On DestiNY USA
We’ve been subjected to breathless pro and con commentary on the expansion of the Carousel Mall for several years. The Syracuse Newspapers has editorialized and endorsed solely on how to promote this development. The broadcast media put together a working group and a commercial touting the benefits of the development. Bob Congel, head of Pyramid Development, has put forth his own multi-media push, combining scare ads featuring Osama Bin Laden, North Korean-style brainwashed cheerleaders in Destiny jackets applauding Dear Leader at public events, piles of steel girders outside the site, political lobbying, contributions and his own public threats to cancel the project.
The entire catalyst for this project is Pyramid’s desire to avoid paying property taxes. After exhausting their original 15 year agreement for exemption from property taxes, Pyramid convinced the County and city into exempting the mall for an additional 30 years of taxes, as well as to have the city bond for public improvments to the mall area--in return for unspecified expansions to the mall that have at times included an aquarium, an indoor version of the Erie Canal, golf courses, hotels, ski slopes: an amazing experience that would become anywhere from the first to the fourth largest shopping mall in the world and attract people from all over the Northeast to our town. To qualify for this deal Pyramid Development had to prove it had financing in place to expand the mall by 800,000 ft. of retail shopping space.
When the Driscoll Administration attempted to put some meat on the bones of this proposal, a court ruled that the terms of the original deal had been met (despite the fact that a very large piece of Pyramid’s financing was bonding by the quasi-governmental Syracuse Industrial Development Agency). The much-touted “new” agreement supposedly guarantees two more stages of development past the expansion of retail space. In addition, the city and county agreed to extend their agreement on percentages of expected sales tax revenues to the year 2022, while Pyramid will frontload some of the expected sales tax revenue to give the city some dough to balance its budget and pay for the increased public services it will have to provide to the mall area.
Phew. I’m glad that’s settled.
However, it’s a sad day for our region. In the modern version of the United State’s service and information economy, Syracuse has chosen to become the fast-food worker. Welcome to Syracuse! Would you like some fries with your Happy Meal? We have wasted thousands of hours and millions of dollars to develop a slick, soulless cathedral to consumption. The jobs it produces will be minimum wage and low skill, making it impossible for workers to buy a house or pay for a college education. Workers better hope the mall is big enough that they can get two or three of these McJobs.
What are the ripple effects to our community? A very threat is the collapse of small businesses and neighborhoods bypassed by the DestiNY hordes. Since there are no concrete plans, we have no idea what the place will look like. My hope is actually perverse. Just build the new retail space. If there are no new hotels, restaurants and other entertainment attractions, people will be forced to leave the mall. If everything is under one roof, sayanara Armory Square, Little Italy et. al. Syracuse will become like Atlantic City, a huge complex surrounded by a ghost town of vacant properties and parking lots.
Instead of spending this kind of effort on the types of industries that have potential in our area--health care, environmental protection and software engineering--we settle for the industry with the least benefit to our area. Walt Shepperd of the Syracuse New Times many years ago came up with the perfect question about our region’s economy, one we have ignored at our own peril: “Can we all survive by selling each other cheeseburgers?”
The entire catalyst for this project is Pyramid’s desire to avoid paying property taxes. After exhausting their original 15 year agreement for exemption from property taxes, Pyramid convinced the County and city into exempting the mall for an additional 30 years of taxes, as well as to have the city bond for public improvments to the mall area--in return for unspecified expansions to the mall that have at times included an aquarium, an indoor version of the Erie Canal, golf courses, hotels, ski slopes: an amazing experience that would become anywhere from the first to the fourth largest shopping mall in the world and attract people from all over the Northeast to our town. To qualify for this deal Pyramid Development had to prove it had financing in place to expand the mall by 800,000 ft. of retail shopping space.
When the Driscoll Administration attempted to put some meat on the bones of this proposal, a court ruled that the terms of the original deal had been met (despite the fact that a very large piece of Pyramid’s financing was bonding by the quasi-governmental Syracuse Industrial Development Agency). The much-touted “new” agreement supposedly guarantees two more stages of development past the expansion of retail space. In addition, the city and county agreed to extend their agreement on percentages of expected sales tax revenues to the year 2022, while Pyramid will frontload some of the expected sales tax revenue to give the city some dough to balance its budget and pay for the increased public services it will have to provide to the mall area.
Phew. I’m glad that’s settled.
However, it’s a sad day for our region. In the modern version of the United State’s service and information economy, Syracuse has chosen to become the fast-food worker. Welcome to Syracuse! Would you like some fries with your Happy Meal? We have wasted thousands of hours and millions of dollars to develop a slick, soulless cathedral to consumption. The jobs it produces will be minimum wage and low skill, making it impossible for workers to buy a house or pay for a college education. Workers better hope the mall is big enough that they can get two or three of these McJobs.
What are the ripple effects to our community? A very threat is the collapse of small businesses and neighborhoods bypassed by the DestiNY hordes. Since there are no concrete plans, we have no idea what the place will look like. My hope is actually perverse. Just build the new retail space. If there are no new hotels, restaurants and other entertainment attractions, people will be forced to leave the mall. If everything is under one roof, sayanara Armory Square, Little Italy et. al. Syracuse will become like Atlantic City, a huge complex surrounded by a ghost town of vacant properties and parking lots.
Instead of spending this kind of effort on the types of industries that have potential in our area--health care, environmental protection and software engineering--we settle for the industry with the least benefit to our area. Walt Shepperd of the Syracuse New Times many years ago came up with the perfect question about our region’s economy, one we have ignored at our own peril: “Can we all survive by selling each other cheeseburgers?”
