Right Under Our Noses

Hello all -

I'm sure that by now, in the second semester of whatever year you may be, you have gained an awareness of the convenience that our campus offers to us. We have pretty much every resource on our University grounds to sustain ourselves for all four years of college without ever having to venture outside our designated comfort zone. On occasion, for those lucky enough to have a car in this tundra we call home, people do venture outside and head to Armory Square for an evening out to a nice dinner in our quaint downtown city area.
But do you notice what surrounds this well-kept square with stores and restaurants focused on luring in students from the University? On that ride downtown you are passing right by one of the most poverty stricken neighborhoods in the United States. The "Near West Side" neighborhood of Syracuse is unknown to most students but quite well-known to members of the Syracuse community.
The website, www.nearwestsidestory.org, was set up with the corresponding program - Near West Side Initiative. This group has been working in the neighborhood towards a large scale revitalization. Their mission, as stated on the site, "is to combine the power of art, technology and innovation with neighborhood values and culture...NWSI aims to bring new elements into the blighted neighborhood to create new synergies and opportunities - economic, cultural and personal. But the Initiative also works with the people and assets that already exist in the community to help create a grassroots growth. Together, a new kind of urban revitalization is emerging."

I hope you all can take some time to check out this fabulous and interesting website: Near West Side Initiative