New Fire Station Among Syracuse (NY) Mayor’s Final-Year Plans

Syracuse, N.Y. ― Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh’s final State of the City address was packed with reflection on seven years worth of new policies, programs and projects.

Now in his final year in office due to term limits, the mayor delivered the legally required speech to the Syracuse Common Council on Thursday at Grant Middle School.

Walsh, an alum of Syracuse Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship, referred at the start of his remarks to words inscribed on that school’s lobby wall from an oath taken by officials in Athens, Greece more than 2,000 years ago.

“On behalf of the Administration in my final year in office and in keeping with the continuing words of the Athenian Oath, I am proud to report Syracuse is ‘not only not less but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us,’” Walsh told the gathering of about 350 people in the school’s auditorium, restored in recent years to its original 1931 state.

While much of the hour-long address touched on dozens of city government accomplishments made since he took office, the mayor did tease out some details of new projects and initiatives in the works for his final year.

That included a plan to reopen a fire station in downtown Syracuse for the first time since the 1970s.

By early summer, the Syracuse Fire Department should have an engine company operating out of the historic Station 12 building on West Genesee Street. Four firefighters per shift will be stationed there, along with a full engine and a smaller truck.

Closed in 1998, the station has in recent years housed the SFD’s emergency medical services division along with fire investigators. They will remain at the site for now, SFD Chief Michael Monds said.

Syracuse last year secured a $7.6 million federal grant to pay for additional firefighters, and that is helping to bring Station 12 back online. Walsh said the new station will “help meet the fire service demands of a growing city and be able to respond to calls more effectively as Interstate 81 construction in the city accelerates.”

Here are a few additional announcements included in Walsh’s 2025 address:

Housing goals in sight

Walsh said the goal to have 2,500 new units of housing built or under construction from the start of 2024 until the end of his term is halfway completed, and he’s confident of hitting the number by the end of this year.

That will include progress on a big southern Syracuse project announced at last year’s speech, a planned housing development at the former Lafayette Country Club that will create 300 market-rate, single-family and two-family homes in an initial phase. Work should also get started this year on the transformation of the vacant Maria Regina campus on the North Side into 181 apartments for low-income seniors. The new Syracuse Housing Strategy will kick into higher gear this year, as well, providing grants for home improvements in targeted middle-income neighborhoods.

Moving projects ahead

The city is already seeing increased demand for construction and building permits, and that’s expected to grow. To ensure the city can keep up with process applications, they plan to contract with additional third-party reviewers at outside engineering firms to help city staff. That’s already started on a trial basis.

“With the help of qualified outside engineering firms, we’re already seeing a reduction of new projects waiting in the queue and faster turnaround times on permit approvals,” Walsh said.

Street safety plans

The city this year will adopt and begin implementing a data-driven plan to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries, which average nine fatal and 126 serious injury crashes per year in the city. It’s called the Vision Zero plan, and data analysis completed shows that 50% of serious accidents happen on about 6% of city roads and at 1% of its intersections. “This data shows us where to start,” Walsh said.

The city will continue gathering public input through the end of this month syr.gov/vision-zero. An action plan will given to the Syracuse Common Council for its approval by the spring.

Another safety-driven program, bus stop arms cameras, will be in use next month, with school zone red light and speed cameras in use by the spring.

Upgrades at parks

Walsh said a number of improvements will be made this year at city parks. Those include a new trailside Family Recreation Center at the Inner Harbor, an e-gaming center at Wilson Park Community Center, upgrades for the Eastwood Skate Park, reconstruction of the Hanover Square fountain, the installation of new performance stage at Spirit of Jubilee Park, a new play feature at Sankofa Park and a new splashpad at Westmoreland Park.

Supporting New Americans

Walsh said he’ll establish a new advisory group to build on the work of the Mayor’s Quality of Life Commission, which brings neighborhood representatives together with his administration’s managers to discuss priorities and concerns.

An LGBTQ+ Advisory Group started after that, and this year the administration will launch a New American Advisory Group “to provide the same kind of engagement with our New American neighbors across the city,” Walsh said.

City reporter Jeremy Boyer can be reached at jboyer@syracuse.com, (315) 657-5673, Twitter or Facebook.

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit syracuse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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