Rick Destito knew exactly what he was getting into when he bought a rundown, three-story Victorian house in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Syracuse. Built in the 1890s but left abandoned for years, the place was in serious disrepair: graffiti and mold stained the exterior, the windows were gone and the roof needed to be replaced. But under an innovative local housing program, he paid only a dollar for the place — plus another $60,000, and his own skilled labor, to make it suitable for his family, including a one-year old girl and a baby on the way.

For decades, people like Mr. Destito — young, skilled, motivated — were exactly the sort who left Rust Belt cities like Syracuse. But recently, in numbers not yet statistically measurable but clearly evident at the ground level, they’ve been coming back to the city, first as a trickle, and now by the hundreds. In some ways it’s a part of the natural ebb and flow of urban demographics. But it is also the result of a new attitude among the city’s leadership, one that admits the failure of the re-industrialization efforts of the last decades and instead invents ways to attract new types of residents and keep current ones from leaving. Call it urban renewal 2.0, gentrification on a citywide scale.

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The initiatives—which include the creation of a micro-lending program, formation of a business association, a peer mentoring program and an entrepreneurship training program—are the result of recommendations from the Near Westside Initiative’s Small Business Development Committee.

The Small Business Development Committee was formed after the Near Westside Initiative (NWSI) commissioned a 2009 street-by-street survey and analysis of all business in the neighborhood.

“Thanks to the hard work of Michael Short, who conducted the survey and is now a Syracuse University Engagement Fellow with the Near Westside Initiative, many of the needs of local businesses were brought to light,” says Maarten Jacobs, director of the Near Westside Initiative. “With this data, the committee has been able to create a system to provide resources to help the existing businesses expand and encourage new ventures to form.”

As an Engagement Fellow—beneficiary of a program initiated by SU in 2009 to retain bright new graduates in the Syracuse area by partnering them with local businesses and nonprofits and supporting them with University resources—Short works as deputy director of the NWSI. “It’s very important to us that our projects are for local businesses by local businesses, which is why all of our initiatives are the product of a mutually beneficial collaboration with neighborhood business owners,” says Short, who authored the neighborhood business development strategy.

The information gathered from the survey is available online at http://www.saltdistrict.com/survey. There are about 140 businesses in the neighborhood.

The new business initiatives will include:

The Near Westside Business Association—Based on the business survey, a need for a cohesive group to help unify the businesses in the neighborhood to better serve the needs of individual and collective businesses was identified. The new association will allow the business community to engage in cross promotion and joint advertising, as well as provide a forum where strategic partnerships can be nurtured and community resources shared.

Micro-lending program—The NWSI is also in the process of developing a self-sustaining micro-loan program for emerging entrepreneurs and existing businesses. The initiative is working with local nonprofits and private organizations to secure funding that will serve as guarantees for the small business loans.

Entrepreneurship Program—Business owners and new entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to enroll in an entrepreneurship program to help learn more about ways to improve their business or launch a new venture. The NWSI has partnered with the South Side Innovation Center and Onondaga Community College’s Small Business Development Center to provide entrepreneurial expertise for businesses in the program.

Peer Mentoring Program—Up-and-coming entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to work with more established business owners through a business peer mentoring program.
Online Support and Outreach—The NWSI will dedicate a section of its website to the new business association. The page will include resources for businesses, including a commercial property database and an entrepreneurship section.

The NWSI will also serve as a conduit for potential investors and residents interested in relocating or setting up businesses in the Near Westside neighborhood.

These comprehensive initiatives will work with existing programs where elements of the proposed NWS business plans have already shown successful results. The entrepreneurship and micro-lending portions of the program, for example, will be modeled after the South Side Innovation Center—which already operates a successful micro-business incubator program. Bob Herz, SSIC director and also a member of the NWSI’s Small Business Development Committee, says the SSIC will work directly with any new entrepreneurs from the Near Westside. The model used by SSIC includes nurturing entrepreneurs from the very beginning through a discovery process in which each individual’s unique strengths and weaknesses are identified. The model also follows steps to play up the strengths and shore up entrepreneurs’ weaknesses through credit repair, computer literacy or market research, and ends with helping entrepreneurs secure the micro-loan and start their business.

“The model works whether you are in business for a while or brand new,” says Herz. “We do the front end of the loaning because by the time we are ready to launch the business, we know the clients really well.”

The entrepreneurial training program will also work with OCC’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which has been assisting start-up and existing businesses since 1984. The SBDC staff advises business owners and start-ups in areas including business plan development, organization structures, exporting, cost analysis, marketing, financial marketing, financial strategies, business expansion and research. The SBDC aims to help business owners in their program make the most informed decisions relating to their businesses to help promote stability and growth as well as increase productivity and profitability. The New York SBDC is one of only a few SBDCs in the United States with a full-time business library with free services for New York SBDC clients.

“The SBDC is pleased to partner with business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs in the Near Westside neighborhood,” says Patricia Higgins, regional director of the Onondaga SBDC. “In addition to training and advisement, the SBDC has access to the SUNY Research Network. For a business owner, obtaining the right information is as important as finding the right location, or getting the best price.”

For more information on the SBDC, visit http://sbdc.sunyocc.edu.

“I think it’s important for Near Westside companies to have a resource for business development,” says Marc Stress, owner of Stressdesign, host of the proposed business association’s inaugural meeting. “I think working together is better than work alone because there are going to be many opportunities for business-to-business collaboration and for business leaders to share what they’ve learned with each other.”

For more information on the new initiatives, contact Short at (315) 443-5402 or mwshort@syr.edu.

Erin Davies said she hopes someday to meet the person who scrawled “fag” on her car three years ago, permanently altering the course of her life.

“At the core, I’m hoping that will happen,” said Davies, 32, of Syracuse. “I’m not expecting it. But by keeping at this, by continuing to do what I’m doing — you know what? Anything is a possibility.”

If such optimism sounds like something from a movie, perhaps Davies can be forgiven. She went and made one.

Davies’ 2009 documentary, “Fagbug,” chronicles her reaction to the vandalism, which took place in Albany, where she was studying art. Somebody spray-painted “fag” and “u r gay” on her Volkswagen Beetle, an act that Davies — who is gay — viewed as an attempt to taunt and intimidate.

Instead of scrubbing it clean, she let the paint dry and drove the country for 58 days, talking to people and filming their reactions to the car and its message. The resulting 83-minute movie has aired at 35 film festivals and appeared on about 70 college campuses and forums. It won sponsorships from Volkswagen Group of America and the Sundance Film Festival, and was dubbed “best gay car movie of the year” by Vanity Fair magazine. Its DVD release, scheduled for July 13, will be commemorated in a Syracuse public showing a few nights later.

“Once the whole idea started taking off — well, ever since, it’s been unique,” said Davies, a 1996 Westhill graduate, whose odyssey has led to a two-story, brick husk on Syracuse’s Near West Side. There, the sequel is planned.

Davies and her partner, Sonya Parrish, are buying a vacant, 1900s-era fortress at 412 Oswego St., which they foresee as the future Fagbug home and museum.

“We’re looking to take this building from nothing and turn it into something,” Davies said this week, standing outside the boarded-up building. They’ll take title July 2 as part of a city-backed program to resuscitate the West Side with artists and entrepreneurs. They’ll buy the structure and an adjacent lot from Home Headquarters, the nonprofit housing agency, for just $2 — and about $80,000 in strings attached.

As per the agreement, Davies and Parrish have six months to redo the outside and until spring of 2012 to rebuild the interior. They plan to finance their renovations several ways. They will take out a $40,000 low-interest loan, Davies earns money from speaking engagements, they both sell their artwork and they plan to fundraise.

Shortly after closing on the deal — there’s no key; the front door will require a power drill — they’ll start hauling out junk and scraping shredded paint off the walls. They’ll film some of the action.

Davies said she’s begun work on her next documentary: “Fagbrew,” about her quest to launch the first-ever gay-oriented beer. (One brand name: “Homosexu ALE.”) Davies conceded that she’s no brewmaster, but she said the niche is waiting to be filled. “We’re coming more from a marketing standpoint,” she said. “We hope to partner with someone who knows the beer end.”

Their goal: to open the “Fagbug Museum and Brewery.” They will renovate the top floor for residential use and put a museum and small cafe on the first floor. The museum would put on display the actual “Fagbug,” Davies’ 2002 VW Beetle, which still holds traces of the original vandalism, though it is now decorated with rainbow stripes. Its speedometer shows 151,000 miles. She plans to drive another 150,000 before retiring it as a museum piece. Along with the Fagbug, the museum would include the 77 notes found on the car’s windshield during Davies’ travels.

Davies said she hopes to someday sell Fagbrew beer from that Oswego Street storefront, though she said it would probably take eight years. Between now and then, they would try to win the hearts and minds of the neighbors — and the appropriate governmental agencies.

The building’s 13-foot-high tin ceilings testify to its own journey, of sorts. Built around 1900, it lay vacant for several years before being taken by the city for back taxes in the early 2000s. A database search shows it as the site of several drug arrests in the 1990s. In 2007, Home Headquarters bought it from the city for $151. It’s one of 74 nearby properties targeted for rehabilitation or demolition.

Karen Schroeder, Home Headquarters marketing manager, said planners were swayed by Davies and Parrish. “We were taken with their energy, their spirit and their wanting to make a difference,” said Schroeder, of Davies and Parrish. “We found their enthusiasm to be infectious.”

They will face governmental hurdles. The property is not zoned to house a cafe, a spokesperson at City Hall said. They will need a special permit from the city’s Planning Commission, said Lindsay McCluskey, an aide to the mayor. Sale of beer would require approval from other state and local licensing authorities. The site’s proximity to Skiddy Park and Blodgett School, a block away, would likely be a barrier.

The city’s Zoning Office would have to issue a sign permit for “Fagbug,” but the local statutes specifically address size, height, site location and proposed lettering — not content.

Parrish said there is a vast difference between the words “fag” and “fagbug.” “If you separate the words, yes, it’s offensive,” Parrish said. “But I think if you put them together, it has its own definition. It has its own story behind it.”

Davies said she intends to stick with the name. “I hear it every day — people saying, ‘You shouldn’t do this; nothing good will come out of this.’” she said. “But I do see good things come out. People come up to me, crying, and they say how much this means to them. For every 15 negative comments, I get one of those, and that keeps me going.”

The women said they hope to enlist local high school students to paint a wall mural. They will become part of the neighborhood — which might become part of a movie.

On a recent afternoon, they studied an overgrown mountain of debris that lurked behind the building. A smashed TV sat upon a metallic item too weathered to identify. They foresaw a shaded courtyard someday. “We’d like to put in a fountain,” Parrish said, nodding toward an open area.

They spoke of the tall ceilings not as a winter heating problem but for their design potential. “We intend to do a lot of the work ourselves,” Parrish said.

Syracuse’s Near West Side neighborhood will likely be getting a bit of a facelift this summer, courtesy of a Syracuse University communications design class.

The class of 21 juniors, who spent 12 weeks creating a plan to spruce up the area, presented ideas to the board of the Near West Side Initiative last week. The plan would effect the “S.A.L.T. (Syracuse Art Life Technology) District,” which stretches between the area just west of Armory Square, around Skiddy Park.

SU professors Bill Padgett and Roderick Martinez said all the ideas are intended to be affordable and easy to implement by the end of the summer. The Near West Side Initiative – a nonprofit organization that partners with SU and Home Headquarters and 24 additional nearby businesses and organizations – is investing more than $20 million into various projects to renovate the neighborhood. The SU design class ideas are intended to complement the Initiative’s goals without adding much cost, they said.

Some of the ideas include:

1) Simplifying the S.A.L.T. District logo so it’s brighter and less busy. The logos, which the class already designed, would be put on T-shirts and posters around the neighborhood.

2) Create kid-friendly posters. The posters would feature photos and inspirational messages from children who live in the neighborhood. The posters feature captions such as, “Someday I will work for King & King Architects” (a firm headquartered in the area).

3) Mask unsightly chain fences with art. That art could include little plastic inserts that would colorfully fill the gaps in the links so the fence could be a canvas for artwork. The fences could also be painted and artists could weave designs into the links.

4) Install public trash cans. There are currently only four public trash cans in the entire neighborhood. More than a dozen new trash cans would carry the S.A.L.T. District logo. The proposal also includes buying a solar-powered trash compactor that reduces the frequency of trash pickups.

5) Start a public, volunteer cleaning program. Reach out to school programs and get volunteers to help pick up litter.

6) Create colorful brochures and maps that point tourists in the right direction for art venues, businesses, churches, etc. Make that map interactive online.

7) Promote the S.A.L.T. District in other heavily-traveled Syracuse areas, such as the airport, SU and downtown.

Turn vacant lots into public gardens. Distribute free seeds to neighbors to plant.

9) Start a paint donation program where leftover paint can be donated to the Initiative and distributed to property owners who want to spruce up their homes. The paint could also be used to improve the look of vacant buildings in the area.

10) Use buildings in the neighborhood to showcase the work of local artists. Frame the windows of those buildings with a colorful version of the S.A.L.T. District logo so that visitors can easily find art events.

11) Start a cultural festival with food, vendors, art and music.

The Near West Side Initiative Board still has to vote on which aspects of the presentation to implement, however it appears some of these ideas will likely come to fruition. Stephanie Hart, a member of the class, has been offered a summer internship with the Initiative. Her job will be to push these ideas into action, she said.

“I want to make sure we didn’t do all this for nothing,” she said.

After the presentation, members of the board said they were impressed.

“Young peoples’ perspective on things is so unique,” said board member Paul Nojaim, who owns Nojaim Brothers Super Market in the neighborhood. “I think it’s a wonderful demonstration of how committed SU is to this project and educating their students.”

An earlier version of the class’ presentation also impressed Chancellor Nancy Cantor, who invited the students to make another presentation to the SU Board of Trustees.

Marilyn Higgins, vice president of the SU Office of Community Engagement and Economic Development, called the presentation, “scholarship in action,” playing off the university’s slogan for community involvement.

“We did the scholarship,” class professor Martinez said. “Now they (the board) just need to put it in action.”

An assistant art professor from Syracuse University and her students are wrapping up work on this year’s class project. It’s two stories tall.

Marion Wilson and her class of architecture and art students took on a boarded up house at 601 Tully St., smack across from Blodgett School. They’ve come up with a design to reconstruct it into offices, an art gallery, classroom and café where neighbors can settle in with a good cup of coffee.

Wilson describes the project as a “sustainable community storefront for arts, publishing and emerging entrepreneurship.

Wilson, herself an artist, also is director of community initiatives in the visual arts in SU’s School of Education. She came up with the grant money and support to translate the design into reality, with help from SU and other sources. Wilson wrote grants for a solid year to raise the money to help pay for the project and stitched together a number of them, including $50,000 from the Kauffman Foundation, she said. She brought in enough money to cover the rent for five years, supplemented by paying tenants.

Home HeadQuarters, a nonprofit housing agency, has $150,000 in state Restore New York money to pay for the renovations scheduled to begin in June. The agency owns the house, which used to be a two-family dwelling with a history of police calls and drug activity, said Alys Mann, of Home HeadQuarters.

It is located in a neighborhood under revitalization by the Near Westside Initiative, a nonprofit with partners that include SU and Home HeadQuarters. When 607 Tully is renovated, Home HeadQuarters will sell it to the initiative, Mann said.

Wilson’s class is called: “Social Sculpture: 601 Tully” and she’s had other classes involved in project on the Near West Side. Wilson said she loves the neighborhood for its urban vibe, the park at its center, its many children, its walkability, and the way its residents are so often out and about.

SU’s School of Education will lease the space. Wilson said she has lined up occupants, who will pay a fee to help make the estimated $1,400 a month it will cost to occupy the building. They include a local coffee shop, New Community Press and Wilson, her gallery and projects. Say Yes to Education, which works with city students, will have a teaching garden outside.

Students from nearby Fowler High School, in particular students from its business academy, will use the building, perhaps for internships or to gain hands-on experience in its commercial operations, Wilson said.

Fowler has been involved in project since the beginning, said Susan Centore, the career specialist and a business teacher at the high school. When Wilson first approached her about it, Centore said, she knew it would be good for kids. Fowler students have benefited from a previous Wilson project – the renovation of an old vehicle into the “Mobile Literacy Arts Bus,” which travels to city schools. “She doesn’t just think outside the box. She doesn’t see the box,” Centore said.

The design work and the 601 Tully class are pretty much done, and construction is scheduled to begin in June. But for the past school year, ideas flowed fast and freely as the students devised ways to convert the house — that’s just over 2,000 square feet — on a limited budget. “High school, low resources,” Wilson put it.

The youngest class member a provided a perspective the SU students just didn’t have. Troy Hamlin, 16 and a Fowler junior, grew up in the neighborhood and now lives closer to Tipperary Hill. He served as the community expert, Wilson said.

When the SU students considered creating a green outer wall — one covered with vegetation — Hamlin told them the house would look like a lot of the rest of them in neighborhood: overgrown.

When the class began, several Fowler students were involved. Hamlin was the only one continued to make the late-day class that met in Armory Square. He’ll get high school and college credit for participating. He said he learned a lot about city codes, construction and design. “I’ve actually learned a lot more from this, no offense to the school, than I have learned from the school,” Hamlin said.

More Fowler students will get a chance to learn there, when it is completed and before, too. Money from CNY Works will pay for five Fowler students to help with the construction and the storefront should be done by fall, Wilson said. “Its doors are open to the community,” she said.

The Art Shark is an installation design that has arisen out of a collaboration between the Stewards of Lipe Art Park (SLAP) and artist Brendan Rose with the aim of helping to further establish the identity and sense of place at the park. The project, which is also a focus of Rose’s master’s degree thesis, and has involved focused community design meetings that generated a collaborative process of project visioning and design critique

Materially, the Art Shark is an installation exploring the interlock of a vertical and horizontal surface within the large open landscape of the art park. These two intersecting surfaces, each with unique characteristics, will frame views across the site, signify human presence, and provide sensual experiences of solidity and porosity. The vertical surface, composed as a simple geometric square, is divided in half by the horizontal, differentiating an upper and lower section. The lower section is a solid concrete surface that will act as a mural wall. The mural art on this will be rotating under the curation of SLAP and will be presented to the Public Arts Commission in a separate application. The contrasting upper section of the wall is a transparent mesh, providing a visual extension of the vertical surface without the solidity of the bottom half. The horizontal surface is perforated skin that will generate a patterned light and shade experience. The Art Shark is oriented so that this experience of light and shade becomes an extension of a corresponding experience provided by the park’s lone, centrally located tree. Support for the horizontal surface will be anchored by additional concrete masses, providing opportunities for seating below the porous shading.

This event is completely volunteer driven and is hosted by the Westside Arts Council (WAC). WAC is made up of Near Westside residents and local artists all wanting to make a difference in the neighborhood through the arts. To learn more about WAC, check out their Facebook by searching for “Westside Arts Council.”