Funk 'n Waffles will close iconic SU Hill location after 10 years of business
By Ellen Meyers
February 20, 2017 - 4:05pm
Its closure is part of a development plan to tear down the 727 S. Crouse Ave. commercial complex in order to build luxury apartments.

Funk 'n Waffles will close its original location this Wednesday after 10 years of business, the popular student spot announced on Facebook on Monday.

Known for its unique waffle dishes and live music, Funk 'n Waffles will close to make way for a tear-down of the 727 S. Crouse Ave. complex. The building, which also houses Hungry Chuck’s and appeThaizing, will be replaced by a mixed-use, luxury student apartment building.

CCTV security cameras will soon be coming to Syracuse’s University Neighborhood
By E.Jay Zarett
February 13, 2017 - 2:26pm
Eight cameras will be installed by the end of spring 2017 as part of an effort to make the popular neighborhood safer.

Alexander Lynch had just returned home from grocery shopping when the front door of his apartment complex was kicked in. 

It was about 9:45 p.m. on a summer night in 2014 and Lynch had just finished unloading his groceries and carrying them to the third floor of his apartment complex, located on the 500 block of Euclid Avenue. Minutes after closing the door behind him, Lynch, who was the building’s only tenant at the time, heard someone breaking down the vacant first floor’s front door. By the time police responded, the person was gone.

Downtown Syracuse sees resurgence despite lack of young adults
By Liu Jiang
February 9, 2017 - 1:00am
As more businesses find success in downtown Syracuse, community leaders struggle to persuade recent college graduates to live in the area.

For more than a decade, Maren King drove from her home in DeWitt to her office on the SUNY-Environmental Science and Forestry campus. However, after years of taking the same route to work, King said the suburban life didn’t appeal too much to her after her two sons left for college, so she decided to move and buy a condo in downtown Syracuse in 2009.

High lead poisoning rates among children in Syracuse target poor people of color
By McKenna Moore
January 30, 2017 - 5:14pm
Syracuse's rate of lead poisoning among children is four times the national average.

There is a relationship between the city of Syracuse’s high rate of lead poisoning among children and its high concentration of poverty among African-Americans and Latinos, experts say.

In Onondaga County, around six percent of children tested have elevated blood lead (EBL) levels, which is above the approximately three percent of children diagnosed with lead poisoning nationally, according to a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

“Let them in”: Syracuse residents gather at airport to protest Trump’s immigration executive order
By Sarah Heikkinen
January 30, 2017 - 12:32am
SU students, activists and families with young children protested President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration Sunday night at the local airport.

At least 1,000 protesters gathered at Terminal A in the Syracuse Hancock International Airport Sunday night to protest the latest executive order signed by President Donald Trump.

They carried signs of all shapes, sizes and colors, presenting the same underlying message: #NoMuslimBan.

The art of the march
By Brianna Kirkham
January 23, 2017 - 1:10am
The Women's March on Washington was a display of protest art; how this medium will be preserved is likely to change over the next four years.

As far as the Internet is concerned, the iconic speeches, celebrity appearances and choric chanting didn’t steal the show at the Women’s March in Washington D.C. on Jan. 21. Instead, it was the posters.

Saint Lucy’s Church: where sinners and saints are one in the same
By Kathryn Shafsky
December 29, 2016 - 2:03pm
A Catholic church in Syracuse's Near Westside is challenging conventional religious traditions.

As Father Jim Matthews begins the 9 a.m. service at Saint Lucy’s Church near Syracuse’s Westside, all is far from quiet. Although Matthews speaks into a microphone, he can barely be heard over the sound of church members greeting old friends.

Two men say hello over a special handshake, one that has clearly been repeated over many Sundays. Another woman approaches a member of the church who is in a wheelchair, asking if he’ll need a ride home.

HIV prevention advocates push for change
By Samantha Mendoza
December 28, 2016 - 5:25pm
With the nation’s highest concentration of poverty among blacks, Syracuse is adopting community-oriented tactics to ending the epidemic.

Always demand a certain level of treatment. That’s what Joshua King told himself as he grew up with a single mother in the suburb of De Witt just outside of Syracuse-- “the land of opportunity,” as he calls it.

As a young black man in a city that is 84 percent white, he knew that barriers prevented him from achieving the same level of success as his peers. As a young gay black man, he knew those barriers were even greater.

I-81 tunnel proposal would mean changes for University Hill
By Rob Romano
December 15, 2016 - 3:21pm
CNY leaders and residents remain divided as underground route resurfaces among ideas for interstate viaduct's future.

Van Robinson remembers the first time he drove on Interstate 81 nearly half a century ago, however, not for sentimental reasons.

“It was the most harrowing drive I’ve ever made,” the Syracuse Common Council president said.

Robinson's sentiments were among those shared by about 150 local leaders and residents Wednesday night at Henninger High School for a public meeting to consider a tunnel to replace Interstate 81 in Downtown Syracuse.

Dual-language early educational programs help young Latinos advance in reading
By Brianna Moné
December 5, 2016 - 12:59am
Hispanic youth in the Westside of Syracuse connect with their culture through reading circles and literacy programs.

He chose her. In a room full of rambunctious children running around with English and Spanish books, a young bright-eyed kindergartener with chubby cheeks kept asking her to read stories to him. He would continually hug her, look for books and ask her to read them to him. She didn’t know why, but “Boo Boo” chose her out of all the other volunteers at the reading circle at the La Casita Cultural Center.