Coming up on mornings on the Hill. President Biden touches down in the 315 for an historic visit and business. The $6 billion micron deal is set to bring new opportunities to the region. Lastly, officials mourn the death of SPD officer Michael Husar. All that and more. Coming up next.
Good morning. I’m Mike Ostrowski. Thanks for joining us for the final mornings on the hill of the semester. And I’m Josh Crawford. Here’s a look at today’s top stories. Our top story this morning.
Our top story this morning. President Biden is scheduled to visit Syracuse this week to discuss funding for the micron plant in Clay. Arthur Tasia Duffy joins us to preview Biden’s first visit in two years. Thanks, Josh. That’s right. Biden will be coming to Syracuse this Thursday to announce a win for micron, a $6.1 billion deal. Now, we do not have details now on when the date or what the time will be or the location, but we will be looking out for that.
More on micron coming up in just a little bit. I’m Stacey Duffy reporting for mornings on the Hill. Thank you. From that announcement and on. No not on our. As for Biden’s opponent, former President Donald Trump’s landmark criminal trial continues today in New York City. This is the first time a former president has been criminally prosecuted in front of a jury.
Trump facing 34 counts of falsifying business records the charges back to the 2016 presidential election, with the prosecution saying Trump made hush money payments to Barry stories that would damage his presidential campaign. Those payments were labeled as legal services. If convicted, Trump could potentially face up to four years in prison. Yesterday was a day of mourning in New York.
Thousands of first responders came to the New York State Fairgrounds to pay their respects to Oneida County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Michael Hossack, who was one of two police officers killed in an ambush by a shooter with a semiautomatic semi-automatic rifle on April 14th. Fellow officer Michael Jensen was laid to rest on Saturday in his hometown of Rome, whose shock service marked an emotional end to an emotional week.
With a semester quickly coming to an end. We have one last weather forecast to give you here on the Hill. We’ll toss it outside to our weather reporter, Rico, to see what the weather students can expect in the last full week of class. Rico, what you get.
Thank you so much, Josh. As you can see, it’s so nice and sunny out. I don’t even know why I’m wearing a jacket when I. When I got here this morning, it was kind of cold, but here at 1002 in the morning, it’s 58 degrees, looking nice. And for the rest of the day it’s going to be more of the same sunny air with temperatures up to 67 degrees.
But watch out for the wind. Wind gusts up to 15 to 20mph. It will be windy today, but beautiful spring is here. That’s all I have for you guys out here. Back to you guys in the studio. Thank you. Rico. A growing health crisis looms over Syracuse, especially in homes built before 1978. Old paint and the accumulated dust can cause hidden dangers of lead.
Our news reporter, Kristen Lilly, gives us a closer look at how lead exposure is affecting our community. Yes, I spoke with families directly affected by this crisis. For some, it’s exposure to lead has turned into a life altering struggle. Despite regulations aimed at preventing such situations. Poor inspections often leave families at risk. I meet eight year old Rashad and his brother Davon.
Rashad has a love for cars, Porsche, Mercedes Benz. He knows I’m in love with your mom is this. And he’s always like this. As for Davon, he loves their dog Coco. But the two aren’t just brothers, they’re twins. Do you like to help your mom with chores? Yeah. Not now. Twins that have been living with lead poisoning since they were 19 months old.
The twins mom, Darlene Medley, says she overlooked their diagnosis letters as they were not marked as urgent. So I’m just throwing them away. But they kept coming, kept coming, kept coming. I finally opened it up, and that’s how I found out that high lead levels. The twins had levels reaching double digits, both above the CDC s level of concern of 3.5 and the cause of IT landlords not telling tenants about lead violations before they move in.
Nobody never told me, oh, this house I came up here. Definitely. It’s not the new homes being built, but the older homes built before 1978. Old deteriorating paint is a common cause. According to the Onondaga County Health Department, lead rates among children in Syracuse are significantly higher than state and national averages, and lower income areas in Syracuse are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure.
Children living in an environment where they’re constantly exposed the lead not, doesn’t just go into their bloodstream. It builds up in their soft tissues, their muscles, their skin, their bones, and importantly, their brain. Doctor Travis Hobart, medical director of the Lead Poisoning Resource Center, has worked in pediatrics for years. He says kids with lead poisoning often experience developmental delays.
Is something that that that is a lifelong, you know, lifelong effect. And unfortunately, the twins are suffering from the effects. Medley says she saw changes in the twins less than a year after exposure. Something, right. We got to get his speech and everything looked at and next thing you know, that’s when the stutter started really bad. Rashod has difficulty completing sentences.
and also, some of this knowledge. While Davon struggles with the ADHD, you can see what’s on his hands, you know, like, just come on, let’s just do mommy say. Like, if we do a mommy say we go outside for some time, fear that he doesn’t have control. This is the home that changed the lives of Rashod and Davon.
Lead paint inside and out, causing the family to be displaced. Now, chipped paint like this on the side of the building is typically an indicator that you may have lead paint in your home. CNY lead testing gave me a closer look at how lead can hide in your home. Look down here you’ll see peeling paint. Cracked paint. This can create a hazard.
The dust itself is the issue. In 2020, the city of Syracuse introduced a lead ordinance. This required landlords to have their properties inspected for lead by certified professionals. We know this is pre 1978. So therefore we assume there’s an EPA guidelines that this is lead pay. Pierre says window sills and door frames are what you should look out for.
He even had me slip on a pair of shoe covers so we can inspect the home. Yeah, it’s important to wear those so that you’re not tracking LED dust into the property. Lead wipes are used to thoroughly wipe surfaces. Then packed away for testing. But for medley in the twins, the ordinance is already too late as they suffer from what doctors describe as chronic exposure with Davon, a medication for ADHD and rashod on the waiting list for speech therapy.
All she can do is hope that their cognitive skills improve. For mornings on the Hill, I’m Kristen Lilly. Back to you. Columbia University has moved to hybrid classes, hoping to defuze tensions on campus. pro-Palestinian protesters at the university are camping out for the seventh straight day last week. More than 100 protesters were arrested after camping out Columbia’s green.
Columbia will retain hybrid classes through the end of the semester due to safety concerns. Similar protests are occurring throughout universities in the US, including New York University, Yale and Harvard. Syracuse is known as a refugee resettlement hub, with over 7000 refugees moving here just in the last decade as they find a new start, a local business owner, city Uniforms Tai Shah is going above and beyond to make sure they feel home.
Sharma tells us how his own life story drives from relentless efforts.
Thanks, guys. This short story began in 1980, when he was just ten years old, and he left his home country of Vietnam following the Vietnam War in search of a brighter future. His show, Needle States, lasted for two years and three refugee camps before he finally found a home with a shore family in Buffalo. His story starting off as a refugee on a beaten boat to now a successful business owner, has since then inspired countless others.
Today, he continues to be that trailblazer dedicated to helping out the new American families here in Syracuse. Shore says he he’s striving to fulfill the promise he made to God while on that boat.
Give me another life. And when I get a new life, when I become somebody and I’m able. And to help people and feed people.
I will do it. Just give me another life change of life. And he did. And so he did. Adjacent to his shop is this food pantry where every Sunday, new American families swing by to shop without a credit card. In 2020, Diageo launched a food pantry as part of the CNY Blessing Box initiative, responding to the hardships brought by the pandemic.
He says his pantry is a free grocery shop. But it’s not just about groceries. It’s a place where dignity is preserved, offering food items with care and empathy. He says people feel at their lowest when they have to walk in a food pantry. And so he wants to ensure that the guests not only leave with groceries, but also with a renewed sense of dignity and pride.
The moment you done. I want you here or here because I treat you that good. Because you somebody. You’re my people. And the volunteers share the same belief that food is just a prop, but kindness and dignity. That’s what they really serve. This means nothing. Eat food. You’re hungry tomorrow. Food gets you. Come in the door. What you’re giving people is a little bit of love and a little bit of respect.
And a little bit of kindness. So you can let them be themselves again. The boundary is more than just a shopping destination. It’s a vibrant community center, a cherished gathering place. Guests arrive here early, not just for groceries, but to sit down with their communities and immerse themselves in a welcoming atmosphere, a slice of whom they spoke to all the other ladies who came.
They created their own little circles of friends, and they they needed to come early so they could have catch up and all the conversation of the week. And then they had to go back to being lonely and carrying the weight of the family. Every Sunday, dedicated volunteers gather to prepare the pantry before the guests arrive, and once the guests are queued up outside, volunteers escort them inside individually as the potential is up here.
Macaroni cheese right there. This is like dairy milk cheese. They offer hands on support by holding out bags and guiding guests through their shopping experience, ensuring it’s personalized and seamless. Hey!
After each event, sure, passing the torch to next generation encourages the younger volunteers to embrace who they are and their cultural identities. So, like him, they don’t have to spend decades before they finally feel home here for mornings on the hill. I’m the Sharma coming up on mornings on the hill. Another taste of spring has arrived in CNY.
Rico joins us in studio to tell us if this nice weather sticking around.
Time to check in on your weather for today. Rico has made it in studio with a look at your full weather forecast. Rico, thank you so much, Josh. Outside, it’s currently 54 degrees. It is a beautiful day. Only 40% humidity. Only 16 degrees of wind. So it’s really not bad. And temperatures will maintain it for the rest of the day.
Temperatures will rise in the afternoon, so plan to get outside, put on that hoodie because later tonight it will start raining. So as you can see here in the morning it was looking nice 54 degrees. So in the afternoon. But as we head towards that evening more clouds and more rain will develop and we’ll say wet and chilly on Wednesday.
So as you can see here on this coming Tuesday, it will rain for for the rest of the day coming in towards the evening. And that rain will continue into Wednesday will be around 47 degrees. However, Thursday is looking like the day of the week, 51 degrees and sunny, so it’s a great day to skip clouds if you’re into that.
But on Friday, temperatures will rise again around 60 degrees. Partly cloudy. Another another beautiful day as we close out the semester. But on Saturday there is a chance of rain 59 degree high, and that rain will continue on and off for the rest of the weekend. That is all I have for this forecast. Thank you. And back back to the studio for you.
Josh. Thank you Rico. Inclusion was the message at new House as first ever Unity Gala. Our Whitney Williams joins us live to tell us more about the exciting event. Whitney, what you get.
Josh. Mike I am here right outside of the hug where dozens of people gathered on Thursday evening for a night of food, fellowship, fun, and a whole lot of dancing. That’s right. The first ever Unity Gala was held right here at ASU, and it was hosted by an ASU student and the president of the Asian-American Journalists Association right here on campus, Patricia Duong, in association with the Idea office.
So I was able to speak to Duong on Thursday night, and she told me that her whole inspiration behind hosting this gala was really to celebrate the diversity that we have here in the Syracuse community. I wanted to bring people in the Syracuse community together. Despite our different cultures and different perspectives, we should all be one to build a stronger community and a more inclusive environment here at Cherokees.
The gala, which was Grammy Award themed, United Young and Old Su students and members of the Syracuse community.
It featured the musical stylings of DJ Washburn. We’re all about the unity here in the color of.
The night wrapped up with an awards ceremony, which honored different people for their contributions to diversity and efforts to make Syracuse a more inclusive place. Sure.
The night ended off with each attendee being given a pen and an index card similar to this, and they were asked to anonymously write a situation where they felt that they were ever discriminated against, or a situation where they genuinely just felt uncomfortable. They were also asked on the paper to note what could have been done in that situation, to make them feel more welcomed.
Again, all of this was done in an effort to better understand how we can include everyone here in the Syracuse community. For mornings on the Hill, I’m Whitney Williams. Coming up on mornings on the Hill. Relive the dramatic S-U men’s lacrosse comeback against Virginia goes to work and the record number of fans. That was an issue football under Fran Brown.
Sports is next.
Good morning. I’m Patrick Smith with your orange sports update here on mornings on the hill. The regular season has wrapped up for the men’s lacrosse team and are wrapped up in a special, exciting way. The orange hosted number four Virginia this past Saturday in a packed JMA dome, and it was also a day to celebrate the Syracuse lacrosse legend Paul Gait.
If you’ve ever seen lacrosse in Virginia and Syracuse playing well, this one kind of reminded you of some vintage lacrosse. As we get ready to start things off, Wyatt Hoddle for the orange, putting the Jets on quickly. And it was loud in the dome early on. Here’s some beautiful feeds from Owen Held to Michael Leo behind the back.
And Syracuse goes up three jumping all the way to the fourth quarter. Virginia on a run and they extend that lead even further, this 1 to 3. Coming up Jake Stevens on the doorstep to tie things up. That one gets tonight. But the ball’s loose ends the defender Billy Joel Nola shot goes in Syracuse ties it up. And now as we go just under a minute all things all tied up at 17 apiece Sam English hands free.
And there’s your game-winner for you. Syracuse wins it 18 to 17 in the final seconds. Something the orange haven’t seen a lot this year. Closing out games. And head coach Gary Gait said he was kind of pleased with the way his team was able to finish things out. Super excited, about the performance of our team showed incredible heart, a no quit attitude.
And they made the plays when they had to, you know, certainly we’ve been in this situation a few times before this year, and we came up short. Syracuse wraps up their regular season on a win and will move on to the ACC Tournament in Charlotte on May 3rd. The Syracuse Women’s Lacrosse regular season has also finished up. They played Boston College last Thursday in Chestnut Hill, losing in overtime 11 to 10.
Now looking forward for the women, they start the run for the ACC title tournament tomorrow and a game against Louisville earlier this year. Syracuse knocked off Louisville 22 to 12. The game will be played in Charlotte at 11 a.m.. An ACC network, and the annual spring football game was this past weekend for the orange. Our Zachary Pries is here to tell us a little more about that.
Zach. Thanks, Patrick. Now to the dome, where the orange got a win in more than just the last game on Saturday. Of course, they were playing themselves. It would be hard not to, but the Orange Annual spring game did take place on Saturday. Orange faithful got the chance to see Fran Brown and his squad in action for the first time since his hiring back in November of last year.
It was the white team with the offensive starters versus the blue team with the defensive first. Strings and defense might win championships, but apparently not spring games, at least when you’re not allowed to tackle Ohio State transfer quarterback Kyle McCord looked good, throwing for 242 yards on 18 of 28 passing in just one half of play in his first action in front of the orange faithful.
But it wasn’t just McCord who impressed. Another stud stood out for the orange and incoming freshman running back Yacine Willis, who totaled 109 yards on the day, including 91 on the ground alone and over eight yards a carry. Really impressive stats from him. Coach Brown on what he likes and Willis is a big athletic. Yeah, I’ve been seeing it.
I seen him when we flipped him from the other school when he committed to us, so it’s kind of been to us. I was like, okay, we’re going to get this kid. We’ll have thunder late. The Orange Play Game one of the 2024 season, just over four months from now versus the Ohio Bobcats. Now we swing over to the NBA playoffs.
The action is heating up and oh boy did yesterday deliver the Knicks welcome. The 76 was the 76 ers. Excuse me to MSG. Looking to take A20 series lead. But it wouldn’t be easy. The 76 ers found themselves up five with under 40s remaining before it was Showtime. Jalen Brunson got a friendly roll on a left wing three ball cutting the lead to two.
Then a steal a scramble a Dante Vincenzo missed three offensive rebound. Then De Vincenzo knocks it in to put the Knicks on top for good. Is they would break Philly’s heart and go up two nil in the series. Then in the nightcap, la pokey in the Lakers hoping to steal one in even the series at one in Denver.
It would be no easy task. At first it looked like it would be easy, as LA built as much as a 20 point lead in the second half before the nuggets started to, well, look like the nuggets again, it’s Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray took hold of the game down the stretch, setting up a Jamal Murray Stepback contested baseline buzzer beater over.
Add instant classic there to take a commanding two zero series lead heading back to LA. Now back to you guys. That will do it for us here on this Wednesday here on mornings on the Hill I’m Mike Ostrovsky. Remember to follow us on social media and I’m Josh Crawford. Thanks for watching Orange Nation. Stay tuned for the second half of our special hour long show here on team.
Good morning, I’m Zoe Tasia, thanks for joining us for mornings on the Hill and I’m the Sharma. This is a special edition of mornings on the Hill featuring work from a master storytelling class. Zach Richter here has our first piece. Zach, this story is about micron. Yeah. So we took a look to see what worries residents and Clay the most.
We went out and asked them, when you hear the word micron what comes to mind first? And we got a mix of answers from housing to traffic to even just the water that they’re going to use. But you’ll find out in a moment what the number one issue is. And that’s really then how we went about and the rest of the story.
Wow, that’s really interesting Zach. So this was for your master storytelling class, correct? Yeah. So it’s one credit and it’s taught by Al Tompkins and Les Rose, both fabulous professors. And so it’s one credit, one story for the entire semester. It’s a long form piece. So it’s about three minute 30s to four minutes and much longer than the packages you’ll do here, or you’ll do in your other, BJJ classes.
But great experience. And I think all of our pieces really ended up being spectacular. Awesome. Thank you so much, Zach. Let’s take a look. Most people think growth is a good thing, but sometimes it can be painful. And that’s the conflict people in Clay are wrestling with now. They welcome in a big investment in the community, but worry about how it will change things soon.
We got over $304 million to go to this facility. It took Clay more than 200 years to grow to the size it is today, 60,000 people. And starting later this year, computer company micron will begin construction for the first wave of workers. That has the potential to bring almost 50,000 people to the town, almost doubling the size. I think it’s good for the community.
they’re going to hire a lot of people. It’s a good thing for, all the way around. I think I’m excited. Expansion. But for some, they’re more worried about the painful part. It’s going to probably pollute a lot of the area and worry about the environment. I’m worried about the water that Micron’s going to need, plus housing, the housing to and from all of those worries.
The number one answer we got from residents is traffic. Traffic is the biggest worry issue is probably traffic traveling and wondering what they’re going to do. As far as traffic, we don’t have the infrastructure with the highways to handle the traffic. And as for traffic on highway 31, some just can’t imagine it getting any worse already. Terrible, especially during the holidays or rush hour.
It’s terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. But the problem is, when you bring trucks and they’re trying to get in and out on the streets that everyday people are using, it’s going to be a nightmare. Kristie Jibo showing us a survey. The town of Clay posted on their Facebook last December, the town preparing a study and area plan to prepare for future decisions for land use in the town of Clay.
The top of the survey saying, quote, in order to ensure the plan reflects the desires and goals of Clay residents, we are asking for your input and that is one of the questions you know about the traffic situation currently and and being able to provide enough road space. And, the traffic lights. And route 31 enters the town of Clay after the intersection with I-81.
The road then follows next to the future micron site, passing through the hamlet of Clay and eventually leading to the I-4 81 intersection and shopping centers and route 31 behind me. Here, outside the micron side, it’s just a two lane road, but plans here call for the road to be expanded up to five lanes and off camera. Interview clay Town Supervisor Damien ULA confirmed to NCC news those plans for route 31.
However, he could not confirm any specific details of the plan. He says, quote, when is it going to happen? Nobody knows yet. Everything is up in the air. Back on March 19th, the micron project faces first public opposition. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hosted a public hearing in Clay, where around 170 residents filled the room and spoke on their concerns for the project.
That money to help had in my yard just to travel in the traffic. Do you even know what a good thing can I get through route 31 if it backs up? So where am I going to go in a helicopter for me? Do all of us are going to be trapped in something dead lock you little skis. Answer to us was almost the same as the answers we got from officials at the town hall.
Very few specifics and no promises. All those comments will be part again of what we need to look at and address. Phase one of the micron project is expected to bring up to 9000 jobs. The clean should be finished in the next few years. The 50,000 job number, though, is not expected until at least 2040. That means this isn’t all happening overnight.
That’s 16 years for the town to adjust to its new reality in clay. Zach Richter Mornings on the Hill. Thanks so much, Zach. Scientists say that since the 70s, North America’s population has dropped almost 3 billion birds paints. Lacy has a story on this plunge and how it points to a bigger issue for the North American bird population is declining, and not just by a little.
In the Syracuse area, black cap chickadees are down almost 14% and common morganza is nearly 17%, and rock pigeons have lost 28% of their population. Even for people who don’t care about birds, they might have noticed the drop Miyoko Chu definitely has, and what she sees outside of her window at the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell, tells her we should worry if we’re losing 30% over 50 years.
And then you think about the next 50, you really start to get a sense of the loss of the abundance and diversity of the wildlife that is part of our heritage here. It may seem like a small issue, but the issue goes further than just losing the feathered creature. it tells us that the stressors that we’re feeling around climate and, lack of green spaces, and other stressors like quality of water and air that these are things that affect birds and sometimes are an early signal to show that we need to pay attention to them for our own health as well.
To us, hinting at the canary in the coal mine analogy, a century ago, coal miners brought canaries with them to indicate potential hazards because of their smaller bodies, the little yellow bird would show signs of sickness quicker than humans. As soon as the canary was distressed, it let the coal miners know it was time to get out. So when you kind of blow that up into the big picture, the whole world is the mine.
The birds in general are the canaries kind of telling us, hey, the water might not be healthy. Alyssa Johnson is a lifelong educator of wildlife conservation. People think bald eagles have this majestic war cry with anybody who crosses her path in the woods should be ready to learn a thing or two. They kind of sound like gulls. She has the same worry, but it’s not just affecting what’s going on out here.
She’s seeing it in our backyards as well. I’ve had it with people who are like, what’s going on at my bird feeders? I’m not seeing as many, you know, the common feeder backyard birds. But what’s behind all of this? Experts say that the biggest cause this decline has been habitat loss. The US has lost 24 million acres of natural land since 2001 to 2017 due to human caused changes, according to the Center of American Progress.
But there’s something that you can do at home to help, and it starts with something you grab every single morning. If there are coffee plantations that are sun ground or they cut down the forests, you won’t find birds. They’re buying shade grown coffee. Well, it only help you get your caffeine fix. It’s a great way to support conservation efforts by opting for this coffee, you’re helping create habitats for birds when they go migrate down south.
If you grow varieties that, can thrive in the shade, you can have coffee plantations. And for a side by side, pet owners also have a surprising role to play. Believe it or not, cats are one of the most significant contributors to the bird decline. It adds up to a lot. I mean, cats are natural hunters. It’s just a part of who they are.
And so when they’re outdoors, you know, one of the things they like to do is go for animals that are moving around. The Cornell lab says helping is as easy as keeping your cat indoors. Best case scenario, we start to turn all of those declines around. We get those species to a point of stability, and then we start bringing them back.
So we start to see more of that abundance to make sure that they’re going to be healthy. Well into the future. 100 years ago, we look to birds to tell us if we were headed into danger. The bird population is trying to tell us something. Now the question is, can we hear their warning, which we don’t have this planet.
We have nothing else. I mean, there’s kind of this cliche saying there’s no planet B, no plan B, there’s no planet B. Reporting in Syracuse I’m Payton Soucy, mornings on the Hill. Thank you Payton. Despite a population of over 13,000, Syracuse’s Southside has been without a grocery store for the past six years. Reporter Fiona Hollis spoke with someone from the community who’s making strides to bring fresh food back to the Southside.
When the Valet Plaza opened on Syracuse’s Southside seven years ago, it welcomed a bustling scene. The cars were big and the parking lot full. A parking lot that now stands mostly vacant. In 2010, the city raised $850,000 to open a grocery store in this very spot, but it closed by 2018, leaving an entire community once again without a Full-Service grocery store and had it right for a pandemic.
Rhonda macy is a woman who wears many hats, the head of a Southside resident, the hat of an organizer, and the hat of a go getter and tell me the plans 2020. The day that I took a walk in my own neighborhood and I just got really, really heated, really mad inside that I said to myself, I don’t know what needs to be done, but whatever needs to be done, let me find out.
Because I can speak. I can talk, I can make phone calls, I can go to somebody’s office, I, I can make I can try to help make something happen. What do we need to do? And Rhonda did make something happen. She started Food Access Healthy neighborhoods now otherwise known as farm, a market for people on the south side of Syracuse to access the fresh foods many no longer have with local vendors and accepted food benefits.
The market takes place every second and fourth Saturday of the month. It serves as one of the only places for Southside residents to get their produce. It’s unfair where people were human beings, people. People have a right to eat fresh food.
People have a right to understand what it is to have vegetables and a good diet. It’s now been six years without a grocery store. But this isn’t new to the community. Tops Friendly Market wasn’t the first to close in the Valley Plaza. When PNC grocers closed their doors in 2009, it left the South Side a food desert, begging the question how do grocery stores fail in an area with so much need?
Whitman School of Management Professor Patrick Penfield says the decision to build comes down to performance in the food desert areas. Again, there’s not a lot of money to be made there, so it’s really difficult from a business model to to be able to place a store there, even though it could be bare bottom and just offer nutritious, nutritious food.
Again, it’s just not very lucrative for these stores to be in those areas. And, you know, a lot of them don’t say that, you know, but you know, this is really what’s going on behind the scenes. As for Rhonda, she’s not slowing down. She’s continuing to spread the word about farm and even sat with Mayor Ben Walsh at the last market.
And while a new grocery store is the goal, it doesn’t mean her job would be done. We just got to keep it going higher and higher. Yeah, and then maybe we’ll take this, stamp it and move on to the next community. I don’t know if that’s the east side, the west side of the north side, but everybody’s got pockets of poverty going on that may need the same type of enthusiasm to build a movement.
So the entire community gets behind and realizes and educate themselves. Fiona Harless for mornings on the Hill, we
Welcome back to mornings on the Hill. Nearly 1.8 million households in New York City, in New York State could see their internet bills spike by $30 or more. About 25,000 of those households are in the city of Syracuse. It’s all because of a federal program set to run out of money this month. Ainsi news reporter Charlie Audio shows us the staggering effects the programs and could have on Salt City residents.
This boring little box. No blinking lights, no little sounds. That’s what he does. Following on TikTok connects Paige Lynn Gonyea to the world. I got my following kind of out of dumb luck, but when I saw that I had that following, I decided to try to do something with that instead of just letting it sit there. That box connects her with a 103,000 TikTok followers, more than double a packed house at the gym, a wireless storm.
And until now, she’s paid nothing for it. But soon, the government will make this vital necessity less affordable. People now need internet for either job searching for school for their work, and it needs to be accessible. The pandemic era federal program that paid her bills is shutting down this month. It’s called the Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP. Verizon sent Paige Lin and others email after email, warning them this day was coming.
She says some of her friends have already lost their free or discounted internet service. People in her building who still have internet are sharing it. People are trying to team together in the building to chip in $10 here and there for access to their Wi-Fi. The city of Syracuse says four out of ten of your neighbors use this program.
That’s ending. And once it ends, the city worries that everyone from seniors to students will lose their connections to everything from health care to homework. If we at this point take away the internet from over 40% of the Syracuse population that are relying on this benefit, and, you know, the internet now becomes too expensive for them to afford, then we’re taking away the opportunity for them to participate.
And being a contributing member of society. The city of Syracuse runs a program called Surge Link. It provides internet connections for $10 a month. The city used the federal government’s money back to pay the rest. When the ACP ends the subsidies. And with it. We don’t want this, the internet, to be a choice between, you know, whether or not students can do homework at home or whether or not someone needs to pay for, groceries or daycare.
President Biden’s asked Congress to continue funding the ACP. There is current bipartisan legislation proposed, but no plan so far to take it up for a vote. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel pleaded to Congress to keep this subsidy alive, saying in the letter, this program is the largest broadband affordability effort in our nation’s history. Today, more than 23 million households nationwide.
Count on it to get online and stay online, including vulnerable seniors, veterans, school age children and residents of rural and tribal communities. She went on to say that despite the breadth of this support and the urgent need to continue this program to ensure millions of households nationwide do not lose essential internet access. No additional funding has yet been appropriated as savings in matters in homes like the one I grew up in.
Another 3040 bucks a month was the difference between how many groceries you pay, the gas bill, all of the necessities. It matters. It matters. Time is running out. Within weeks, people like Paige Lynn are going to have to decide whether to spend money to pay a bill. They say they can’t afford to stay connected or let that little box in the corner that connects them to the world go dark.
In Syracuse, I’m Charlie Garcia de la for mornings on the hill. And one more note smart city manager Vince Scipione tells us the city is working to create a local benefit that will help those using the Smart Link municipal broadband program. That benefit would keep the cost at $10 per month. Pioneer homes, just under I-81, is New York’s oldest public housing project.
The people who live there are used to staying alert to rumors. As our reporter Nicole Aponte reports, the rumors have gone so far that a lot of residents thought they were losing their homes. When the city provides the very roof over your head. Money is time, and time is money. You hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
You listen to rumors. So anytime they talk about coming in here doing something to our home, we get worried about and we don’t know. Gregory Meyers has never lived in a home of his own, just home. He’s been in public housing his entire life, and for the past two and a half decades, he’s lived here in Syracuse’s Pioneer Homes.
This corner here, we used to sing doo wop about how much we love our baby. Miss Jones, Miss Robinson and Miss Smith would look out the window and say, okay, boys, time to go home, would we? Sometime they call him Uncle Butch around here. My name? He’s the self-proclaimed mayor of the neighborhood, and he’s always checked in. What you do to what the latest rumor is.
This time, rumor has it the city is going to tear this place down. At least that was a rumor. You get comfortable. You don’t like change. Change. Curtains. Not knowing. Especially for people have been ramshackle all their life. The rumors started when news stories like these popped up. Talking about how Suny upstate was going to build an optometry school here, and the city was going to sell the property.
But the rumor mill missed the nuances buried in those news stories. The most important part. It was all just an idea, not a plan. The way the facts rolled out, it really gave the impression that there was some kind of a deal cut. Contract signed. And these houses were going to be replaced. and there was no, no accountability for the existing residents, which was probably the furthest thing from the truth.
Syracuse Housing Authority Bill Simmons says he visits Pioneer homes nearly every week. This is what exists currently. No matter how many times he tells people here they’re not being tossed to the curb. The rumors spread faster, and his reassurances. I don’t get a dime from the federal government unless they, the federal government, approve of my plan. After what happened to these residents.
And because it’s federally funded public housing, the city tent evict the residents and leave them homeless. The city is legally obligated to provide them a place to stay. The rumor mill always leaves out that fact. These tenants are well protected with their rights to return to this property. Like many rumors, this one has a grain of truth. Eventually, the city says it will demolish Pioneer Homes as part of an $800 million revitalization plan.
But Simmons says it’ll take about a decade to complete. Of the 675 families, most of them will only move once from the old unit into the new. And so that’s why we have to do it in phasing. and that’s why it takes a lot longer. After we spoke to Simmons. We went back to tell Uncle Butch the news.
The rumor mill was wrong, but he already heard. Only this time it was not a rumor. They just said no. They killed the idea that it ain’t going to happen. But when you don’t own your own place and you can’t control your own destiny. I know you live your life trusting here, even if it’s just a rumor. Now in Syracuse, Nicole Aponte mornings on the Hill.
Thanks, Nicole. There are few things in this world more powerful than an entrepreneur with a dream. And a central New York faces a spike in homelessness. Reporter Elisha Brown tells us how a serious entrepreneur uses his dream to help the people in need.
Andrew Lunette is not your average landlord, and when you rent a house with him, you might only pay $300. Elijah, this is Eddie, and he’s one of our tenants, and he’s also a board member. A deal his tenant says is the only reason he’s alive. See a guardian angel and I. For him, I would. It wouldn’t have the house.
It would be, you know, truth. It probably wouldn’t be life to me. That’s all. Thanks to Andrew’s nonprofit, a tiny home for good. And for the last six years, he’s been working overtime to get familiar faces off the streets. The first dozen men were guys who I had known for decades. For a decade now, who were in and out of the shelter system, guys he got to know while pulling night shifts at the men shelter downtown.
And after eight years of the same faces, he decided to take matters into his own hands. The truth is, is that the after a month or even a week, those same guys would always be moving back to the shelter looking for a bed. So I started asking guys what they wanted in a house and a big question with the tiny answer.
And so far he’s built over 30 tiny homes in the Syracuse area alone. Right now, we’re in the middle of 11 units that are being built out in already existing houses. So now he’s ready to build homes for new faces. I mean, we have a waitlist. That’s. I last I looked at, it was like 150 people long. Meaning Eddie is one of the lucky ones, a lottery winner.
And with his set up, Tiny Homes is set to take 30% of his Social Security check. You looked at me. Scoring efficiency. How would you like a house to live in? As, like, speechless. You see, Eddie has Parkinson’s disease. So returning to work just isn’t an option. Meaning the $300 he gives Andrew is all he can spare. A price that in the real world will land him on the street.
He said $300 a month. I couldn’t get a job. I was like, I was like. Like, yeah. If Andrew worked every day for the next year, he pushed out six of these tiny homes. But at that rate, it takes him 25 years to move to 150 people off his waitlist. And it’s a tiny homes like Eddie’s right behind me.
A big reason why the Salvation Army contracts with six hotels to meet their shelters, demand a move that sounds good but is just temporary housing. And over at a tiny homes well, the backlog is through the roof. We don’t have the inventory to accommodate everyone. Meaning, Bob the builder just keeps on building each brick as a reminder of why he keeps going.
There’s this mix of seeing something that’s in the back of your head come to life, which, I think is kind of rare. I don’t think a lot of people take the initiative in time to put something like that together. And until everyone has a place to call home. Andrew’s tiny dream just keeps building big promises. Elijah Brown mornings on the Hill.
Thank you for tuning into mornings on the Hill this semester. It’s been a pleasure delivering your news. Follow us on social media and make sure to tune into your morning on the Hill this fall. We’d like to thank Professor Koblin and all of our producing staff. I have a question for you guys here. What has been your favorite part of the semester and producing news here?
Oh my gosh, I think the family like how we just all really came together as a unit and we were always there for each other. I would say that I would agree this is like my first time, broadcasting and I really, truly support like I appreciate the support from all of you guys and helping me. It’s been really great.
I think Jonathan helping me to not fall apart. Oh yeah, Jonathan is definitely the Goat. And congratulations to Mike who has a job offer back home and pay like that’s so amazing. Thank you very. But thank you so much everyone. And we’ll see you this fall. Bye.
Credits:
Executive producer: Jonathan Kinane.
Producer: Katie Nedder.
Director: Jill Mitchell.
Mornings on the Hill: 2024.
