Letter from the Mayor
Fiscal Progress | Neighborhood Progress | Engagement Progress | City Services Progress
Dear Syracuse,
I can sum up much of the work we accomplished last year as a foundation for our future growth. I attribute many of those accomplishments to the strong, diverse team I assembled here at City Hall. Early in 2018, this team helped me to set a vision – Syracuse will be a growing city that embraces diversity and creates opportunity for all – which guides our work every day.
This report, the “City of Syracuse 2018 Progress Report” details our actions in four key areas that are essential to achieving growth:
- Achieve fiscal sustainability
- Increase economic investment and neighborhood stability
- Provide quality constituent engagement and response
- Deliver city services efficiently, effectively, and equitably
An important part of our work is acknowledging our reality. We know the challenge of poverty is more acute in Syracuse more than other communities. Creating sustained growth will require that we overcome barriers to progress in our community – as a community.
You can see a direct correlation between key barriers identified by City staff and the “Syracuse Surge,” a comprehensive strategy we developed to ignite economic growth and neighborhood transformation in our city. You can read more about in my 2019 State of the City address.
I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be your mayor and humbled by my first year in this role. I am appreciative of the support you have given me. And I am confident in our future. Syracuse’s best days aren’t just ahead of us. Our city’s best days are within our reach.
Sincerely,
Ben Walsh
Mayor
CITY OBJECTIVES
Achieve Fiscal Sustainability

The city of Syracuse must achieve fiscal sustainability in order to accomplish our other objectives and achieve our ultimate vision of being a growing city. Read more about specific actions we took in 2018 to put the City on a path towards fiscal sustainability:
Provide Quality Constituent Engagement And Response

The community should be able to interact with the City easily and their voices should be heard when they want a way to change. Read more about specific actions we took in 2018 to improve our community engagement strategies.
Increase Neighborhood Stability

The city of Syracuse should be a place where it is easy to open a business and live in quality, safe housing. Read more about specific actions we took in 2018 to improve how we attract economic investments to our city and stabilize our neighborhoods:
Delivering City Services

The city of Syracuse should reliably deliver services, like filling potholes, in a reasonable time period, and do the work completely, so that revisits for the same problem occur rarely. Read more about specific actions we took in 2018 to improve our delivery of city services equitably, efficiently, and reliably: