July 15th

Call to Order (9:08am)

• Attendees

  • Special Guests
    Lt. Van Slyke from the Syracuse Police Department
    Nodesia Hernandez from NYS Senator Rachel May's office
    Colleen O'Dell from Mobile Crisis/Liberty Resources

  • Members
    President - Luke Esposito - Urban Realty Group
    VP - Dr. Eric Saxton - Cuse Chiro Inc
    Treasurer - Kimberly Cronk - State Tower
    Marlene Macfarlane - Resident
    Randy Sabourin - Metro Fitness
    Bill Elkins - Resident
    Erica Richardson - Visit Syracuse
    Stephanie Sampere - Samson & Co
    Heather Schroder - Downtown Committee

• Safety/Security

  • Syracuse PD - Lt Van Slyke (here for Capt Lynch)

    • new cameras are being placed to monitor trouble areas

    • Armory Square detail is increasing detail from 6 to 8 officers

    • if you have a concern about a developing situation or trends, please reach out to Lt Van Slyke or Capt Lynch to make them aware of these items.

    • he provide a packet of statistics for downtown crimes, most of which were improved from YTD last year, with the exception of stolen vehicles.

  • Mental Health - Liberty Resources - Update from Colleen O

    • Mental health staff will be onsite (downtown) M-F

    • Call *211 or you can call 911 and be sure to mention that it seems to be a psychiatric case.

    • They are also available to give psychiatric education for the businesses to help them know what to do or what to watch for.
      Some people on staff have extra training on substance abuse issues and they may be able to tease apart the substance abuse from mental illnesses.

    • Perhaps we can schedule an education meeting for the residents of downtown to make them aware of Liberty Resources.

  • No Swimming/Wading Signs

    • We are still exploring our options with the city here.

• Beautification

  • Planters

    • New Planters for street barriers

      • We are working on finishing our grant application to replace the police barriers with movable planters for Genesee St. We may end up needing a total of 4 barriers, two for each side, to ensure that no traffic can sneak through the square. Once we have the planters, we will organize an event to install and plant them and use this as a joint marketing event through social media.

    • Gardening

      • Some concern was brought up that the large planting beds are more weeds than flowers and who is responsible for weeding the beds and planters.

      • The planting beds are the responsibility of the Parks and Recs and we can see about getting some flowers in here.

  • Concrete Cleaning

    • We are in the process of getting this taken care of

• Events

  • Association Events

    • Chess Tournament

      • Over the past 6 months, we have attempted to spark interest in a chess tournament to utilize the chess boards in the square. There has been little interest from members of the group to take charge of this initiative, and the Syracuse Chess Club has told us that they will not be hosting any events until the fall. At this point we should table this topic for a future date and interest.

    • "Hanover Squares"

      • This idea of re-instituting the "Hanover Squares" game show type event seems like something the group would like to try.

      • The executive committee will start brain storming what would be involved in undertaking this process and present a more defined idea/plan at our next meeting.

      • Things we will need to think about is location, permits, "celebrities", contestants, marketing, A/V support, outreach, time-table, etc.

    • Informal Happy Hour

      • Interest was expressed in "hosting" some informal happy hour for our residents and businesses to connect more people within the neighborhood.

      • Is anyone willing to host the happy hour at their business, or maybe we can look into a permit to do something within the square.

    • CNY Jazz with Berkshire Bank

      • An immediate opportunity to bring some free live music downtown.

      • Perhaps we should tie this into our informal happy hour idea.

  • City Events

    • Syracuse Nationals - This weekend

    • Fire Chief Convention - This weekend

    • Arts and Crafts Festival - July 23-25

• Identity/Outreach

  • Marketing & Branding

    • As an association, we have reached out to develop an identity for our neighborhood, something we can all stand for. Here is what we have come up with so far:
      
      

    • Headline: The Hanover Square Association: Connecting Businesses, Supporting Neighbors, Celebrating Diversity
      Sub-Headline: We are a group of professionals, residents, visitors, and dreamers who believe in the transformative power of connections and diversity.
      Mission: The Hanover Square Association was formed to create connections. Connections between businesses who want to improve our city, between entrepreneurs excited about the future of Syracuse, and between individuals who want to live, work, and thrive in Central New York.
      These connections are conversations between people of all colors, abilities, and identities working together today for a better tomorrow. Your unique perspective is respected by The Hanover Square Association today and always. Thank you for being a valued part of our community.
      Tagline: Hanover Square: Where Everyone Belongs

  • Website

    • Our current website hanoversquaresyr.com says "coming in April 2021"

    • Dr. Eric will be taking over the website and updating it to include the Hanover Businesses pulled from the downtown committee's database and include the little write up from the visit Syracuse website as well.

• New Business

  • No new business was noted.

Meeting Adjournment (10:12am)