SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Firas Hashim’s life has been very busy since coming to the United States in July of 2014.
Hashim settled in Syracuse as a refugee, and served as a cook — using a little bit of what his father taught him in his home country of Iraq — at two different Middle Eastern Restaurants in the city. Then, he decided to embark on his own adventure.
“The first restaurant opened in 2017,” Hashim said. “It’s named Sumar — it’s on West Genesee. I opened another one — same street, West Genessee, within four months. It’s name is Baghdad.”
Hashim isn’t the first or last person to try their hand at a downtown business. The Downtown Syracuse Committee released its latest Retail Demographic Survey data, which was collected in the spring of 2022. The Committee says 65% of the 163 downtown business owners invited to take the survey responded to the requests.
Downtown has seen large growth since the millennium — with Armory Square and the area where Salt City Market is located experiencing the biggest increase in new businesses. 81% of new businesses downtown have opened between 2000 and 2022. More recently, 54% of those businesses opened between 2017 and last year.
Salt City Market on West Onondaga Street has served as an incubator for some of these diverse businesses. The Market, which opened in 2021, allows the community to experience food from places like Vietnam, Burma, Jamaica, Ethiopia, and the Middle East.
“[Salt City Market’s marketing manager] told me to come to Salt City Market,” Hashim said. “He’s giving me this program — I’m taking this. I already have customers, and now my customers are more customers.”
With new businesses comes new cultures as well. 99% of business owners speak English, per the survey.
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4% — Spanish
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3% — French
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3% — Arabic
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2% — Italian
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2% — Vietnamese
The data from the study show the percentage of women of Color starting new businesses in the downtown area year-to-year dropped slightly. After reaching 41% in 2021, the number decreased to 33% last year.
Among white people, 64% of business owners in the downtown area are male, while 34% are female. Among Black people, that dynamic is almost flipped — with 27% of downtown business owners being males, compared to 73% being female.
The survey also said businesses run by males survive about three times more than female businesses.
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Male-owned businesses downtown tend to last an average of 15.3 years.
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Female-owned businesses last just over 5.1 years on average.
At an average of 12.69 years, white business owners lead the business tenure category among different races. The next singular racial group as categorized by the study is Asian owners with an average business tenure of 10.17 years.
The survey shows there are some underrepresented groups in the demographics of the downtown area’s business scene.
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34% of the City of Syracuse is Black, while only 12% of downtown business owners are Black or African-American.
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Asians are underrepresented by 1%.
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Hispanics and Latinos are underrepresented by 6%. W
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White-owned businesses, by contrast, are overrepresented by 17%.
Regardless, Hashim said the building in which he occupies a stall now is special — not just because he does business there. He sees it as a melting pot of different cultures, and the start of an even more diverse future when it comes to food in Syracuse.
“You can come here — You want to see everybody,” Hashim said. “You have Burma, you have Vietnam, you have Korea, you have Thailand, you have Jamaica, Ethiopia, the Middle East — all countries, different food, different business. If you put everybody together, that’s good business.”
