At least two Syracuse Common Councilors seem to be on board with the priorities Mayor Ben Walsh laid out at his state of the city address this week.
Jennifer Schultz’s first district covers the north central part of the city including Sedgwick, Washington Square, and Lincoln Park. As the council’s transportation committee chair, she says she’s excited to see traffic safety on the mayor’s agenda. He wants the city to join what’s called the Vision Zero strategy to address rising fatalities and injuries among motorists and pedestrians. Schultz says action is long overdue.
"We all know speeding is through the roof. We all know our police staffing is the lowest it's been," Schultz said. "Who's going to do the job to lower it? We need some artificial intelligence. We need speed cameras, we need cameras on the arms of buses. Amen. Thank God. We need to lower speed limits. We need to get those neighborhood speed limits from 30 down to 25 [miles per hour]."
Heading to the west and south, Pat Hogan’s second district stretches from the city’s northern border to skunk city and the near west side. He was pleased to hear the mayor tie together a number of priorities that aim to help the city grow and prosper.
"The commitment to new thinking as far as transportation goes, workforce training, and the commitment to housing," Hogan said. "You stabilize neighborhoods by providing affordable housing, and also give people hope for the future by training them for the jobs of the future. The city administration is committed to that, and so is the council."
Overall, Hogan says the two branches work well together, and are able to pretty easily resolve any differences. He says despite the tragedy and violence of the past couple weeks, there’s a lot of reason for hope, and feels the city is genuinely on the upswing.
