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Syracuse is "making sustainability work"

Syracuse city government has taken greater strides to promote sustainability, according to a panel discussion groupl.
Oliver Hine
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via Flickr
Syracuse city government has taken greater strides to promote sustainability, according to a panel discussion groupl.

On the eve of Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner’s State of the City address, a panel of community leaders met at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry to discuss the state of the city’s sustainability efforts.

Chuckie Holstein from the citizen action group F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse was a featured panel member.

She says within the past year, the city has been taking greater strides to promote sustainability - way more than previous administrations.

Holstein says one problem she sees is that the idea of “sustainability” is too often lumped in with "green" ideas, when in practice it's much broader than that.

"We really need to have three things interacting with each other if we want this community to live from generation to generation,” says Holstein. “Those three things are economic vitality, social justice and social equity, and environmental stewardship.”

For sustainability to work, Holstein says the city needs to have to have all three, and can’t do one without the other.

Miner shares that three-pronged approach, according to a Syracuse director of planning and sustainability Andrew Maxwell, speaking on her behalf. Holstein says she's hoping that will be evident tonight when Miner

When she delivers her state of the city address Thursday night, Holstein says she hopes the mayor will highlight some of the city’s progress when it comes to sustainability.

The question on the Innovation Trail's mind: will she take a position on recycling bins?

Innovation Trail alumnus Ryan Morden is originally from Seattle. He graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's in journalism, minoring in political science and Scandinavian studies. Morden was Morning Edition producer and reporter at WRVO before moving over to the Innovation Trail project. Before landing at WRVO, Morden covered the Washington State legislature as a correspondent for Northwest News Network (N3), a group of nine NPR affiliates in the northwest.
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