CNYSpeaks Hosts Syracuse Mayoral
Candidate Forum.
CNYSpeaks -- an initiative dedicated to
elevating the quality of citizen deliberation, communication and
decision-making -- brought together the six candidates and
approximately 150 residents to the September 8 forum where the
candidates answered 12 questions ranging from improving safety
downtown to tearing down the elevated section of Interstate 81
through Syracuse.
Read more. Recently, CNYSpeaks
launched a conversation on improving downtown
Syracuse in 2008. Using forums, a blog and surveys, citizens have
provided the project with thousands of comments on what they love
about downtown, what keeps them from visiting more often and how
they want to see the city center evolve and grow. The result has
been thousands of comments that explore Downtown's assets, its
relationship with the rest of the region, its problems and its
potential. From the beginning, the goals were: to distill the
essence of this conversation into a Citizens' Agenda for Downtown
Syracuse; to present the agenda to the candidates for mayor at a
public forum; to listen to the candidates' reactions, comments and
concerns; to let them articulate their own vision for Downtown; to
report on what they say. CNYSpeaks
has recently published a
final version of the Citizens' Agenda in The Post-Standard.
Citizens and the candidates for mayor, which all seven candidates
have agreed to attend, are set to discuss the Agenda together at a
forum set for 6 p.m. September 8 at the Hotel Syracuse. Read
more. 09/09/09
CNYSpeaks
a
joint-project
of The Post Standard,
Syracuse.com, Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, and
the
Program on the
Analysis and Resolution of
Conflicts,
was one of the projects recognized.
The Project Leaders are: Tina
Nabatchi,
Assistant Professor of Public
Administration;
Grant Reeher,
Associate Professor
of Political Science;
Greg Munno,
The
Post-Standard.
On March 19, 2009 Chancellor Nancy
Cantor recognized nineteen Leadership Projects from various
academic disciplines from across the university as part of
the Scholarship in Action Program. These
projects shared a common purpose: to bring faculty and
students together in collaboration with communities of
experts from many sectors in addressing critical questions
and challenges facing society. Chancellor
Cantor also announced that she has directed $2 million in
external funding SU recently received toward 19 Chancellor's
Leadership Projects.
The Chancellors Leadership
Projects, Scholarship in Action brochure states that-
"One
of the most reliable measures of community leadership is the degree
to which policies and priorities correlate to citizen's concerns. In an effort to encourage responsive leadership, CNYSpeaks
has created mechanisms by which citizens can participate in
constructing Citizen's Agendas, the first of which is a "Citizen's
Agenda for Downtown Syracuse." Individual agenda items, along
with background and potential solutions, are to be published in
the Post Standard
over a period of months.
Once the draft agenda is complete, CNYSpeaks will
host a series of public forums with elected officials and candidates
for city offices to discuss agenda items and monitor implementation
and public action. Students contribute to the process by
helping to create public relations campaigns, interning in
government offices, or leading dialogue and focus groups. The
project's goal is to naturalize the role of citizens in speaking
directly to government in order to promote public communications and
enhance democracy."
Congratulations to CNYSpeaks!
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CNYSpeaks is an
initiative created to get the citizens of Central New York
talking about downtown Syracuse -- what they love about it
and what needs to change to get them downtown
more often. By
engaging citizens directly, CNYSpeaks hopes to tease out the
issues Downtown needs
to overcome, identify potential
solutions, and create a Citizens’ Agenda for Downtown
Syracuse
that will be presented to our government and civic
leaders. CNYSpeaks is a
To join
the conversation, visit the blog at
http://blog.syracuse.com/cny-speaks
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