Ben Walsh

48 lanes in 48 days. That’s how long it took the United States Bowling Congress to set up for its 2018 Championships at the Oncenter. The event is weeks away, but they will host a trio of events to kick off their time in Syracuse, including a state competition for high school students starting Friday. Senior Director of Tournament Programming, Greg Moore, says the kickoff is their way of introducing championships to the community.

Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler will continue to lead the department during the first year of the new mayoral administration. Fowler was sworn in by Mayor Ben Walsh Monday. The city will bring on the new police chief by the end of the year, according to the Mayor’s office.

Fowler was vague about what might be different in his job under the new administration. He also declined to comment on his past performance in the Syracuse Police Department, or talk about goals for the future.

The President-elect of the Syracuse Common Council says she has high hopes going into a new mayoral administration that will bring a different tone to city hall.  Democrat Helen Hudson publicly supported and campaigned for Independent Ben Walsh over fellow democrat Juanita Perez Williams.  She says she got to know Walsh as a calm, thoughtful person during her time as councilor-at-large, and his six years as the city’s deputy commissioner of business development.

Syracuse’s four mayoral candidates squared off for another debate Friday, this one moderated by WAER News at City Hall Commons. 

The theme was “sustainability,” and Howie Hawkins, Laura Lavine, Ben Walsh and Juanita Perez Williams offered their thoughts on how it figures into a wide range of topics.

The Green Party’s Howie Hawkins is never short of ideas, all of them progressive and some might say a bit radical.  So it might seem the Consensus Commission’s sweeping new recommendations for modernizing local government would fit his agenda.  But Hawkins has mixed reviews…

Working on civic problems and city development projects has given Andrew Maxwell a vision of what Syracuse might become...and one he’d like to pursue as Mayor.  The current Director of the City Hall Innovation Office joined he race for Mayor Thursday. 

Maxwell lists quality of life, schools, public safety and creating opportunity as the thing she believes residents want most.  He acknowledges poverty is one of the biggest challenges, but says there is some progress through the New Hope Initiative that could be expanded upon.

One of the officials closely tied to business development for the City of Syracuse during the past six years is taking a job in the private sector.  Deputy Commissioner Ben Walsh has led the way on a number of important projects, but knows many challenges remain.  He says things have taken shape since he was appointed in 2010 at the end of the recession.

  The Hotel Syracuse is now in the hands of a developer who plans to reopen it.  No one has rented a room there in more than a decade…but city leaders are optimistic that will change, after the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency took possession, then transferred it over.