Building Consensus - Then and Now

The year is 1846, and Syracuse is a village on the Erie Canal with a future on the rise. There is a great debate, and the matter at hand is the quest for a city charter. Becoming a city would upgrade the prestige of the village, and assist in growth for years to come. But there is disagreement among the local population about the geographic extent of the new city. Some want the current village boundaries to remain intact, and others seek to expand the area much farther.

Sound familiar? Well, 170 years later, another great debate rages, over a similar topic. For those of you who may not know, the Commission on Local Government Consolidation (aka “Consensus”) has issued a preliminary report suggesting ideas for merging governments in Onondaga County. The suggestions of the report span a continuum of options, ranging from extending shared-cost initiatives to consolidating police departments, local courts, and government functions. Perhaps the most noticeable point of the report is to seek a merged government between the City of Syracuse and the County of Onondaga.

Naturally, the report has people up in arms on both sides of the table. We've reached a place where deep distrust exists between the City of Syracuse, local suburban towns, and Onondaga County. The recent feud between the City and County Industrial Development Authorities over the Inner Harbor Development is only one example of this distrust. NIMBYism at the town level seems to kill projects often, and threatens one of the larger potential investments in recent history with the proposed Inland Port. County citizens “don’t want their tax dollars used to bail out the City,” and City residents are afraid of lost representation.

So perhaps the times are not so different now than they were then. But Syracuse in 1846 had a citizen by the name of Harvey Baldwin.

Wrong Baldwin, right idea

In 1846, Harvey Baldwin had a vision. Baldwin delivered a speech in 1846 that Gurney Strong describes as “the most sanguine, hopeful, confident regarding the future of Syracuse that was ever delivered” in his 1894 book Early Landmarks of Syracuse. It was a speech that was very much ahead of its time, and his passion for the region and his hope for its future subjected him, in Strong's words, “to unbounded ridicule and caused him to be looked upon as a fool.” As a Syracusan, reading the words full of zeal and enthusiasm for his village, my city, brought a small tear to my eye. I wish to share an exceptionally powerful excerpt:

What a beautiful view will here burst upon the delighted traveler as he treads the lofty deck of the ocean or lake steamer just emerging from the slackened water and deepened channel of the Oswego into our beautiful lake, or as he is whirled with locomotive power and speed along the numerous railways that on the east and west, the north and south, approach the town. The extended city, with its hundred spires, pinnacles, and domes, its ascending smoke, vapor and dust, lies before him. On the east and west, the sloping hills, which by an easy and gentle gradation from the south, drop here to the level of the valley, are studded with splendid mansions and neat cottages; and southward still, rising in magnificent gradation, are seen in the dim distance the blue and folding hills of Onondaga, Lafayette, and Pompey, whose sides and summits are chequered by neat farms, carved out from the forest, and these again chequered and colored by all the various crops of the husbandman, with innumerable flocks and herds feeding upon their green and rich pastures, or basking in the genial rays of the sun that warms its fertile soil- while at the north our beautiful lake lies like a gem in the lap of the extended valley, which, unbroken, sweeps away towards the mighty Ontario, whose waters wash the northern shores of our Republic, and whose center channel defines our northern boundary.

What a beautiful view, indeed...

As anyone who grew up here (and perhaps, more so, those who have moved here) can attest, our region is blessed with natural wonder and beauty. Mr. Baldwin evokes this beauty, and he does not stop at the boundaries of the then-village of Syracuse. We may not remember it now, but there was a time when the pristine Onondaga Lake was the jewel of our region.

Although the context suggests Mr. Baldwin hoped that the city charter would encompass a greater area than just the current Syracuse, he was not successful in this endeavor. Where he was successful, however, was in convincing enough people that the then-villages of Syracuse and Salina should merge. And in 1848, those villages did, forming the City of Syracuse. Harvey Baldwin was elected its first mayor.

Where can we tie comparisons to our current debate resulting from the suggestions of Consensus? The arguments of 1846 and 2016 are similar ones: Should we merge governments? What will the geographic extent of this new creation be? Are the people who suggest this fools? Is this even a reality? The fatal flaw of the Consensus report may be its main feature- that the combined government would be combination of the Syracuse and Onondaga County Governments, and that towns could opt-in to the arrangement. If we are to merge, we must move forward together. Without commitment to each other, fragmentism and distrust will continue to be the discourse of the day.

There are many questions to still be answered, and the release of this first Consensus report is only step one in the discourse on government consolidation. But, we should move forward with open minds; if the public meetings that have occurred so far are any indication, then many seem opposed to anything but the status quo.

Harvey Baldwin professed his lofty goals with passion. Who will be our Harvey Baldwin? Who will take the lead in carrying our proud city and county into the 21^st century? Quite frankly, it is time for our region to step up to the challenge. As we move forward through the public involvement process of the Consensus report, let us all channel a little Harvey Baldwin.