacy of Solvay and Allied Signal's chemical manufacturing making Lake Onondaga into the most polluted lake in America for a couple of decades.
That candle factory did some damage too about 70 years earlier before Solvay. On the east end of the lake was a fish packing plant that processed a fish that was only found in Onondaga Lake [no where else in the world]. It was killed off about 100 years ago. I remember my 6th grade teacher [early 1970s] tell the story about it and talking to my grand parents about it. I remember going to the Regatta by boat and when those big cruisers would pull up anchor to leave they would pull up a sludge that looked like yellow poop and wax and it would create an orange slick of oily stuff on the surface of the water. Crazy.
@@jtwood4925Still super polluted, sometimes it smells like actual shit driving by on the highway. But the city has been undoing a lot of the pollution recently
@@eaauto6182 I remember driving from syracuse to bville and once you got to a certain spot on 690 it would smell terrible for about 5 to 10 minutes. We would joke about how those people in Solvay probably have no sense of smell anymore. That was mid 1960s to 1982. I moved away in 1982 but have been back a few times. It's kind of depressing for me when I think of how the place could be.
I recently in Syracuse for 4 years. Overall, I thought it was a great place to live - access to a lot of fresh local produce, a terrific little art museum, nice city parks, proximity to a lot of outdoor activities and other nice upstate cities (especially Ithaca)… and relatively low cost of living. I look back on my time there fondly.
I live next door in Rochester and to compare, I think Syracuse has much more of the original city intact like grand historic buildings and blocks and streets that are much more pedestrian and pre-cars. They didn’t go wild with urban renewal destruction like Roch did. The university and huge Upstate Medical center is also very near and essentially doubles the size of downtown, and keeps it busy. A big mall on the north side of downtown. Very centralized real city and not a very sprawly one.
I totally agree!!! I've lived in both cities, and Syracuse has more going for it than its counterpart to the west. Both cities need beefed-up public transportation, and much better leadership. They really have so much potential.
@@TimothyForbesXXIPublic transportation? No, it needs lower taxes and an inviting business climate. But New York keeps voting for people that ensure it never gets better. New York can’t keep people in the state due to the anti business model. Public transportation never pays for itself and ends up being a burden on taxpayers.
I live in the Hartford CT suburbs and my older brother lives in the Rochester area. Every time I go out to WNY I always feel like Syracuse is a lot like Hartford and Rochester just seems much cleaner. TBH CT cities are complete dumps for the most part with Stamford and parts of New Haven being an exception. I will say that driving down 90 in a whiteout is a white knuckle experience.
Born and raised in Syracuse, leaving for the D.C. suburbs in the fall of 1970 at age 15. My family had moved there from Brooklyn in 1952 - arguably the city's peak era - when my father was transferred by the National Guard, settling into a '50s-style suburban ranch home within city limits (the South Valley); I last visited in 2002. By then, the white flight which doomed a once-thriving downtown (Dey's, Edwards, Chappell's) had hit full-force, and the loss of manufacturing jobs followed. Not everything has been for the worse, though; at the time I left, Armory Square was desultory, hardly the yuppie haven it's been transformed into. And perhaps Micron's new plant in Clay will be what Carrier and New Process were in 1953, using the resources of institutions such as SU, Le Moyne College and Onondaga Community College to spur economic development. I'm now some 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles, where I've lived since 2014, but still harbor hopes for my hometown.
It’s not white peoples fault. We just want to raise our families in a safe environment. Blame the democrat politicians for their lack of policing in low income/high minority areas. All over the country they’re refusing to properly police the inner cities, and because of that companies understandably don’t want to place their businesses in bad parts of the cities. Blacks and Hispanics need to start taking responsibility for their communities problem with crime, and the police need to actually do their job.
G.E. has morphed into Lockheed-Martin, still a valuable contributor to the local economy, Amazon recently finished construction on a new distribution facility, Crouse-Hinds still operates a stable manufacturing operation, the former Bristol-Myers Pharmaceuticals is now Lotte Biologics, and a number of hi-tech defense contractors still call Syracuse home. As the above commenter observes, the next several years of Micron Corporation's unfolding chip manufacturing operation will be kind to Syracuse's growth opportunities.
@AM-uh7mv You can talk about corporate this and jobs that forever, but people need to be safe first. People not only go to work, but they also engage in recreation and shopping. And children play outside and go to school. It's quality of life that starts with feeling safe and being healthy.
Thanks for the video, it touches my heart. 5 years ago, we visited the Destiny Mall near Syracus while visited Oswago university while my daughter was having a summer camp. Within one month, I lost my engineer job in Vermont. The point is: America is losing manufacturer jobs along these years. When I was driving in the upper New York region in parallel with the Erie Canal, I was asking myself: how a great nation which can build a canal hundred years ago ended this way? It is sad. It is not a single person or government fault, it is a whole nation does not keep manufacturer because it is dirty work and work hard.
In 25 years the US economy has grown from 9 trillion GDP to 23 trillion GDP, while in the same period the Japanese economy (for example) has stayed at the same level. While manufacturing as a percentage of the economy is smaller than 50 years ago, the US manufactures more in terms of value than it did before.
It's called "creative destruction." The US economy is still one of the most dynamic in the world. During the time of Syracuse's heyday, Silicon Valley was bunch of citrus orchards. The US is still the world leader in many sectors.
Two things killed Syracuse and many other American cities: 1) Loss of good, stable jobs for families to rely on. 2) A loss of societal values and standards, leading to high crime and hopelessness.
I interviewed for a physician job (in Baldwinsville.) They took me to the Wine Bar in Syracuse. It had Antelope on the menu. The closest I've gotten to that was Cantiloupe. I didn't get the position because I was not Board Certified yet.
Worked briefly at the huge Solvay soda ash plant, a classic American chemical plant that produced tons of an important chemical product that will never go out of use (Sodium Carbonate). This same material is naturally occurring out west and that may have spelled doom for the Syracuse plant which I'm told was demolished. Met some very nice people there but the winter weather was hard to take
solvay dump, solvay dump, you'll know when you are there by the odor in the air, solvay dump - a song my family used to sing when driving by allied process in the 80s
@@intellectually_lazyYes, there were some distinctive odors and soda ash put a strange taste in your mouth b/c it was so alkaline. But as far as chemicals go, soda ash is really rather benign, esp. compared to some of the chemicals I've worked with in my career. I was sorry to hear about the plant closing
@@peterruddick1952 true enough. i read an article that the mercury contamination actually came in a pipe from an east syracuse factory, can't remember the company. i just figured that song was supes local, and i wanted to represent for the 315, but it's cool you know that smell i'm talking about. it really doesn't smell that way now. sometimes i wonder what they call all the stuff we call "solvay" everywhere else, like a solvay break in pool. my dad called a seagull a solvay goose once, and we won't get into that great depression delicacy they say was made of "rabbit"
Interesting video! Never been to Syracuse, NY, but I have been to other rust belt cities like: Albany, NY, Gloversville, NY, Buffalo, NY, Springfield, MA, Cleveland, OH, Erie, PA, Gary IN, St Louis MO, Toledo, OH, and multiple cities across PA. Pretty much all of them had similar downward spirals which were caused by loss of industries and offshoring. Ironically one is more likely to be less isolated in Syracuse, Nebraska, even though it probably has about a tenth of the current Syracuse, NY population.
Out of all the cities you mention Gloversville? That is one super sad sad place. I live not far from there, the only city doing well in upstate NY is Saratoga.
What happened to most of upstate NY? It was built up during the Industrial Age. Attracted an educated and skilled labor force. Then Government began expanding into everything. Taxes and regulatory costs went up. Energy costs were always high because of the climate, and the South and West attracted industry with their lower costs, less regulations and lower taxes. Then came free trade and most industry moved on to Asia. There was nothing to replace high paying industrial jobs except finance, which was based in big cities like New York City. Upstate New York was out of the loop on that. Those with education and skills left Upstate New York entirely, following the jobs. Education was dumbed down so as not to "offend" anyone so even the "educated" became more ignorant. Young people moved away, people stopped having children, and the population began to age rapidly and shrink.
Interesting, brain drain left only govt employees (not workers), and the “dumbed down curriculum “ explains why all the local politicians are so stupid don’t understand economics, the big picture etc. Of course the smartest ppl left!
Syracuse unemplyment rate is 2.6%.....lots of doom and gloom mentality in these comments. I don't have a single friend I grew up with that's jobless. One of the few areas of the country left with affordable living as well.
@@racingbeats1493One of the few areas in the country left with affordable living? Go an hour+ outside of most major metros and it’s affordable. The vast majority of the country is affordable, but people focus on major metros being unaffordable.
Well, I had a great experience in Syracuse in the early 80s when I went to the university. Marshall Street was a lot of fun and it was a good time to be young and I am a diehard orange basketball fan.
I love the video(s)!!!! One suggestion after mentioning GE in an upstate New York video. Schenectady New York home of GE, had one of the brightest futures for a city. At one point they leveled downtown in expectations to have a population exceeding 750k by the year 2000. But, the population shrank to less thank 70k by that point and vacant lots and parking lots were put in place of what was suppose to be skyscrapers.
So pathetic the leveling they did! Union station turned into an embarrassing piss alley bus stop, now there’s a “plaque” where the high school was, and they razed that famous engineer’s mansion in the Realty Plot. I studied the Schdy budget for several years (during my unemployed property tax grievance days), and now often check the bond offering website to see how Schenectady continues to issue more debt every year. The city DROVE me away! Taxed me worse than Lyme disease
I have been all over the country and I think Syracuse is a great place! I visit often and I currently live in Vegas... Cuse has much nicer air, four distinct seasons, a walkable downtown, great local sports and concerts, lakes everywhere, *autumn*, very little traffic, a super convenient airport, a great campus, incredible architecture and lots of great food. Unemployment is incredibly low in our nation across the board, and especially in Syracuse there are a ton of jobs available.
I’m 32 and have lived in the Bronx my entire life except for the year and a half I had the pleasure of living in Syracuse. I was in the 3rd grade at delaware academy around 1999. All of my memories of Syracuse are great and I still miss it to this day lol.
I was stationed in Fort Drum which is about 45 mins from Syracuse and on three or four day weekend I loved going to Syracuse. I grew up in North NJ/NYC area but I having been to Syracuse a lot makes me want to move there once I finish with school
I'm no expert, but I think for security purposes alone, it's better to make as much stuff as possible at home. AND to be clear ... outsourcing is not free trade its IMHO a chance for corporations to treat workers of developing nations like chattel as they did our own people until they were stopped. Yes, making stuff at home costs more, but so do wars and other international disruptions. That's not to say that we don't need a military, but if, for example the US drilled all of own oil and aggressively replaced oil use so that no importing was required, I don't think they wouldn't be spending any where near the money in the middle east for example. In the end with the world being what it is, I'd bring home as much industry as possible. The USA has a massive trade deficit largely of their own making. I think they selling are their country for cheap jeans at the store ... really ... Perhaps it's harder to do this for lower population resource rich countries like Canada where there always a trade surplus. However, 20% more at the store has got to be cheaper and better than a war ever 10 years ... the US average since WW2.
Free trade, especially NAFTA, has lead to cheaper energy, food, and other prices. There are winners and losers in every change but overall the economic value created by trade is a benefit. Where the richer countries win in free trade is in high skill capital intensive industries, which overall beats the hell out of droning away in a factory. As the US moves away from globalization, which is happening now, you’ll get jobs back and you’ll see prices rise. I bet the same people will complain about this that complained about trade.
@@moazim1993 Giving jobs away to China to make our stuff is not free trade IMHO. Let things be more expensive, as much of what we buy is a false economy made under conditions and compensation that would be wholly illegal in the US or Canada. We all have too much stuff anyway. It's just profligate waste. Regardless, of the selfish, I think making stuff at home is of huge national security import. A country the size of the US should IMHO be feeding itself, making its own drugs, essential electronics etc. or ... someday be held hostage.
We moved to the Syracuse and lived there for 10 year but we just recently moved back to Long Island for work. We loved our time in Syracuse and we are hoping to maybe move back one day.
When I lived in Charlotte NC my wife we would come up and visit my wife's family. Syracuse city is a dump but the small towns outside the city are incredible. I absolutely loved the mild summer weather, and the mid sized city with a small town feel. We eventually moved to Syracuse to flee the insane traffic and crime (Syracuse has it but you can narrow it down to blocks in the city) . The food is amazing. I love the proximity to NYC/Boston, the lakes and the Adirondacks. The winters are tough but so isn't the south in the summer when your supposed to be outdoors. The taxes are high but everything else is reasonably priced. It's all what you make of it.
Good old Syracuse!!! I was born at Crouse Irving in 1959. Lived in Syracuse till 1992 then moved south to the Carolinas. Syracuse was great as a kid growing up, although I actually lived in Fayetteville. But, still I always enjoyed my trips going downtown. I always enjoyed the State Fair, saw a few games at Archibald Stadium and Carrier Dome, took some sailing lessons as a kid at Onondaga Lake. I used to go to Burnette Park Zoo and Chittenango Falls, and when quite young even enjoyed the old amusement park Suburban Park! I have many fine memories of my life growing up in and around Syracuse. For me, as I got older though, I just didn't like the winters anymore. Syracuse never did get it's fair share of sun! I used to work at Hancock Airport and recall one year where they were still deicing commercial jets even in June!!! I just got tired of the long winters and cloudy summers. So I packed up and came to the sunny south! So, I can't speak for Syracuse after 1992 when I cut ties. But, I enjoyed my childhood years in Syracuse! But, I would never move back there. I did go up for a visit in 2019 for a wedding in Syracuse. While there I took a ride up into the hills of Pompey, overlooking Syracuse. Also enjoyed the scenery on Rt. 81 south of Syracuse. Although the city itself may have seen better days, the surrounding area is indeed very pretty!!! I enjoyed my visit up there, but will never live there again.
High speed rail construction could help Syracuse. It's on a direct line between Toronto and Boston as well as Toronto and NYC, and all the components used to build out the rail system (Rail, Concrete sleepers, Catenary, Electrical equipment, Rail Cars, Pantographs, etc) could be made in syracuse as significant parts are zoned for industrial use. It could also be a manufacturing site for windmills. Upstate NY is cold, wet, and windy much of the time, and syracuse is in a central location to ship windmills to other parts of the state.
Why would that want more people to ruin the beauty of the region. Then it just becomes another large crap city with crap suburbs. Windmills don’t work sheep. Wake up. They kill thousands of birds a day, leech oil and cost up to 2 billion each and produce very little energy.
@@eaauto6182 Nobody takes trains because of scheduling issues, delays, and lack of investment. Driving into a big city with a car is a headache. Giving people in struggling cities a quicker and more comfortable connection to major employment centers will only help the situation.
@@adithyaramachandran7427 You never lived in Syracuse then bro. It’s a poor small city the last thing we need is tax money dumped into trains🤦🏻♂️ How about cleaning up the trash or abandoned houses first. We already got a bus system that no one uses. By the way windmills don’t work. You have to be one of the most delusional people I’ve come across
Born and bred there. I loved everything about Syracuse growing up. Like many others I left for opportunity. I would squarely place the blame on NYS and local government which legislated an unfriendly business climate for manufacturers. Although I still have many friends there I have not been back since my grandmother passed in 2009. I want to remember it the way that it was.
While I lived in Schenectady and worked in Albany, I found a documentary in the SCPL (am unable to find it online), where they interview unemployed former employees of ALCOA, famous train manufacturer. At the end it is just heartbreaking to hear many of the interviewed say, “the Union probably destroyed the company. I know I concluddd that the Unions thought they had GE by the cojones, but jack Walsh just moved all manufacturing to right to work states or overseas a. Was shocking to see the graph of decline in population in relation to relocation of businesses. Housing empty esp multi family, and they were majestic duplex homes, exquisite woodwork high ceilings.
Curious what opportunity? Syracuse actually has lower unemployment than the national average. All my friends and most family have good jobs as well, are you in a specialized industry?
@@racingbeats1493 interesting that they have such low unemployment yet one of the highest poverty rates in the country at the same time. Syracuse is ranked #8 nationally. Rochester is #5
@@mikeb4708 It is pretty odd for sure. I have worked in the inner city quite a bit and there's what seems like entire neighborhoods of non working single moms with 5+ kids. Obviously those kids are all on welfare and do not go hungry or without medical care but they're still in poverty. I would imagine this is true of many struggling inner city's but Syracuse seems to be hit particularly hard by it. I live in a suburb about ten minutes from the city and the childhood poverty rate is down to 4%. Poverty here is very localized imo.
In late 1990"s and early 2000 I was stationed at Fort Drum New York (45 minutes North Of Syracuse), I would get a weekened pass and visit the Syracuse Mall for fun... good times
The requirements are too high compared to the rest of the nation. I'm from Syracuse. Had to take a County Exam just to have a state job. Moved to Texas and immediately got a state job paying 3x as much with just a bachelor's degree and a decent resume.
I currently live just outside of Syracuse and laughed when you mentioned Camden. My mom drives out there once a week for her job and it’s literally like an hour and a half drive both ways. When I used to dance I used to drive out to Rochester because the clubs dried up bad in Syracuse around 2015 . The only reason we haven’t moved is because all of our family still lives out here. We have talked about it in the future though.
Interesting video, but I also think the construction of I-81 needs to be mentioned. Syracuse, like many other cities, had one of its most vibrant communities (the 15th Ward) demolished to make room for the highway. The way that roads are laid out in the city contributes to the sprawl that makes the downtown feel enclosed and dead. There are efforts to tear down I-81 and revitalize the city through better planning. Hopefully through a community grid syracuse can come back and be a better hub to go to and not through.
Syracuse has been a dead city for over 40 years. Do you really think getting rid of I-81 will revitalize that dump? Only reason why outside people see or go to Syracuse is when they drive through it.
I-81 through the city is falling apart; a 3-digit (named) ring road would have been a better idea. But at the time that I-81 was being built some people in cities (e.g. Syracuse, Niagara Falls, NY and even Cincinnati, OH) as well as small towns (e.g. Marathon, NY) encouraged the Interstate to bisect all or part of the town. They were thinking about catching interstate money but more often than not the Interstate brought crime and congestion. [Cincinnati built an elevated walkway with gorgeous river views ( As did NYC with an old, elevated train right of way on the west side) Niagara Falls just tore it down (you could not see the falls when you were driving by, with- out stopping your car) and re-routed the road] imho: It would have been better to make those ring roads and build up the infrastructure for services. where there was proper zoning and room for side roads, intersections, etc..
@@marksheiman1538 That will be what is available when they take down I-81 in the center of town. I am not sure what neighborhoods will be torn up to provide easier access. Lets see what happens. Frankly the neighborhoods off of South Salina streets need to be fixed up. I don't know what will happen though
I grew up north of Syracuse and graduated in the early 80’s when major companies were shutting down in the area. No jobs so I joined the Army, ended up in North Texas and would never go back.
Maybe you could do a video on Schenectady, NY. I lived in the area until my dad, who worked for GE (which employed a good part of the city, as did Avco), was transferred to TN for lower labor costs.
See my reply comments above Schdy above, I learn d a lot about decline of American industrial cities when lived in capital district from ‘01 to ‘16. Escaped! Never paid so much property tax ever in my life! Exclusive area to live, only for state govt pensioners or welfare recipients
Left Syracuse in my early 20s to move down south and then came back a few years later. There’s good amenities and the city isn’t so big it takes an hour to go to the other side of town. Cost of living isn’t high like other places. It’s not really a storm prone area either. don’t see snow like Buffalo/Watertown, not common to have tornadoes. When I was down south it seemed like we’d get them a handful of times a year.
don't forget Buffalo and if it wasn't for Albany being the capital all the major upstate cities would be history, at one time upstate n.y. was the manufactoring capital of the U.S. until the fucking politicians took over!
I lived in Oneida, NY (about 30 minutes east of Syracuse on the Thruway) is the late 1980s. I would take my wife into Syracuse for a night out on the town. I worked for Oneida Silversmiths and we had about 2,000 employees. Now, Oneida is gone. The last I heard, a company had purchased some of their surplus equipment and is making silverware for government contracts, employing about 45 (!) people. A far cry from the buzzing center of activity it was 30 years ago. What you see sold under the Oneida brand now is made in Asia. Really heartbreaking. The story of Syracuse is the story of American manufacturing. As world markets opened up, we demanded more goods at lower prices. Companies, seeking competitive advantage and larger market share, sent manufacturing offshore. While that seems to work great in the short term, ultimately, you need a vibrant economy to purchase all of those goods, and people without jobs don't have expendable income. Manufacturing creates true wealth. We can't crate wealth by selling each other coffee. As stated in the video, this started early. Even back in the 1980's I would drive around update NY and every few miles you would drive through little towns with empty factories. Each little town had a factory that anchored their locality. But by the 1980's, abandoned factories were everywhere! Each empty factory represented jobs and careers lost. Wealth and cash flow lost. Those little towns struggled without high-paying jobs nearby. This impacts real-estate prices (where many people have the majority of their wealth), growth, and crime. Both things that affect the livability of a community. Upstate New York is beautiful, and there is so much to do, but economically it has been wreaked by outsourcing, excessive taxes, and poor political leadership. A headhunter called me a few years ago and asked if I would be interested in taking a job back in NY. I declined without even hearing the details. No thank you. I think NY as a whole is too far gone. It will takes decades (if ever) for it to recover. The fact that the population of New York decreased during the last census supports this conclusion.
That was very well-written. Indeed, the death of Oneida Limited was a major event. However, I've recently noticed many new homes being built in Sherrill. I guess people are commuting to Syracuse ,via the T-way in Verona, or Utica, less than 20 miles away? That is if anything remains in Utica? When I would take Rte. 5 from Sherrill to Albany, I saw the same picture that you described: One closed factory after another in the cities and villages all along the Mohawk Valley. I moved to the South, 25 years ago, but I still think about Central New York.
While there certainly is a lot correct about the city of Syracuse and the population loss. I think one of the biggest things you failed to mention was the growth of its suburbs. I have lived in the suburbs of Syracuse my whole life and there is a very large economy of engineering, medical, and other service industries. I think people focus on the city itself without regarding the surrounding areas which have drastically improved and growth throughout the past several decades. Great video nonetheless! EDIT: Goodluck in the comments it’s a war zone down there lol
Son, it’s a five minute video, not a complete history. He also failed to mention how many potholes were in the central business district. If you want to know more, do your research. If you want to criticize and find fault, take a hike. I believe this presentation is very well done. So there!
I was born in cuse. This video is good in my opinion. I still work in Onondaga county. I love syracuse through and through cuz of its charm and university. I wish that was mentioned, but it’s not a video saying why syracuse is great
Yes, the suburbs are growing and include the Amazon warehouse, and also Micron's semiconductor manufacturing plant, which is one of 10 made possible by one of Biden's 354 bills, known as the CHIPS and Science Act --- it not only employs engineers like Welch Allyn, Syr Research, Saab Sensis, and Lockheed Martin does, but is generally higher paying in it's jobs This video maker seems to only focus on the actual cities themselves, but leaves out a lot of the rebirth such as the effect of the Buffalo Billion on the city of Buffalo, and the rebirth of Armory Square in Syracuse NY.
:44 For MANY years Syracuse's, New Process factory, manufactured the Transfer Cases, that made a regular truck 4 wheel drive, for Chevrolet,, GMC, Ford, Dodge and Jeep, light trucks! Many of these transfer cases still trade as a hi-quality part for Used and Modified off road trucks all over the world.
Great video. I was wondering. Could you do a video on the changing culture of Syracuse 1950-2010? You left me wondering. But I loved this. I'm from Buffalo. I live in New York. Thanks.
Top of the route 81 nightmare. Don't know why everything near that road in the mid-Atlantic and up has to be the most depressed and depressing area of the country. Syracuse, Binghamton, scranton, wilkes barre, Hazleton,......
Thank you Jack Welch … former GE CEO This book tells what happened… not just to Syracuse but all over America Read this book to learn how it happened. The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America-and How to Undo His Legacy
Thx for recommendation, I lived 14 yrs in Schenectady, learned how unions had GE cojones in vice grip until jack Welch just shut it all down there, poor Schdy killed its golden goose. And the FAMOUS ALCOA strike in Schdy killed that company too. I was amazed to read in “Nothing Like It in the Wirks,” that one of the locomotives that met at the golden spike was built in Schdy. I assumed it came from the east, but nope! It was shipped from Albany around Cape Horn to SF!
I just rolled through Syracuse a few months back. I liked the old architecture. Thought the downtown area was pretty walkable with some nice shops/restaurants
My Dad’s family all lived in North Syracuse and in Liverpool in the 80’s and 90’s while growing up and it was/is a very large family. My grandfather worked at the GM plant. I can probably count on one hand how many of my relatives still live in the area. There’s nothing there.
I was among those who had to flee the lousy job market after a major layoff in my profession, in 2006. Among the old photos, it appears that other than filling in the canal and replacing it with a street, at 1:30, Clinton Square looks the same. The photo of the train shows current day City Hall.
It's truly a tragedy what we've done to our countries. Our jobs are gone. The economy dried up, no hope for the future. We need to find some solution to our current economic dryness.
Worst part is that it seems like most small local businesses in cities and towns of America went extinct due to big corporations competing them to death. Only for the location to no longer become profitable enough for them thus packing up and leaving voids
there is a Solution (soon coming) ARMAGEDDON the END & Complete Annihilation by Incineration of this Stupid World System the ONE FINALized SOLUTION wait ... for ... it
I live near Binghamton. I love Syracuse. It has a couple of rock climbing gyms, the giant mall, fairly well served airport, and some great places to eat like Dinosaur BBQ (better than many “real” BBQ I’ve had down south, don’t @ me). Sure it’s way past its prime. But it’s a nice small city to visit if you live close.
How's Binghamton fairing these days? It's been struggling too for a while now. Has a similar story of IBM and a few others leaving the place. I agree with you - Syracuse is a nice place to visit.
Carrier Moved officially moved out in the 1980's but didnt' close it's research facility until a few years ago. Some of that plant, which is located a couple of block's from my girlfriend's house, has been coverted into a recreation area.
@@clintonbubb3187 I lived in Paterson for nearly 20 years - no bullet holes of knife wounds. Not a nice place, but not nearly as violent as many other US cities.
Used to live in NJ up until 1991 and I knew someone from both Wayne and Paterson. There was an area where there were 800000 to a million dollar homes (1991 dollars and in Wayne) that were not even a half a mile to a mile where the area instantly became sketchy. I believe I drove down a hill from Wayne to Paterson. Not sure of the actual road. During the same time, near where I used to work, I vividly remembered how South Orange Avenue instantly changed as soon as I went east from South Orange to Newark. Out west where I have been living the majority of my life, you can be on one block in Phoenix, AZ and 2 blocks away can be infested with crime. The same with Tucson too. Regarding Paterson: it is definitely less isolated than Syracuse and is in close proximity to the NYC area. Same situation with Bridgeport, CT, another town that has previously lost many industries, and was relatively unsafe in many areas, from what I remembered. However, in both Paterson and Bridgeport, which have had huge taxes, and probably still do, it would be hard to afford both for the average person. Definitely do not miss that about the metro NYC area. Not to mention, both cities are surrounded by extremely expensive towns. Better off moving away to areas in the southeastern USA, where you can still be 8 to 10 hours away from friends and family. Some other cities that are reasonable that are more than a days drive that I am familiar with are: OKC, Tulsa, Fayetteville, AR, Des Moines, Omaha (somewhat high property taxes, but a great economy), and the KC area. Definitely would also be interested in a future video on Paterson.
Just like every town from Minnesota to the east coast. All the jobs left, everyone moved out to the suburbs and the city was left to rot. Politicians got greedy, crime went up, drugs came in and now it's desolate.
One thing you notice flying into Syracuse (born in Oswego, spent time in SYR for my whole life, live in NC) is the high amount of swimming pools. People tend to take summer seriously when it seems five weeks long LOL. They close schools down here for flurries, but the summers are hot as hades.
Thanks for such a well done presentation of what happened to Syracuse which is the template for the rest of the country. The Rust Belt was created intentionally to bring us to this pt. in history which is our demise.
Based on all the amazing architecture, the possibilities are limitless for Syracuse. They need better PR, more creativity, and better roads as of yesterday. Housing is very limited if you're upper middle class and not looking to buy.
All of upstate NY, between Albany and Buffalo, is a re-telling of this same story. Briggs & Stratton. Kodak. Etc. It's so sad to drive through that region nowadays.
Buffalo has been on the rise for about 10 years, but realistically needs another 10 years to really recover. 50+ years of decline and decay don’t reverse overnight.
Kodak was responsible for its own demise. Far from being in the forefront of photography any longer, it was so late getting into digital that it had lost the competitive war before it started.
@@tedrice1026 same with Bethlehem Steel in Buffalo. It was an outdated facility, and corporate didn’t want to invest in upgrading it. I’m sure NYS politics and taxes didn’t help, but that plant’s closure devastated Buffalo and WNY for decades.
Grew up in the Syracuse/Utica area in the 70s and 80s. Couldn’t wait to leave. Nice area to grow up in but there’s so little in the way of good paying jobs and everything is so old and run down. And the winters can be downright brutal and long… on the flip side, what I paid for a 2BR/2BA condo near Philly in NJ would buy me nearly a mansion in the Syracuse/Utica region… (but how do you get a job paying enough to be able to afford that?)
I just don't understand this. Everyone I know is doing well for the most part in Syracuse. The unemployemnet rate is 2.6% while the national average is 3.6%. Sure the pay isn't what it is in major cities but the cost of living is very low.
lived here for 4 years going to su and now I live here w my gf, who works at pbs and sees how the city council gives absolutely no attention to the immense poverty and ugliness of the whole city. Thanks for giving me some extra insight into the history!
@A M if you leave people alone they will naturally congregate and live around others who share a history, culture, faith, and family values. Segregation is the least of your problems.
@@coolboss999 yeah change something for sure but for the better or the worse? you sound like a politician, "we're changing peoples lives" ....yeah ok. you left out the part where it says "for the worse".
@@alpha-omega2362 and what part of removing the I-81 viaduct is going to make people's lives worse? I've done a whole bunch of research on this topic for a survey I'm creating so I'll wait....
I lived in Syracuse while attending SUNY ESF there in the early 80's. You could see the decline away from the vibrant college campuses. I enjoyed living there but the winters were absolutely frigid. I hope it recovers for the best. We use to call it ZeroCuse due to the winter temps.
funny we call it sorrycuse or sewercuse, if you ever have the delight of hearing this guy i know, john's story of hutch the hacker, son of marcy, back to finish mama's work. marcy was no lady. she was into drugs and bondage. also the sewage overflow system, in through cpep, out to 3-6, 4B, 5 west, four winds, hpc. i'd explain, but if you get it you get it. holla out to pros 742 james!
I actually love that I grew up in Syracuse New York. I feel blessed and that the area has made me who I am and I have had an adventurous life. I now call Beaverton oregon My Home. For many reasons that I loved Central New York I now love the north west. Although Oregon has much better weather. The other thing that we have is growth boundaries, which is a double edge sword. In the northeast cities were allowed to expand in the suburbs and suburbs, and the other suburbs in urban sprawl has destroyed the inner cities. Temps to regrow those inner cities happens across the rust belt, including syracuse, and has succeeded to some extent, but it’s still not as driving as it is in mini western United States. It’s a double edge sword, because now it is almost impossible to afford housing in the Portland metro area. The lesson that is learned is that you cannot have unabated growth and urban sprawl because no one wants to end up like Phoenix, Boston and Los Angeles. You also want to keep farmland close so that you don’t have to transport your food long distances. However, you cannot have this without Rent control, and some sort of regulations on how much you can sell your land for. If real estate in land values are based on the profit motive, then we’re gonna end up with the homeless population that we currently have. I’ve I heard almost no one mentioned this. Again, I really appreciate this video and every day even though I love where I live, I always appreciate the city. They created the opportunities for me to have an amazing life.
Phoenix and Boston are much better cities than Portland. Everything you said was wrong, not having sprawling growth leads to insane home prices like you mentioned, which leads to homelessness. Syracuse doesn’t have nearly as bad of a homeless problem as Portland despite it being one of the poorest cities in the US. And rent control has and will never work.
@@eaauto6182 there are two sides and I am not wrong; and beware the media trap of narrow focus. Boston, phoenix, LA, south Florida are paved over and sprawled out so far that farms and nature are 50-100 miles away. Yes, it’s expensive here and huge homeless problem, but so is San Fran and Seattle that have natural growth boundaries and they are more expensive. I have been many cities and there has to be some happy medium. Humans are a weed and are destroying nature.
My first husband worked at GE when I first met him. He also worked for Carrier. His last job or I should say he started his own jobs working as a janitor and cleaned at a lot of these businesses. His last job was working for the Syracuse schools as janitor and cleaning rugs and floors.
I was born in Syracuse and grew up in CNY. All of CNY is dying. Why? Taxes and politics. Taxes- NY ranges from highest in the country to 5th highest in the country on multiple different taxes. Let me give you an example. A $140k home in the sticks in CNY is around $3k yr in taxes. Higher in some areas (not the sticks). That $140k home in Florida is $700 yr in tax. Why is the tax so high in NY? Mismanagement. The school in the town I lived in was/is spending $32k per year per student. And this school has at most 300 kids. NY spends the most on education in the country at $20k yr per student. But the school in my old town was even more than at $32k per yr. What makes this even more ridiculous is NY isn't even ranked best state for education in the country. They are only ranked in the teens. Not 1st or even 10th but in the teens... but they spend the most. That's unacceptable and unsustainable. Taxes are forcing a lot of people and businesses to leave. Politics- Last I knew... NY was the least business friendly state in the union. Obviously that doesn't help bring business to the city or the state. NY is also (last I knew) the least freest state in the union. And that too doesn't draw people or business to the city/state. Bottom line. People want cheaper taxes plus opportunity and freedom. Syracuse and NY lacks that. If you want taxes and lots of bureaucracy.... then NY is the place for you.
@@judymarasco4231 Must depend on where you're at. I imagine it's more in the bigger cities like Miami or Orlando or whatever. But in my part of Florida (Pensacola area) it's around $700-$1000 on a $130k/$140k house. That's not in the city but the country.
You can take this and replicate it across many of the cities in NY. You don't mention or analyze why these companies left. For the most part it was because of high taxes. IBM had a huge prsesence in NY at one time and now most of those facilities are gone.
Sad but common as companies moved jobs to areas with lower costs. I went to Oswego college in the mid-70s, and the weather in that area is tough. Cold cloudy and damp.
take a look at the $100 billion microchip factory being build just outside of Syracuse. Could be an inflection point for the city. The city will also soon begin tearing down one of its historic redlining freeways thats bisects the city. If the state funds some regional rail investment and brings Amtrak back to downtown, the city could see new all time highs for population and gpd.
Let's not forget WALMART and lower prices live better. There is a HUGE societal cost to cheap consumer prices. This is NOT exclusive to Syracuse, but has and is occurring Nationally. JUST MY OPINION.
Syracuse snow removal is elite level. The plows go in delta formations with close salt support. They’re the navy seals of snow removal.
That's hilarious. But it wasn't always so. Some years ago, the city dumped so much snow in Onondaga Creek they caused an ice dam. The Army Corps of Engineers had to blast the creek open & damaged the walls of the creek bed which helps prevent flooding in downtown. Oops.
YEAH! NYS has kick derrière snow removal capital equipment! It’s AWESOME! More exciting than Disney world!
elite level?over hyped words..is it legendary and iconic
They needa go slow ion wanna go to school 😂
Syracuse and a few more cities in that region gets the most snow out of all US cities. They better be experience
What keeps many forgotten places like Syracuse alive? Student loans.
... and that folks is why the, "junk" majors will never go away because it is not about getting a skilled education - only a few people major in the hard stuff - It is about keeping forgotten places like Syracuse alive.
& disability.
SU is a pretty posh University. There's lots of old-money there and generational students.
Ummm?? Nope
God him self keeps Syracuse alive and all those who do good. This place is thriving and building every single year.. this dude googling what?? Lol from Wisconsin?? Lol
Nobody would say this place is anything but blessed if they lived here.
@@creepycrespi8180likeee?? More than anywhere else?? Not too sophisticated an idea.
Born and raised in Syracuse and it’s a shithole compared to how it was. You saying it’s blessed is wild. How many kids die from shootings a month I’m syr? Get real
I moved to the area recently. I think that it’s at a turning point. People who can work remotely are looking at the city and its environs and seeing a really vibrant place with lots of potential.
If you like festivals, seasons, town and suburbs where there is a sense of community. Amazing food, a rich sense of culture and a celebration of peoples roots - this place is great. The countryside is amazing - lakes, waterfalls, hills and mountains within easy reach.
It needs and is slowly undergoing rejuvenation. New industry is moving into the area - along with a growing realisation that remote workers can live anywhere - especially here where it’s VERY affordable - I think it’s best days are still to come.
I grew up in Syracuse but effectively moved away permanently when I enlisted in the Army in 1972. I always wanted to return to Syracuse but was never able to for economic reasons. I've now lived more than half of my adult life in California and expect to die here. Still, I miss my hometown and I remain a loyal fan of the Syracuse University Orange.
Same happened with me and NYC when I went into the military. It became too expensive and crowded for me to consider moving back even though there's a lot of friends and family still there. It's truly become a place to visit, but not live.
@@popi2971 I lived in the NYC area for a few years in the late 70's and early 80's. It was fun because I was young, but I wouldn't choose to live there anymore.
It's blessed now come home
@@hamdoolam After nearly 3 decades here, California is my home. My brother says I'm a California Lifer now.
That’s wild I grew up in Syracuse and I live in Southern California but I spent last month back and Skaneateles as I still have family there as well as New Hampshire. As much as I love the weather in LaJolla California out of all places to live it’s just amazing but the cost of living is crazy since I do not own real estate and I’m 63 years old so not sure how much longer I’ll be able to life here. Plus, I really don’t like the politics at all and the high income tax not that I’m working any
Longer, but it will affect my 401(k). What part of California do you live in?
I am from a LARGE family who was born in Syracuse, ALL my aunts, uncles, cousins have since moved to other states as the major employers closed. It WAS a great city and I will forever be grateful I got to experience it in the 70's and early 80's.
I was born and raised in Rochester, NY, and the exact same could be said for there. I'm glad I grew up there during the golden years of Kodak and Xerox in the 70's and 80's, because now it is a shadow of its former self. I move to NYC in 1993 and never looked back. Same with all of my relatives under 50. All have left for warmer climates years ago.
Very sad to see former industrial cities like Syracuse and Rochester fall apart.
Same here, it's sad to see how poorly kept our city is, it was once a great city with many values, reasons to visit, good jobs, good schools. It's now become a crime riddled and unforgiving city
I come back from time to time after moving away after graduation. Always so insanely depressing, quite literally shocked at the conditions the city and the people live in.
I attended graduate school (MBA, 95) at Syracuse. My wife and I enjoyed our 2 years here and found the area nice, even in the winter. If not for the winter, it would have been on my lists of possible retirement sites but I was born in the South and like to look at winter but not stay there. Thy have serious winters in Syracuse!
Yes , indeed. Went to SU and graduated in ‘ 91. I’ll always have great memories of that time , with those people.
Lived outside Syracuse in the 70's and graduated from the SU Business school in 77. Went to Houston after two years working in Syracuse. My parents move south to Ga. as soon as my dad retired. Anyone thinking about living there should look at the TAXES! Go on Zillow and look at the property TAXES, Our old house was $10,000 plus, compared to $3.000 for a much nicer house on a private island in Ga.) besides the state Income TAXES!
Beautiful country 10 minutes outside of downtown, but a crying shame how the State has driven productive people to move.
I am from further north of Syracuse and I remember about 15 years ago Oswego county had 12 feet of snow dumped on them in 72 hours. It was nuts, but the plows will run 24/7 if needed. People up there usually own two cars, one is called the "winter rat" because the salt rots out the vehicles so fast and the other car is used for the rest of the year. People who have never been to NY only think of NY city and have no idea how beautiful the rest of the state is.
Worked in Syracuse for over a decade in 70s and 80s...lived south in Tully, NY. Still fly into Syracuse once a year. Not the same city any longer but new industry is moving in. Always enjoyed Syracuse..especially the University's basketball team. Worked at Carrier and GE for a brief period. Good memories. Beautiful countryside south on I-81.
Nice comment! I'm from up in Northern Ontario near Sault Ste Marie and am soon gonna whisk myself through these areas as I've met an old friend (biker) through online pinball tournaments whom lives near Clifton Springs...anyways I'm no stranger to winter but more so I'm intrigued in how all these areas having striking similarities to up here! I love the rolling meandering hills and valleys down there! Definitely going to chug on my bike in them areas soon!
I grew up in Syracuse and worked in Rome NY for the Air Force Research Lab. I had to leave in 2014. The writing was on the wall. Moved to Northern Virginia and I make way more than I ever did in NY. I’m so thankful I left.
I live in Syracuse currently and have lived here my entire life (in my late 20's). I've traveled quite a bit and have been to many different areas of the country and really do think Syracuse has unique offerings. The grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side. I truly feel like one of Syracuse's biggest issues is videos like this lol. No shade to the maker of this video as nothing was historically innacurate it just paints a depressing picture imo. Lots of doom and gloom amoung mostly people who don't even live here. The older vocal crowd in the area complained of a lack of progress for years and now that substantial development is occurring they do what many elderly people do and fight the change. Fortunately, the local government is ingoring these emotional people and improving the city regardless.
I have a close-knit group of about 20 friends and not one of them works in the service industry anymore. In my opinion Syracuse is not some desolate area with no good jobs, in fact, decent jobs and a low cost of living is what has helped the close suburbs of Syracuse thrive. Syracuse University has definitely held the city together for many years but it's slowly becoming a true developing city and will hopefully not rely on the college as much in the future. The metro area of Syracuse has around 650,000 people, many of these areas being relativly nice, low crime, good schools, and low cost of living. I was able to buy my first home at 26 which just would not have been possible in most areas of the country. My three bedroom house is only $1045 a month including taxes. Not many areas of the country left where that's possible. Yes...we get a lot of snow but the trade off is no natural disaters. Home owners insurance tends to be cheap here as a result which makes up for some of the home tax burden. We obviously will never have to worry about water either given that we're surrounded by the great lakes.
I've watched many areas of the city and surrounding suburbs develop over the years, especially in the last 5. I lived in the east side of the actual city for years and loved it! We're getting an insane 100 BILLION dollar investment from Micron for a fabrication plant here, the biggest project of it's kind in American history. This factory will directly employ about 8,000-9000 people and the adjacent industry's that provide the plant with essentials is projected to create an additional 30,000-40,000 jobs in the coming years. Lots of new residential development in the area for the incoming population increase. Syracuse is getting a premium level aquarium as well. The highway infrastructure is getting a rebuild as well, although we're partially unsure what that's going to look like after many revisions. Lots of other smaller projects in the works. I'm generally a pessimistic person but I just don't understand a lot of the negativity aimed at Syracuse.
Nice rebuttal for your home town.
Syracuse sucks and you’re coping
Syracuse’s problem has and continues to be the growing crime. Loved on the west side for 10+ years and it’s only gotten worse. Everyone focuses on the Economic part of “Socioeconomic” it’s hard to have a nice place to live when the society living there actively makes it a worse place to live.
i go there for work often, its a dirty, ghetto, shithole. only worse city around is utica
@@simplyketolife2716 I agree, I'd say about half of the city is a place most people would not want to live. I lived in the east part of the City "eastwood" for two years with zero issues though. Id walk around around and ride my bike around the neighborhood at night all the time. The good thing about small /medium seized cities is that you can live in a nearby suburb that's 10-20 minutes away from the city and avoid the vast majority of crime.
Grew up in the Utica, NY area (Syracuse Lite). It's a very pretty and scenic area with tons of interesting history. The job market in CNY is small and tough unless you know someone. Many leave and then end up coming back. I like upstate NY a lot, except for the 5-6 months of winter. I am hoping to become a sunbird someday and be there during the summer months rather than in Phoenix AZ
No one calls it “Syracuse lite”
I moved to Syracuse 6 years ago. Grew up in Dutchess Co. something about a mid sized city seemed more appealing to me then the big Apple. I love living here. Close to the finger lakes and Adirondacks too.
Once freshwater shortages in other parts of the nation become an issue -- something that is already starting to happen -- you'll see the entire Great Lakes region rebound. The future is where the water is.
The countryside around Syracuse towards Smyrna is just so beautiful, top of the list in my book.
How interesting. I moved from Kansas to Phoenix, just north of Syracuse, in '80 with a job pre-arranged at a machine shop there. I worked only three days and then there was a lay-off, me included. I roamed the Syracuse area for the next 8 months looking for work and was totally disheartened with the labor and social climate of the area. I lived in Central Square much of this time and it was depressing. At that time, New Process Gear was doing fairly well but the GE operations were definitely taking the spirit of the area down.
I grew up in Binghamton area hour south of Syracuse and it is depressing.I left in 1985 and live in Raleigh NC.
From 1963 to 1992. If I given the opportunity to move back ,maybe I would. I live in south Florida, and I don't have to drive thru snow.
Lockheed Martin is in the former GE location.
Farrell road I believe.
I grew up in Central Square, my dad worked at Miller in Fulton. We were knocked on our back when they closed that plant. Sorry to hear about your experience.
yep...when GE left it was the start of the slide. My Dad was a Radar Guidance Engineer with GE Aerospace and taught a class for ARMY trainers at Syracuse before being transferred to Huntsville, Al. and then to The Cape in '57. i was too young to remember but I have seen pictures of us as very young kids on a cabin down on the lake when Dad was working in Syracuse. Strangely, though I grew up in Cocoa Beach Florida (Beside the Cape) and worked my Engineering career around central Florida, I ended up marrying a girl who is from a nearby town (Rome, NY) just an hour from Syracuse....small world.
Appreciate this one brother. Went to Syracuse so it always has a special place in my heart. Hoping it can make a bigger comback!
I think it is also worth noting that there are two huge industries/employers building and setting up shop to open very soon in Syracuse that will likely have a huge impact on the city. One is Amazon with a major distribution and logistics center for the Northeast and the other is Micron, which is opening a huge plant that will have hundreds of very good paying jobs. Both of these projects are being built now and should open within the next year (if not sooner).
Great news for Syracuse, i went truck driving school in Liverpool had a great time, i'm also a huge Racing fan and when they torn the Syracuse Mile that really hurt but i love upstate n.y grew and lived here all my life except for winter unless you like winter sports the weather is great spring, summer and fall, and of coarse have been a huge Syracuse orangeman fan, my high school coach played with Boehaim at Syracuse!
Amazon warehouse is open and running now, but I’m willing to bet Micron will never happen; it’s already stated that it needs millions in federal money to move forward and is in competition with similar companies for the money……..some political shuffling going on here and I’m certain Micron will not build/open here, at least in the “glory “ ways they/politicians are promoting!
Amazon jobs are a joke.
$20 per hour to drive wtf
@@paulradice3534 you can always work at McDonalds if you’d like; $16.00/hour!
@@johnfpotega2017that’s kind of the rub isn’t it. If Amazon is just offering jobs that pay similarly to fast food chains it isn’t really a boon for the area, especially when Amazon got such ridiculous tax breaks to be there.
I grew up in Mattydale, a suburb right outside Syracuse and moved to Clay when I was 13. I’m 21 and still here and work on the Southside. I love this city and this video was really interesting! I hope Syracuse grows bigger than it once was soon.
I like Mattydale.
Spent the first 24 years of my life there. Onondaga
County is absolutely gorgeous. It will always be "home"
Onondaga ! sounds like it is in Africa....
@@donsolaris8477 it's Native American.
It’s really interesting I’m from Kingston Ontario about 2h away in Canada and it’s about the same size as Syracuse. But I was shocked the first time going to Syracuse to see the massive highways and office buildings. It was more like a 200,000 person city but was so empty. It makes sense now.
That is an interesting perspective. I am from Syracuse and my family, build a log cabin, cottage, near Tweed and Madoc and we drive by Kingston all the time. Many fond memories of both cities and sad to see the place where I grew up decline. I will be driving by Kingston at the end of July to go to my cottage and to a lacrosse game in Peterborough. Enjoy your summer.
Right Canuck... because Kingston is such a paradise.
@@martindavis9930it is compared to Syracuse
@@martindavis9930- Kingston is a gem compared to what is left of Syracuse and all of upstate NY.
@@PinkLaffs I agree Syracuse is a dump ! Kingston looks like Hollywood compared...
You pretty much nailed it. And having one of the highest snow totals in NY every year doesn't help.
And 10 fewer days of sunshine when compared to Seattle.
@@Stupid9808are you serious? I'm not from New York so I don't know. If that's the case that's got to be kind of depressing sometimes LOL
The highest snowfall of any city of this size in the US period.
IN THE WORLD
Plus the pollution.
i went to college in syracuse and loved it. i was coming from new york city and the change of scenery and pace kinda changed my life. i live in upstate new york these days and i LOVE it.
I currently go to school at SU. There are a lot of tech jobs on the way via JMA and Micron which should greatly help the local enconomy.
The prevalent issue is how it's still a very segregated city and nobody can agree on the I-81 renovation project that directly ties into fixing those lines. Plus the public transit is super understaffed, the huge Destiny mall is losing/evicting tennants, and even the University area has break-ins and car thefts.
Not everyone wants integration. It’s generally a failure
@@agy234 Syracuse is a failure. Western and central Ny can rot. The land is worth more than the people there
@@agy234 Those who believe this silly comment are already racist.
As an SU employee in the know, there has been “break ins” due to students not securing things by leaving doors unlocked or windows wide open. There have always been such incidents, as the students are marks for being a bit “lax” when it comes to security initially.
Also, the city isn’t necessarily as starkly segregated as made out to be, as there are some relatively integrated areas of the city and suburbs. If anything, people may want to develop the neighborhoods regardless of the makeup.
@@ckh937610
Yes it’s the students fault. Idiot.
You didn't bring up Albany politics which is a Huge reason for it's decline.
The majority of population is in NYC which gets the most seats. Year after year of money being directed to NYC for growth led to Upstate cities to decline. Decades of neglect from Albany cause the population to flee. If it wasn't for major upstate colleges and universities, Upstate NY would be in much worse condition.
Actually NYC gives more money than it gets back due to the amount of money there.
@@ckh937610 It does and so does a few other major cities.
The problem is, Albany has pretty much forgotten Upstate NY Cites.
I checked biggest employer in ea state, in NYS I think it’s SUNY, in many states it’s hospital system, otherwise university systems, in a few states it was Walmart. Sad, interesting
From what I've heard from locals SU is buying up the city block by block. It even bought out 2 hotels.
good video, but you failed to mention how ononadaga lake (you don't pronounce the second on) is one of the most polluted lakes in america, so the city can't even have beaches
@Chris Kovach kind of.. they cleaned the lake. By dumping all of the pollutants in the lakes watershed.
try the 8 most polluted place on earth in the 70s ( the lake ) look it up
It’s getting much better, with major projects like what Honeywell and Parsons have done. Programs like Save the Rain also focus on reducing the amount of pollutants that enter the lake through green and gray infrastructure projects around the city.
@@codycoops7431Is that true? I know Honeywell had been cleaning the lake for a while.
The polluting of Ononadaga lake was bad when I lived there in the early 80's. The lake was nearly dead. I am depressed it has not been cleaned up as you infer.
My brother goes to syracuse. It really has fallen apart. Its sad because the city used to be so vibrant. But it still has a subtle beauty and charm
Thanks for the video. I lived just the other side of Electronics Parkway near Liverpool. My dad worked for Mohawk Airlines, and I went to Chestnut Hill elementary! It was a great place to grow up!
Moved to Liverpool from California in 1986 and loved it! Lived in neighborhood between John Glenn and Liverpool HS. I left for Ole Miss in 1988 and my parents moved to Georgia in 1989. Unfortunately I've never been back but loved every minute there.
I went to Chestnut Hill also😊
I was part of this exidious 1988 to be exact! I loved the area still do to this day but I had to leave for economic reasons.
All of Central N.Y. has so much to offer recreational wise and beyond if you can prosper economically it is a great place to live. The region is great for daytrips and weekend getaways 💗🌄
True but the crime in Syracuse is through the roof ever since the BLM riots in downtown Syracuse. Last year (2023) over 1,000 vehicles were stolen and then there are all of the rapes, burglaries, robberies, assaults, car break-ins, litter, NOISE (i.e. filthy rap) and reckless driving by people who I doubt even have a drivers license.
I live in The Valley and crime has skyrocketed due to a certain demographic. We want to move, possibly out of state even though we do enjoy Clark Reservation State Park, Pratts Falls, Morgan Hill State Forest and numerous other parks, forests and waterfalls.
My old employer GHI/Emblem Health opened an office there in the mid. 2000’s and I used to love going to the Syracuse office for company business and dining in the downtown area at Dinasaur Bar-B-Que on west willow street . The office is still there though there may not be as many people employed .
A crucial reminder that the success or failure of communities isn't always about government and politics. Businesses can and do make decisions that harm a given area.
You left out the legacy of Solvay and Allied Signal's chemical manufacturing making Lake Onondaga into the most polluted lake in America for a couple of decades.
That candle factory did some damage too about 70 years earlier before Solvay. On the east end of the lake was a fish packing plant that processed a fish that was only found in Onondaga Lake [no where else in the world]. It was killed off about 100 years ago. I remember my 6th grade teacher [early 1970s] tell the story about it and talking to my grand parents about it. I remember going to the Regatta by boat and when those big cruisers would pull up anchor to leave they would pull up a sludge that looked like yellow poop and wax and it would create an orange slick of oily stuff on the surface of the water. Crazy.
@@jtwood4925Still super polluted, sometimes it smells like actual shit driving by on the highway. But the city has been undoing a lot of the pollution recently
@@eaauto6182 I remember driving from syracuse to bville and once you got to a certain spot on 690 it would smell terrible for about 5 to 10 minutes. We would joke about how those people in Solvay probably have no sense of smell anymore. That was mid 1960s to 1982. I moved away in 1982 but have been back a few times. It's kind of depressing for me when I think of how the place could be.
@@eaauto6182They cleaned it up quite a bit.
Creepy!
I recently in Syracuse for 4 years. Overall, I thought it was a great place to live - access to a lot of fresh local produce, a terrific little art museum, nice city parks, proximity to a lot of outdoor activities and other nice upstate cities (especially Ithaca)… and relatively low cost of living. I look back on my time there fondly.
I still live in Syracuse NY glad im watching this video about my city
I live next door in Rochester and to compare, I think Syracuse has much more of the original city intact like grand historic buildings and blocks and streets that are much more pedestrian and pre-cars. They didn’t go wild with urban renewal destruction like Roch did. The university and huge Upstate Medical center is also very near and essentially doubles the size of downtown, and keeps it busy. A big mall on the north side of downtown. Very centralized real city and not a very sprawly one.
I totally agree!!! I've lived in both cities, and Syracuse has more going for it than its counterpart to the west. Both cities need beefed-up public transportation, and much better leadership. They really have so much potential.
Lived in both places, I like Rochester as a city better
@@TimothyForbesXXIPublic transportation? No, it needs lower taxes and an inviting business climate. But New York keeps voting for people that ensure it never gets better. New York can’t keep people in the state due to the anti business model. Public transportation never pays for itself and ends up being a burden on taxpayers.
Capital district stupid city politics the highest ppty taxes i ever paid in my life! Forced me to leave, now in GA and TX
I live in the Hartford CT suburbs and my older brother lives in the Rochester area. Every time I go out to WNY I always feel like Syracuse is a lot like Hartford and Rochester just seems much cleaner. TBH CT cities are complete dumps for the most part with Stamford and parts of New Haven being an exception. I will say that driving down 90 in a whiteout is a white knuckle experience.
Born and raised in Syracuse, leaving for the D.C. suburbs in the fall of 1970 at age 15. My family had moved there from Brooklyn in 1952 - arguably the city's peak era - when my father was transferred by the National Guard, settling into a '50s-style suburban ranch home within city limits (the South Valley); I last visited in 2002. By then, the white flight which doomed a once-thriving downtown (Dey's, Edwards, Chappell's) had hit full-force, and the loss of manufacturing jobs followed. Not everything has been for the worse, though; at the time I left, Armory Square was desultory, hardly the yuppie haven it's been transformed into. And perhaps Micron's new plant in Clay will be what Carrier and New Process were in 1953, using the resources of institutions such as SU, Le Moyne College and Onondaga Community College to spur economic development. I'm now some 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles, where I've lived since 2014, but still harbor hopes for my hometown.
L.A. is it's own hell
It’s not white peoples fault. We just want to raise our families in a safe environment. Blame the democrat politicians for their lack of policing in low income/high minority areas. All over the country they’re refusing to properly police the inner cities, and because of that companies understandably don’t want to place their businesses in bad parts of the cities. Blacks and Hispanics need to start taking responsibility for their communities problem with crime, and the police need to actually do their job.
G.E. has morphed into Lockheed-Martin, still a valuable contributor to the local economy, Amazon recently finished construction on a new distribution facility, Crouse-Hinds still operates a stable manufacturing operation, the former Bristol-Myers Pharmaceuticals is now Lotte Biologics, and a number of hi-tech defense contractors still call Syracuse home. As the above commenter observes, the next several years of Micron Corporation's unfolding chip manufacturing operation will be kind to Syracuse's growth opportunities.
@S. Anem
Blacks ruin every city
@AM-uh7mv You can talk about corporate this and jobs that forever, but people need to be safe first. People not only go to work, but they also engage in recreation and shopping. And children play outside and go to school. It's quality of life that starts with feeling safe and being healthy.
Thanks for the video, it touches my heart. 5 years ago, we visited the Destiny Mall near Syracus while visited Oswago university while my daughter was having a summer camp. Within one month, I lost my engineer job in Vermont. The point is: America is losing manufacturer jobs along these years. When I was driving in the upper New York region in parallel with the Erie Canal, I was asking myself: how a great nation which can build a canal hundred years ago ended this way? It is sad. It is not a single person or government fault, it is a whole nation does not keep manufacturer because it is dirty work and work hard.
In 25 years the US economy has grown from 9 trillion GDP to 23 trillion GDP, while in the same period the Japanese economy (for example) has stayed at the same level. While manufacturing as a percentage of the economy is smaller than 50 years ago, the US manufactures more in terms of value than it did before.
It's called "creative destruction." The US economy is still one of the most dynamic in the world. During the time of Syracuse's heyday, Silicon Valley was bunch of citrus orchards. The US is still the world leader in many sectors.
@@capmidnite BS...America is a giant debtor now you can inflate numbers all you want it means nothing ]
@@tomricc69 Print baby print
@@reverend_wintondupree largest debtor nation in history everyone has a piece of America and its a big whore
Two things killed Syracuse and many other American cities:
1) Loss of good, stable jobs for families to rely on.
2) A loss of societal values and standards, leading to high crime and hopelessness.
I interviewed for a physician job (in Baldwinsville.) They took me to the Wine Bar in Syracuse. It had Antelope on the menu. The closest I've gotten to that was Cantiloupe.
I didn't get the position because I was not Board Certified yet.
Worked briefly at the huge Solvay soda ash plant, a classic American chemical plant that produced tons of an important chemical product that will never go out of use (Sodium Carbonate). This same material is naturally occurring out west and that may have spelled doom for the Syracuse plant which I'm told was demolished. Met some very nice people there but the winter weather was hard to take
solvay dump, solvay dump, you'll know when you are there by the odor in the air, solvay dump - a song my family used to sing when driving by allied process in the 80s
@@intellectually_lazyYes, there were some distinctive odors and soda ash put a strange taste in your mouth b/c it was so alkaline. But as far as chemicals go, soda ash is really rather benign, esp. compared to some of the chemicals I've worked with in my career. I was sorry to hear about the plant closing
@@peterruddick1952 true enough. i read an article that the mercury contamination actually came in a pipe from an east syracuse factory, can't remember the company. i just figured that song was supes local, and i wanted to represent for the 315, but it's cool you know that smell i'm talking about. it really doesn't smell that way now. sometimes i wonder what they call all the stuff we call "solvay" everywhere else, like a solvay break in pool. my dad called a seagull a solvay goose once, and we won't get into that great depression delicacy they say was made of "rabbit"
Interesting video! Never been to Syracuse, NY, but I have been to other rust belt cities like: Albany, NY, Gloversville, NY, Buffalo, NY, Springfield, MA, Cleveland, OH, Erie, PA, Gary IN, St Louis MO, Toledo, OH, and multiple cities across PA. Pretty much all of them had similar downward spirals which were caused by loss of industries and offshoring.
Ironically one is more likely to be less isolated in Syracuse, Nebraska, even though it probably has about a tenth of the current Syracuse, NY population.
St Louis was a big city at one time.
Your not missing anything but a gun shot wound
Out of all the cities you mention Gloversville? That is one super sad sad place. I live not far from there, the only city doing well in upstate NY is Saratoga.
What happened to most of upstate NY? It was built up during the Industrial Age. Attracted an educated and skilled labor force. Then Government began expanding into everything. Taxes and regulatory costs went up. Energy costs were always high because of the climate, and the South and West attracted industry with their lower costs, less regulations and lower taxes. Then came free trade and most industry moved on to Asia. There was nothing to replace high paying industrial jobs except finance, which was based in big cities like New York City. Upstate New York was out of the loop on that. Those with education and skills left Upstate New York entirely, following the jobs. Education was dumbed down so as not to "offend" anyone so even the "educated" became more ignorant. Young people moved away, people stopped having children, and the population began to age rapidly and shrink.
Interesting, brain drain left only govt employees (not workers), and the “dumbed down curriculum “ explains why all the local politicians are so stupid don’t understand economics, the big picture etc. Of course the smartest ppl left!
Syracuse unemplyment rate is 2.6%.....lots of doom and gloom mentality in these comments. I don't have a single friend I grew up with that's jobless. One of the few areas of the country left with affordable living as well.
@@racingbeats1493One of the few areas in the country left with affordable living?
Go an hour+ outside of most major metros and it’s affordable. The vast majority of the country is affordable, but people focus on major metros being unaffordable.
Well, I had a great experience in Syracuse in the early 80s when I went to the university. Marshall Street was a lot of fun and it was a good time to be young and I am a diehard orange basketball fan.
I love the video(s)!!!! One suggestion after mentioning GE in an upstate New York video. Schenectady New York home of GE, had one of the brightest futures for a city. At one point they leveled downtown in expectations to have a population exceeding 750k by the year 2000. But, the population shrank to less thank 70k by that point and vacant lots and parking lots were put in place of what was suppose to be skyscrapers.
So pathetic the leveling they did! Union station turned into an embarrassing piss alley bus stop, now there’s a “plaque” where the high school was, and they razed that famous engineer’s mansion in the Realty Plot. I studied the Schdy budget for several years (during my unemployed property tax grievance days), and now often check the bond offering website to see how Schenectady continues to issue more debt every year.
The city DROVE me away! Taxed me worse than Lyme disease
I have been all over the country and I think Syracuse is a great place! I visit often and I currently live in Vegas... Cuse has much nicer air, four distinct seasons, a walkable downtown, great local sports and concerts, lakes everywhere, *autumn*, very little traffic, a super convenient airport, a great campus, incredible architecture and lots of great food. Unemployment is incredibly low in our nation across the board, and especially in Syracuse there are a ton of jobs available.
I’m 32 and have lived in the Bronx my entire life except for the year and a half I had the pleasure of living in Syracuse. I was in the 3rd grade at delaware academy around 1999. All of my memories of Syracuse are great and I still miss it to this day lol.
You can have a new start there too. I mean worth a shot
I wouldn't write it off. The suburds around Syrcause are dirt cheap in comparison to NYC. Very unique asset these days
@@andyc9902Actually not a bad idea!
@@josephjames335 yep 👍 all the best mate ! Go for it... a new start once again. Good luck 🤞
I was stationed in Fort Drum which is about 45 mins from Syracuse and on three or four day weekend I loved going to Syracuse. I grew up in North NJ/NYC area but I having been to Syracuse a lot makes me want to move there once I finish with school
The free traders got their way and the results were exactly what the protectionists warned.
Exactly. NAFTA was the death knell for central NY.
I'm no expert, but I think for security purposes alone, it's better to make as much stuff as possible at home. AND to be clear ... outsourcing is not free trade its IMHO a chance for corporations to treat workers of developing nations like chattel as they did our own people until they were stopped.
Yes, making stuff at home costs more, but so do wars and other international disruptions. That's not to say that we don't need a military, but if, for example the US drilled all of own oil and aggressively replaced oil use so that no importing was required, I don't think they wouldn't be spending any where near the money in the middle east for example. In the end with the world being what it is, I'd bring home as much industry as possible. The USA has a massive trade deficit largely of their own making. I think they selling are their country for cheap jeans at the store ... really ... Perhaps it's harder to do this for lower population resource rich countries like Canada where there always a trade surplus. However, 20% more at the store has got to be cheaper and better than a war ever 10 years ... the US average since WW2.
@@dr.doolittle4763It had been shrinking since the 60s, long before NAFTA.
High tax, high wage, who would build there anymore?
Free trade, especially NAFTA, has lead to cheaper energy, food, and other prices. There are winners and losers in every change but overall the economic value created by trade is a benefit. Where the richer countries win in free trade is in high skill capital intensive industries, which overall beats the hell out of droning away in a factory.
As the US moves away from globalization, which is happening now, you’ll get jobs back and you’ll see prices rise. I bet the same people will complain about this that complained about trade.
@@moazim1993 Giving jobs away to China to make our stuff is not free trade IMHO.
Let things be more expensive, as much of what we buy is a false economy made under conditions and compensation that would be wholly illegal in the US or Canada.
We all have too much stuff anyway. It's just profligate waste.
Regardless, of the selfish, I think making stuff at home is of huge national security import. A country the size of the US should IMHO be feeding itself, making its own drugs, essential electronics etc. or ... someday be held hostage.
We moved to the Syracuse and lived there for 10 year but we just recently moved back to Long Island for work. We loved our time in Syracuse and we are hoping to maybe move back one day.
When I lived in Charlotte NC my wife we would come up and visit my wife's family. Syracuse city is a dump but the small towns outside the city are incredible. I absolutely loved the mild summer weather, and the mid sized city with a small town feel. We eventually moved to Syracuse to flee the insane traffic and crime (Syracuse has it but you can narrow it down to blocks in the city) . The food is amazing. I love the proximity to NYC/Boston, the lakes and the Adirondacks. The winters are tough but so isn't the south in the summer when your supposed to be outdoors. The taxes are high but everything else is reasonably priced. It's all what you make of it.
The entire downtown is full of gangs
Good old Syracuse!!!
I was born at Crouse Irving in 1959.
Lived in Syracuse till 1992 then moved south to the Carolinas.
Syracuse was great as a kid growing up, although I actually lived in Fayetteville. But, still I always enjoyed my trips going downtown.
I always enjoyed the State Fair, saw a few games at Archibald Stadium and Carrier Dome, took some sailing lessons as a kid at Onondaga Lake. I used to go to Burnette Park Zoo and Chittenango Falls, and when quite young even enjoyed the old amusement park Suburban Park!
I have many fine memories of my life growing up in and around Syracuse.
For me, as I got older though, I just didn't like the winters anymore.
Syracuse never did get it's fair share of sun!
I used to work at Hancock Airport and recall one year where they were still deicing commercial jets even in June!!!
I just got tired of the long winters and cloudy summers.
So I packed up and came to the sunny south!
So, I can't speak for Syracuse after 1992 when I cut ties.
But, I enjoyed my childhood years in Syracuse!
But, I would never move back there.
I did go up for a visit in 2019 for a wedding in Syracuse.
While there I took a ride up into the hills of Pompey, overlooking Syracuse. Also enjoyed the scenery on Rt. 81 south of Syracuse. Although the city itself may have seen better days, the surrounding area is indeed very pretty!!!
I enjoyed my visit up there, but will never live there again.
Thanks for adding the New York instead of Americanizing the Ancient Greek city
High speed rail construction could help Syracuse. It's on a direct line between Toronto and Boston as well as Toronto and NYC, and all the components used to build out the rail system (Rail, Concrete sleepers, Catenary, Electrical equipment, Rail Cars, Pantographs, etc) could be made in syracuse as significant parts are zoned for industrial use. It could also be a manufacturing site for windmills. Upstate NY is cold, wet, and windy much of the time, and syracuse is in a central location to ship windmills to other parts of the state.
Why would that want more people to ruin the beauty of the region. Then it just becomes another large crap city with crap suburbs. Windmills don’t work sheep. Wake up. They kill thousands of birds a day, leech oil and cost up to 2 billion each and produce very little energy.
No one takes trains in the US if you didn’t notice- especially in upstate ny
@@eaauto6182 Nobody takes trains because of scheduling issues, delays, and lack of investment. Driving into a big city with a car is a headache. Giving people in struggling cities a quicker and more comfortable connection to major employment centers will only help the situation.
Why does Spain have 165 mph bullet trains and USA or CA do not????
I was thinking about the USA military budget, Europe has no military budget???
@@adithyaramachandran7427 You never lived in Syracuse then bro. It’s a poor small city the last thing we need is tax money dumped into trains🤦🏻♂️ How about cleaning up the trash or abandoned houses first. We already got a bus system that no one uses. By the way windmills don’t work. You have to be one of the most delusional people I’ve come across
Thanks for sharing. I passed through Syracuse when heading for Niagara.
Born and bred there. I loved everything about Syracuse growing up. Like many others I left for opportunity. I would squarely place the blame on NYS and local government which legislated an unfriendly business climate for manufacturers. Although I still have many friends there I have not been back since my grandmother passed in 2009. I want to remember it the way that it was.
While I lived in Schenectady and worked in Albany, I found a documentary in the SCPL (am unable to find it online), where they interview unemployed former employees of ALCOA, famous train manufacturer. At the end it is just heartbreaking to hear many of the interviewed say, “the Union probably destroyed the company.
I know I concluddd that the Unions thought they had GE by the cojones, but jack Walsh just moved all manufacturing to right to work states or overseas a. Was shocking to see the graph of decline in population in relation to relocation of businesses. Housing empty esp multi family, and they were majestic duplex homes, exquisite woodwork high ceilings.
Curious what opportunity? Syracuse actually has lower unemployment than the national average. All my friends and most family have good jobs as well, are you in a specialized industry?
@@racingbeats1493 interesting that they have such low unemployment yet one of the highest poverty rates in the country at the same time. Syracuse is ranked #8 nationally. Rochester is #5
@@mikeb4708 It is pretty odd for sure. I have worked in the inner city quite a bit and there's what seems like entire neighborhoods of non working single moms with 5+ kids. Obviously those kids are all on welfare and do not go hungry or without medical care but they're still in poverty. I would imagine this is true of many struggling inner city's but Syracuse seems to be hit particularly hard by it. I live in a suburb about ten minutes from the city and the childhood poverty rate is down to 4%. Poverty here is very localized imo.
In late 1990"s and early 2000 I was stationed at Fort Drum New York (45 minutes North Of Syracuse), I would get a weekened pass and visit the Syracuse Mall for fun... good times
We have great jobs here 4 hospitals, Syracuse University Lemoyne college just to name a few. It's a great place to live.
The requirements are too high compared to the rest of the nation. I'm from Syracuse. Had to take a County Exam just to have a state job. Moved to Texas and immediately got a state job paying 3x as much with just a bachelor's degree and a decent resume.
I currently live just outside of Syracuse and laughed when you mentioned Camden. My mom drives out there once a week for her job and it’s literally like an hour and a half drive both ways.
When I used to dance I used to drive out to Rochester because the clubs dried up bad in Syracuse around 2015 .
The only reason we haven’t moved is because all of our family still lives out here. We have talked about it in the future though.
Lol, he was referencing Camden, New Jersey, not Camden New York.
@@anx1300c my son's father's fam moved from east syracuse ny to collinwood, i think, outside camden, nj, in the 90s
Interesting video, but I also think the construction of I-81 needs to be mentioned. Syracuse, like many other cities, had one of its most vibrant communities (the 15th Ward) demolished to make room for the highway. The way that roads are laid out in the city contributes to the sprawl that makes the downtown feel enclosed and dead. There are efforts to tear down I-81 and revitalize the city through better planning. Hopefully through a community grid syracuse can come back and be a better hub to go to and not through.
Syracuse has been a dead city for over 40 years. Do you really think getting rid of I-81 will revitalize that dump? Only reason why outside people see or go to Syracuse is when they drive through it.
Freeways destroy cities. Americans never learn
I-81 through the city is falling apart; a 3-digit
(named) ring road would have been a better
idea.
But at the time that I-81 was being built some people in cities (e.g. Syracuse, Niagara Falls, NY
and even Cincinnati, OH) as well as small towns
(e.g. Marathon, NY) encouraged the
Interstate to bisect all or part of the town.
They were thinking about catching interstate
money but more often than not the Interstate
brought crime and congestion.
[Cincinnati built an elevated walkway with
gorgeous river views ( As did NYC with an old,
elevated train right of way on the west side)
Niagara Falls just tore it down (you could not
see the falls when you were driving by, with-
out stopping your car) and re-routed the road]
imho: It would have been better to make those
ring roads and build up the infrastructure for
services. where there was proper zoning and
room for side roads, intersections, etc..
@@here_we_go_again2571 what do think 481 was supposed to do.
@@marksheiman1538
That will be what is available when they
take down I-81 in the center of town.
I am not sure what neighborhoods will
be torn up to provide easier access.
Lets see what happens.
Frankly the neighborhoods off of
South Salina streets need to be
fixed up. I don't know what will
happen though
I grew up north of Syracuse and graduated in the early 80’s when major companies were shutting down in the area. No jobs so I joined the Army, ended up in North Texas and would never go back.
Maybe you could do a video on Schenectady, NY. I lived in the area until my dad, who worked for GE (which employed a good part of the city, as did Avco), was transferred to TN for lower labor costs.
See my reply comments above Schdy above, I learn d a lot about decline of American industrial cities when lived in capital district from ‘01 to ‘16. Escaped! Never paid so much property tax ever in my life! Exclusive area to live, only for state govt pensioners or welfare recipients
Left Syracuse in my early 20s to move down south and then came back a few years later. There’s good amenities and the city isn’t so big it takes an hour to go to the other side of town. Cost of living isn’t high like other places. It’s not really a storm prone area either. don’t see snow like Buffalo/Watertown, not common to have tornadoes. When I was down south it seemed like we’d get them a handful of times a year.
Its a shame what happen to Syracuse & Rochester
don't forget Buffalo and if it wasn't for Albany being the capital all the major upstate cities would be history, at one time upstate n.y. was the manufactoring capital of the U.S. until the fucking politicians took over!
I lived in Oneida, NY (about 30 minutes east of Syracuse on the Thruway) is the late 1980s. I would take my wife into Syracuse for a night out on the town.
I worked for Oneida Silversmiths and we had about 2,000 employees. Now, Oneida is gone. The last I heard, a company had purchased some of their surplus equipment and is making silverware for government contracts, employing about 45 (!) people. A far cry from the buzzing center of activity it was 30 years ago. What you see sold under the Oneida brand now is made in Asia. Really heartbreaking.
The story of Syracuse is the story of American manufacturing. As world markets opened up, we demanded more goods at lower prices. Companies, seeking competitive advantage and larger market share, sent manufacturing offshore. While that seems to work great in the short term, ultimately, you need a vibrant economy to purchase all of those goods, and people without jobs don't have expendable income. Manufacturing creates true wealth. We can't crate wealth by selling each other coffee.
As stated in the video, this started early. Even back in the 1980's I would drive around update NY and every few miles you would drive through little towns with empty factories. Each little town had a factory that anchored their locality. But by the 1980's, abandoned factories were everywhere! Each empty factory represented jobs and careers lost. Wealth and cash flow lost. Those little towns struggled without high-paying jobs nearby. This impacts real-estate prices (where many people have the majority of their wealth), growth, and crime. Both things that affect the livability of a community.
Upstate New York is beautiful, and there is so much to do, but economically it has been wreaked by outsourcing, excessive taxes, and poor political leadership. A headhunter called me a few years ago and asked if I would be interested in taking a job back in NY. I declined without even hearing the details. No thank you. I think NY as a whole is too far gone. It will takes decades (if ever) for it to recover. The fact that the population of New York decreased during the last census supports this conclusion.
Actually, the official census for 2020 showed a population increase.
That was very well-written. Indeed, the death of Oneida Limited was a major event. However, I've recently noticed many new homes being built in Sherrill. I guess people are commuting to Syracuse ,via the T-way in Verona, or Utica, less than 20 miles away? That is if anything remains in Utica? When I would take Rte. 5 from Sherrill to Albany, I saw the same picture that you described: One closed factory after another in the cities and villages all along the Mohawk Valley. I moved to the South, 25 years ago, but I still think about Central New York.
While there certainly is a lot correct about the city of Syracuse and the population loss. I think one of the biggest things you failed to mention was the growth of its suburbs. I have lived in the suburbs of Syracuse my whole life and there is a very large economy of engineering, medical, and other service industries. I think people focus on the city itself without regarding the surrounding areas which have drastically improved and growth throughout the past several decades. Great video nonetheless!
EDIT: Goodluck in the comments it’s a war zone down there lol
Son, it’s a five minute video, not a complete history. He also failed to mention how many potholes were in the central business district. If you want to know more, do your research. If you want to criticize and find fault, take a hike. I believe this presentation is very well done. So there!
I was born in cuse. This video is good in my opinion. I still work in Onondaga county. I love syracuse through and through cuz of its charm and university. I wish that was mentioned, but it’s not a video saying why syracuse is great
Left the area in 1982. Its a mini Detroit now with less opportunity. Its sad.
@@chuckinhouston9952 Are you his boyfriend?
Yes, the suburbs are growing and include the Amazon warehouse, and also Micron's semiconductor manufacturing plant, which is one of 10 made possible by one of Biden's 354 bills, known as the CHIPS and Science Act
--- it not only employs engineers like Welch Allyn, Syr Research, Saab Sensis, and Lockheed Martin does, but is generally higher paying in it's jobs
This video maker seems to only focus on the actual cities themselves, but leaves out a lot of the rebirth such as the effect of the Buffalo Billion on the city of Buffalo, and the rebirth of Armory Square in Syracuse NY.
:44 For MANY years Syracuse's, New Process factory, manufactured the Transfer Cases, that made a regular truck 4 wheel drive, for Chevrolet,, GMC, Ford, Dodge and Jeep, light trucks!
Many of these transfer cases still trade as a hi-quality part for Used and Modified off road trucks all over the world.
Great video. I was wondering. Could you do a video on the changing culture of Syracuse 1950-2010? You left me wondering. But I loved this. I'm from Buffalo. I live in New York. Thanks.
Top of the route 81 nightmare. Don't know why everything near that road in the mid-Atlantic and up has to be the most depressed and depressing area of the country. Syracuse, Binghamton, scranton, wilkes barre, Hazleton,......
Thank you Jack Welch
… former GE CEO
This book tells what happened… not just to Syracuse but all over America
Read this book to learn how it happened.
The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America-and How to Undo His Legacy
Thx for recommendation, I lived 14 yrs in Schenectady, learned how unions had GE cojones in vice grip until jack Welch just shut it all down there, poor Schdy killed its golden goose. And the FAMOUS ALCOA strike in Schdy killed that company too.
I was amazed to read in “Nothing Like It in the Wirks,” that one of the locomotives that met at the golden spike was built in Schdy. I assumed it came from the east, but nope! It was shipped from Albany around Cape Horn to SF!
World, not wirks @!&!
I just rolled through Syracuse a few months back. I liked the old architecture. Thought the downtown area was pretty walkable with some nice shops/restaurants
My Dad’s family all lived in North Syracuse and in Liverpool in the 80’s and 90’s while growing up and it was/is a very large family. My grandfather worked at the GM plant. I can probably count on one hand how many of my relatives still live in the area. There’s nothing there.
NAFTA took care of US manufacturing.. This story has been repeated many times.
You mean that large sucking sound?
Ivy league MBA programs rid the US of far more manufacturing jobs than nafta
Manufacturing was gone from Upstate NY long before NAFTA.
Bingo NAFTA has been a huge net negative
I was among those who had to flee the lousy job market after a major layoff in my profession, in 2006. Among the old photos, it appears that other than filling in the canal and replacing it with a street, at 1:30, Clinton Square looks the same. The photo of the train shows current day City Hall.
bruh, where you been? they did that over 100 years ago
It's truly a tragedy what we've done to our countries. Our jobs are gone. The economy dried up, no hope for the future. We need to find some solution to our current economic dryness.
Worst part is that it seems like most small local businesses in cities and towns of America went extinct due to big corporations competing them to death. Only for the location to no longer become profitable enough for them thus packing up and leaving voids
Thanks to NAFTA. This pattern has been repeated across the nation. Downtown Syracuse is zombie land now thanks to liberal policies and the Scamdemic.
there is a Solution (soon coming)
ARMAGEDDON the END &
Complete Annihilation by Incineration
of this Stupid World System
the ONE FINALized SOLUTION
wait ... for ... it
Globalism.
Do you think your Evil Orange Fuhrer Jesus is the Answer ?
I live near Binghamton. I love Syracuse. It has a couple of rock climbing gyms, the giant mall, fairly well served airport, and some great places to eat like Dinosaur BBQ (better than many “real” BBQ I’ve had down south, don’t @ me). Sure it’s way past its prime. But it’s a nice small city to visit if you live close.
How's Binghamton fairing these days? It's been struggling too for a while now. Has a similar story of IBM and a few others leaving the place.
I agree with you - Syracuse is a nice place to visit.
Carrier Moved officially moved out in the 1980's but didnt' close it's research facility until a few years ago. Some of that plant, which is located a couple of block's from my girlfriend's house, has been coverted into a recreation area.
That should be fun!
They still have R&D in the area. So, Carrier is still there.
Ive lived here all my life and I haven't seen Syracuse that empty before its always packed I wonder how long ago did they record this vid ?
A future video should be done on Paterson, NJ.
Yeah, just make sure you wear your body armor while filming.
@@clintonbubb3187 I lived in Paterson for nearly 20 years - no bullet holes of knife wounds. Not a nice place, but not nearly as violent as many other US cities.
Used to live in NJ up until 1991 and I knew someone from both Wayne and Paterson. There was an area where there were 800000 to a million dollar homes (1991 dollars and in Wayne) that were not even a half a mile to a mile where the area instantly became sketchy. I believe I drove down a hill from Wayne to Paterson. Not sure of the actual road.
During the same time, near where I used to work, I vividly remembered how South Orange Avenue instantly changed as soon as I went east from South Orange to Newark.
Out west where I have been living the majority of my life, you can be on one block in Phoenix, AZ and 2 blocks away can be infested with crime. The same with Tucson too.
Regarding Paterson: it is definitely less isolated than Syracuse and is in close proximity to the NYC area. Same situation with Bridgeport, CT, another town that has previously lost many industries, and was relatively unsafe in many areas, from what I remembered.
However, in both Paterson and Bridgeport, which have had huge taxes, and probably still do, it would be hard to afford both for the average person. Definitely do not miss that about the metro NYC area. Not to mention, both cities are surrounded by extremely expensive towns.
Better off moving away to areas in the southeastern USA, where you can still be 8 to 10 hours away from friends and family.
Some other cities that are reasonable that are more than a days drive that I am familiar with are: OKC, Tulsa, Fayetteville, AR, Des Moines, Omaha (somewhat high property taxes, but a great economy), and the KC area.
Definitely would also be interested in a future video on Paterson.
@@manfredmann2766Even Southern areas are getting more expensive and quickly too.
I drive around Trenton NJ taking photos of the decay, formerly paradise.
We lived here in 1998, the downtown was like a ghost town already at that time. But I love the place, I miss Syracuse
Just like every town from Minnesota to the east coast. All the jobs left, everyone moved out to the suburbs and the city was left to rot. Politicians got greedy, crime went up, drugs came in and now it's desolate.
The design worked well.
The desolation of the mohawk river valley was obvious in the 1970's.
One thing you notice flying into Syracuse (born in Oswego, spent time in SYR for my whole life, live in NC) is the high amount of swimming pools.
People tend to take summer seriously when it seems five weeks long LOL. They close schools down here for flurries, but the summers are hot as hades.
Thanks for such a well done presentation of what happened to Syracuse which is the template for the rest of the country.
The Rust Belt was created intentionally to bring us to this pt. in history which is our demise.
Sadly the sixth extinction, Kali Yuga
You just can't transi@@janusn9
Based on all the amazing architecture, the possibilities are limitless for Syracuse. They need better PR, more creativity, and better roads as of yesterday. Housing is very limited if you're upper middle class and not looking to buy.
Willis Carrier is an absolute hero in my book.
They belong to the same fraternity (build it, rape it then escape it). People can't figure this out.
I grew up in Liverpool. Excellent short video, thanks for posting it.
All of upstate NY, between Albany and Buffalo, is a re-telling of this same story. Briggs & Stratton. Kodak. Etc. It's so sad to drive through that region nowadays.
Buffalo has been on the rise for about 10 years, but realistically needs another 10 years to really recover. 50+ years of decline and decay don’t reverse overnight.
Kodak was responsible for its own demise. Far from being in the forefront of photography any longer, it was so late getting into digital that it had lost the competitive war before it started.
@@tedrice1026 same with Bethlehem Steel in Buffalo. It was an outdated facility, and corporate didn’t want to invest in upgrading it. I’m sure NYS politics and taxes didn’t help, but that plant’s closure devastated Buffalo and WNY for decades.
@@jstoli996c4s Bethlehem steel wasn't the only thing happening in Buffalo, and yes I have lived here all my life.
@@tracfoneuber I’m a WNY native myself, so I’m aware it was more than Bethlehem Steel.
Grew up in the Syracuse/Utica area in the 70s and 80s. Couldn’t wait to leave. Nice area to grow up in but there’s so little in the way of good paying jobs and everything is so old and run down. And the winters can be downright brutal and long… on the flip side, what I paid for a 2BR/2BA condo near Philly in NJ would buy me nearly a mansion in the Syracuse/Utica region… (but how do you get a job paying enough to be able to afford that?)
I just don't understand this. Everyone I know is doing well for the most part in Syracuse. The unemployemnet rate is 2.6% while the national average is 3.6%. Sure the pay isn't what it is in major cities but the cost of living is very low.
lived here for 4 years going to su and now I live here w my gf, who works at pbs and sees how the city council gives absolutely no attention to the immense poverty and ugliness of the whole city. Thanks for giving me some extra insight into the history!
@A M if you leave people alone they will naturally congregate and live around others who share a history, culture, faith, and family values. Segregation is the least of your problems.
This is why the I-81 project might actually change something!
I grew up in Syracuse and now live in Portland Oregon. What you said is what is said, but much bigger problem, homelessness in our metro area.
@@coolboss999 yeah change something for sure but for the better or the worse? you sound like a politician, "we're changing peoples lives" ....yeah ok. you left out the part where it says "for the worse".
@@alpha-omega2362 and what part of removing the I-81 viaduct is going to make people's lives worse? I've done a whole bunch of research on this topic for a survey I'm creating so I'll wait....
I lived in Syracuse while attending SUNY ESF there in the early 80's. You could see the decline away from the vibrant college campuses. I enjoyed living there but the winters were absolutely frigid. I hope it recovers for the best. We use to call it ZeroCuse due to the winter temps.
witty
Lots of snow but the temperature doesn’t get as bad as Minnesota.
That's called "cold comfort."
funny we call it sorrycuse or sewercuse, if you ever have the delight of hearing this guy i know, john's story of hutch the hacker, son of marcy, back to finish mama's work. marcy was no lady. she was into drugs and bondage. also the sewage overflow system, in through cpep, out to 3-6, 4B, 5 west, four winds, hpc. i'd explain, but if you get it you get it. holla out to pros 742 james!
how did this comment from the syracuse vid end up on this channel? well, oddly fitting one to cross over like this
I actually love that I grew up in Syracuse New York. I feel blessed and that the area has made me who I am and I have had an adventurous life. I now call Beaverton oregon My Home. For many reasons that I loved Central New York I now love the north west. Although Oregon has much better weather. The other thing that we have is growth boundaries, which is a double edge sword. In the northeast cities were allowed to expand in the suburbs and suburbs, and the other suburbs in urban sprawl has destroyed the inner cities. Temps to regrow those inner cities happens across the rust belt, including syracuse, and has succeeded to some extent, but it’s still not as driving as it is in mini western United States. It’s a double edge sword, because now it is almost impossible to afford housing in the Portland metro area.
The lesson that is learned is that you cannot have unabated growth and urban sprawl because no one wants to end up like Phoenix, Boston and Los Angeles. You also want to keep farmland close so that you don’t have to transport your food long distances. However, you cannot have this without Rent control, and some sort of regulations on how much you can sell your land for. If real estate in land values are based on the profit motive, then we’re gonna end up with the homeless population that we currently have. I’ve I heard almost no one mentioned this.
Again, I really appreciate this video and every day even though I love where I live, I always appreciate the city. They created the opportunities for me to have an amazing life.
Do you live in a tent?
Phoenix and Boston are much better cities than Portland. Everything you said was wrong, not having sprawling growth leads to insane home prices like you mentioned, which leads to homelessness. Syracuse doesn’t have nearly as bad of a homeless problem as Portland despite it being one of the poorest cities in the US. And rent control has and will never work.
@@eaauto6182 there are two sides and I am not wrong; and beware the media trap of narrow focus. Boston, phoenix, LA, south Florida are paved over and sprawled out so far that farms and nature are 50-100 miles away. Yes, it’s expensive here and huge homeless problem, but so is San Fran and Seattle that have natural growth boundaries and they are more expensive. I have been many cities and there has to be some happy medium. Humans are a weed and are destroying nature.
My first husband worked at GE when I first met him. He also worked for Carrier. His last job or I should say he started his own jobs working as a janitor and cleaned at a lot of these businesses. His last job was working for the Syracuse schools as janitor and cleaning rugs and floors.
I was born in Syracuse and grew up in CNY. All of CNY is dying.
Why? Taxes and politics.
Taxes-
NY ranges from highest in the country to 5th highest in the country on multiple different taxes.
Let me give you an example. A $140k home in the sticks in CNY is around $3k yr in taxes. Higher in some areas (not the sticks). That $140k home in Florida is $700 yr in tax.
Why is the tax so high in NY? Mismanagement. The school in the town I lived in was/is spending $32k per year per student. And this school has at most 300 kids. NY spends the most on education in the country at $20k yr per student. But the school in my old town was even more than at $32k per yr. What makes this even more ridiculous is NY isn't even ranked best state for education in the country. They are only ranked in the teens. Not 1st or even 10th but in the teens... but they spend the most. That's unacceptable and unsustainable.
Taxes are forcing a lot of people and businesses to leave.
Politics-
Last I knew... NY was the least business friendly state in the union. Obviously that doesn't help bring business to the city or the state.
NY is also (last I knew) the least freest state in the union. And that too doesn't draw people or business to the city/state.
Bottom line. People want cheaper taxes plus opportunity and freedom. Syracuse and NY lacks that. If you want taxes and lots of bureaucracy.... then NY is the place for you.
Democrats
Republicans keep cutting taxes for the uber wealthy. That gives them more money to corrupt the politics.
Property taxes in Florida have changed since your writing; SC is more in line with $700 on a 140k house.
@@judymarasco4231
Must depend on where you're at. I imagine it's more in the bigger cities like Miami or Orlando or whatever. But in my part of Florida (Pensacola area) it's around $700-$1000 on a $130k/$140k house. That's not in the city but the country.
@@judymarasco4231 That's nothing. But of course families spend thousands to send their kids to private school.
You: “Thanks for watching😞”
Lol love your channel!
You can take this and replicate it across many of the cities in NY. You don't mention or analyze why these companies left. For the most part it was because of high taxes. IBM had a huge prsesence in NY at one time and now most of those facilities are gone.
Agree. As a business owner I can verify NY business climate is horrendous and continues to get worse.
Sad but common as companies moved jobs to areas with lower costs. I went to Oswego college in the mid-70s, and the weather in that area is tough. Cold cloudy and damp.
take a look at the $100 billion microchip factory being build just outside of Syracuse. Could be an inflection point for the city. The city will also soon begin tearing down one of its historic redlining freeways thats bisects the city. If the state funds some regional rail investment and brings Amtrak back to downtown, the city could see new all time highs for population and gpd.
Grew up here during my teen years. Best years of my life. Syracuse hardcore helped so many of us with fucked up home lives.
You left out Solvay soda ash and the chlor alkalai industry that started up in 1886 and shuttered in 1996
All those upstate NY towns are dying. I use to live there. Glad I left. Now live in south florida. Ahhhhh its great
Let's not forget WALMART and lower prices live better. There is a HUGE societal cost to cheap consumer prices. This is NOT exclusive to Syracuse, but has and is occurring Nationally. JUST MY OPINION.
Syracuse is in NY as well. policies put into place by politicians have migrated many folks away including myself.