Through the Community Streets Program, the Syracuse Urbanist Collective is planning to make downtown Syracuse safer
By Jack Siciliano
Javier Zavaleta, a member of the Syracuse Urbanist Collective(SUC), noticed a problem with cars parking illegally in downtown Syracuse. As we sat together in Cafe Kubal, on the corner of Jefferson and Salina, the problem appeared right in front of our eyes.
Zavaleta and the SUC are working with the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council(SMTC) under a new program called Community Streets. The program offers Syracuse residents and organizations the opportunity to propose projects that they think would improve the streets of Syracuse. The SMTC reviews them and helps to start planning their construction. Volunteers from the organization that submitted the ideas then take to the streets to carry out the plans, usually in just one day. The first year of the program in 2024 saw two successful projects and one is still in progress.
The site of the SUC’s project is at the intersection of Jefferson St. and Salina St. in downtown Syracuse.
“The plan is to paint pedestrian buffouts on Jefferson Street. It’s just to be clear, that these spaces are no parking anytime. You're not supposed to be within so many feet of the edge of the curb. But that is not notated out there, so it's often that people encroach closer and closer to the corner” Zavaleta said.
He showed me the parts of the street where the pavement is going to be painted, and sure enough, two cars are parked illegally close to the corner.
Zavaleta said the goal of the project is to “give people more confidence, especially in terms of sight lines, so they can encroach into the right of way. That way they can get a better view of where the oncoming traffic is coming from.”
Work to create the Community Streets Program began in 2019, but the pandemic tabled it for a while and it was finally put into place at the end of 2023. So far, the Alchemical Nursery project enhanced the safety of two intersections along Ontario St, Gifford St, and Otisco St and the Hopeprint project created a new social gathering space on McBride St between Lodi St and Division St. The projects are named for the organizations that proposed them.
Tom Bardenett, who is the head of the Community Streets Program for the SMTC, said, “One of the things that we've been working with the city is identifying what types of streets they are comfortable with having these projects on, and the hope is that eventually this does happen in every quadrant of the city.”
The Hopeprint location opened their new space three days a week during the summer, and the city of Syracuse asked them to hold a Christmas tree lighting event. These projects have been colorful so far, using paint and designs to draw attention to the buffers on the road. The SUC plans to incorporate the colors of the flag of Syracuse in their design.
Zavaleta, who works for an affordable housing non-profit in Syracuse, has been carrying out community projects for much of his adult life. After studying and working in the architecture field, which increased his interest in urbanism, he helped to turn a vacant parking lot into a public square and gathering space in Highland Park, New Jersey. They built a wooden pavilion, painted the ground, and adorned the space with flower boxes.
“My favorite part of doing this is to actually see the difference being made…To be able to go out there and complete the project quickly and see the impact taking place the next day is great,” he said. The short term smaller projects give him a good break from the often years long processes that he deals with at his day job.
After we left Cafe Kubal, Zavaleta untied his bike from a handicapped parking sign. According to him, downtown Syracuse has a lack of bike racks, which is why the installation of a rack on the corner of Jefferson and Salina is another piece of the Community Streets project.
Zavaleta’s bike tied to a street sign next to a car parked way too close to the corner coincidentally painted a perfect picture of the problem he is trying to address.
His work on this Community Streets project is a small move forward in his goal of creating a more accessible and safe city. He believes that a reexamination of how we use streets and sidewalks is necessary.
“They're just made too big because at the time that we designed these streets, we were in a totally different mindset of; let's make them bigger in case we want to give it more lanes and have more capacity to do more. Now we’re thinking maybe making it bigger isn't always going to be the best thing, and maybe what we should be doing more of is just making it calmer,” Zavaleta explained.