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.
Tom Young won the 1985 mayoral election and packed his inner circle into a bus for a recon mission to Baltimore. There the mayor had instigated a downtown renaissance by fostering development around the city’s harbor, but with the strategic glue of social engineering. He had called together the leaders of the city’s various racial and ethnic communities and announced his intention to make every summer weekend a festival at the harbor site. Each weekend would be given to a specific group, with the understanding that each group would pledge to promote attendance at each other’s event...
TAGS: George Curry, Bob Doucette,Terry Riley,Eddie Butler,Syracuse downtown,salina street,armory square,Eureka Crafts in the Bentley Settle Building and later further down Walton Street, the vintage clothier Odd Infinitums,Pastabilities,Conjuring a renaissance,Tom Young,Syracuse New Times
Tommy Sullivan was back in town last week. A Mohawk who grew up in Eastwood, an activist and organizer on environmental issues who had been teaching college in California, he drove the powers that be, especially those of Italian heritage, slightly crazy back in the day by waging an almost singular campaign against the veneration of the statue of Columbus in the downtown Cathedral Circle. He focused on Columbus’ bad behavior relating to Native Americans, and especially on the depiction of them on the plaques adorning the statue. He labored unsuccessfully to bring the National Native American Museum to the then empty Carnegie Building, and ran for office and organized to raise those and other issues, such as the interpretation of the role of the local French Fort in the area’s history...
