Anyone living in the greater Syracuse Area since 1982 has probably eaten Mexican food at Juanitas on Court St. The food is just as good as always. The new location is in Liverpool in the old Ponderossa. Walking in the dining room is spacious and the staff is friendly.
We started out with the Jalapeno popper appetizers which came out hot with just the right amount of spice. For the main entree we had Pork Burrittos, once again the main course did not dissapoint here. Washed it all down with a Corona and a lime and will definitely be back for more soon!!!
Juanita's Mexican Kitchen
207 Oswego St. Liverpool, NY 13088
478-2185
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Monday, May 05, 2008
Credit Crunch and The Future of DestinyUSA
Its been a while since i posted to my Blog, but we are back and here to stay. For the last several years now the Destiny USA project has been billed as the future of the Central New York Economy but that future grows cloudier by the day with the slowdown in the overall economy. Destiny, billed as a privately financed mega resort, mall entertainment desitnation has laid off a fourth of its workforce all of who were tied to the construction of the phase two Grand Destiny USA. The Hotel is having trouble getting financing in the tightening private captial markets. The entire project earned 30 year tax exemption status-irregardless of whether or not the entire project is ever fully built out. A sweetheart deal for sure!!! The question is whether or not Congel will meet his vision for the Over reaching Destiny project or if he will use the credit crunch as his excuse for cutting his losses and running away with all those tax credits and leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill for the next three decades.
The cost of losing | Athletics has survived football's decline so far. Can that continue? - The Cost of Losing
Monday, July 18, 2005
Mass transit blues
Syracuse is no stranger to mass transit. There is Ontrack the seldom used but often hyped low tech train that runs from Jamesville to Carousel Mall. It stops at Armory Square and at the bottom of 'heart attack hill' below the Dome. The system is almost 100%tax payer subsidized and never produced the jobs or riders that were promised. After the Madrid and London subway bombings who wants to ride a train anyways...Right? Wrong!!!
Everyone assumes that Americans don't want high speed rail. We want our cars, and our 1 1/2 hour commutes, and traffic jams and fender benders, and on and on. The fact is that the American people have never been shown a viable alternative. Well here it is:
Using existing state owned right of ways we build guideways for high speed maglev trains from Niagara Falls and Buffalo to Syracuse, Cortland, Binghamton, and finally New York City. Imagine getting on a maglev in Syracuse and 40 minutes later getting off at Grand Central Station or the Falls. Why should anyone care? Imagine needing a job in finance but unable to find work in your field in Syracuse. A quick maglev ride to NYC is just 40 minutes to thousands of finance job opportunities. Imagine wanting to see a Broadway show on a Friday evening and you live in Buffalo. An hour ride on the Maglev and a quick cab ride to Broadway and you will be there. Goods and people will be whisked at unheard of speeds across the Empire State. This vast state will be brought together in ways that no other state could even imagine. How much will it cost? How much does it cost to keep up the Thruway? Linking major cities and rural attractions like the Adirondacks and Wine Country will draw in tourists to our fair state. Cities will then need to build light rail, tramways, or yes, even gondolas to transit people from the main maglev lines to their citywide attractions. Imagine a gondola tacking you from the maglev center at Hancock airport to the fairgrounds or the Dome, or the malls....We need to be innovative and develop new high tech industry now. High speed rail is expensive to build, cheap to run and maintain and could prove to be just the boon we have been looking for.
Everyone assumes that Americans don't want high speed rail. We want our cars, and our 1 1/2 hour commutes, and traffic jams and fender benders, and on and on. The fact is that the American people have never been shown a viable alternative. Well here it is:
Using existing state owned right of ways we build guideways for high speed maglev trains from Niagara Falls and Buffalo to Syracuse, Cortland, Binghamton, and finally New York City. Imagine getting on a maglev in Syracuse and 40 minutes later getting off at Grand Central Station or the Falls. Why should anyone care? Imagine needing a job in finance but unable to find work in your field in Syracuse. A quick maglev ride to NYC is just 40 minutes to thousands of finance job opportunities. Imagine wanting to see a Broadway show on a Friday evening and you live in Buffalo. An hour ride on the Maglev and a quick cab ride to Broadway and you will be there. Goods and people will be whisked at unheard of speeds across the Empire State. This vast state will be brought together in ways that no other state could even imagine. How much will it cost? How much does it cost to keep up the Thruway? Linking major cities and rural attractions like the Adirondacks and Wine Country will draw in tourists to our fair state. Cities will then need to build light rail, tramways, or yes, even gondolas to transit people from the main maglev lines to their citywide attractions. Imagine a gondola tacking you from the maglev center at Hancock airport to the fairgrounds or the Dome, or the malls....We need to be innovative and develop new high tech industry now. High speed rail is expensive to build, cheap to run and maintain and could prove to be just the boon we have been looking for.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
A sunny day in the Cuse
Wife, son and i spent the day at the Onondag Lake parkway. What a beautiful jewel this parway really is for all of greater Syracuse. It was great to see so many people on the hardtop, skating, blading, and biking along. One more reason to treasure upstate in the summer....
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Tale of 2 cities, Syracuse Versus Baltimore Maryland
I just got back from a family outing to an old fashioned summer baseball game in Baltimore. Aside from the long drive I was eager to see a quality professional sporting event. Baltimore did not disappoint. The stadium was built in a revitalized downtown center. Syracuse's minor league stadium is built on a side of town not often frequented by folks from the suburbs. Baltimore's stadium was clean, packed full of screaming fans and it was architecturally beautiful. Skychiefs stadium in Syracuse is none of those things...Least of all packed.
Baltimore did it right. The BART trains disgorge their passengers right at the gates of the stadium meaning the fan faithful can park far from the crowded inner city. The vendors were plentiful, selling BBQ ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, and crab cakes. In Syracuse you get a Hoffman hot dog and a soda.
The smartest thing about the Baltimore stadium is it's location. The placement of Camden Yards @ the heart of downtown ensures that a good portion of the fans will remain in the clean neighborhoods surrounding the stadium after the game. It ensures that many folks will eat a meal or tip back a cold one in the nearby restaurants and pubs. For the out of towners there are multiple hotels within a blocks walk from the front gate of the stadium. The Syracuse stadium was built miles away from downtown and the rejuvenated Armory Square district. The few fans who do attend games pay 3 bucks to park (there is a train but it can't reach the stadium) and then they go home. They go home because there are no shops or restaurants nearby for them to stop into.
And herein lies my point; Syracuse development has been done here and there and over there. But nothing is linked together. There is no central vision of how projects are being built. The restaurant district (Armory Square) is beautiful but there is hardly enough parking. And just recently it was decided by the powers to be to convert one of the few free parking lots into a sewage transfer station. Talk about a waste.
The sporting venues like the Skychiefs and the Crunch hockey teams play their games at opposite sides of the city. The War Memorial and Skychief stadiums are clear across town from one another. There is no convenient link between them, no vision was applied. Now take a trip to Baltimore and you will see the Orioles and the Ravens stadiums a stones throw from one another. Both stadiums sit in the midst of a booming downtown. Both sit at the cross roads of modern highways and railheads. Both sit astride clean city streets filled with shops benefiting from the traffic of the thousands of fans.
Syracuse needs to get smart. We need to send our community development folks out into the world and emulate the successful downtowns in the nation. We need to learn from their lessons. IF you build it, they will come, unless.... they can't park...they can't get a meal... they don't feel safe...And most of all not if they don't find it fun!!!! And downtown Syracuse isn't very fun these days. We need to fix this and keep Syracusans happy to be living in Syracuse.
Baltimore did it right. The BART trains disgorge their passengers right at the gates of the stadium meaning the fan faithful can park far from the crowded inner city. The vendors were plentiful, selling BBQ ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, and crab cakes. In Syracuse you get a Hoffman hot dog and a soda.
The smartest thing about the Baltimore stadium is it's location. The placement of Camden Yards @ the heart of downtown ensures that a good portion of the fans will remain in the clean neighborhoods surrounding the stadium after the game. It ensures that many folks will eat a meal or tip back a cold one in the nearby restaurants and pubs. For the out of towners there are multiple hotels within a blocks walk from the front gate of the stadium. The Syracuse stadium was built miles away from downtown and the rejuvenated Armory Square district. The few fans who do attend games pay 3 bucks to park (there is a train but it can't reach the stadium) and then they go home. They go home because there are no shops or restaurants nearby for them to stop into.
And herein lies my point; Syracuse development has been done here and there and over there. But nothing is linked together. There is no central vision of how projects are being built. The restaurant district (Armory Square) is beautiful but there is hardly enough parking. And just recently it was decided by the powers to be to convert one of the few free parking lots into a sewage transfer station. Talk about a waste.
The sporting venues like the Skychiefs and the Crunch hockey teams play their games at opposite sides of the city. The War Memorial and Skychief stadiums are clear across town from one another. There is no convenient link between them, no vision was applied. Now take a trip to Baltimore and you will see the Orioles and the Ravens stadiums a stones throw from one another. Both stadiums sit in the midst of a booming downtown. Both sit at the cross roads of modern highways and railheads. Both sit astride clean city streets filled with shops benefiting from the traffic of the thousands of fans.
Syracuse needs to get smart. We need to send our community development folks out into the world and emulate the successful downtowns in the nation. We need to learn from their lessons. IF you build it, they will come, unless.... they can't park...they can't get a meal... they don't feel safe...And most of all not if they don't find it fun!!!! And downtown Syracuse isn't very fun these days. We need to fix this and keep Syracusans happy to be living in Syracuse.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
No way Chief
The United States 2nd Circuit Court has ruled that the Cayuga Indian Nation lacks standing in their land claim against homeowners. Citing too much time having passed since the land was passed from sovereign Indian control to the State of New York the court effectively ended further legal redress by Indian tribes in New York and across the country. The Oneida Indian Nation has used aggressive tactics for the better part of the last decade to displace businesses and homeowners from what they had claimed as their ancestral lands in Madison County. The Cayuga's and Onondaga's have since filed similar, albeit less aggressive land claims directed at the state rather than individuals.
Appeals are sure to follow this momentous decision, but with recent Supreme Court rulings limiting the scope of sovereign tribes it is doubtful that the claims can be sustained. Casinos have reaped huge rewards being built on tax exempt Indian lands. New York will certainly seek to take a slice of the casino pie, as revenues are scarce and taxpayers in New York have had enough. The end of the Cayuga claim will surely mean no Casino, no land, and no check from Uncle Pataki....Like the Seinfeld 'Soup Nazi' said "no soup for you!!!"
Appeals are sure to follow this momentous decision, but with recent Supreme Court rulings limiting the scope of sovereign tribes it is doubtful that the claims can be sustained. Casinos have reaped huge rewards being built on tax exempt Indian lands. New York will certainly seek to take a slice of the casino pie, as revenues are scarce and taxpayers in New York have had enough. The end of the Cayuga claim will surely mean no Casino, no land, and no check from Uncle Pataki....Like the Seinfeld 'Soup Nazi' said "no soup for you!!!"
The Penguins are coming...Actually they are already here
The Rosamond Gifford Zoo recently completed the expansion of their exhibits with the addition of a 6 million dollar penguin pen. Simulated to look and feel like the Chilean coastline of their birth the Humboldt Penguins are ready for their public debut.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
The Insanity of the South Side
A 2 year old city boy was laying in his bed when shots rang out. Multiple shooters racked the house with a hail of lead. The 2 year old was shot in the back. The bullet traveled along his spine and exited from his eye socket. He remains in the hospital in critical condition. A life that was not yet lived, a life worth protecting, a life that will now never be.
I liked it better in the Old West when two people with a grievance took ten paces in the center of an empty street, turned and fired. At least the bystanders weren't in the cross hairs. The South Side of Syracuse has been a warzone for years. Folks in the community attack the cops for not patrolling enough. The they attack the cops for 'harassing' young males in the neighborhoods. Talk about wanting your cake and eating it too. And nobody saw a thing!!
At what point do people in a community say enough is enough. Life is about the hard decisions...Not just the easy ones. Someone has to stand up for what is right...And a 2 year getting shot couldn't be a clearer example of why someone has to stop the insanity.
I liked it better in the Old West when two people with a grievance took ten paces in the center of an empty street, turned and fired. At least the bystanders weren't in the cross hairs. The South Side of Syracuse has been a warzone for years. Folks in the community attack the cops for not patrolling enough. The they attack the cops for 'harassing' young males in the neighborhoods. Talk about wanting your cake and eating it too. And nobody saw a thing!!
At what point do people in a community say enough is enough. Life is about the hard decisions...Not just the easy ones. Someone has to stand up for what is right...And a 2 year getting shot couldn't be a clearer example of why someone has to stop the insanity.
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