Wikipedia Article Content Source: July 8, 2010 from Wikipedia: Syracuse, NY

Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, and the fifth most populous city in the state. ^[1] At the 2000 census, the city population was 147,306, and its metropolitan area had a population of 732,117. It is the economic and educational hub of Central New York, a region with over a million inhabitants. Syracuse is also well-provided with convention sites, with a downtown convention complex and, directly west of the city, the Empire Expo Center, which hosts the annual Great New York State Fair. Syracuse was named after the original Syracuse, (Siracusa in Italian) a city on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily.

The city has functioned as a major crossroads over the last two centuries, first between the Erie Canal and its branch canals, then of the railway network. Today, Syracuse is located at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 90, and its airport is the largest in the region. Syracuse is home to Syracuse University, a major research university, as well as several smaller colleges and professional schools. In 2010 Forbes rated Syracuse 4th in the top 10 places to raise a family.^[2]

Early History

The Syracuse area was first seen by Europeans when French missionaries came to the area in the 1600s. At the invitation of the Onondaga Nation, one of the five constituent members of the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of Jesuit priests, soldiers, and explorers set up a mission, known as Saint Marie (Among the Iroquois), or Ste. Marie de Gannent aha, on the northeast shore of Onondaga Lake .

The mission was short lived, as the Mohawk Nation hinted to the Onondaga that they should sever their ties with the French, or the Onondaga's guests would suffer a horrible fate. When the men in the mission caught wind of this, they left under cover of a cold night in March. Their stay had been less than two years. The remains of the mission have been located underneath a restaurant in nearby Liverpool. There is now a living history museum in Liverpool that recreates the mission.

Just after the Revolutionary War, more settlers came to the area, mostly to trade with the Onondaga Nation. Ephraim Webster left the Continental Army to settle in 1784, along with Asa Danforth, another Revolutionary War hero. Comfort Tyler, whose engineering skill contributed to regional development, arrived four years later. All three settled in Onondaga Hollow south of the present city center, which was then marshy.

Jesuit missionaries visiting the Syracuse region in the mid 1600s reported salty brine springs around the southern end of "Salt Lake," known today as Onondaga Lake. The 1788 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and the subsequent designation of the area by the state of New York as the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation ^[3] provided the basis for commercial salt production from the late 1700s through the early 1900s; brine from wells that tapped into halite(common salt) beds in the Salina shale near Tully, New York, 15 miles south of the city were developed in the 19th century. It is the north flowing brine from Tully that is the source of salt for the "salty springs" found along the shoreline of Onondaga lake. The rapid development of this industry in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the nicknaming of Syracuse as "The Salt City." ^[4]

Industry

The original settlement went through several name changes until 1824, first being called Salt Point (1780), then Webster's Landing (1786), Bogardus Corners (1796), Milan (1809), South Salina (1812), Cossits’ Corners (1814), and Corinth (1817). The U.S. Postal Service rejected the name Corinth upon its application for a post office, stating there was already a post office by this name in New York. Because of similarities such as a salt industry and a neighboring village named Salina, the name Syracuse was chosen, after Syracuse, Sicily.

In 1825, the Village of Syracuse was officially incorporated. Five years later, the Erie Canal, which ran through the village, was completed. The Village of Syracuse and the Village of Salina were combined into the City of Syracuse on December 14, 1847. Harvey Baldwin was the first mayor of the new city. ^[5] The opening of the canal caused a steep increase in the sale of salt, not simply because of the improved and lower cost of transportation, but because the canal led New York farms to change from wheat to pork, and curing pork required salt. Until 1900 the bulk of the salt used in the United States came from Syracuse ^[6] As salt production climbed, the processing became increasingly mechanized, and local industry became more generalized; population grew from 250 in 1820, to 5,000 in 1850, making it the twelfth largest city in the Union at that time.

The first Solvay Process Company plant in the United States, was erected on the southeastern shore of Onondaga lake in 1884 and the village was given the name Solvay, New York to commemorate its inventor, Ernest Solvay. In 1861, he developed the ammonia-soda process for the manufacture of soda ash {anhydrous sodium carbonate, a rare chemical called natrite, to distinguish it from natural natron of antiquity} from brine wells dug in the southern end of Tully valley (as a source of sodium chloride) and limestone (as a source of calcium carbonate). The process was an improvement over the earlier Leblanc process. The Syracuse Solvay plant was the incubator for a large chemical industry complex owned by Allied Signal in Syracuse, the result of which made Onondaga Lake the most polluted in the nation.

Since the discovery of large deposits of natural sodium carbonateTrona in 1938, near Green River in Wyoming, the Solvay process became uneconomical and the Syracuse Solvay Process Company plant closed permanently in 1985. No such plants operate now in North America. However, throughout the rest of the world the Solvay process remains the major source of soda ash.

The closing of the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation in the early 1900s and the end to mining brine in the southern part of the Tully valley in the late 1900s closed the final chapter of salt mining in the Syracuse region, but groundwater flowing along the southeastern shore of Onondaga lake in Syracuse still allows salty water from a thousand feet below the southern Tully valley to flow by gravity feeding salt springs around the lake where the Salina shale contains no halite beds. ^[7]

Modern Development

By the twentieth century, Methodist Episcopal Syracuse University was no longer sectarian and had grown from a few classrooms located in downtown Syracuse into a major research institution. It is nationally recognized for its college basketball, college football, and college lacrosse teams. In 1911, under the leadership of Syracuse University trustee, Louis Marshall, the New York State College of Forestry was reestablished in close association with Syracuse University; it since has evolved into the SUNY-ESF. Le Moyne College was founded in 1946; Onondaga Community College in 1962.

World War II sparked significant industrial expansion in the area: specialty steel, fasteners, custom machining. After the war, two of the Big Three automobile manufacturers (General Motors & Chrysler) had major operations in the area. Syracuse was headquarters for Carrier Corporation, Crouse-Hinds traffic signal manufacturing, and General Electric had its main television manufacturing plant at Electronics Parkway in Syracuse.
Syracuse's population peaked at 221,000 in 1950. Immigration from abroad introduced many ethnic groups to the city, particularly German, Irish, Italian, and Polish. African Americans had lived in Syracuse since Revolutionary War days, but between 1940 and 1960, some of the three million African Americans who migrated from the south to northern cities also settled in Syracuse. In the 1980s, many immigrants from Africa and Central America also moved to Syracuse, as they did to many northern cities — sometimes under the auspices of several religious charities. However, these new Syracusans could not make up for the flow of residents out of Syracuse, either to its suburbs or out of state, due to job loss. The city's population slowly decreases every year.

Much of the city fabric changed after World War II, although Pioneer Homes, one of the earliest government housing projects in the US, had been completed earlier, in 1941. Many of Syracuse's landmark buildings were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s. The federal Urban Renewal program cleared large sectors that remained undeveloped for many decades, although several new museums and government buildings were built.
The manufacturing industry in Syracuse began to falter in the 1970s. Many small businesses failed during this time, which contributed to an already increasing unemployment rate. Rockwell International moved their factory outside New York state. General Electric moved its television manufacturing operations to Suffolk, Virginia and later to Singapore. The Carrier Corporation moved its headquarters out of Syracuse and outsourced manufacturing to Asian locations. Nevertheless, although city population has declined since 1950, the Syracuse metropolitan area population has remained fairly stable, even growing by 2.5 percent since 1970. While this growth rate is greater than much of Upstate New York, it is far below the national average during that period. ^[8]

Economy & Modern Industry

Syracuse's economy has faced challenges over the past decades as industrial jobs have left the area. The number of local and state government jobs also has been declining for several years. Syracuse's top employers are now primarily in education and the service industry. University Hill is Syracuse's fastest growing neighborhood, fueled by expansions by Syracuse University and Upstate Medical University (a division of the State University of New York), as well as dozens of small medical office complexes.

Top Employers: The top employers in the Syracuse region and the size of their workforce.

Today the Syracuse area has few extremely large employers, but rather many smaller ones, which provides for a certain amount of stability. Additionally, most top employers are in education or the service industry, which tend to be much more stable than the manufacturing industry. ^[9][10]

Higher Education

One of Syracuse's major research universities is Syracuse University, located on University Hill. Syracuse was founded in 1870 and has grown substantially since that time.  Today, the University has campuses in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. The total University enrollment for fall 2009 is 19,638. Full-time undergraduate, 13,040; part-time undergraduate, 696; full-time graduate and law school, 3,814; part-time graduate and law school enrollment, 1,868. ^[11]

Immediately adjacent to Syracuse University are two doctoral-degree granting State University (SUNY) schools, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and SUNY Upstate Medical University. Both institutions have long-standing ties to Syracuse University. SUNY Upstate Medical University is also one of Syracuse's major research universities and is one of only about 125 academic medical centers in the country. It is the region's largest employer.

Also serving Syracuse are Le Moyne College on the city's eastern border, and Onondaga Community College, which has its main campus in the adjacent Town of Onondaga and has two smaller campuses downtown and in Liverpool. A branch of SUNY's Empire State College is located in downtown Syracuse, along with a campus of the nationwide Bryant & Stratton College. A campus of ITT Technical Institute also calls the Syracuse metropolitan area home, also located in Liverpool. There are also Crouse Hospital School of Nursing and Saint Joseph's School of Nursing.

Parks & Recreation

The City of Syracuse maintains over 170 parks, fields, and recreation areas. Burnet Park includes the first public golf course in the United States (1901) and Rosamond Gifford Zoo. Other major parks include Thornden Park, Schiller Park, Sunnycrest Park, and the joined Onondaga and Kirk Parks. There are 12 public pools, two public ice rinks, and two public nine-hole golf courses in the city.

Right outside the city, along the east side and north end of Onondaga Lake, is Onondaga Lake Park (in Liverpool, NY). The adjacent Onondaga Lake Parkway is closed to vehicular traffic several hours on Sundays during the summer months, so it can be used for walking, running, biking, and rollerblading. During the holiday season, the park hosts Lights on the Lake, a two-mile (3 km) drive-through light show.

Transportation

Syracuse is served by the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority, or CNYRTA. The CNYRTA operates bus service in Syracuse and its suburbs, as well as to outlying metropolitan area cities such as Auburn, Fulton, and Oswego.

The Pyramid Companies have also proposed a monorail linking Syracuse University to Hancock International Airport to via downtown ,(Downtown Syracuse) to their proposed Destiny Resort to the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center and their proposed Destiny Technology Park. The cost of such a line has been estimated at $750 million.

In 2005, local millionaire Tom McDonald proposed an aerial tramway system, called Salt City Aerial Transit (S.C.A.T.), to link the university to the transportation center. The first segment from Syracuse University to downtown has been estimated to cost $5 million, which McDonald plans to raise himself. Due to the perceived low operating costs, the system could run continuously. As of late 2006, the project remains in the planning stage.

The city lies on Amtrak's Empire Service, Lake Shore Limited, and Maple Leaf lines. The Empire Service runs several times daily from Niagara Falls to New York Penn Station, with major stops in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, and Albany along the way. The Lake Shore Limited connects Syracuse to the same cities as above (except Niagara Falls), but continues westward from Buffalo to Chicago via Cleveland and Toledo, and eastward to Boston. This train completes one roundtrip daily. Also completing one roundtrip a day, the Maple Leaf follows the path of the Empire Service train, but continues to Toronto. Amtrak's station is part of the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center. A regional commuter rail service, OnTrack, was active from 1994 until it was discontinued in 2007 due to low ridership. Its sole route connected the Carousel Center to southern Syracuse, often extending to Jamesville in the summer.

Greyhound Lines and Trailways provide long-distance bus service. Both also use the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center located in the northern area of the city.

Syracuse is served by the Syracuse Hancock International Airport in nearby Salina, near Mattydale. The airport is served by 17 airlines (9 major), which provide non-stop flights to destinations as far away as Orlando, FL, as well as several daily flights to other important airline hubs and business centers such as Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, Toronto,and 147 foreign cites from 87 different countries, not including USA . Six cargo carriers also serve the airport. New York City can be reached in under an hour flight.

Syracuse Suburbs

Towns and villages in Onondaga County make up most of the suburban communities in the Greater Syracuse area. Towns and villages in such surrounding counties as Oswego, Madison, Cortland, or Cayuga on the border of Onondaga County may also be considered Syracuse suburbs.

Towns

• Camillus
• Cicero
• Clay
• DeWitt
• Elbridge
• Fabius
• Geddes
• LaFayette
• Lysander
• Manlius
• Marcellus
• Onondaga
• Otisco
• Pompey
• Salina
• Skaneateles
• Spafford
• Tully
• Van Buren
• Bridgeport, New York

Villages

• Baldwinsville
• Camillus
• Chittenango
• East Syracuse
• Elbridge
• Fabius
• Fayetteville
• Jordan
• Liverpool
• Manlius
• Marcellus
• Minoa
• North Syracuse
• Skaneateles
• Solvay
• Tully
• Bridgeport, New York