Walt Shepperd is a veteran of Central New York's political scuffle, having covered government and politics in Syracuse for nearly four decades. He is the Senior Editor of the City Eagle and the Mayor of Montgomery Street in downtown Syracuse.
The old synagogue at Crouse and Harrison may become condos, but no matter what renovations occur inside, any passing by of the majestic stone steps and columns will always be of Salt City. A drafty main theater, always a little dark, long in need of an enclosed orchestra space to balance volume for musicals. An intimate, questionably wired second theater with an atmosphere unmatched for its funk factor. Vast storage spaces and cramped dressing rooms. “It was my Southwest Center at the time,” Ken Jackson remembers of growing up on Harrison Street in the Seventies...
In 1993, the year he upset Joe Nicoletti in the mayor’s race, Roy Bernardi speculated that the person following him into the City Hall top spot would be African-American. He said then that he felt strongly that it would be good for the community.
Nicoletti agreed that it would be good for the community, but only after he had gotten his own eight years in the mayor’s chair. A decade ago, a survey conducted by the Concerned Citizens for Better Government to determine the candidate from the communities of color who had the most crossover appeal found Republican Sandra Townes, the highest citywide votegetter the year she ran for City Court Judge, could be mayor if she wanted the job...
As word spread last week that County Legislators had eliminated Julius Edwards’ position as director of the Human Rights Commission from County Executive Joanie Mahoney’s proposed budget, consigning the watchdog agency’s critical compliance role to the county Purchasing Department, the air got heavier on the 14th floor of the Mulroy Civic Center. Already tension fogged by CSEA’s refusal to reopen negotiations on their membership’s 2010 salary raises, the administration’s inner sanctum faced concerns from the communities of color, and supporters she had forged bonds with in her high school days at Corcoran. “(HRC) was fully funded in the budget I submitted,” Mahoney told City Eagle. “They cut Julius’s position...
TAGS: Walt shepperd, Onondaga County Legislators,Mulroy Civic Center,CSEA,Julius Edwards,Anthony ‘Amp’ Lewis,Murdered,Syracuse Stage to quiz mayoral candidates,funding local arts,Latin Festival,US Ballroom Dance Championship,stephanie miner,otis jennings,Steve Kimatian,Department of Cultural Affairs,Empire State Games,director Human Rights Commission,County Executive Joanie Mahoney
On Labor Day Howie Hawkins issued a white paper titled “How to Fight Poverty in Syracuse.” As sparkplug for the local Green Party, Howie established a perennial role running for Congress, Mayor or Council, as a candidate using the campaigns as bully pulpits, raising issues bluntly rather than mincing words in hopes of piling up votes. Eschewing the MO of European Green Parties, Howie has long stood fast against cross endorsing major party candidates, nor has he flirted with the big two for their ballot lines. This time around, however, he knows that for the Greens to move up a level in having impact on local action, or lack thereof, they have to win an election...
TAGS: Howie Hawkins,white paper,How to Fight Poverty in Syracuse,walt shepperd,Democrat Tom Seals,Working Families Party,teamsters,politics syracuse,4th Common Council District
Stephanie Miner speaking at weekly NAN meeting in Syracuse.
Steve Kimatian walked slowly around the office, which had headquartered the campaign Alfonso Davis waged in the Democratic mayoral primary, pausing for a knowing glance at the map on the wall demarcating the city’s political wards. It was a good space, he agreed with two of the campaign’s volunteers who were closing up shop. Kimatian, who had snatched the Republican nomination from the party’s designated candidate Otis Jennings in the GOP primary, asked if they came with the space.
“It depends on how much you’re paying,” one said with a laugh.
“We start paying in January,” Kimatian parried.
With his current operational base on North Midler, the former media executive was considering a downtown location...
TAGS: NAN local chapter, Walter Dixie,Steve Kimatian,Joe Nicoletti,National Action Network,communities of color syracuse,City Hall Commons,headquartered Alfonso Davis,Syracuse Democratic mayoral primary,Syracuse Mayoral candidate,Stephanie Miner,Sam Cook lyric,change is gonna come, Dr. King’s Dream
Samadee sat with the Has Been and the Wannabe, looking out the big front window in World, which had celebrated a soft opening the night before on the Southside of Hanover Square. They watched the fountain and the skateboarders, recalling warm nights when the weather was good at tables outside with burgers from Quigley’s wagon and contented crowds of very different people who just got along.
The three had gone two seasons of warm nights without the tables or the World, and they were told the tables would not be out again until next summer, due to the lateness into the warm time and the cost and process of getting the proper permit. But the view from the proper side of the Square and a decade worth of nostalgia was enough...
TAGS: Samadee,Has Been,Wannabe,World hanover square,syracuse,mayoral race syracuse,GOP syracuse,Great New York State Fair,walt sehpperd,senior editor city eagle,MDA,Downtown Committee
That's Lorca my flower and Cabot her dear - from Walt Shepperd at the Fair 2009.
It’s only nostalgia at the Great New York State Fair, according to Thom Green, unless it’s your first time. Then it’s big and scary and amazing. After that, it’s all nostalgia. When my daughter Lorca called from her home in Brooklyn to say she was coming up for a Sunday at the Fair to get a dose of nostalgia, I had to chart a mental navigation back 36 years to the first time we went. She was four and we took the bus. It was the year I first took her to Jesus Christ Superstar at Salt City Playhouse. Four years later on our annual visit to Joe and Pat Lotito’s now closed theater for that show she said, “If I auditioned next year as a palm waver and was in the show every year, by the time I got to high school I could get the part I wanted.”
TAGS: Great New York State Fair,Thom Green,Nostalgia,Lorca Shepperd,Jesus Christ Superstar at Salt City Playhouse,Syracuse,cows,beet pulp and molasses,Walt shepperd
