Syracuse Surge charts a new direction for the city and region. We’re building on a massive investment in technology infrastructure to drive new strategic investment.
In Syracuse, our best days are ahead and we have a plan to get there. Fast.
As New York state’s central city, Syracuse has a long history of industrial innovation and a solid reputation for hard work. Through public and private partnerships, Syracuse Surge brings these renowned qualities together at the intersection of technology, inclusion and the greater good. We’re adapting our blue-collar traditions to high technology, training an elite workforce to fuel the New Economy.
Syracuse Surge is an inclusive community plan to ignite economic growth and neighborhood transformation in the city of Syracuse and the Central New York region. Syracuse Surge charts a new direction for the city and region. We’re building on a massive investment in technology infrastructure to drive new strategic investment.
For starters, the city of Syracuse’s $38 million investment in a connected network will put Syracuse on the map, making it the first and largest fully connected city in the United States. The city is equipping 17,507 street lights to build a high capacity fiber optic data ring integrating 5G technology to make a more inclusive tech-driven community. To further close the digital divide, the city has programming to provide connected devices and offer training in digital literacy.
We’re working on the Center City Innovation Hub, the modernization and revitalization of Syracuse skyline AXA Towers Plaza into a central point for tech business development and innovation. With two of downtown Syracuse’s core economic drivers, the Tech Garden and downtown’s biggest employer, AXA Equitable, revitalization and expansion of the Center City Innovation Hub is a lynchpin of the continued revitalization of downtown Syracuse and the Syracuse Surge vision overall.
The Center City Innovation Hub will also be a key component of the Syracuse Surge tech tourism strategy, which links high tech businesses and infrastructure with the convention district’s tourism assets. The Hub will include renovations to the streetscape and plaza, an expansion of the Tech Garden with dedicated hardware and innovation labs, and tenant retention investments.
The city of Syracuse’s near Southside, once home to the vibrant and strong 15th ward neighborhood, has suffered in recent decades in the shadow of the 81 viaduct. This area will become home to the Southside Campus for the New Economy, a regional education and workforce training center, and tech business accelerator, to prepare Syracuse the region’s young people, adults, and businesses for the global technology economy.
The signature feature of the campus is a regional STEAM School in a fully restored and modernized former Central Tech High School. The Syracuse STEAM School focusing on science, technology, engineering, the arts and math will transform the Southside into a producer of tomorrow’s workforce. The school will capitalize on the City’s success in career and technical education and serve students from a three-county area.
The Southside Campus for the New Economy will also house an expanded SUNY Educational
Opportunity Center’s new Workforce Development Center, offering state-of-the-art facilities to prepare workers and start-ups for the opportunities of today and tomorrow.
Linking the Southside Campus to people who need jobs will be a citywide Bus Rapid Transit
(BRT) system emanating from the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority hub next to the STEAM school.
Finally, the New York Center for Smart Cities represents a public/private center of excellence for the development and implementation of smart city and Internet of Things (IoT) technology statewide.