Somebody will soon live with this living room view in downtown Syracuse.
The resurgence of residential urban living has been on the minds of planners and developers for so long in Syracuse now that the annual Downtown Living Tour recently held its eighth edition.
Builders are taking the old, forgotten, historic buildings and pumping new life into them with apartments and condos.
The spots that used to hold department stores and restaurants now are beckoning for people to live within.
Build it and they will come?
The dice is being rolled, every year. It’s a blueprint that’s being followed in many cities, I’m sure with various degrees of acceptance and success.
My dear wife Karen and I walked the Downtown Living Tour last Saturday.
We are happy and comfortable in our cozy single-family home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood.
Nevertheless, we were curious to see the apartments and condos that mark urban downtown living in our part of the world.
If you’d like to read my community blog and see pictures about the Downtown Living Tour on Syracuse Public Media site waer.org, click the link below.
http://waer.org/post/downtown-living-tour-lets-you-use-your-imagination
Have you ever lived in the downtown of an urban area? Do you think you are cut out for downtown living? What is your favorite city?
Mark Bialczak 
The renovations will be a hit if they are anything like the ones they did in Franklin Square and the area where Syracuse New Times and Pastabilities called home.
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The finished products are very spiffy indeed, Judy!
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As the routine continues, check out WAER.
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You are doing a fantastic job of catch-up today, Chris.
Carpal tunnel, yet?
Stiff neck?
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Not yet… Almost.
I’ve gotten a few people out of the way (you, Audrey, Aussa, Angelle), and on CBXB. There is still a long, long way to go.
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That is a lot of good, interesting reading, my friend.
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Mark, enjoyed your WAER write up. Tried commenting over there but wasn’t able to. Wonder if that’s a feature only available on the full site? Anyway, your downtown sounds fun. But I suspect that Ellie B might disagree.
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Ellie B would not be a happy aka Dogamous Pyle downtown. Far too few sniffing places. I took her down to visit Karen by her workplace at lunchtime a few weeks ago, and the dog was pretty frantic.
But the revitalization is pretty nice, Sandra.
I don’t know why the comment function over there was giving you trouble, but thank you for trying, my friend.
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You gave an excellent review on your other site. I agree with you and your wife — stay where you are. 🙂 Your yard is lovely. (Backyard neighbor’s scary tall pine not withstanding.) My favorite city is a toss up between NYC and Boston. I love ’em both! But not enough to live in. The only reason that prevents me is I have slept in apartment homes in both cities and they are TOO loud at night. Otherwise, consider me there! 🙂 Great post! 😀
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Cities are louder, yes, but Syracuse is not as loud as NYC or Boston. I am certain of that.
Thank you, Rachel. We love our yard and garden and little bit of space, yes, we do. But goodness, that one condo was smoking!
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Yeah, it looked really nice. 🙂
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That doesn’t view doesn’t look too inviting.
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The window to the right had a better view but the glare was bad for my iPhone shot.
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I have always wanted to live downtown. I love the feel of it all.
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I bet Houston has a great downtown, Audrey.
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Yes, for sure. The museum district is fab.
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Do you live in urban, suburban or country style?
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Suburban country, I guess.
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You like or no like?
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Oh, I like it because I feel safe here. I tend to lean into the trendy folk, so I long for that lifestyle a bit. Just not the drive to and from work.
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Safety first, short commute first, lifestyles of the rich and famous, late night TV.
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Hahaha. Late night TV soon.
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I’m glad I got to be a Looky-Lou today, Mark; I really enjoyed going along for the Downtown Living Tour — here and at the other site. Thanks for being a Great-Guide.
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Thanks for Looky-ing along with me and my dear wife Karen, Ann.
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i’m always glad when i read of people and cities coming together once more, detroit is working really hard on that right now and i’m very hopeful. these spaces each sound interesting in different ways, some more than the others, and the pricing tends to bring imaginings back down to earth a bit )
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Yes, prices. I like rebuilding better than the wrecking ball, big time, Beth.
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I love that your new downtown has some new living choices, Mark. It sounds lovely and exciting, too. I enjoy tours of cities, towns and housing areas. Our Cleveland downtown may be taking a piece of land and turning it into a Central Park place. I am excited about this development, Columbus took down our City Center, making a green area called, “Columbus Commons.” Along the river, we have bands, ‘waterfire” events and Columbus has condos, lofts and apartments. I think about my little apt. and my proximity to my children in Delaware and downtown. I would not move, unless I had a reason or person who would want to share their space in a different place! Great post to get me thinking about your city of Syracuse!
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Opening up green spaces in big cities is also a wonderful development, Robin! That’s a cool Ohio thing. I’m glad I have you something to see in Syracuse, my friend.
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Mr. Looky Lou…. 🙂 I love the idea of repurposing the old and empty buildings into housing of all types. I am fascinated by the designs and ideas of taking spaces and making them livable and creative. For about 2 years now I have been intrigued by the tiny/small living concepts. I have watched hundreds of videow of tiny apartments in big cities being given MEGA MONEY MAKEOVERS! Because space was so valuable. Thanks for sharing this. Curiosity about living spaces is fun for me.
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I am glad to hear that your curiosity has driven you to explore converted spaces, too, Colleen. Those Tiny House streets are pretty cool. I don’t know how long I’d last in 100 square feet, though.
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I don’t think I could live in that small a space with Husband. If I was single I could. I prefer to stay with Husband! 🙂 But I am fascinated by them.
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Stay with husband. Expand sites to 200 square feet. 🙂
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Good idea. Our goal, if we choose to accept this mission, is to incorporate the outside to be more living space. 😉
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Outdoor living, connected to indoor living. Live it, believe it, market it, spend it. You and I are coming up with a lot of shared business ideas lately, Colleen.
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I know. It inspires me. I would like our indoors to be more outdoors. If that makes sense. 🙂
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That makes perfect sense, Colleen.
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(COMPLETELY off topic. But I wanted to let my favorite movie guy know I watched Iron Man tonight. Yes, I am way behind. But it’s a start.)
🙂
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Way to go, Colleen. One off your list. 🙂
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😉 My friends have decided by the end of summer I will have seen every single super hero movie there is to see…..
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That’s a lot of movies, Colleen. It would be a superhuman effort … you can do it!
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I’ll try Mark, if for no other reason than to make my friend proud of me. 🙂 You, that is. 🙂
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I am, every day, proud of you, Colleen. 🙂
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😀 Aw! You have started off my day at 6 am by being my favorite!!!!!
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We moved to Richmond, VA two years ago and there has been a huge resurgence in the greater Richmond area…more restaurants, cleaning up delapidated neighborhoods, and many more transplants such as us northerners. (Yankees) Heck – let’s all move to Tuscany! 😉 ~Karen~
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Enjoy Richmond first, Karen. Then on to Tuscany. 🙂
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If I could afford to live in central London I would be a millionaire – but that I could live with that. I’d even share some of the wealth. And you and Karen could come to visit.
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We could live with that Bet Steve could, too, Rachel!
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I don’t think he’d struggle.
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Yes, it seems every downtown is trying and trying to bring back the people. Downtown Fresno is not what it used to be and don’t know if it will ever come back, but really hope it does. I remember it as a child it was such an exciting place.
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They are trying, Dora. I think that is a good thing. It sure beats letting the buildings sit unused and in decay.
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Oh, Mark, It’s wonderful they are doing that. Our downtown area is putting loft apartments in all the old buildings and I would so love to live in one. The rent, however, would take my annual income for one month, and then I would still struggle to pay for electricity, cable and telephone service. It’s a good thing I decided when I moved into this apartment that I wanted to stay here until I die, because if not, I would probably be bankrupting myself trying to dream up a way to move in and out of a loft for a week or two. Would be nice to wake up and look at the river every morning, but at the same time, that would be the most dangerous spot to live. But then, walking distance to the concerts, on the other hand, I would be mowed down by the crowd. For every up there is a glaring down. But I can dream.
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Yes, Angie, do dream about the ups. The downs, fuggedaboutem.
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I’m dreamin’ my life away Mark, but hey, it’s my life and I can dream if I want to, dream if I want to, and a loft overlooking the river is a dream.
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I’m an urbanite and I love it…if only I could figure out how to grow a garden here! My favourite city to date has got to be Portland, Oregon. Although, most cities have their own charm.
Diana
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When I visited Portland, stood at the Rose Garden, looked out over the city skyline and onward to Mount Hood, I thought, yes. Just that word. Yes.
You are correct, Diana. When I travel, I hope to find that yes moment at each city!
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I think the people and how friendly or not they are have a lot to do with finding that Yes, know what I mean?
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Yes!
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I can wake to the sound of a tack falling to the floor, so no no no no urban dwelling. But young people like to be where the hipsters, restaurants, and bars are. Nonetheless, who would want a view of a crosswalk–even if it was Abbey Road? I would never feel like I had any privacy (I’m saying that w/ a British accent: prih-vah-cee).
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I think 35 years ago, yes, I would have been eager for this, Kerbey. However, I would have been an unlikely candidate to afford one of these quite-nice places. Now I love our little bit of space and our garden too much. This one condo we saw on the tour, though, if you click over to the other blog, was outstanding! Three photos at waer.org.
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I’d like the big closets, but I couldn’t pay 320K either.
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In New York State, we have both Powerball and Mega Millions …
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And Indian reservations casinos, right? We don’t have that!
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Yes, those, too, Kerbey. A cornucopia for dreamers …
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I lived in Pittsburgh in the 60s while at Pitt, and continued there at WQED. I loved living in the city at that time. It was easy to get around. Bus traffic went anywhere. There was the Carnegie Museum, all kinds of libraries, theaters, productions.
Pittsburgh sits on three rivers which affords lots of river views.
I only left because I had heard the call of the Adirondacks again.
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That sounds like a great place at that time of your life, Martha. I visited Pittsburgh in my college years, and found it quite scenic, indeed, with the three rivers.
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it was a lot of fun, as I remember
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