Rumor mill

[KellySyracuse]

Demolish pioneer homes. Problem solved. Talk about a waste of real estate in the core of downtown.

I believe it is getting demolished once they figure out what to do with Rt 81.

 

[KellySyracuse]

The Hunger Games

http://www.twcnews.com/nys/central-...ion-money-contest.html?cid=twitter_TWCNewsCNY

"The proposals are in and now it's a waiting game to find out which New York regions will receive some of Governor Andrew Cuomo's $1.5 billion Upstate Revitalization Initiative.

...The proposal includes includes 13 projects, which fall under six main categories. Some of those projects include $250 million to go towards drone research; a $50 million investment in agriculture, specifically towards indoor farms; an inland port that would be built on a former mining property in Jamesville and finally a resource center for veterans. The proposal also includes investment in government modernization and funding to fight poverty.

With the proposal now in the state's hands, officials believe there's a good chance Central New York will end up with the $500 million"

 

[LAOrange]

looking to fill any logistical, operational, or supply chain positions?

Lots of operational but mostly with hospitality and food & beverage.

 

[LAOrange]

I never said you're too old, but I do think you are pushing 1990's thinking. I'm sure you're a great attorney, just like I think I'm a great financial analyst, but I don't fully agree with your thinking.

Nationally the approach has been to clean up cities and invest in city centers. Albany and Buffalo have already started doing it. Syracuse has started doing it to a lesser degree, but we need more. You say Syracuse is falling apart, but you fail to acknowledge the heavy investment in Salina and the area around the Dey's building/Warren street. More investment will come when there is a final decision made on 81.

Syracuse should be doing things to attract businesses here, like the company I work for (but won't disclose on here). I don't think leaders in town have done a good enough job selling what the city has to offer. (affordable rent, colleges nearby to hire, more affordable salary for companys... etc)

My company has been successful in Syracuse by selling cheaper wages and rent to the executive committee. (We pay about 20% less here than NYC). Our headquarters is in New York, so it's easy for management to visit if they want. I'd say 75 percent of our employees are younger than 40 and all college educated, so you can't tell me it's impossible to find an educated work force here.

I think Syracuse can attract other companies like my own by selling themselves the business advantages we do have. All you keep telling me in your posts is what Syracuse can't offer. If you're not turning some of what you think is negative into positive we are never going to be successful.

A lot of corporations are trying to get unnecessary operations out of expensive locations like New York City. Why Syracuse hasn't been able to completely capitalize is beyond me. I think a lot of people are stuck in a cynical view of thinking we can't do certain things here. It's really a shame that the microchip plant is being build in Malta and not Syracuse because city leaders can't agree on anything. Instead we have an albatross of a mall that does nothing more than add low-wage part time jobs.

The heart of re-growth is the support of a small business base. Because the established big guys escape their equivalent share, and social services keep expanding; new and small business are being besieged with usurious tax rates, overwhelming fees and license structures. Couple that with a local government bent on poking its nose into everything and businesses just run away.

 

[LAOrange]

Seriously... im ready to be recruited as well. Anyone need middle management people? lol

What's your specialty?

 

[orange79]

Seriously... im ready to be recruited as well. Anyone need middle management people? lol

What's your specialty?

Let's take it to PM, guys. Thanks.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Except for the fact they are still in business...

Only part of it. The rolling mills have been inactive for years.

 

[retro44]

Only part of it. The rolling mills have been inactive for years.

are you positive? i have done work in there a few years ago and they did some major upgrades on it's specialty steel. Technology has allowed them to cut back on help and they have a new system that compresses steel at 30,000 to 40,000 psi which gives them 100% compaction. Callaway gulf clubs is a major buyer.

 

[dollarbill44]

Donors to the university is not the same thing as people living here and being part of the community. You can say "you're too old to know what young people want." Well, where are all the young people who are living thriving professional lives in this community? Where are all the people starting new businesses? I am one of the best-known of lawyers in town who help people buy, sell and start new businesses, and I have worked closely with people in the economic development community for the last decade. I know how things get done. I have a better finger on the pulse of the community than you do, I'll bet. People who have been at their jobs a while may have seen more things than you have, have more experience, have seen projects fail and understand the pitfalls to avoid, when young people like you do when you are just starting out in your career. No offense, but experience is the best teacher.

Experience is undeniably an asset, but it can also reduce one's field of view. Many of the greatest accomplishments of mankind were deemed impossible by those with experience. Transforming Syracuse will take visionaries and experienced individuals with open minds.

 

[Macky44]

Let's take it to PM, guys. Thanks.

sorry!

 

[IthacaMatt]

are you positive? i have done work in there a few years ago and they did some major upgrades on it's specialty steel. Technology has allowed them to cut back on help and they have a new system that compresses steel at 30,000 to 40,000 psi which gives them 100% compaction. Callaway gulf clubs is a major buyer.

I know someone who works there, and I drive by there every day on the way to work. I haven't seen any smoke from the rolling mills in years. The work they still do is in smelting, I believe, and is located in the buildings over toward Bridge Street. I used to work there as a college kid, cleaning the drainage pits in the rolling mills. My dad was a security guard there for years before he passed away.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Experience is undeniably an asset, but it can also reduce one's field of view. Many of the greatest accomplishments of mankind were deemed impossible by those with experience. Transforming Syracuse will take visionaries and experienced individuals with open minds.

I have counseled some of the most promising start ups to come out of Syracuse in the last 10 years, including a past winner of the Chamber's $200,000 business plan competition and several finalists for those grants over the years. One of my former clients (who relocated to NYC a few years ago) was on Shark Tank this summer. I work particularly with tech start-ups and used to be a marketing consultant to IBM's Internet and Software divisions, so if there's anybody more qualified to help people start businesses for the 21st Century in this town, I'd like to meet them (or should say, I already probably know them).

Syracuse's biggest problems are:

1. Politics is a family-run business in this town, where appointments are based on who you know, not WHAT you know. This is extremely bad for business.

2. Economic development in this town is too focused on asset-based businesses, not intellectual property based businesses. It's very hard to get capital for "ideas" as opposed to brick and mortar businesses, especially through the SBA. In Ithaca, by contrast (or Rochester or Albany), there is more private capital that is not so risk averse to IP based businesses.

3. Too little investment capital, in general.

4. Inexperienced business management. Rochester, in contrast, was an IP based town when Kodak, Xerox and Bausch and Lomb were at their peak. When those businesses laid people off, they were engineers and inventors, and they knew a lot about business management. Syracuse, in contrast, was always more of a manufacturing town. When Carrier, GE, General Motors, Crucible and Allied Chemical left town or down-sized, the people who were unemployed knew how to "make things", but not so much about marketing or running a business. The quality of entrepreneur in Syracuse compared to Ithaca, Rochester or Albany is a bit startling. Even Binghamton has better management quality entrepreneurs than Syracuse does, generally speaking.

5. Syracuse is too small, business-wise, and too risk averse. In this town, there are one or two companies that dominate every market. There's not too much competition. And most of the people are conditioned that once they get a job, they do anything possible to keep that job for life, if they can, because there are so few opportunities here. Almost everyone wants to be a teacher or work at a government job where they can keep their heads down, stay out of trouble and collect a nice pension with medical benefits in 20-30 years. That is the only future people see here, not business opportunities.

My two cents, after having worked in NYC for 20 years after getting out of college.

 

[LAOrange]

I have counseled some of the most promising start ups to come out of Syracuse in the last 10 years, including a past winner of the Chamber's $200,000 business plan competition and several finalists for those grants over the years. One of my former clients (who relocated to NYC a few years ago) was on Shark Tank this summer. I work particularly with tech start-ups and used to be a marketing consultant to IBM's Internet and Software divisions, so if there's anybody more qualified to help people start businesses for the 21st Century in this town, I'd like to meet them (or should say, I already probably know them).

Syracuse's biggest problems are:

1. Politics is a family-run business in this town, where appointments are based on who you know, not WHAT you know. This is extremely bad for business.

My two cents, after having worked in NYC for 20 years after getting out of college.

I was unaware of the political environment you wrote about. However, I should have guessed with all the stadium and Destiny conversations that have taken place over the years. I mostly agree with everything you said but I am quite sure that the right project can still attract the type of outside interest that could transcend several of your points. Finding an undeveloped niche and pushing it would bring the types of people who could appreciate the social climate and low cost-of-living. A good example would be the current conjunctive exploration of a first-rate medical school.
The fact that there is a manufacturing base population would only scare potential low-tech employers away if, like Detroit, the workers demand 90's money; or if an tech firm is unwilling to import or educate talent.