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THURSDAY
feb. 25, 2021 high 32°, low 21°
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 |
dailyorange.com
N • Broken protocol
C •Down to earth
Loretta Lynch’s year-long review of DPS found that the department violated its own policies while investigating hate crimes on SU’s campus. Page 3
Professor Rawiya Kameir has profiled celebrities like Cardi B and Noname for publications like Pitchfork and The FADER. She now teaches students in Newhouse. Page 7
S • The basis of sex Former Syracuse tennis player Abbe Seldin faced gender discrimination when she tried to join her high school’s boys tennis team. Page 12
‘Reliving history’ Residents fear I-81 project will lead to displacement — this time by SU
asst. sports editor
Syracuse women’s lacrosse issued an apology Wednesday after posting a photo of a player making what appeared to be a white supremacist symbol on its Instagram story.
asst. news editor
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This was an unacceptable lapse in judgment and lack of awareness SU women’s lacrosse team statement
When the viaduct was constructed, racist housing policies forced families to move to the shadow of the highway. elizabeth billman senior staff photographer
which lie adjacent to the current viaduct. Activists and residents who live near the viaduct said they support its removal, but many fear that redevelopment could lead to gentrification and displacement, especially if large institutions — such as Syracuse University, which sits just feet away from the viaduct and the surrounding community — obtain a portion of the available land. “They’re really concerned that the land will be taken from them in much of the same way that it was taken before,” said Lanessa
Owens-Chaplin, the assistant director of the Education Policy Center at the central New York chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “It’s not something that they conjured up in their imagination. This has happened in the past.” At least 40% of residents living in the majority of neighborhoods surrounding the I-81 corridor live below the poverty line, and at least 50% of the population is people of color, according to data from the CNY Fair see displacement page 4
Nonprofit uses grant to prevent displacement By Sarah Alessandrini asst. news editor
To Arlaina Harris, the best way to effect change in the East Adams Street neighborhood is by empowering its residents. Harris, who grew up on Syracuse’s Southside, is the director of community partnerships at Blueprint 15, a Syracuse nonprofit aiming to revitalize East Adams. The area is a portion of the former 15th Ward, a predominantly Black neighborhood destroyed by the construction of the Interstate 81 highway in the mid-20th century. “What better way to figure out how to inform our policies and our practices than actually investing in the neighborhood and helping (residents) and empowering them to be a part of those solutions,” Harris said. An organization that works with the New
SU team posts racist symbol By Skyler Rivera
By Maggie Hicks
s a child, Deanna Holland’s mother lived where the parking lot for Upstate University Hospital now sits. Her home was destroyed to make room for Interstate 81. Like 1,300 other Syracuse residents, she was forced to leave her home so the state could construct the highway, which splits through Syracuse’s Southside neighborhood. Now, nearly 55 years later, the state plans to remove and replace the deteriorating section of the raised highway. Holland, who lives less than a quarter of a mile from I-81, fears her community could face the same fate as her mother. “We’re reliving history at this point,” she said. The New York State Department of Transportation and the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council began the official process of deciding what to do with the section of highway, referred to as the I-81 viaduct, in 2011. In 2019, NYSDOT announced that it would favor a plan to remove the viaduct and replace it with a “community grid” of surface level streets in the area. Although the state is still waiting on an environmental review of the project, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that the state plans to break ground on the project in 2022. When the viaduct is removed, it will leave behind 18 acres of developable land, eight of
women’s lacrosse
York attorney general’s office recently awarded Blueprint 15 a $1 million grant. The nonprofit will use the funds to kick-start several antidisplacement strategies in the neighborhood, including hiring neighborhood representatives and establishing a housing trust fund. The state plans to begin work on the aging highway in 2022, replacing the current viaduct with a community grid that will redirect some traffic onto city streets. But some residents worry that the project will force them from their homes once the viaduct comes down. Robert Mike, president of the Pioneer Homes Tenants Association and a Blueprint 15 board member, said the nonprofit’s goal is to ensure that the state doesn’t make the same mistakes it made when the highway first went up. Pioneer Homes is a public housing complex that the highway’s construction bisected in the 1950s and 60s. “We’re going about it a totally different way,”
Mike said. “We’re getting information from the tenants, the people in the community, to see what they want. It’s not what we want — it’s what they want.” Displacement has been a major issue in the area since construction of I-81 viaduct first displaced residents, said Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens, who also serves as president of Blueprint 15’s board of directors. “Blueprint’s role is to be a partner in what that redevelopment looks like and to ensure that our community does not make the mistake that it repeatedly makes: dislocating the indigenous residents of the neighborhood,” Owens said. Blueprint 15 received the $1 million grant from Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that works with the state Attorney General’s office to direct money won see grant page 6
The photo was posted on Tuesday evening as part of an Instagram “take over” hosted by a player on the team. In the photo, a different player is seen making an “OK” hand gesture, which the Anti-Defamation League has deemed a symbol of hate. The team did not identify the player who made the symbol and has since deleted the post. The hand gesture was “part of a game” the team plays called “the circle game,” and the post was never intended to be “malicious or antagonistic,” the team said in a statement issued Wednesday. “But in any situation like this, intent does not matter. This was an unacceptable lapse in judgment and lack of awareness on the part of our entire team,” the statement reads. “We as members of this program take collective responsibility for the harm this post may have caused.” During a Wednesday press conference, head coach Gary Gait reiterated the statement and said, “It was a mistake, an unintended one.” “This incident does not reflect our character, but it does demonstrate the work we have to do,” the team’s statement reads. “It shows that many of us are privileged enough to live free of the fear and hate that white supremacy brings to the Black community as well as other marginalized groups.” “The future of lacrosse is bright, and we are determined to help it grow in inclusivity, diversity and love of the game.” skrivera@syr.edu @skylerriveraa