A horn echoed through Erika Barry’s house on Buckingham Avenue at 3 a.m., waking her family. The snow plow blared its horn for five minutes to signal that someone needed to wake up and move their car. The car was parked on the wrong side of the street, and the plow couldn’t pass through.

“There’s no one coming,” Barry recalled yelling in December 2017, as her kids began to cry. “They’re not coming.”

Barry knew that the car belonged to a Syracuse University student who had left for winter break.

Homeowners represent a small portion of Syracuse overall, with just 38% of people living in homes they own, according to data from the United States Census Bureau. That number is a little more than half the national average for homeownership, according to the first quarter 2019 census. Most renters in the University Hill area are studying at SU, but some homeowners hold out, finding different reasons to live among the sea of students.

Turnover for student renters creates two separate communities within the same eight-block neighborhood east of campus, existing with little interaction. University Neighborhood spans from Euclid Avenue to E. Colvin Street and east of Comstock Avenue. Students living off campus may not know who lives next to them, and families don’t know who they share a street with.

Joseph Personte, director of SU’s Office for Off-Campus and Commuter Services, said he encourages students to get to know their neighbors. Annabel Hine Otts, a long-time resident of University Neighborhood, said that isn’t reality.

“They are their community, probably multiple communities, and we are ours,” Hine Otts said.

Barry, now a mother of three kids, has since moved to Cumberland Street, about a mile southeast from her former home on Buckingham Avenue. When Barry realized another baby was on the way, she and her husband wanted more space. All the four-bedroom homes in the area were taken by student renters, so she and her family had to move to the edge of the neighborhood, she said. 

She wishes that she could have stayed closer to the heart of University Neighborhood, but houses there sell for well above the market value of similar homes in other areas, she said. One house on the 200 block of Clarendon Street sold for $290,000 in 2013, almost double its 2019 market value of $143,590, according to property records.

Families have sold their homes above market-rate because developers are willing to pay a higher premium, said Hine Otts. She was able to buy her house on Greenwood Place because the previous owner would only sell to an owner-occupant, which means deeper-pocketed developers could not outbid her. 

Even though she had to deal with cars parked on the wrong side of the street, Barry thought students brought vitality and diversity to the neighborhood — they have served as babysitters and dog watchers in the past, she said, and her neighbors are constantly changing.

The lack of owner-occupied houses in the neighborhood could stem from the landlords who rent out the properties. According to a 2013 study published by Central New York Fair Housing, three different landlords in University Neighborhood made it difficult for families to rent homes. The landlords required prospective tenants to fill out additional paperwork or refused to rent to non-students. The landlords’ actions were illegal under the Fair Housing Act which prohibits discrimination based on familial status, according to the study.

Sally Santangelo, executive director of CNY Fair Housing, said similar discrimination happens in cities around New York state with high student populations, like Cornell University in Ithaca and Binghamton University in Binghamton.

Joe Russo, who lives on Lancaster Avenue, walks 45 minutes to and from his work in downtown Syracuse everyday. He has become used to being surrounded by students, after 41 years in University Neighborhood., he said. Loud parties, incorrect trash disposal and students urinating on his property have become common occurrences. Even though his kids have grown up and moved out, the ability to walk through neighborhood is still worth the hassle for Russo.

“All you’ve got to tell them is, ‘Please don’t urinate on my property,’ and they won’t do it anymore,” Russo said.  

Annabel Hine Otts said she deals with five to seven disturbances from her student neighbors every year. Patrick Linehan | Staff Writer

A block west of Westcott Street, Hine Otts raises her four kids in their home. Hine Otts, who grew up in University Neighborhood, recalled a more even balance of student housing. She would like more families around for her kids, she said.

Hine Otts deals with disturbances from her student neighbors five to seven times a year, she said. She has had to yell out her window in the middle of the night to have her neighbors turn down the music playing as her kids slept, she said. She has smelled marijuana as she plays with her kids on her front porch.

Loud partiers don’t bother her as much as safety. Hine Otts’ kids have to go into the street on their small pink tricycles because students park their cars over the sidewalk in front of their driveway, obstructing their path. 

One student took the time to befriend Hine Otts’ two young daughters a few years ago. Every day he would walk by, occasionally bringing them chocolates and Barbie dolls. He even came back after his graduation to visit.

“If I’m going to live in Syracuse, I want it to be in this neighborhood,” Hine Otts said. “This is my neighborhood.”

Published on April 28, 2019 at 10:21 pm

Contact Patrick: pjlineha@syr.edu