A long neighborhood nightmare is over. Yesterday, the city of Syracuse demolished the old A Shack Market. The area around the site will be the future home of a community garden and 5 new single-family homes.
SUN helped close the market down in 2006 under the city’s nuisance abatement law. SUN neighborhood leaders testified at three separate hearings about the numerous drug arrests on the property. In the last two years of the store’s existence the Syracuse Police Dept. responded to 242 calls for offenses such as weapons, loitering, public intoxication and drug sales. These calls resulted in 108 arrests.
The store incurred the wrath of other law enforcement agencies for selling pirated DVD’s, selling alcohol to minors and for engaging in a massive food stamp fraud–bilking the government out of a million dollars! It is for that crime that the owner gave up control of the store. SUN convinced the feds to push the owner to give up possession of the store as part of his plea deal and turn the property over to the city of Syracuse under federal asset forfeiture laws.
The city, in turn, will pass the property over to Syracuse Model Neighborhood Corp.(SMNC), and the newly vacant lot will be part of the project SUN organized with SMNC, Jubilee Homes and Living Waters Church to redevelop the area with home repairs, new construction, a community garden and store and a faith-based youth center.
The media turned out in full force to see the A Shack Market demolished. Catch all the action here with WSTM TV 3, News 10 Now, and video shot by the Post-Standard in lieu of an actual story in the newspaper
