usairwaysmag.com usairwaysmag.com 154 155 SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 2007 2007 Fertile Ground Emerald City 182 PROFILE for New Growth 172 Going ‘green’ pays off for the city Helping entrepreneurs take root and for local businesses Top-Ten City 190 Close to Home, High quality of life, low cost of living But Worlds Away 198 All kinds of ways to play Syracuse WORD OF MOUTH 156 THE NATIVE & THE NEWCOMER 166 THE BIG PICTURE 168 PHOTO ESSAY 188 WHERE TO EAT 206 WHERE TO STAY 211 LAST LOOK 214 PROFILE Syracuse WORD OF MOUTH THE PLACE TO BE Outdoor dining on sushi or pasta. The aroma of fresh-baked bread. Sounds Armory Square of a live quartet. The trendy Armory adds zest to Square neighborhood offers shopping, downtown. spas, gourmet restaurants, family fun, and loft living all in seven square blocks in the heart of Syracuse. “When people say downtown, they mean Armory Square,” says Merike Trei- er, economic development specialist with the Downtown Committee. “There’s nightlife, shopping . vibrancy.” usairwaysmag.com It wasn’t always this glamorous. The Erie Canal and railroads spawned 19th- century factories, warehouses, and ho- tels. The armory housed weapons, sol- diers, even the cavalry. The railroads’ decline left the area nearly abandoned by the 1960s. But with the 1970s came a re- birth, with old buildings put to new use. Named a National Historic District in 156 1984, the area underwent more revival in the ’80s; new apartments came online in the ’90s. “It’s a very new example of urban renaissance,” says Treier. Weekdays, Syracuse University stu- SEPTEMBER dents and faculty bustle in and out of a satellite classroom building. Office work- ers grab a quick lunch or browse art gal- leries. On weekends, families frequent 2007 the Museum of Science and Technology. Nighttime means dining, music, and the bar scene as well as big-name perform- ers at the Landmark Theatre. — Michele A. Reed Have an idea for the Next Big Thing? Create it here…in New York’s Creative Core. Diners enjoy a late summer night outside P.J. Dorsey’s. Syracuse and Central Upstate are at the heart of New York’s This is a place where we grow business from the ground up – Creative Core – 12 counties where great business opportunities knowledge-based business, high-tech business, creative business. and a fantastic quality of life converge. We support them and invite you to come join us. Our Core assets: 35 colleges with 130,000 students feeding The Metropolitan Development Association speaks a workforce that’s 20% more educated than the national average; your language. We are businesspeople – growing business. PROFILE SERIES a global leader in green environmental and energy systems, We build partnerships to get deals done. Period. Call us. Managing DireCtor EDITOR ASSOCiate Editor EDITORiaL Intern Art DireCtor biosciences, financial services and advanced manufacturing; Confidentially. (315) 422-8284. www.mda-cny.com Stephen Mitchem Lisa Watts Marian Cowhig Courtney Bowman David R. Deasy surrounded by the Finger Lakes, the Adirondacks and the 336-383-5760 [email protected] ASSIStant Editor WriterS Art Intern RIGHT W [email protected] MANAGING Editor Martha-Page Ransdell Jeffrey A. Charboneau Courtney McClellan Thousand Islands – a playground for your mind, body and soul. SALES/BUSineSS deVELOPment Susan Stegemann Michele A. Reed PHotograPHer Carsten Morgan Julia Lynn adVertiSing SerVICES manager OPening SPread: Julia Link Historic Clinton Square is a downtown hub, hosting everything from winter ice skating to summer music festivals. PHOTO BY CHARLES WAIN MDA Business. Leadership. www.creativecoreny.com metro devel.indd 1 8/7/07 2:13:44 PM CarrierCommAd_8x10 color 7/24/07 1:54 PM Page 1 PROFILE Syracuse WORD OF MOUTH The Responsibility Beyond Our Products… At Carrier Corporation, our commitment usairwaysmag.com to make the world a more comfortable, productive and healthy environment extends COURTESY OF well beyond the quality of our products. D I A N E Skiers enjoy more than 20 T O miles of cross-country trails W 158 LSON in Highland Forest Park. Within each community where our employees live, SNOW WHAT: BRING IT ON SALTY SPUDS Carrier funds and participates SEPTEMBER Syracuse won the 2007 Golden Snowball — awarded by New York State to the Syracuse’s culinary claim to fame is the city where the most snow falls — for the fifth straight year. Total snowfall for salt potato. These baby spuds are boiled in in a wide variety of non-profit 2006-07 came in at 140.2 inches, a bit above the city’s average of 111.9 inches. brine and dunked in melted butter. Tradi- programs designed to Jeff Wright, the city’s commissioner of public works, knows snow. A 32-year tion has it that early Irish immigrants, toil- 2007 Department of Public Works employee, he spent the first ten years on the job driv- ing in the salt works, brought potatoes for enhance the quality of life. ing a snowplow. He hires nearly 130 workers who go through 50 tons of road salt lunch and cooked them in the vats used to to clear the roads each winter. make the Salt City’s most famous product. “We do a tremendous job moving snow, so people can move,” Wright says. He Now they are a staple at family picnics, remembers just one snow emergency in the city, in clambakes, and the New Let the white stuff the late seventies, and a snowburst that closed busi- York State Fair. come down — this nesses early on one day in 1992. Find the tender, suc- city knows what to Syracuse’s Hancock International Airport has culent orbs in most cen- do with it. only closed once for snow in the last 14 years, ac- tral New York super- cording to Anthony Mancuso, commissioner of avi- markets. — MAR ation. The airport can remove up to seven inches of snow per hour on the main runway. “We pride ourselves here on being able to remove a lot of snow,” Mancuso says. To most Syracusans, white stuff means more ways to play. Oneida Lake, the Finger Lakes, and Lake Ontario offer ice-fishing. Nearby mountains boast world- class skiing and snowboarding; snowshoe and snowmobile trails abound. Bob Geraci, Onondaga County’s parks commissioner, loves the exhilaration of www.carrier.com cross-country skiing and the “breathtaking” beauty of a horse-drawn sleigh ride in Highland Forest. “Picture a Currier and Ives winter scene,” he says. “That’s what you can experience in Syracuse.” — Michele A. Reed PROFILE Syracuse WORD OF MOUTH LITERARY FIGURE The numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau astonished Ruth SCHOLARSHIP IN ACTION Johnson Colvin. In 1961, census figures reported that 11,000 adults CHANGING OUR WORLD in Syracuse could not read. “I thought, ‘How could this be?’” Colvin remembers. “Like many people, I assumed that illiteracy Syracuse University is a place where talent, desire, and was a problem in the Third World, not in my own backyard. Something had to be done.” opportunity thrive—a university with a proven track record of Colvin has dedicated her life ever since to ending adult accomplishment. Today, the challenges of society align more illiteracy. Initially a community movement, Colvin’s work evolved than ever with our strengths. We draw inspiration from our past into a national non-profit organization, Literacy Volunteers of as we advance our vision of Scholarship in Action—an America. That organization later merged with another Syracuse- based literacy operation, Laubach Literacy International, to become entrepreneurial mind-set driven by the belief that discovery usairwaysmag.com ProLiteracy Worldwide, the world’s largest nongovernmental literacy and learning have no physical or intellectual boundaries; that the organization. complexities of the world are best understood by building bridges Colvin has traveled the world to spread her message of literacy for all. between academic disciplines and creating strong connections to In 1993, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame as a woman who exemplifies “the power of one individual to “communities of experts” in the public and private arenas to gain change the world for the better.” In 2006, on her 90th the broadest worldview; that a diverse population of faculty and birthday, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom students heightens intellectual discourse; and that the skillful from George W. Bush. blending of theory and practice empowers students to fi nd “The recognition is nice,” Colvin says, “but it’s 160 important to understand that it has taken many meaningful applications for their learning, preparing them to people to make all of this happen — my husband, be leaders of the 21st century. Bob, the students, and the teachers and other Ruth Colvin began volunteers. They are the ones who should be Offering undergraduate and graduate admired.” — Jeffrey A. Charboneau SEPT the modern literacy programs through: movement at home E School of Architecture MB in Syracuse. er College of Arts and Sciences 2007 School of Education College of Human Services and Health Professions School of Information Studies Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science University College (Continuing Education) College of Visual and Performing Arts Martin J. Whitman School of Management From left: Colvin’s first filing cabinet, a refrigerator, in 1962; a tutoring session; Colvin receiving the Medal To learn more about Syracuse University’s commitment of Freedom from President Bush in 2006 to Scholarship in Action, visit www.syr.edu. INSET PHOTOS COURTESY OF P ROLITERACY WOR L D W IDE syracuse u.indd 1 7/27/07 2:02:13 PM PROFILE Syracuse WORD OF MOUTH Focusing on the Future LEGACY OF CRAFTSMANSHIP The Arts and Crafts and Mission furniture styles, born at the turn of the century and now regaining popularity, trace their roots to the Syracuse area and the Stickley Energized people and a brothers.