Southside Community Wants Building Gone

A neighborhood on Syracuse’s Southside is upset over a vacant building that is constantly filled with crime and a danger to the community. The building is behind the West Cannon Community Center where many children participate in program activities and people worry about their safety. One mother whose son goes to the center says she wants the building taken down. "This program needs more people who care about the children, because this building has been here for like five years and they still haven't done nothing about it," she says. People say both the city and the landlord have neglected the problem.

Syracuse United Neighbors, S-U-N, http://sunaction.wordpress.com/ held a meeting at the community center on Monday evening so that people could tell city officials their concerns. City Attorney Rory MacMahon emphasized that people need to attend a hearing on Spetember 18th to ensure that a conviction will follow the third arrest made at the vacant building. A third conviction means the building could be shut off to the public. Amanda Pascall, Southside Coalition Chair of S-U-N, says the coalition wants to help the neighborhood find a solution.“You can understand their frustration, it’s just holding the officials accountable, giving them some sort of hope that this time is going to be different,” Pascall says.

Many people are frustrated because problems such as this always arise in the neighborhood and help seems to take forever, and they are tired of waiting.