free
TUESDAY
jan. 16, 2018 high 32°, low 12°
t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k |
N • Community grid
P • And the winner is...
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh recently reaffirmed his support for the community grid Interstate 81 replacement option, which is estimated to cost $1.3 billion. Page 3
dailyorange.com
Voting for People’s Choice at the 25th SAMMYS — the Syracuse Area Music Awards — is opening up. Read stories from some of last year’s winners. Page 9
IN THE PAINT su vs pittsburgh on campus
Friends remember freshman By Jordan Muller asst. news editor
ROBERT MIKE, president of the Pioneer Homes Tenants Association, said he’s concerned that someone could get hurt by falling highway debris as New York state delays the Interstate 81 project.
Growing frustrations Residents upset, bewildered by Interstate 81 project delay
see aziz page 7
university politics
The Pioneer Homes public housing community is bisected by Interstate 81.
over with, before something terrible happens,” said Mike, who’s a Syracuse Housing Authority maintenance employee. “If something falls down and kills someone, off the highway, then they obert Mike had just gotten back from church. gonna say ‘(they) should have acted quicker.’” The president of the Pioneer Homes The project, which would fundamentally Tenants Association was still dressed in reconfigure the major highway that bisects a suit, and carefully rubbing his gloves together Syracuse, was pushed back earlier this month in the cold. by New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo for Walking underneath the Interstate 81 viamore study. If something falls duct, unseen trucks and cars thundered by Tinica Short, vice president of the Pioneer down and kills above his head. It was nearly dusk as Mike Homes Tenants Association, said the area no stepped between small drifts of snow. longer trusts state officials. someone, off the Mike’s lived near this deteriorating highway “Some of these political decisions have ‘kicked highway, then for about 10 years. He’s now fed up with I-81. the can down the road,’ so to speak,” said Bill Simthey gonna say And he’s not alone. mons, executive director of the SHA, which owns In more than a dozen interviews with The and operates Pioneer Homes and Toomey Abbott ‘(they) should have Daily Orange, public housing tenants living Towers. Both of those facilities are in the city’s by I-81 in the low-income, majority black East East Adams Street neighborhood. acted quicker.’ Adams Street neighborhood expressed increasPioneer Homes, a set of apartment buildRobert Mike ing frustration and anxiety with what several ings, is also in a census tract known for highly president of the pioneer homes called an unnecessary delay of the interstate’s concentrated minority poverty, just west of the tenants association replacement project. State University of New York Upstate Medical “They should just go ahead, do it and get it see i-81 page 7 Story by Sam Ogozalek news editor
R
Photos by Wasim Ahmad staff photographer
Raja “Safi” Aziz lived in a single in Lawrinson Hall. But that didn’t stop him from radiating positive energy among everyone he met, friends on his floor recalled. “ W henever he would enter a room, everyone would be really happy,” said AZIZ Rachel Hayashi, a freshman who lived two rooms away from Aziz on Lawrinson 19. Aziz, a freshman in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning during winter break, while he was visiting family in Pakistan. He was 19. Aziz studied biology, and his friends recalled him saying he wanted to be a doctor. He thought that medicine was a field he would be good in, Hayashi said. “We always jokingly called him ‘Dr. Aziz,’” said Sarah Butts, a freshman who lived in Lawrinson and was friends with Aziz. “It makes me really sad that he’ll never officially
Chancellor to detail SU initiatives By Sam Ogozalek news editor
Chancellor Kent Sy verud on Tuesday will update the Syracuse University community on several major initiatives during a speech in the Life Sciences Complex. Syverud’s speech, scheduled to start at 3:45 p.m. in the complex’s Milton Atrium, will essentially serve as a ‘State of the University’ update. Former Chancellor Kenneth “Buzz” Shaw gave that address annually. James Franco, president of SU’s Student Association, will also speak Tuesday. An informal reception will be held after Syverud’s speech. The chancellor gave a similar address last January. At the time, Syverud announced plans that would support priorities of the see address page 6