Vito Sciscioli gets it.
He sees the connections between sales and property taxes, education and concentrations of poverty within the city, while farmland and green space is eaten up in the suburbs, creating sprawl without population growth.
Outspoken against the inefficiencies of the fragmented power structure of local government, Sciscioli is the executive director of Syracuse 20/20, where he leads the non-partisan effort towards conversations about local government, and whether or not it’s working.
It’s safe to say a 32-year career in appointed positions under four city administrations — including Deputy Commissioner of Urban Improvement, Commissioner of Public Works, Commissioner of Community Development, and Commissioner of Economic Development – Sciscioli has seen the inner workings, and failings, of local politics. Which makes his a unique and valuable perspective on where we stand, where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there.
Vito for mayor?
Out of the question.
“It’s not my DNA, I like golfing too much,” he jokes. It isn’t an unfamiliar question. “People ask but not interested. First of all, the way I would work the job, it would kill me. I know enough about it that it’s seven days a week and it’s long, long hours to do the job right.”
From his depth of insider knowledge, Sciscioli knows first-hand that to be the mayor Syracuse needs right now is to take on a tremendous task, to be willing to be on the go constantly, immersing oneself in the community and struggling for the upper hand.
“You’re dealt a hand that’s weak, it’s not strong,” he remarks. “It’s not simply better management of the city at the end of the day, leadership is being able to do things you don’t control.”
Who, then?
Sciscioli notes the unusually large group of mayoral candidates who have both formally announced their candidacy and unofficially hinted towards a run: Common Councilors Bea Gonzalez, Pat Hogan and Stephanie Miner, John Cowen, Alfonso Davies, John DeFrancisco, Bill Kinne, Joe Nicoletti and Philip LaTessa.
He doesn’t favor any of the names being tossed around, but is interested to see whether one of the many will take on controversial issues like financing education, rather than rest on the sexy but superficial topics like gun control.
“You wonder what’s going to happen with that,” Sciscioli says. “People are ripe for that kind of debate.”
The scar
In answering the question of Interstate 81, Sciscioli remembers a trip to London.
“Portabella Market,” he says, setting the scene. It’s got all kinds of markets- Hallal meat markets, flea markets, people selling stuff on the street, small shops all over the place, people living above the shops, you’ve got activity on the street — the place is totally dynamic, he says.
“I look up, and there’s an overhead highway. That highway has done nothing to deter the street life.”
In addition to a friendlier climate and state laws prohibiting permanent structures below such a roadway, Sciscioli points out the highway itself is not the only issue.
“One of the things to keep in mind is, is it just a highway, or is it also the fact we have large institutional uses, or high rises, that don’t have street presence at that highway?” he says.
Admittedly, the structure is a barrier, and an unpleasant one at that. But removing it from the equation still leaves the question of what to do with the land on either side
There is a lot of potential to create a seamless connection between Upstate and the central business district, Sciscioli believes, but it’s all part of a very large discussion.
“But it does provide – no question about it – a physical barrier that’s depressing,” he adds.
The center of the struggle
At the center of most every social dilemma and conflict, Sciscioli finds education and a need for a method of community schools, a collective strategy that includes entire families, schools and the police in educating children.
Resolving the city’s latest outburst of violence is no different.
In addition to short-term suppression techniques — gun control, peer pressure, Operation Impact — the problem calls for simultaneously implementing long-term solutions, primarily based in education.
“If I’ve got a third-grader who’s on grade level [with reading and math skills], I’ve got a chance,” Sciscioli says. “If I can’t get there, I’ve got a very, very good chance of losing that kid, he’s going to drop out. He’s not going to see the traditional pathways open to him.”
In areas of concentrated poverty especially, a culture of gang violence is about money and adventure, Sciscioli says. “We’re talking about trying to create an environment where a child can be successful and has that choice to be successful in larger society — not only this path [of violence] is open to him.”
In the face of a culture of drugs, money, gangs, violence and adventure, Sciscioli says we must ask ourselves and our community: what are we giving our children as an alternative?
