The Garden is Alive

April is different every day, even though it may look the same at first glance through the ‘shower curtain’ that it brings. Where I really notice April is not at eye level, it’s most amazing between the ground and my knees.  I have several flower beds in the front and side yards, and each is going through its spring stretch right now. 

Bulbs planted late in the fall wake up, sticking their leaves and blossoms above ground.   Crocus, mountain iris, tulips, snowbells, hyacinths, and daffodils of all colors, styles and sizes, are everywhere, and are joined by the vivid yellow of the forsythia and the dark red buds on the maple trees. 

Bleeding hearts shoot up, the clumps larger each year, and get me immediately thinking about where I can plant them if I take the time to separate them after they’ve bloomed.  Clematis, honeysuckle, and the other vines return; some come in on their old growth, some start all over again from the ground up, reaching for their supports.  Hostas and ferns nudge their way up through last year’s dead leaves, eager to get at least a little bit of sun before they’re sheltered and protected by the larger trees after they leaf out.  The rest of the perennials, the ones that give us so much pleasure in the summer, also begin to make their presence known.

My primary job in April is to make it possible for them to do that, clearing old seed heads that we leave up all winter for the birds, cutting back the ornamental grasses, and pulling out miles of creeping Charlie and other weeds.  Today, I was focusing on getting rid of the grass that’s been growing all along my soaker hoses – that is, until I uncovered the most amazing spring bloom I’d ever seen.

I’d been at it for a couple of hours, and getting ready to stop, when I saw a couple of dandelions in a bed that’s about 10 or 12 feet from the sidewalk.  I got the dandelions out, got rid of a few other weeds, and saw a spot in the center of the garden where there was a bunch of dead stems and leaves; I figured I might as well get rid of those, too. I poked my trowel into the debris, and kind of flipped it towards the edge of the bed where I could pick it up, when suddenly the debris started moving. It was squirming, crawling, and finally running in two different directions.  

To my complete surprise, the ‘running debris’ was actually two little bunnies! One made it about three or four feet before diving under the cover of some heather; the second one made a beeline away from the nest and was last seen closer to the sidewalk, burrowing into some leaves under a cypress bush.  The nest where they came from (pictured here) was still wriggling, and there were at least two, maybe three more babies there.  Each is about as big as a good-size plastic Easter Egg, but I could clearly see their big bunny ears and pin-cushion tails.   

According to the Messinger Woods Wildlife Care and Education Center in Western NY , the nest I found is a cottontail nest. In an article on their site called “Help, I found a baby bunny!” I found this description, which perfectly describes what I found with my trowel:

 Wild cottontail rabbits “nest” in shallow holes dug in the ground by the mother rabbit. Nests are often found in people’s lawns, gardens or shrubs. The mother rabbit lines the shallow hole with fur pulled from her body and covers it and her babies with a mixture of dry grass and twigs to hide it from predators.

Now I understand who’s been gnawing on my burning bush and my Fothergilla, pruning off the new growth for me.  Now I understand who’d been nipping off the buds and leaves of my crocus, before they even had a chance to open up.  Now I understand why my some of my tulips look so awful – the mama rabbit.  We’ve seen a few in the back yard, and droppings in quite a few places, but none near the nest. It never occurred to me that one would make a home in the front garden that close to the noise and activity of our busy street.

So, what to do, not that I’ve found them?  Well, to be honest, I’m torn. The two that ran out of the nest, I hope make it back tonight; obviously I don’t want them to get hurt.  But I also don’t want the litter making themselves too comfortable in the garden, or likely a great deal of my hard work will be for naught.  I think I mostly just hope they find a new address.  

We just had another blast of rain and wind, which is exactly how the morning started. But I have to say, the middle of the day was pretty amazing, even for April. This year, my garden is truly alive!

Green Infrastructure Partner awarded to

Green Infrastructure Partner awarded to #Syracuse & Onondaga County. Happy Earth Day! http://ht.ly/4Frt9

EPA Brings Great ‘Green’ News

Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency named Syracuse/Onondaga County a ‘green infrastructure partner’, one of ten such honorees in the country.  Green infrastructure, according to the EPA, uses “open space and natural areas, such as greenways, wetlands, parks, forests and native plant vegetation, to manage storm water and reduce flooding.”  The selection of the regional partner cities was based on successes they’ve had implementing green techniques in storm water management, and in creating more sustainable communities.

“Onondaga County and the City of Syracuse have set a tremendous example for other  communities looking to improve their water quality,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck. “Green infrastructure is a fiscally responsible answer to many urban water challenges, and helps build healthier communities. The investments that Syracuse and Onondaga County are making today will be a catalyst for sustainable growth for years to come.”

So what’s the big deal about storm water?  Well, Syracuse has combined sewer systems that carry both sanitary sewage (the kind from your house) and whatever water runs into the storm drains. That ‘runoff’ water can contain chemicals that end up contaminating creeks, rivers, and Onondaga Lake, especially when we have heavy rains. Before we ‘got green, in the not all that distant old days, we did what most other cities and towns did to solve the runoff problem: we’d build a treatment facility for the storm water.  

If you live in The Valley, as I do, you surely remember the massive construction project to build the Midland Ave facility; it took years, ran way over budget, and ultimately resulted in the uprooting many families, tearing down several houses, and a facility that is expected to be used only some 65 days a year.  The end cost is something like a million dollars per day of expected use; certainly not the kind of green we would prefer to be known for. A similar facility had been planned for the Trolley Lot, the giant parking lot behind the Armory, which would have disrupted downtown for at least a couple of years, and downtown workers who park there– one of the least expensive parking options in the city – for far longer.

Fortunately, County Executive Joannie Mahoney made a decision very early on to table the Trolley Lot plan, and seek different solutions – green solutions – which are cheaper, less disruptive, easier to maintain and a heck of a lot more creative and interesting.  From the EPA again:

Examples of green projects include capturing rainwater through the use of green roofs, permeable pavements, preserving wetlands, rain gardens and other methods that put the collected water to productive use before it enters municipal wastewater treatment systems. In addition to contributing to more sustainable sewer and water systems, green infrastructure projects often provide communities with additional recreation space, revitalizing neighborhoods and enhancing property values.

Toward that end, the city and county are aiming to complete fully 50 green infrastructure projects in the Syracuse area this year, including efforts in Harbor Brook and on the Near West Side, as part of the county’s “Save the Rain” program.  For example, a ‘green roof’ is scheduled to be installed on the Convention Center; if it comes off as planned, the system will collect about 1 million gallons of rainwater – at a construction cost of around $1 per gallon.  Our local professional hockey franchise, the Syracuse Crunch, has agreed to play hockey on frozen rainwater collected from the War Memorial roof, another $1 million project, which will collect some 250,000 gallons annually.  

And tonight on the news, Mahoney mentioned that she’s gotten agreement from the Jim & Juli Boeheim Foundation to use permeable pavement on the basketball courts they install around the city through their Courts for Kids initiative.   Permeable pavement bike paths are also on tap. And already, the parking lot at One Lincoln Center has been updated with a green storm water collection system.  

These are exactly the kinds of projects that the EPA is looking at, and looking for. The Partnership program allows us to engage with other municipalities, government agencies, and private sector businesses to share what we’ve learned and what we’re doing, and to find out what other opportunities may be out there that we might be able to adopt. 

Reporter Teri Weaver has a great story in the Post Standard on just how incongruous it is that we managed to go from brown to green; and EPA has more info on their website about green infrastructure programs.

All in all, this announcement is a great opportunity for us to show a little pride, get some great press, and continue working on better, less intrusive ways to accomplish a critical need.  Kudos to all involved in making this honor possible.

TOPS in The Valley?

Since TOPS Friendly Markets took over the long-troubled P&C grocery store chain, they’ve made improvements to many of their stores. Most recently, there was a $2.5 million, major renovation to the Nottingham Plaza TOPS, a few miles from the SU Campus.  The store has a SU Athletics theme, including logos, photos of Orange stars, and a ‘Cuse Cafe. This type of investment in (and for) the community is what everyone hoped would happen when TOPS, based in Williamsville NY, purchased P&C.

Mayor Stephanie Miner and community members have been championing a grocery store on the South Side for some time. And now, we’re hearing a lot of talk that TOPS is interested in the empty P&C store in Valley Plaza, a once thriving retail center on South Salina Street.  The store’s been empty for several years; P&C closed it before they went out of business, leaving Green Hills (a couple miles down the road) and convenience stores as the only local grocery options for neighborhood residents. 

Valley Plaza is owned by Ellicott Development Co., the company founded by Buffalo businessman and gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. The developer has filed for tax breaks on the site and for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement with the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency.  For its part, TOPS has filed for assistance from the New York Healthy Food and Communities Fund, which provides grants and loans to support getting grocery stores in under-served markets.

While I’m encouraged by the amount of activity surrounding the TOPS store, and would likely do at least some of our shopping there, I’m a little concerned that the City of Syracuse is approaching economic development the same way now, in very difficult economic times, as we’ve always approached it.  The PILOT agreement is the ‘go-to’ enticement for all kinds of development, from shopping mall expansions to mixed-use downtown developments to well, pretty much everyone who promises us anything.

What I’d rather see is tax dollars not waived, or loans and grants not given, unless and until developers meet our expectations.  In this case, that would mean Ellicott and TOPS getting the store remodeled, stocked, opened and operating for a year or two, before we give them any kind of incentive. Or, if everyone on both sides insists that up-front economic support is required, we should obtain iron-clad assurances that we’ll be paid back two- or three-fold if they don’t uphold their end of the bargain. 

I’m in favor of having a grocery store in the ‘hood; and who knows, maybe Valley Plaza is one of those diamonds in the rough, the thing right under our nose that with a little attention could turn into exactly what we needed to turn things around in a neighborhood that needs a break.  I’m just not in favor of spending limited economic development dollars on a promise.  After all, we’ve got a Paladino promise in Eastwood that I think everyone wishes we didn’t have — and we can’t afford another one. 

If TOPS needs incentives to come here, so be it – but maybe there’s someone out there who doesn’t, or who would accept a ‘new deal’ economic development plan.  SIDA, the city, and the community deserve to know the answer to that question before we commit to TOPS and Ellicott.

Didn’t sleep too well last night. wecar

Didn’t sleep too well last night. wecareaboutsyracuse.com http://ht.ly/4BD4a

A Random Act of Vandalism

It was 12:53AM when my landscaping was turned against me by an idiot with a hankering to throw a stone through a window.

Fortunately, it was the window of the storm door only, not the window in the front door itself, and not the giant window with the leaded transom in the living room. Or the stained glass window that graces the landing of the stairs up to the second floor. Or one of the car windows.  And even more fortunately, it wasn’t followed by the idiot himself, someone with truly bad intentions that could have put us or our belongings in jeopardy. 

A long time ago, I was in my mid-twenties, I think, living in an OK-but-not-great neighborhood on the North Side. I had fallen asleep on the couch one night watching TV and woke up to see someone trying to pry my living room window open.  I called one of my older brothers first, then the police, I think – or maybe I did it in the proper order, can’t remember for sure.  During the ensuing neighborhood search they didn’t catch the guy who tried to break into my place, but a different lowlife wandering around with ‘burgler’s tools’ was apprehended.  I had to look at mug shots, which was almost as frightening as the attempted break-in itself.  Locks were immediately installed on the windows, and I don’t think I stayed in that apartment more than another month or two before moving to a safer place. In all the years that I’ve lived in Syracuse, that was the only bad thing that ever happened to me.

Fast forward to today.  My Patrick has owned his house in The Valley for around 20 years; we’ve been together for eight.  Over the course of our years together I’ve been slowly turning the front yard into a giant garden, filled with perennials and bulbs and grasses and flowering trees and roses – the whole gamut. People from the neighborhood have enjoyed the garden, watching it develop over the years, looking forward to what’s going to bloom next, or what we’re going to put in next.  Last year, we added some ornamental fencing and used some fancy (but fairly light) stone as groundcover near the fence.  And it was one of those stones that came through the window.  

The person who threw it either has a very strong arm, to have done that kind of damage from the street, or was standing in the yard much closer to the house. There was a hole in the window about the size of a football if it had been a perfect spiral. In the mess of glass that fell between the two doors was the offending stone.  

In the overall scheme of things, replacing the window is easy.  But I’m really annoyed that the person chose to hurt us with something that was designed to show that we do care about Syracuse, that was accessible to him specifically because we were trying to make it a little prettier, a little more peaceful, in our corner of the word.

I just really wish he had thrown something else.

Equal Justice For All

Recently our community relived some of the incomprehensible agony of last fall, as Steven Pieper was sentenced to his agreed-upon term of 23 years to life for killing Jenni-Lyn Watson, a beautiful young suburban college student home for Thanksgiving break.  Pieper, her former boyfriend, admitted killing Jenni-Lyn and leaving her body in a town park, where she was found several days later.  Our collective hearts continue to go out to the Watson family, each of whom spoke very personally and eloquently at the sentencing about the grief, pain, anger and loss they live with every day.  So did our long-time DA, Bill Fitzpatrick.

Fitz is one of those people, you either love the guy or you don’t. I’m not one of his fans, and I haven’t been for quite a long time. I confess to finding him funny, on occasion – his quick wit is widely known – but over the years he’s made a number of decisions that I disagree with.  I guess that’s not surprising, given he’s just announced he’s going to run for a sixth term. 

Pieper’s sentence was determined through a plea bargain, so there was really no suspense in that regard. In his statement Fitz, by his own admission, was speaking to the Parole Board which will have to decide more than two decades from now whether Pieper deserves to be released.  And I suppose it’s OK for the DA to do that. 

What upsets me is how quickly he seized on the Watson case as a personal issue, when around the same time our community suffered two other high visibility losses: Rashaad Walker Jr, a twenty-month old baby, and Kihary Blue, a 19-year-old former star athlete at a local high school.  Both of these children were senselessly gunned down, their lives taken before they had a chance to live their dreams, find true love, or achieve their goals, just like Jenni-Lyn. They too were innocent victims of violence – not domestic violence, and not white suburban victims – but black, inner-city victims of gang violence.

I remember Fitz saying that he would personally prosecute whoever killed Jenni-Lyn. I questioned back then where was that same commitment to personally prosecute the other two cases. And a search of new reports on those two cases doesn’t indicate that Fitz is personally involved in them, but maybe that will happen. 

Whether those cases are ultimately resolved at trial or via plea bargain, I wonder if Fitz will emotionally speak to the judges and the Parole Board at the sentencings, to ensure the killers don’t ever see the light of day?  Will he personally express “the magnitude of (these) crimes”, or “come to know” the victims, as he did Jenni-Lyn?   Will he talk about how these families have to live with knowing “their angel is not coming home”, as the Watson family does?  And will he encourage the Parole Board to “look into (Rashaad’s and Kihary’s) eyes”, not just the eyes of their killers who may stand before them asking for parole?

Here are the closing words of Fitz’s statement at Pieper’s sentencing:  

“I’m envious of one thing: many decades from now when the Lord calls you home after years of missing your daughter, of missing your sister, when you’re swept into the rapture of heaven, waiting for you at the gates will be heaven’s most beautiful ballerina and you can hold her in your arms knowing that no one can ever separate you or ever hurt your angel again for all eternity.”

Swap daughter/sister for son/brother, swap ballerina for toddler or basketball player, and you’ve got a message of equal justice for all.

Music (and Winter and Syracuse) Appreciation

Last night, we thoroughly enjoyed the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.  The performance was one of the ‘Beyond the Score’ series, originated by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which includes a presentation on the life of the composer, a description of the themes of the music itself (presented in slides and videos) then in the second half the orchestra performs the piece that was just described.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra came up with this brilliant way of presenting classical music to help educate and engage folks, and of course to help encourage attendance at performances.   For the SSO right now, all of these are important, as they stare into the face of yet another financial crisis.  Sadly it’s not the first time and there’s no guarantee that it’ll be the last. That it’s happening now, and putting the 50th anniversary season in jeopardy, is sad.

For the past three years, the SSO has been operating with deficits; there was an ‘angel investor’ last year that helped out, and now everyone’s being asked to dust off their wings and make a donation to help Keep the Music Playing.  And so far, folks have come through, raising over $400,000 to get the orchestra through February; a comparable figure is needed for March, and in total they need to raise over $1 million to finish the season. Over a thousand donations, both large (six figures) and small (a piggy bank full) have come in since the campaign was announced only a few days ago.

That we collectively have managed to raise the necessary funds to keep things going so far is illustrative of the life that’s still in this community, the fact that when called upon we are able to accomplish difficult goals, and that we don’t need to simply fold up our tents when things get tough.  People have been creative with fundraising events, from the traditional (happy hours) to the avant-garde (a tattoo event). But there’s more going on here than simple Pavlovian donating.

At the same time folks are pulling out their wallets, they’re putting on their thinking caps and raising legitimate questions about the SSO: How big an orchestra does this area need? How much of an orchestra can we afford? How long a season should we have, and what kind of music should be included? How can the orchestra improve accessibility? I think those are very valid questions and the SSO has acknowledged them as well. I hope that as planning continues for saving this season, including the upcoming Yo-Yo Ma concert in the spring, those questions will be among the ones that the musicians, orchestra management, board of directors, community leaders and supporters consider. 

In addition, the SSO needs to more effectively educate, engage, and encourage the community not just to offer financial support, but to understand just what the orchestra does and all the ways they contribute to life in Central New York. The symphony is simply not about a bunch of rich suburbanites in fur coats listening to shrieking violins, I can assure you.  I’ve been to concerts not only at the Civic Center, but at Most Holy Rosary and in the middle of Amory Square and in a parking lot on the South Side. I’ve seen choirs, and ballets, and jazz, and Broadway and new music and old music and really old music, too. Some of the world’s best musicians have come here, to play with our SSO.  As a season-ticket-holding, middle-class city resident, I’ve been at performances with people of all races, ages, and incomes, wearing everything from jeans and t-shirts to, well yes, fur coats. We sit next to each other, listen together, and simply appreciate the SSO, without worrying about how different we might be. But folks can’t (and won’t) do that if they don’t know the opportunity is there.

Fittingly, the performance was The Four Seasons. In addition to the amazing music, we had an equally amazing display of Mother Nature’s handiwork, as we were bombarded with several inches of heavy sticky snow starting about an hour before the concert began.  This made downtown, and the beautifully lit Columbus Circle, a gorgeous winter wonderland. Heading up the stairs to our seats in the mezzanine, and on the way back down after the performance, we joined dozens of folks on the landing admiring how beautiful it was outside. Those of us with cell phone cameras were busy snapping away; those without cameras were simply looking through the glass wall, up at the Courthouse, across to the Cathedral, and down at the Circle.  It was just beautiful outside, and it was wonderful to be with everyone else appreciating it.  

And once we got outside, it was more of the same — folks arm in arm, huge grins on their faces, pointing and laughing and talking and enjoying the city with its fresh coating of snow.

Kudos to the SSO for a great performance, and for the progress that’s being made.

Kudos to Mother Nature for a joyful, refreshing snowfall.

And kudos to all of the folks who stopped and appreciated such a wonderful Syracuse evening!

Themes for 2011

Yesterday, I took a walk on the Erie Canal trail between Fayetteville and Minoa. While I was not physically within the city limits, my mind was – and my walk gave me a window through which to reflect on last year and think about this year and what it may hold. 

As usual, I had my camera with me, looking for anything interesting to capture and add to my growing collection of winter photographs, even though it was a remarkable January day in the 50’s.  I don’t profess to being a great photographer — I aspire to being a decent one someday — but there were a few things that caught my eye.  Instead of formal ‘resolutions’, and with a nod to Mother Nature for her assistance, here are the WCAS themes for 2011:

In spots, the trail was almost completely bare of snow, allowing all of us to leave our footprints there.  Some of us wear sneakers, some wear hiking boots, some wear pointy-toed shoes. But we all walk the same path, and have a vested interest in keeping it accessible and safe.

We are a diverse lot. We don’t all look alike, or sound alike, or think alike. We should continue to educate each other on what makes us different, but there are times when we really need to focus on our common ground, rather than on our differences, if we are to be successful. 

  ‘Home’ means different things to different people; for some it’s public housing, for others it’s an older established area, and for others it’s ‘the hood’ or ‘the block’. Regardless of what it looks like or what we call it, we are all entitled to a safe place to call home, and to the necessary support to make it possible for us play safely during the daytime and sleep peacefully at night.

We all leave our mark — good and bad. Our actions have an impact on others. While we can’t control how other people respond to our actions, we can influence them with our actions – good and bad.  We need to make better choices, and let our ripple effect be a good one.

Look for the diamond in the rough. If you don’t see it at first, look harder.  When you find it, take time to appreciate it, then start looking for another one.  Too often we stop looking, we forget to look again, and we miss joy, opportunity, love.  These seem like rare commodities, but they are plentiful if we open our eyes and our hearts.

Look for the bridge, and don’t be afraid to cross it when you come to it.  Seems simple, but far too many of us wait far too long to make the leap into something new. When the people are afraid to take the leap, the city can’t take the leap. Be bold, and take a chance.

Pause for reflection. Regardless of your religious affiliation, or lack of one, make time for introspection, for self-assessment. Be honest.  If you’re not doing what you know you should be doing — what you really know you should be doing — stop and do something else.

Last, please don’t give up. Even when we’re struggling, when we’re at our worst, when it looks like there’s nothing left to fight for, there is still life in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our city.  Yes, we have issues; yes, we have challenges.  But I believe they are not insurmountable.

The passing of one year into another gives us opportunity. Will you take this opportunity and help make Syracuse a better city?  I sure hope so.

Christmas in #Syracuse: quiet sights of

Christmas in #Syracuse: quiet sights of downtown and SU http://ht.ly/3uoXb #tbc01