February 2022
Call To Order - 9:05AM
Today we were graciously hosted by Anything But Beer. If anyone else would like to host our monthly meeting, please reach out to us.
Members - We had 7 participants in today’s meeting representing businesses, residents, and community leaders.
Safety/Security
Yesterday at the TNT meeting, an SPD officer gave a brief report noting that all areas of “major crimes” were down compared to last year with one exception: Car Theft. He also said that each case of a stolen vehicle was related to the individual leaving their keys in the car or leaving the vehicle running.
A member brought up the presence of Ice where people are walking in the square with several falls reported.
Beautification (Chair: Betsy Elkins)
Our Earth Day Cleanup in conjunction with the Downtown Syracuse Committee will take place on April 23rd. If you would like to work with us as we “adopt our square” please email me at HELLO@HANOVERSQUARESYR.COM.
Our Planting Social will be on the New York State holiday of “I Love My Park Day” which takes place on the first Saturday in May (7th) dec.ny.gov. We will have a meeting with the Parks Department and begin to finalize our plans for the weeding/planting in the square. We would like to gather socially after our work is done, so we are looking for a host volunteer.
Street Barriers - Our application has been APPROVED!!!! We will be working with the Downtown Committee and Tomorrows Neighborhoods Today to get them ordered.
Hanover Square also secured two more proposals for a bike rack and a bike repair station which will both be in our neighborhood! The downtown committee is looking for suggestions on what to model the bike racks after. Please Email Heather @ HSchroeder@downtownsyracuse.com with suggestions.
Events
Filming on Montgomery Street will return in early March.
March 21-23 is the Eastern Winery Exposition (https://events.visitsyracuse.com/events/view/eastern-winery-exposition)
The Downtown Syracuse “Downtown 22 Challenge” is ongoing. Visit www.downtownsyracuse.com for more details.
Downtown Dining Week starts the first week in March with 51 participating businesses this year.
A lunch concert series is planning on taking place in Hanover Square on Thursdays starting in June.
The Farmers Market will return on Tuesdays starting in June with the hope of having some “Music in the Market”
Identity/Outreach
Invite your friends and neighbors to our need meeting.
New Business
Meeting Adjourned - 9:42AM
January 2022
Call To Order - 9:09AM
Today we were graciously hosted by Wolff’s Biergarten. If anyone else would like to host our monthly meeting, please reach out to us.
Members - We had 10 participants in today’s meeting representing businesses, residents, and community leaders.
Safety/Security
Here are some of the items that the executive board will bring to the new Captain of our area
Opportunity for a new camera for the Hanover Square proper and any funding that we could petition to be applied to here.
Broken camera on Warren street.
Hanover Square Deli had their door broken, and the police response was delayed so that the perpetrator was able to come back before the police arrived.
911 transferred a caller to the non-emergency line which was never answered.
Safety issues can be reported to the SYRCityLine app, which is quite simple and user friendly.
After you have reported any security issues to the authorities, please remember to log it on our webform so that we can keep a record of issues moving forward.
Beautification (Chair: Betsy Elkins)
Earth Day Clean-up - April 23, 2022
We will be participating with the Downtown Committee’s Earth Day Cleanup
Barriers
Our application has been submitted for funding and will be voted on at the next TNT zoom meeting on February 16th at 5:30pm (the night before our next meeting). There will also be two other funding proposals that will benefit Hanover Square, so please try to attend this meeting. Zoom information will be sent out with our meeting reminder emails.
Planting Event
Betsy and Dr. Eric met with members of the Parks Department to start a dialogue about a planting event and the city resources that we could possibly utilize. It was suggested that we utilize the New York State holiday of “I Love My Park Day” which takes place on the first Saturday in May (7th) dec.ny.gov
Events
Our next events will be Earth Day cleanup and I Love My Park Day planting event as listed above.
A member expressed an interest in a block party for the square. Heather suggested that we speak with Britney Farmer with the Parks Department.
Identity/Outreach
The downtown committee suggested that we temporarily cover up the barriers with some banners that would be furnished by a grant through the Downtown Committee. We designed and printed these banners for the project. Thank you to Heather for the idea!
New Business
The public bench outside of Eden has been a bit of an issue.
Downtown Update
A new independent book store is opening up downtown across from the landmark.
The Hanover Square Star will be moving to Columbus Circle for a film.
Groundbreaking on the City Center Building happened earlier this week.
Meeting Adjourned - 9:47AM
December 16th
Call To Order - 9:05AM
Today we were graciously hosted by Anything But Beer. If anyone else would like to host our monthly meeting, please reach out to us.
Members - We had 12 participants in today’s meeting representing businesses, residents, and community leaders.
Safety/Security
This week we had Sgt. Wells of the Syracuse Police Department on behalf of Capt. Lynch. We briefly discussed the report of gunshot being fired in the early hours earlier this month. The Sgt. is from a different district and was not privy to the incident in question. However, previously, Luke had been in contact with the Mayor’s office and SPD, and was told that it was likely on Clinton St (outside of our neighborhood) but also was likely in a vehicle traveling with no evidence of damage to the area. Sgt. Wells also noted that SPD has had some cars set off the “shot spotters” around the city with modifications of exhausts.
The Sgt was asked whether he knew about the new leadership coming to the SPD for our neighborhood, and the only thing that he was sure about was that Capt Lynch was likely moving to another district in the new year.
A member brought up a camera outage downtown and Heather with the Downtown Committee mentioned that the DTC owns the cameras that are downtown and she will look into it further.
Another member discussed the crosswalk on Salina St adjacent to the bike lane between Hanover Square and Clinton Square. It seems as though the cross walk button does not change with the button, and there is only a "bike” signal and not a walk signal. This will be an issue for the DPW, and we will reach out to someone to discuss the issue and hopefully get someone from that department to participate in our meetings. Of note, the light directly west of Clinton Square that was installed for pedestrians only seems to falsely trigger leading to people more likely j-walking.
Beautification (Chair: Betsy Elkins)
We discussed with Heather our desire to work with the DTC to adopt our square as part of their Earth Day cleanup on April 23rd. So we will work with the DTC for the cleanup portion of Earth Day and keep you all posted.
We will soon have a meeting scheduled with the Parks Department to help plan the planting project in January.
Street Barriers - Our application has been completed and will be submitted to Tomorrows Neighborhood Today (TNT) for approval. The approval process will happen in February 2022 and will be an open zoom meeting where all participants can vote on the proposals.
Heather has informed us that there are two other proposals being submitted to TNT that will effect Hanover Square. The first is a proposal from DTC for a bike rack in Hanover Square, and the second is from the Erie Canal Museum for a bike repair station.
Events
Our next planned event will be our Spring Cleanup event coordinated with the DTC. Due to the time of year, we may need to plan a separate “planting event” to fill the planters and possibly some other beds.
Identity/Outreach
We unveiled the our new logo and identity from CINSYR.
As you can see to the right, we have a new name logo/slogan and an icon.
The icon itself is intended to be altered or modified for individual businesses to use in their own businesses to emphasize inclusion. We have discussed being able to put different flags or designs in the shape itself, or inside of the shape as shown.
We could also look at creating some sort of art for the square with the icon where the inside is cut out, for people to take photos through or selfies inside of them.
New Business
Window Wonderland - The DTC has a record number of participants in the window decorating contest this year. Please see the map and vote for your favorites and support your neighbors!!!
Winterfest is being planned for Feb 17-27th.
Visit Syracuse has informed us that a movie with Jessie Eisenberg and Adrian Brody has just wrapped in Syracuse, and the sequel to Binge (aptly named Binge 2) will be filming in Hanover Square in February and they have requested that Christmas lights be maintained through the filming which means we will likely keep the holiday lights up longer than usual this year.
Meeting Adjourned - 9:48AM
November 18th
Call To Order - 9:03AM
Today we were graciously hosted by Anything But Beer. If anyone else would like to host our monthly meeting, please reach out to us.
Members - We had 10 participants in today’s meeting representing businesses, residents, and community leaders.
Safety/Security
Again, we did not have a representative from the city or police department with anything to report. We have received a new contact for someone for someone with the city and were told that they will hopefully be at next months meeting.
Beautification (Chair: Betsy Elkins)
We are moving forward with planning for our spring clean up/resident social for the week of Earth Day (April 22nd). We had initially planned for this event to happen on Saturday April 23rd, but we may want to coordinate with the Downtown Committee (DTC) to have it at the same time as their cleanup event.
We have received some new connections (via DTC) at the Parks Department, including their Landscape Designer + Planner, Greenhouse Crew Leader, and Parks Planning Team. We are scheduled to have a meeting with these members in January to jump start the planning process.
Street Barriers - We are currently looking for other avenues of funding for the street barrier project. We are currently working on a grant through Tomorrows Neighborhoods Today (TNT) for one barrier, and the DTC has confirmed that they will continue to match our grant money for the barrier on the other end of the street.
Street Closure - We discussed if there was any indication from the city to either close Genesee St permanently, or open it back up, and the city seemed to want to leave that up to the residents/businesses of the neighborhood. The brief discussion at the meeting today has our association leaning toward permanent closure of the street. The DTC will continue to reach out to business owners in the square but if you have an opinion, please let us know so that we can include it in our recommendation to the city.
Events
Resident Social - We held our last social event was November 12th and hosted by Metro Fitness during their annual member appreciation party. A handful of residents were there to help celebrate Metro’s 26 years in business in the square.
The next resident social will be in the spring and will be in conjunction with our spring cleanup event listed above. Directly following the cleanup event, we hope to congregate somewhere for some food and drink afterwards. If you would like to host our “post cleanup party”, please contact us.
Pop-Up Events - Today we discussed a way to use the square more efficiently/effectively and showcase our little corner. We came up with an idea to host some small vendors in the square for a pop-up market. The association can also charge a small vendor fee which will help support the association and their projects moving forward.
“Hanover Squares”
This sounds like a great idea, but it doesn’t seem like we have the community support or man power to undertake a project like this.
Identity/Outreach
We have an exciting new logo/branding design that we are finalizing. We will be presenting this at the next meeting.
We have some ideas about creating some public art as a part of this project and we will reach out to the Syracuse Public Art Commission to see what our options are.
New Business
Neighborhood Planning - The 81 project was brought up today and we talked about the projected park that will be included just north of the square. This park will be in our neighborhood and we should try to get involved with it’s planning. We will reach out to Anthony Rojas with InArchitects and see where we left off with our planning from before.
Window Wonderland - The DTC has a record number of participants in the window decorating contest this year. Please see the map and vote for your favorites and support your neighbors!!!
Dash and Dot - Santa’s elves have returned, and they brought holiday gift guides and activity guides for the holiday season. Check out all their adventures on the DTC social media sites.
Meeting Adjourned - 9:37AM
October 21st
Call To Order - 9:10AM
Today we were graciously hosted by Anything But Beer, who provided a great spread of fresh fruits and coffee to get our meeting started.
Members - We had 9 participants in today’s meeting representing businesses, residents, and community leaders.
Safety/Security
Again, we did not have a representative from the city or police department with anything to report, however we did pass around a Downtown Crime Report for the participants to read through if interested.
Beautification (Chair: Betsy Elkins)
We have decided as a group that we will focus our energy toward a fresh start for the next spring.
We will plan a spring clean up as part of our Resident Social series and do some weeding and planting of flowers.
Street Barriers - We continue to hit our head against the wall while trying to finalize our barrier funding so that we can have them ready for the spring clean up event. We may need to find some alternative sources for funding. One of these sources may be the Today’s Neighborhood Tomorrow organization. This grant will need to be submitted by the end of the year.
Events
Resident Social - We would like to continue hosting quarterly events to get foster a sense of community with the residents. Our next event will be hosted by Metro Fitness as part of their Yearly Metro Gala. We will be sending out the following flier for residents to register for the event: hanoversquaresyr.com/events.
The next resident social will be in the winter (Jan/Feb) time frame. We are interested in sponsors for that next event. The following spring social will be April 23rd (the day after earth day). The Downtown Committee has offered to provide us with some tools that we may need in the process.
“Hanover Squares”
We will plan on scheduling a meeting with Laurie from the Downtown Committee to talk about this event further.
Identity/Outreach
We have an exciting new logo/branding design that we are finalizing. We will be presenting this at the next meeting.
New Business
We discussed the issue of noise as it relates to events downtown. The Dandelion Festival was mentioned and the consensus was that although this event did seem to draw people downtown, they did not seem to patronize the businesses nearby because it was too loud. In fact, some of the businesses felt like the noise actually hurt their business. We need to continue to increase our participation in meetings and events and include representatives from the city in order to generate a unified voice that will be heard on these items in the future.
Meeting Adjourned - 9:47AM
September 16th
Call To Order - 9:08AM
Today we met on the roof of the State Tower building! What a cool place to have a meeting!
Members - We had 10 participants in today’s meeting representing businesses, residents, and community leaders.
Safety/Security
Without any representation from the police department or the city, there was no new items to report on their fronts.
A member of Liberty Resources was present at today’s meeting and provided us with a direct line - (315) 251-0800.
Beautification
To ensure the Beautification of our square gets adequate attention, Luke and I thought it would be best if we could delegate this topic to a committee chairperson. We have nominated Betsy Elkins to claim this roll and she has offered to give it a try.
We have also been informed of a new Parks Department contact, which we will be adding to our collection of resources.
Planters
Barriers - We are continuing to work all avenues of the application process and hope to have our barrier planters for the spring.
Beds - Adopt - See Events below.
Upkeep - To make note of areas that need assistance in cleanliness, please use the city’s new “City Line” system at www.cityline.syrgov.net
Events
Resident Social - Our event was a hit!
We had about 15-20 members attend our first event. We also collected 12 new emails for our distribution list and hopefully those individuals will become more active members in our association.
We will try to plan for quarterly events going forward. Erica from Visit Syracuse has offered to help us in the planning process.
For our fall event (next), we hope to hold it before it gets too cold so that we can have it outdoors (hopefully in the square).
Spring Event - We should incorporate the Beautification component of this organization into a Spring Cleaning/Planting event. We can plant flowers in the new barriers (hopefully), weed, plant, and mulch some of the planting beds around the square, and do some general tidying up.
“Hanover Squares”
We have been in contact with the organizer of the original event with the Downtown Committee. It seemed like the original event had simply run its course. One of the major barriers for this event will be Location and Funding. There are only a number of places (in the square) that would be ideal for this sort of event. The Koolakian building would be ideal right now because it is currently empty. A significant amount of funding is likely required because there are a lot of technical and audio/visual setup surrounding the event. We will continue to pursue the ‘revitalizing’ of this event and see if it is something we can pull off.
Identity/Outreach
Instagram
Please feel free to tag @hanoversquaresyr and #hanoversquaresyr in your Instagram pics in the square!
CINSYR - In addition to our new identity (below), the next step will be to update our logo from the old “snowglobe logo”.
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
New Business
15th Annual Downtown Living Tour is Saturday September 25th
For Tickets or other info, visit https://downtownsyracuse.com/events/signature/downtown-living-tour
Meeting Adjourned - 9:35AM
August 18th
Call To Order - 9:05AM
Members - We had 12 participants in today’s meeting representing businesses, residents, and community leaders.
Safety/Security
SPD - We had some complaints about noise and large gatherings since our last meeting and we have addressed these issues with the police department. The current recommendation is to call 423-HELP during the day and 911 during the evening (and be sure to tell the 911 operator that this is a non-emergency). (also see website forms below)
No Swimming/Wading Sign - Waiting to hear back from the city on what we can/could do.
Beautification
Clean Up
Square Cleaning - Thank you to the Downtown Committee and the City for facilitating a clean up that included weeding of the plantar beds and cleaning up the concrete around the fountain.
Bike Lane - Everytime we have a decent rain, water seems to pool in spots of the bike lane, and those spots fill with sediment, making them slippery when wet, and then dirty when dry. The State has “handed off” the maintenance to the city for the bike trail. We have contacted the DPW to try and determine who will need to maintain this and who we need to contact in the future.
Concrete - Some of the steps around the fountain have become stained and we have alerted the Parks Department for a cleaning detail
Sewer smell - There seems to be a bad smell coming from the grate near the State Tower parking garage. We have notified the city’s Sewer Department and this seems to have happened in the 300 block of Salina as well, so hopefully we can get this resolved.
Planters
Barriers - We continue to hit roadblocks (pun intended) with our funding source. Councilor Driscol mentioned that he may be able to help with the application process.
Beds - Adopt? - We have reached out to the Parks Commissioner (Julie LaFave) and we will keep you posted on what we can do there.
Mulch? - Probably too late in the season to worry about this year.
Upkeep - To make note of areas that need assistance in cleanliness, please use the city’s new “City Line” system at www.cityline.syrgov.net
Events
Resident Social
When - 4-5pm August 26th
Where - Otro Cinco
Pilates and Pints (part2)
Coming this fall, hopefully with a social event that will culminate with a tour of the new Pilates Studio downtown.
“Hanover Squares”
This will be a work in progress. If you know of anyone that would like to be involved in this event, please let us know.
Identity/Outreach
Instagram
We now have Instagram and FB synced together @hanoversquaresyr, I suggest we use that same handle as a hashtag so it doesn’t fall into the #hanoversquare in Paris.
CINSYR
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
Info - We have pulled the webpage from Visit Syracuse onto our site for a brief overview of the neighborhood. In doing so, we noticed some out of date information on there and it has brought to Visit Syracuse’s attention for updating.
Blog - We will be posting Meeting Minutes as a blog section on the website.
Forms
We have generated a security form for people to anonymously report issues so that we can keep a better record of incidents.
We may generate more forms in the future for things such as meeting topics.
New Business
Syracuse University COVID-19 Research Request (See Flyer Below)
You may qualify if you are:
18 years of age or older
Do not have a pacemaker
Have been tested for COVID-19 (either positive or negative) and are not currently infected
Have access to Zoom (computer or smart phone)
Volunteers will receive a home blood pressure measuring device.
Counselor Driscol brought up that funding for the summer concert series in Hanover Square will hopefully produce a recurring event next Summer. If you would like to get involved, please email joedriscol315@gmail.com.
Downtown Grants - Heather has let us know that there is another round of Collaborative Marketing Funds coming out soon. And in the future, there will likely be some funding for a solo marketing project as well. She has also told us that the Downtown Is Open flag program is still going on, so if you would like a flag, please reach out to the downtown committee at mail@downtownsyracuse.com
Marlene mentioned a Hosting website for traveling cyclists and she said that she has some interesting people coming through. Warmshowers.org
Meeting Adjourned - 9:38AM
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 ResourcesMembers
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)