Syracuse Mayor To Create Transportation And Mobility Director

ALBANY — Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens will centralize the city’s planning and transportation decisions under one mobility director, a move that is being cheered by some residents, but also viewed with skepticism after years of inaction from the city on dangerous road design and underwhelming cycling infrastructure.

A job listing won’t go up for several weeks while City Hall hammers out the details, but officials say they know what they’re looking for: Syracuse Deputy Mayor and Chief of Staff Corey Driscoll Dunham told Streetsblog that initiatives around parking garages and street parking, bus rapid transit, bike share networks, municipal sidewalks and Vision Zero efforts are great, but they are currently spread across different departments and organizations.

Bike lane creation, for example, is handled by the planning and public works departments, and the finance department handles adjudication and penalties for traffic violations, while the police department writes the physical tickets.

Driscoll Dunham added that actual deliverables that will be expected from the new addition include a clear proposal for the direction the city should take on the future of aging parking garages and whether the structures should be used to mitigate street parking. They will also be expected to have recommendations on the regional transit authority, Centro’s, plan to add two bus rapid transit lines in Syracuse in 2028.

“To have a single point of contact, just in terms of coordination and line of sight into each one of those projects, is what we’re aiming for with this position,” she said.

Some activists are excited at the possibilities.

“What I’m hoping this indicates is that we’re not just doing Vision Zero,” said Alex Lawson, a member of the Moving People Transportation Coalition. “We’re also going to be looking at how we can improve our streets for all people in a more holistic way. That’s really what I’d like to see from this position. I sometimes do get too optimistic and read into things, but I’m hopeful.”

This director will have concerns from the community baked in. Like many cities, Syracuse has an infamous road, James Street, that borders on death-trap status for cyclists and pedestrians. And the bike lane system in Salt City is critically underdeveloped. Its mass transit system is understaffed, as well.

Micron’s impending arrival in the region, along with a corresponding influx of workers, would only exacerbate these issues.

Whoever steps into the role could also offer opinions about the future of the land beneath the Interstate 81 viaduct. The project to remove the structures cutting off communities of color while contributing to pollution holds promise, but removal of the viaduct opens up a land rights debate between different levels of government and community organizations.

If the city successfully stakes its claim to the land, Lawson is worried that it could mean parking needs for the neighborhood dominate any other concerns, like creating more biking infrastructure or access to mass transit.

“A lot of people instead say all the land underneath that highway is currently used for parking, and if the highway comes down and we do something different with it, that parking is going to go away, and that does scare a lot of people,” he said, “despite a lot of evidence to the contrary.”

Syracuse City Auditor Alex Marion is excited by the move after previously recommending the creation of a similar position.

“I would like to express my thanks and appreciation for the mayor, who has clearly spent some time with the reports my office has put out,” Marion said.

He thinks it might make the most sense for the position to be a department of public works deputy commissioner. But he added the entire concept was pointless if they were on a short leash and beholden to every complaint launched at the city. And that’s before one considers if they even have a vision.

“I think it goes wrong if this person is not empowered to make choices and implement them successfully,” Marion said. “Like you need to find the expert, you need to find someone talented, and then you need to give them the space to do this work. I think if they are micromanaged every time there is a parochial complaint, if they are not focused on enacting an overarching strategy, I think that’s where it goes wrong.”