Off Campus: Multimedia Belt

April 28, 2017 - 5:08am
After a $2 million settlement was awarded to five New York counties, Onondaga County still struggles to meet demands of the criminal justice system.

The violation of the constitution has come at a price for New York state. In 2007 a lawsuit, Hurrell-Harring v. New York, was brought against five New York counties: Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington.

The lawsuit sought to ensure that a lawyer represents every poor criminal defendant at their initial court appearance and that lawyers are adequately prepared to contest the charges being brought, to reduce the caseloads of public defense attorneys and to ensure criminal defendants received proper defense.

April 27, 2017 - 9:54pm
Now that Hungry Chuck's closed and Orange Crate Brewing Co. is moving, students and the greater community are feeling the effects of the Marshall Street area's changing nightlife scene.

Three male students strolled slowly down the Syracuse University promenade, backpacks on as they headed home from campus after a long Tuesday of classes. An orange April sunset cast a long shadow ahead of them as they talked, laughed and discussed their plans for the evening.

“You going out tonight, bro?” one student asked another.

“I definitely want to. I mean, how many nights do we have left?” the second responded.

“I mean, but where are we going to go?”

April 19, 2017 - 10:41am
Over the course of Tuesday evening, hundreds of students and local residents trickled into the popular bar one last time.

Yes, hundreds of Syracuse University students paid the $20 cover to drink one last pitcher of cheap beer and paint their names on the walls of Hungry Chuck’s Café before it closed for good on Tuesday.

Before the doors were supposed to open at 7 p.m., at least 50 people were already lined up in the alleyway outside the popular student bar. Bodyguards tried to corral students into a single-file line, delaying the official opening of Chuck’s last night by 25 minutes.

April 16, 2017 - 3:34pm
Nicole Ashby's stepfather sold her half sister into sex work when they were kids, making her one of the 300,000 American youths sex trafficked each year.

In a sandwich shop between Butternut and Catherine streets in Syracuse’s North Side neighborhood, Nicole Ashby cleaned the tables at her job as she listened to her cousin talk about prostitutes. The tables stand clean and shiny but she continued to clean it until she agreed to talk about her missing sister.

April 5, 2017 - 10:42pm
When an impoverished, run-down neighborhood in Syracuse needs improvement, who gets to decide what to do?

The Near Westside neighborhood needs a name; that’s one thing people who live and work in the area can agree on.

April 4, 2017 - 11:45am
The dredging phase of the lake wrapped up in 2014, but as the process of capping the lake bottom nears completion, Onondaga Nation still has concerns about the cleanup.

The Onondaga Lake cleanup has moved on to the next phase in the project.

The dredging process – where tons of contaminated sediment from the lake bottom are moved to another location in the lake to ease coastal erosion, was completed in 2014. The work on capping the lake, which involves covering 579 acres of the lake's bottom with a layer of sand to keep the underlying mercury and other toxins in place, is still underway. However, not all parties are satisfied with the cleanup process.

March 26, 2017 - 8:43pm
Aaron Metthe, a former youth pastor, had always dreamed of owning a coffee shop. Now, it has become a reality.

Just like FedEx and Amazon, Salt City Coffee goes to its customers, delivering fresh beans to doorsteps every Thursday morning. But owner Aaron Metthe has always wanted to do more than put coffee in his customers’ hands and stomachs. He’s longed for a space where coffee and community can come together — and that is finally about to happen. 

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.

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.

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.