Infrastructure Week 2017

Infrastructure Week 2017

Infrastructure Week - a national week of attention dedicated to elevating infrastructure as a critical issue impacting everyone - is this week.

In Syracuse, improving infrastructure is one of Mayor Miner’s top priorities, and if you have followed this blog, you will know that the innovation team has focused its efforts on infrastructure for more than a year. Our infrastructure report, detailing the work done so far, is available here.

From Poverty to Opportunity: An Economic Strategy

From Poverty to Opportunity: An Economic Strategy

There’s been a lot of talk about “poverty” in Syracuse lately. National reports have identified Syracuse as owning one of the highest rates of poverty in the country – and according to one study, the highest rates of concentrated poverty among Blacks and Latinos. This national attention has provided a necessary shock to the system. Business, political, and community leaders are rallying around the issue of poverty (and concentrated poverty) more than ever before. New York State, meanwhile, has commissioned anti-poverty initiatives in Syracuse, along with several other Upstate cities, where similar dynamics of concentrated poverty are prevalent.  For those of us who have long been working in the low-income communities of Syracuse, this is all welcome. For us to really move the needle on poverty, it must become a community priority. However, in order to “do something about poverty”, we must be committed to a deeper understanding of the issue and strategies that lead to real and lasting change.

Behind the Scenes of the Business Portal

Behind the Scenes of the Business Portal

Our Department of Neighborhood and Business Development launched, in partnership with Code for America, business.syrgov.net. We wrote about the site previously, and in this post will walk through some of the site’s backend, technical details.

Round and Round, All Through the Town

Round and Round, All Through the Town

When we started our Economic Opportunity research, transportation access was a major theme that arose. It’s hard to find or keep work if you can’t get there. All of the members of our team have cars and drive to work, so transportation challenges aren't something that we typically experience. So we decided to take the bus to see what public transit in Syracuse was really like.

Who you gonna call? Call 2-1-1

Who you gonna call? Call 2-1-1

Connecting someone to the right service means connecting them to a safe place to sleep at night, to health care, to legal representation, to employment resources, etc. What good is a service if nobody knows about it?

A Love (Post-it) Note to Qualitative Data

A Love (Post-it) Note to Qualitative Data

In February, Samantha, Adria and I traded in our Syracuse winter coats for Long Beach sunglasses. We touched down in Long Beach, California and geared up for a three-day workshop on designing human-centered solutions to complex social challenges, like economic opportunity.

Economic Opportunity

Economic Opportunity

We are excited to announce our second priority area: Economic Opportunity. More specifically, ensuring that people have the resources, environment, skills, and tools necessary to pursue their life goals and make a living sufficient to support a high quality of life - in keeping with one’s own potential, and irrespective of their starting point on the social and economic ladder.