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While Blueprint 15 has drawn wide support from institutions in and around Syracuse, some have concerns about specific elements of the plan.

Blueprint 15 is a Syracuse nonprofit aiming to revitalize East Adams, an area formerly occupied by part of the 15th Ward. The construction of Interstate 81 in the mid-20th century devastated the predominantly Black neighborhood.

The state plans to replace the aging viaduct with a community grid that would redirect traffic onto city streets. Blueprint 15 aims to prevent the further displacement of the area’s residents.

The 15th Ward was a historically diverse and thriving neighborhood, said Maggie Sardino, a Syracuse University student and research assistant at City Scripts public forum. But the construction of Pioneer Homes, one of the nation’s oldest public housing projects, began decades of displacement.

Over 480 families were displaced by Pioneer Homes’ construction, about a third of which were Black, Sardino said, while only about 2% of the city’s population was Black at the time.

When I-81 was constructed in the mid-20th century, nearly 1,300 residents were displaced, and Pioneer Homes was bisected, further segregating the area, Sardino said.

Blueprint 15 will collaborate with Purpose Built Communities, which works with community revitalization across the country.

One of the concerns Sardino had about Blueprint 15 was the criteria for the selection of tenants in public housing, specifically the one-to-one replacement, which ensures that the area will have the same amount of apartments as it did before the revitalization. She said that this may not be ideal for all residents.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates new housing complexes to replace existing residences with one that houses the same amount of people. Under this law, if an apartment has three bedrooms but only one resident, it could be replaced with a single-bedroom apartment. Sardino said this could prevent families from moving into or staying in the area.

“That’s obviously catering to a different type of demographic,” Sardino said. “We’re not dealing with families anymore.”

Megan Thompson | Design Editor

Raquan Pride-Green became executive director of Blueprint 15 in August. He confirmed that one-to-one replacement is not based on apartment size, but the size of the household.

Pride-Green said although Blueprint 15 is not necessarily responsible for tenant selection, the program will still focus on ensuring current tenants have the first right of refusal to maintain residence in the area.

“Many low income residents or entire homes will still have the same option to live in all these developments,” Pride-Green said. “People have to remember that they have the option to go elsewhere.”

Blueprint 15 and the city received a $1 million grant in January to identify and prevent triggers of community displacement.

In addition to housing, Blueprint 15’s website establishes two other pillars of their mission, including education and healthcare. The website mentions a “cradle-to-college” pipeline intended to improve education quality for the area’s residents.

Sardino said she was concerned that residents of public housing would attend local schools, like Dr. King Elementary School, while more affluent residents would choose to send their children to charter schools within the Syracuse City School District. The Syracuse City School District is not based on a neighborhood model, she said, so residents can attend the school of their choice.

“One of the goals of mixed-income redevelopment is actually social mixing. So how are we going to ensure that all of the students that are living in this area are going to be going to the same school?” Sardino said. “We’re just bringing in a lot more middle class, typically white individuals into a place that was predominantly or almost entirely poor.”

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More coverage of Blueprint 15:

• SU alumnus works to combat displacement from I-81 project as Blueprint 15 director
• Presentation explores how redlining, I-81 led to housing segregation in Syracuse
• Blueprint 15 aims to protect East Adams residents after I-81 overhaul

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Pride-Green said he hopes that the economic renewal in the area will improve the quality of schools so that money doesn’t move out of the community.

“No matter where you live, you still have a choice of where your child can go,” Pride-Green said. “We will encourage that the families who move in will go to (schools like Dr. King) and provide resources so the school can perform better.”

In a discussion at Syracuse’s Community Folk Art Center in October, community members shared the history of the 15th Ward and reflected on how Blueprint 15 could affect the area.
Deka Dancil, president of the Urban Jobs Task Force and a bias response and education manager at SU, said Blueprint 15 was reminiscent of historical redlining and urban renewal in predominantly Black areas.

Redlining refers to a color-coded classification of a city area to evaluate their feasibility for economic expansion. In Syracuse, Dancil said Black people predominantly lived in red, or fourth-grade, areas.

Urban renewal in the mid-20th century meant Black people were forced out of their homes for middle class commercial space. I-81 was constructed through solely yellow or red neighborhoods, Dancil said.

Coran Klaver, a chair of SU’s English department, said she was concerned with Blueprint 15 during a University Senate meeting in October. She and Sardino both said the plan needed more transparency before being implemented.

“We have to be really intentional. It’s not just on Blueprint 15. It’s on the city, on the county. We are all responsible for this,” Klaver said. “(Blueprint 15) can be proactive, but the city’s got to be proactive, the county has got to be proactive as well.”

Blueprint 15 could be reminiscent of historical construction that causes segregation, Dancil said.

“We are at an intersection where we decide if this will keep causing harm, or to go the other way, and repair this past harm,” she said at the time.

While the Blueprint 15 plan is still very much in a planning and agreement phase, Pride-Green said the organization hopes to break ground in 2022.

Published on December 9, 2021 at 12:56 am

Contact Richard: rcperrin@syr.edu | @richardperrins2