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Democrat Onondaga County Legislators Oppose New Aquarium Democrat County Legislators Oppose New Aquarium

By Pa Zong Lee

IMANI CLEMENT: Democratic County Legislators are calling for funds to go towards a more pressing issue from their end instead of finding a new aquarium in the inner harbor. Our Pa-Zong Lee has more on what the proposal entails.
PA-ZONG LEE: Today county legislators and advocates gathered outside of the Onondaga Courthouse to bring attention to the long-standing lead poisoning problem in Syracuse. Legislator Mary Kuhn of District 7 says there’s about 80 million dollars of federal funding from before the pandemic that has remained untouched.
MARY KUHN: We’re trying to jumpstart the conversation about how to use money to serve the community and not to serve fish.
PA-ZONG LEE: Democrat County legislators already have a set plan to redirect funds from building an aquarium to fighting lead poisoning in Syracuse.
MARY KUHN: So we need really ramp up of our lead testing program, we also need to put money into mitigating those lead homes and during the time that families are getting their homes become lead free, they need a place to stay.
PA-ZONG LEE: Legislator Kuhn says there is more at stake.
MARY KUHN: If you read about aquariums they have to be expanded every eight to ten years, when the county owns this, all that is on the tax payer.
PA-ZONG LEE: Now County Legislator Mary Kuhn says that before the pandemic, they received 80 million dollars in surplus, in addition to 2020 and 2021, they had received 125 million dollars and they want to use some of these funds towards combatting this issue.
OCEANNA FAIR: We hold the highest lead poisoning rates within the county so of all the children, on a given year that test positive for lead poisoning, over 90 percent will be in the county with a majority of those being on the Southside and North sides of Syracuse.
PA-ZONG LEE: Fair says that this is an issue affecting certain demographics within these communities.
OCEANNA FAIR: Lead poisoning in Syracuse in Onondaga County mostly affects Black and Brown children so this is definitely a racial justice issue and an environmental justice issue.
PA-ZONG LEE:
CNY Solidarity Coalition is a part of this proposal and on their website you can find the petition right here outlining a few of their demands. You can even read up more on it and they even have a few data supporting their argument down here. Reporting live in Syracuse, I’m Pa-Zong Lee, with NCC News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Democrat county legislators are calling to redirect the funding for the Onondaga County Aquarium to go towards fighting lead poisoning in Syracuse. Legislators and advocates gathered outside of the Onondaga County Courthouse to bring attention to this issue and urge county executives to listen to their demands. County Legislator Mary Kuhn of District 7 said there’s over $200 million of federal funding that can be used to prevent lead poisoning.

“During the pandemic, interestingly enough, from the budget of 2020 and 2021, the county has amassed an additional surplus of a little bit over $125 million,” said Kuhn. “Which is added to the surplus that we had before the pandemic, which never got touched, to help people, which was $80 million.”

Kuhn said there are ways to support testing children and to prevent lead poisoning in homes.

“So we need [to] really ramp up our lead testing program, we also need to put money into mitigating those lead homes, and during the time that families are getting their homes [to] become lead free, they need a place to stay,” said Kuhn.

Kuhn said they would like to see a Ronald McDonald house of some sorts to house families temporarily while their homes are being inspected and cleaned.

Oceanna Fair, southside leader of Families for Lead Freedom Now, said this is an environmental and racial justice issue as it mostly affects Black and Brown children.

“We hold the highest lead poisoning rates within the county so of all the children, on a given year that test positive for lead poisoning, over 90% will be in the county with a majority of those being on the Southside and North sides of Syracuse,” said Fair.

During the beginning of COVID, Fair said testing for lead poisoning has declined and are now trying to push for increased testing.

“We know that we are missing about 50 % of the children who are supposed to be tested at ages one and two,” said Fair. “That is currently not happening, those children are falling through the cracks and we need to figure out why.”

Fair said they’re going to keep pushing for remediation for lead housing and that the key is to prevent lead poisoning before it happens. The petition opposing the aquarium is live on the CNY Solidarity Coalition website.

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