Multiple Syracuse officials support a new workforce development program announced by Mayor Ben Walsh that aims to ensure residents are ready to financially benefit from the Interstate 81 project.

“Syracuse Build” will prepare contractors and businesses for the I-81 renovations, Walsh said during his “state of the city” speech Wednesday night.

“The city has already engaged in positive discussions with the local trade unions and other organizations about their apprenticeship, journeyman and training programs,” the mayor said.

The I-81 viaduct project was recently delayed after New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo said transportation officials would review a previously dismissed tunnel replacement option.

The project has dragged on for years, even as the highway continues to rust and crumble in some spots.

But Walsh on Wednesday pledged to start preparing for construction soon.

In his speech, he also said supporting women- and minority-owned businesses is a key part of the workforce development project preparing for I-81’s replacement.

Common Councilor Latoya Allen, who represents most of the city’s South Side and University Hill, said on Saturday that she doesn’t know specifics of the program yet, but supports the mayor’s general idea.

Walsh’s speech was the first time she had heard of the plan, Allen said. The exact details of the plan have not been released by the mayor’s administration.

Allen said many women in Syracuse are the sole providers in their households. Any extra support they can receive is beneficial, she said. It’s going to help a lot of people, Allen said.

The mayor said “Syracuse Build” would be modeled after a similar program in San Francisco called CityBuild.

That program offers 18-week pre-apprenticeship construction training in partnership with the City College of San Francisco and instruction in 26 types of building trades, among other things.

“‘CityBuild’ is a model Syracuse can follow,” Walsh said at his state of the city address. “We won’t have to do it alone. The San Francisco office of Economic and Workforce Development has offered its full support in helping to build this program here.”

The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency has also voiced its support for the project, Walsh said. SIDA can provide funding for the project’s planning and potentially the “training on actual development projects,” he said.

The Department of Transportation, the Department of Labor and other community organizations will partner with Syracuse Build, the mayor said.

Khalid Bey, an at-large member of the Syracuse Common Council, said on Saturday that the program is “long overdue.”

“There’s only one way to approach it. You have to have qualified people provide training opportunities,” Bey said. “You can’t really have economic development without workforce development … you can’t build wealth unless you can build it for everybody.”

Carl Blue, a Syracuse Housing Authority employee who has worked in the Toomey Abbott Towers public housing complex for almost 30 years, said there have been concerns about the hiring of minority workers because the area is “predominantly African American.”

“It’s going to create a lot of jobs,” Blue said of the community near the SHA’s main offices.

Toomey Abbott Towers is directly adjacent Syracuse University’s Brewster/Boland/Brockway Complex. A census tract near the towers that includes the Pioneer Homes public housing facility has an extremely concentrated minority poverty, according to a think tank’s report published in 2015.

Mark Greene, who was recently elected to the council to fill President Helen Hudson’s vacant at-large position, said that although he did not know all of the details, he generally supports “Syracuse Build.”

“I think there is probably a need for a workforce development program independent of I-81 — we’re seeing a lot of new construction up in the city,” Greene said. “So, I don’t think it’s required to tie it to 81. But there’s certainly going to be a need for workers on the 81 project.

“So, yeah, I think it could be an impetus for it.”

Published on February 4, 2018 at 5:43 pm

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek