A Shack attack: This shuttered South Side convenience store will finally be demolished to make way for much-needed single family homes. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO
The long-awaited demolition of the aging eyesore moved a bit closer to reality three weeks ago when inspectors began to conduct a Hazardous Materials Survey on the building. Workers were observed going in and out of the building several times during the week, finally emerging and posting warning signs on the doors indicating the presence of asbestos. The market had been shut down in 2006 after it became the subject of federal prosecution, but the site has remained a favorite point for homeless men to drink and congregate.
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A worker at the A Shack, Jose Vasquez-Melendez, was sentenced two weeks ago to two years in federal prison and ordered to make restitution for defrauding the food stamp program by allowing food stamp recipients to exchange stamps for cash to the tune of $400,000. Wael Deb, who ran the store, also pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and will be sentenced in December. Prosecutors charged him with allowing food stamp holders to use their benefits for non-eligible items such as paying cell phone bills. Deb’s mother, who is listed as the owner of the property, signed an agreement with the city to permit the demolition, in hopes that her cooperation might sit well with Norman Mordue, U.S. District judge for the Northern District, when he sentences her son in December.
Mayor Matt Driscoll promised in his State of the City address earlier this year to tear down the building by the end of the year and begin the process of redeveloping the Midland-Lincoln-Bellevue corridor, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. It looks now like the city will meet that goal, thanks to some fancy legal footwork by Corporation Counsel Rory McMahon.
“A Shack was a hub of serious criminal activity,” said McMahon, who has been the city’s chief lawyer since October 2006. “We had a hook because we knew that the federal sentencing guidelines allowed for what is known as a ‘downward departure’ if the defendant cooperated or made restitution. I got together with Judge Mordue, with Randi Bianco {Deb’s attorney} and Greg West of the U.S. attorney’s office. We had a meeting with Syracuse Model Neighborhood Corporation (SMNC). Everybody was on board. The neighbors were ecstatic.”
Tom Francis runs the SMNC, which owns nearly 100 low-income rental properties on the South Side. He is part of the neighborhood effort to redevelop the corner once the A Shack comes tumbling down. “My understanding is that the city now has permission to take it down,” said Francis. “The Hazardous Materials Survey is the first step.”
According to Francis, the neighborhood plan calls for an urban farm to be developed on the Midland Avenue segment of the property, and for five single-family, owner-occupied homes to be built on the Lincoln Avenue side. The farm is to be run by Jubilee Homes. The houses will cost between $150,000 and $160,000 each to build, and Francis expects to sell them for $70,000 apiece. The difference will come from subsidy monies made available through Onondaga County when it agreed to provide funds to mediate the impact of the controversial sewage treatment plant located right across from the boarded-up A Shack.
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Francis is confident that if he builds the homes, the people will come. “I’m encouraged,” he said, even in a neighborhood with many vacant houses. “People want new. Usually we can sell a house before it gets built. I don’t think that we are in any danger that tomorrow we will be dealing with gentrification here, but things are getting better.”
Tim Carroll, director of operations for the city, is hopeful that the actual demolition may take place before the end of August. He views the change on that street corner as a turning point for the South Side.
“There’s no doubt,” said Carroll, “that the A Shack has had a notorious history in that neighborhood. It was once a symbol of despair. But now it is something of a beacon of hope. It’s a bit of a rallying cry for the neighbors. Using the Community Initiative funds from the county, we will be able to spend up to $3 million in the Midland-Lincoln-Bellevue sector. Already there are porches being fixed up, roofs being repaired, and soon there will be new homes going up.”
On July 28, the Common Council was set to approve transfer of title from the city to SMNC of the three plots on the Midland side. The cost of demolition is estimated to run between $15,000 and $25,000.
The A Shack is not the only issue confronting the corridor. The A Shack is across the street from the Oxford Inn homeless shelter for men, and the Shack’s empty porch has become a favorite hangout for the men who emerge from the boxy little building tucked up against the sewage treatment plant.
“The Ox,” as it is known, is run by Catholic Charities and has been a no-questions-asked place of refuge for Syracuse’s homeless men since the early 1980s. Many of those who sleep there have drinking problems, and their exodus from the building early each morning is a sad parade of forgotten humanity. It does not sit well with many neighbors.
“We still have to deal with the Oxford Inn,” noted Francis. “There are other shelters run by agencies, including Catholic Charities, that are run in a way that doesn’t disrupt the surrounding neighborhood. Some of them you wouldn’t even know that they’re there. We’re working with Catholic Charities so that some of the problems of the residents don’t spill out into the street and the neighborhood.”
—Ed Griffin-Nolan
