With eight months left of his eight years in City Hall, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh held an hour-long question-and-answer session in early spring with a Le Moyne College 300-level journalism class. By city law, a mayor can serve no longer than two consecutive 4-year terms.

Walsh spoke about the most dire challenges facing Syracuse. He was “self-reflective” about what he sees as his administration’s most significant accomplishments; about the changes he wished he had made; about brief moments he described of feeling “imposter syndrome,” when he would turn to a team he admires for guidance and support; and about his struggles to balance the responsibilities of his life at work and home.

The mayor – the grandson of a Republican Syracuse mayor and the son of a Republican Central New York congressman – opened up to the class about the experiences of being the first mayor who served as an independent in over 100 years. Nearing the end of his time in office, Walsh said he was particularly proud of how that independent status “allowed me to get really talented people … including some that wouldn’t have necessarily been inclined to go that route.”

The session was lengthy. Some questions and responses are edited for space.

The Q and A:

TAYLOR BONNER: What is the biggest problem Syracuse is facing?

THE MAYOR: …I think poverty is probably number one, certainly related is violence that occurs in the city and the trauma that ripples from that violence, both for those directly involved and for those indirectly involved (who are) living in neighborhoods where violence occurs. I think, more broadly, people struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues is a real significant challenge.

DELAINA PALMATIER: Given the ongoing debate surrounding the Columbus statue, how do you balance preserving historical landmarks with those who see the Columbus legacy as harmful to indigenous communities?

THE MAYOR: I tell people that if you would have told me when I was running in 2017 that I would have determined the monument should be relocated, I wouldn’t have believed you. I was aware of the concerns and the controversy, I was sensitive to it but I didn’t realize at that point where it would take us. Ultimately I’m a big believer in dialogue, and so — acknowledging that it was a longstanding issue — I proactively convened dialogue circles, with different constituencies, to address the issue, which up until that point hadn’t really been formally addressed.

And it was really through those dialogue circles and a subsequent kind of planning process that I came to the conclusion that what was best for the city was to relocate the monument. That was done at the height of the pandemic, at a time when a lot of communities were reckoning with their monuments and I think that for me, ultimately, it was the harm on historically marginalized communities, certainly the indigenous community but not limited to that community, that (made me feel) I could not ultimately justify it.

Our public squares and circles are sacred spaces, and I think that we just kind of take for granted that at some point somebody (in) leadership decided they were going to place that monument in that public circle and I think we are just all too often willing to concede it’s there, so there’s nothing we can do about it.

But I think society changes, evolves, and when you look at that circle, that prominent place in our community (and) the monument that stands in the center of it — regardless of how long it’s been there — speaks to the values of the community.

So while I deeply respect the local Italian-American community, the hardship and oppression they faced themselves — which drove the erection of the monument — I couldn’t justify the harm that it was continuing to do to other communities. My approach was not to destroy the monument but to respectfully identify another place where people who wanted to view it could view it, but to do it in a way that’s removing it from that prominent public space where people don’t have a choice about whether they can view it.

ASHLEY CARTER: During your time as mayor, what would you note as your biggest accomplishment?

THE MAYOR: It’s the team that we have at City Hall, the people. Having had to deal with previous city governments, having worked in a previous administration, the team that we’ve assembled in city government right now… I would stack it up against any previous administration and frankly any other city administration, anywhere. We’re currently working on a very aggressive housing strategy and we have a consultant who just said… he would put (our team) up against any big city that he’s worked with.

GRACE CROOKS: Is there something you wish you had done differently or something you wanted to do but never got the chance?

THE MAYOR: I always struggle with these questions. I try to be very self-aware and self- reflective and so you know, I think there are multiple occasions where if I look back and think I could have or should have done something differently. I’ll give one example, one of the more public challenges that I’m struggling with right now is related to the Syracuse Housing Authority and our ambitious plans for redeveloping a number of their public housing units.

And there were signs early on that there were problems, that there were going to be problems with implementation of that. Looking back on it, I wish that I addressed those problems earlier on. You know, I pride myself on being someone that is easy to work with and that works well with others, and so while I’m not afraid of conflict, I try to resolve it quietly as opposed to publicly and I think if I was a little more aggressive about that earlier on, we may have not gotten to the point where it did spill out into the public realm more recently.

And then the other part of the question was things that maybe I wanted to accomplish… You know, housing was a priority when I came in. I’m really proud of what we accomplished. We’re building more new housing in the city than we have in decades. But there are some big, gnarly projects that I wish we were farther along with, whether it’s the East Adams transformation project, the Maria Regina project on the North Side where we just had a really bad fire and likely lost just a gem of a building, the mother house there.

I don’t know necessarily how I could have moved them faster, but I wish we were able to.

SYDNEY LANIAK: From one independent to another, why do you think it is so important that you are an independent mayor of Syracuse? And what have you been able to accomplish as mayor that a party-aligned mayor has not been able to accomplish?

THE MAYOR: I think the fact that I was able to be successful as an independent hopefully gives other independents hope that it is possible. Virtually everyone that I talked to when I was considering running said you have to pick a party and in Syracuse, it’s about 4-to-1 Democrat, you have to be a Democrat if you want to be elected… I was able to show that there was a different path and I think in that way, I hope that I helped encourage others to seek political office.

Ultimately, I don’t think any one of us fit very neatly into one of those two major party boxes, and I think, again, for a variety of reasons we often feel compelled to try to put ourselves in those boxes, whether it’s because we want to vote in the primary (or) because we want to get elected. I hope that that I was able to show people there is a different path.

In terms of how it’s helped me to be successful … if I’m being honest, there is a long history of political patronage in City Hall where I recall hearing about city staff that … when they were elected or when they were hired … all of a sudden they found out that they were on the Democratic city committee and without even knowing.

Whether it was that, or people feeling like they needed to be mindful of party affiliation when hiring, that is something I’ve never had to take into consideration. I still couldn’t tell you most of my senior staff and department heads’ registration. And so, I think that it enabled me to to get really talented people in this city – including some that wouldn’t have necessarily been inclined to go that route.

And I think that’s also true politically. I think one of the reasons that I was successful is because I brought in a lot of people that ended up supporting me that had not been politically engaged up to that point, because they really didn’t have an invitation to be.

MICHAEL LEAHY: What was the motivation behind changing the schedule of recycling pickup from weekly to biweekly?

THE MAYOR: When we changed the cart system, what we had to account for is that a lot more people are recycling now than they were previously because they have the cart. We have a lot of renters — over 50% of our households are renters here in the city — and so people will move into their place, and they don’t know what the rules are. They might have a blue bin, they might not.

Kind of crazy to think about, but under the old system, we had more trucks, more routes and more staff for our trash routes than we did for our recycling. So we had to account for stopping at every household now because they have a cart. In the short term, it was a capacity issue; we simply didn’t have the trucks and staffing to maintain weekly recycling pickup. Ultimately, we looked at best practices, and the industry standard is biweekly. We were providing a lot more capacity in those carts to put a lot more recycling in, so we didn’t feel it was necessary to pick up those large carts weekly either.

It’s a work-in-progress, but it seems to be working well.

SOPHIA MELONE: What inspired you to get into public service and run for mayor? You said you didn’t want to get into politics, but then something changed. What was the change?

THE MAYOR: I think it was finding a place (where) I felt like I could really make a direct impact in the community, in city government. It was really my passion for city government and my acknowledgement that whoever leads city government as mayor has significant influence on what happens in the city that I love.

JORDAN ROY: What is one piece of advice you wish you would have known before running for mayor and what advice would you give to others who are planning on running for mayor?

THE MAYOR: The one thing that I took a lot of pride in when I ran for office is that … virtually all the neighborhoods that I was in … (it) wasn’t the first time that I was there. I think often times with politicians you know they will show up… at certain neighborhoods or certain venues that they haven’t been in before and so I think, understandably, people question your authenticity and what your motivations are…

…I tell people all the time, the reason that I ran for mayor was because I felt like it was the best way that I could do the most good in this community at that time but it’s certainly not the only way. So (my advice is to) look for ways in which you can do good, ways in which you can get to know your community before you decide if you want to run for office. I think that would better prepare you for (the job if) you do serve and also that will better inform whether or not you should serve.

One thing I was just thinking about within the context (involves) Deputy Mayor Owens, who’s running for mayor. One of the (ways) she immediately added value to the administration… She was coming from running the Southwest Community Center and that executive management experience is really valuable. As well as I felt like I knew the city and as much as I felt like I knew about city government, until you’re in a management position, there are just certain things (on which) you don’t have a clear line of sight.

I think, you know, if I could have had an opportunity to get more of that experience… that would have been helpful, but having those around me that did have it, including the deputy mayor, really helped kind of fill a gap that I didn’t really realize I had going in.

BRANWYN LUPTON: In your time here, how have you addressed sustainability, climate resilience and reduced the city’s carbon footprint?

THE MAYOR: That is actually one of the areas where in hindsight I wish I’d done more. So we actually reorganized our department of neighborhood and business development within the past couple of years and we created a new division of planning and sustainability and that was me kind of acknowledging we needed to do more there.

We’ve done a number of things to address our carbon footprint. One of the most significant things you wouldn’t necessarily think about: We acquired all of our nearly 18,000 streetlights and converted them to LED and in doing so had a significant positive impact on our carbon footprint. We’ve made energy efficiency improvements in a lot of city facilities. We’re currently working on a sustainability plan — in hindsight I would have liked to have structured city government more appropriately to (addressing) those issues more holistically.

ERICA WU: As an international student studying in Syracuse, I’m wondering how you see the city’s development over the next five years, especially in welcoming students and newcomers?

THE MAYOR: Our vision for the city of Syracuse, which we established right at the beginning of the administration, was to be a growing city that embraces diversity and creates opportunity for all. We are an incredibly diverse city — there are over 80 languages spoken in the Syracuse city school district — and I want to be a place where everyone feels welcome, and I feel that applies to international students as well. Obviously what’s happening in Washington is posing some challenges to that. Then again, that’s really who we are as a community and who I want to be going forward.

We have— after decades of decline in population and jobs— we have turned the corner. Our population grew for the first time in 70 years back in the 2020 census — we have significant economic investments that are happening now and will be happening… mainly the Micron investment… and I anticipate that we are going to grow as a community and I’m hopeful the city can maximize the opportunity of that growth and concentrate as much as possible (of it) in the city and do it in a way that creates a welcoming place for everyone to live, whether you’ve grown grew up here or (you’re) coming from someplace else.

DECLAN SOMMER: Being mayor is a demanding role that requires a lot of time and dedication. I’m wondering how being mayor affected your time outside the office and what you have learned from being mayor about balancing leadership and personal responsibility?

THE MAYOR: It’s really, really hard and I’m still learning in my eighth and final year. I mentioned my daughters. My wife Lindsay and I have been married now for 18 years. And it’s hard. Especially with… having my email and my texts on me at all times… it helps me to not feel like I’m tied to the office all the times but I’m also never not working.

So I just try really hard to be disciplined in my scheduling to be sure that I’m carving out time; I try not to miss a game or an extracurricular activity for my daughters. Early on, when they would let me, I would try to include them in some of my work whether it was campaigning or going out to community events; neither one of my daughters is willing to do that with me anymore, which I’m OK with. I get it. It’s officially not cool for your dad to be mayor somewhere around fourth or fifth grade.

It’s hard but you have to prioritize family. I couldn’t do what I do without the support of my wife and my daughters and my friends and family. You just have to make the time. There’s never enough time.

ANDREW JANOWSKI: Has there ever been a time during your first run for mayor, or throughout your terms, that you doubted your abilities or felt as if you couldn’t do this?

THE MAYOR: I wasn’t familiar with the term ‘imposter syndrome’ until, like a few years ago (but) I was like, ‘Oh, I think I have that.’ So yes, like I said, I’m very self-aware… And, yeah, there have been times where I’ve questioned myself and my abilities, but one of the ways in which I’ve tried to address that is to surround myself with really amazing people (who) have different skills than I have, have different life perspectives than I have, that I can lean on when I don’t know what the right answer is.

There are times, I mentioned (the Columbus statue), I’ve tried to handle that situation in a way that I think leads to the right outcome for the community. But there have been times when I’ve questioned whether or not I am on the right path, and I think that ultimately I come back to the conclusion that I am and that we are. But I think anybody that doesn’t second-guess themselves and question themselves is probably fooling themselves.

RICHARD DANN: What was a particularly difficult economic problem you faced as mayor?

THE MAYOR: Poverty. We have an unacceptable rate of poverty here in the city of Syracuse, particularly among Black and brown communities and it affects everything else that we do. As long as we continue to have 30 percent of our city living in poverty it’s really going to limit what we can accomplish and what we can achieve.

Much of poverty is generational and it’s not as simple as making sure job opportunities are available; it’s accounting for the historic barriers that continue to be in place for a lot of individuals and communities and ensuring they have the necessary skills that put them in a position where they can attain employment and bring themselves and their families out of poverty. But it is deeply entrenched and it is a significant challenge but one we work on every day.

KENAN HOZO: What’s the hardest part about being mayor?

THE MAYOR: Two answers to that. One… Anytime you’re a manager and you have staff those problems are the hardest because people are complicated and what happens at home impacts them at work and so hiring and firing are really hard, especially in a community like Syracuse that’s fairly tight-knit… inevitably when you have to make difficult decisions and let people go, you’re going to run into that person on the street. You’re going to know a family member or friend. And that’s hard.

The other part is dealing with the loss this city deals with, particularly as it relates to violence. The times when I’ve felt most powerless (and) helpless in this job is when I’m at a crime scene talking to a family member or friend that’s just lost a loved one and there’s literally nothing I can do at that moment to help them. That’s brutal.

DZENAN HOZO: What have you done in the past to combat poverty?

THE MAYOR: Many of the things I’ve already talked about: a lot of work force development initiatives. We have our ‘Syracuse Build’ program and specifically our ‘Pathways to Apprenticeship’ program that specifically targets historically marginalized communities and brings them into a program that essentially puts them onto a path to get an apprenticeship in a trade of their choice (and) to work on a variety of construction projects we have underway. Investing in our schools (makes) sure our young people are getting the support they need in order to help put themselves in a position where they can lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

Also, beyond just construction jobs, we’ve had within our ‘Syracuse Surge’ initiative a lot of programs… including the Erie 21 program here at Le Moyne… as well as adult education, identifying the skills needed to be competitive in the new economy.

ALIYAH BROWN: Why is the 81 project so important? Why did you decide to take it down?

THE MAYOR: Just to be clear it wasn’t my decision (though) something ultimately I felt very passionate about (notes in the end it was a state call, with federal input)… No. 1, the elevated viaduct was at the end of its useful life. No. 2, for those who wanted to keep it where it was, we knew it needed to get higher and wider to meet federal transportation standards and No. 3, that would have resulted in displacement and taking more property off the tax rolls and ultimately the community grid option, which I was passionate about, proved out to be the best transportation option… per the expert analysis… and also put us in a position to try and best undo some of the negative impacts that viaduct had when it was first carved through the city… particularly (what) those living in the shadow of that viaduct had to face, and (it gave) us an opportunity to kind of re-knit back the fabric of the city and do it in a way mindful of the wrong ways it’s been done in the past.

MARIALICIA VICK: I know Syracuse is a ‘sanctuary city.’ With the new administration cracking down on both legal and illegal immigration, do you have any concerns Syracuse will be next for (acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Tom Homan?

THE MAYOR: The ‘sanctuary city’ term is one that is politically loaded and there’s no formal technical definition for it, so I’m always careful about using that (term). But we are a proud refugee resettlement community, our police department has never and continues to not get involved in federal immigration enforcement and ultimately I’m very concerned… and that’s because my constituents are concerned.

LILY CHRISTOPHER: You’ve served during powerful moments of loss. What moment stood out most distinctly for you?

THE MAYOR: I think again every homicide is a tragedy. The ones that hit the hardest are the ones that affect our most vulnerable populations – very young people and older people as well. Those have been the hardest.

LUCY WEBB: What was the highlight of your recent terms as mayor and what will you miss about the position going forward?

THE MAYOR: I love that I’m in a position to help people and to make immediate changes. So that’s one of the reasons I love city government; you can get things done… I think I’m going to struggle with not being in a position to do that.

(The highlight) it’s hard to pick; but I’m really proud of our housing investments, really proud of a number of our work force development initiatives that have gotten people to work on projects we supported but maybe as much as anything the very tangible changes we’ve made in the city… a longtime civil servant named Vito Sciscioli would say, you want to know how effective a mayor has been, take a walk out your door and look around see what’s changed as a result of that mayor’s leadership.

For me, whether it’s our new streetlights or our new municipal sidewalks program or our new trash carts and our semi-automated trash pickup system or whether it’s the additional roads that we’ve repaved, I’ve been able to make a direct and immediate impact on people’s everyday lives and I feel really good about that.

Possibly one of the most significant milestones of my career would be the conversion of the Syracuse Developmental Center into a neighborhood featuring over 500 housing units, and also creating at Central High School the first (Central New York regional) Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) school, which would be set to welcome students in the fall.

The thing I will miss the most about being mayor is the connections and relationships with people I made, day-to-day interactions with the people of Syracuse and the teamwork and cooperation that exists over party lines to benefit the city.