My Journey

Choosing Syracuse

Born and raised in Geneva, NY, I arrived in Syracuse in 1981 as an 18 year old freshman on the Syracuse University campus and discovered the first members of my extended family in Manley Field House with the newly formed women’s track and field team. During my time at SU, I gained a top tier education and broadened my horizons by traveling the country with the team. I also became a Big East Conference champion (that's me high jumping 😊), Orange Plus Hall of Fame inductee and achieved Olympic qualifying status in the women’s long jump event.

Sports has always been my "north star”, the internal compass that honed my competitive nature, self-discipline, and belief in the power of teamwork. Those accomplishments were a result of the commitment and hard work that equipped me with the qualities and skills needed to be a leader and mentor off the field. While many SU students miss the opportunity to meet the community, it was athletics that led to my "first date” with the Syracuse community.

What I didn’t know was how that experience would introduce me to my new home and feed my passion for serving people. What I couldn't imagine was four decades later I would run for Mayor in what would become my adopted and beloved home.

The strength of Syracuse is its people. Since coming to this town I have worked, laughed and cried with wonderful people. During great highs and humbling lows the grit and tenacity of the folk in this town resonate with who I am. The people of Syracuse are fighters and so am I. Dedication and commitment to family and community is what I see in Syracuse and its people. I’ve long recognized the potential of this city, and will continue to fiercely stand for and with Syracuse.

Helping Families Prosper

The Dunbar Center was seeking SU athletes to serve as interns during the summer months. I’m sure they were expecting a football, basketball or lacrosse player but they got a hard working track athlete instead. That experience changed my life and led to relationships with people in this community that exists to this day.

From the SU campus my journey continued in the nonprofit world with PEACE, Inc., Jubilee Homes, Home Headquarters and Syracuse Community Connections at the Southwest Community Center. Each of these agencies provided more opportunities to further learn from the people of this great city and fostered my enduring commitment to their wellbeing.

While at SU I believed my academic focus was directing me to Wall Street, the center of worldwide financial influence. My summer internship at Dunbar challenged that perspective. Financial stability is a critical element for the wellbeing of families, neighborhoods and the larger community. What that internship revealed, and my experience in the nonprofit world reinforced, was a clear understanding of how economic policies and practices were bypassing large sections of our community.

Poverty rates in Syracuse, especially among black and Latino children are a direct result of their financial status. While poverty is defined as a financial condition, I believe it operates and influences the lives of people like a virus attacking the physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing of those it infects. We are in an economic moment that presents an opportunity to administer an antidote to fight it. The injection must be strategic, intentional and steadily infused through workforce training, placement and small business development.

At PEACE, Inc. I worked with women on the city’s lower east side where infant mortality rates were critically high in the 90’s, in order to facilitate greater access to health care. This is personal to me. My family lost our second of three children in 1993 when I went into premature labor. My experience doing this work gave me a greater understanding of the power of community engagement through kitchen table, door to door, person to person interactions for improving critical health care for moms and unborn children. While there, I also worked with the Head Start program to assist families, particularly those headed by women as they strived to raise healthy and whole families.

The Power of Education

Education is the foundation for prosperous families and communities. Syracuse is an education rich community. My commitment to lifelong learning begins with early childhood development and extends to the eldest in our community expanding their education and skills. Again, my personal experience drives my commitment. As the mother of a differently able young man, I know first-hand how educational pathways must be diverse and opportunities extensive.

Education in our community must take many different forms, starting with school attendance and graduation; that leads to multiple paths including skilled trades, college, and military or public service. As Mayor I will work collaboratively with the Syracuse City School District Superintendent and School Board to identify resources that promote effective learning environments for our children.

This moment for Syracuse demands a laser focused approach on preparing our community's young and old for the skills required for present industries and the flexibility to adjust to future demands. Education is a pathway to our collective prosperity and will be a critical component of my mission.

Coalition Builder for a Better Syracuse

The ability to listen to and learn from people is critical for establishing and achieving common goals across socio-economic, neighborhood, cultural and ethnic boundaries. Coalition building doesn’t happen just for the sake of bringing people together. It empowers them to believe in the power of their impact on our community.

While at Home Headquarters I witnessed the spark of belief in first generation homeownership. At Syracuse Community Connections, I worked with the team and community to lead the Southwest Community Center (SWCC) to the next level by providing a safe environment and wide variety of services. This involved listening and learning from the people about what was required to strengthen the confidence of the community, funders, and staff to ensure that impactful community conversations and action planning took place at SWCC.

We can do nothing alone. Coalition building is a vital component of mayoral leadership. I have always been a coalition builder. Listening, understanding and collaborating is and would continue to be my leadership style as mayor to ensure successful outcomes that benefit Syracuse.

Creating Thriving Neighborhoods for Families

Women and men I worked with at Head Start would walk into Home Headquarters ready to buy a home. As we reconnected, they shared their accomplishments: “I got my GED”; “I went back to school and got a degree”; “I have a good job”; “My baby is going to college!”

During our work together, these individuals were making progress but their surroundings didn’t support their newly formed expectations of what they envisioned for themselves and their families. Where a person lays their head at night should not predetermine their opportunity for success. How a person lays their head at night surely affects their ability to prepare for success daily. For me, policy work in city government presented a new path to serve Syracuse and help people through housing and neighborhood development. This experience, shaped by the lived experience of the people of Syracuse, propelled my decision to accept my first offer to serve in City Hall during Mayor Stephanie Miner’s administration as Deputy Commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development and MWBE Compliance officer. In these roles I was empowered to advance my desire to shape city wide policy and affect the way residents and stakeholders live, conduct business, work and play.

As Deputy Mayor in the Ben Walsh administration, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to again create and implement policy to improve housing, business and neighborhoods. I continue to be committed to a housing trajectory that involves safety, health and affordability.

Economic Prosperity and Inclusion

People won't believe our local economy is growing until they feel it in their purse or pocket. City Hall has a direct impact on the local economy by enabling business growth and job creation. That impact must be inclusive of all of Syracuse's residents.

I’ve always said downtown is the economic beating heart of Syracuse and we must keep her strong and thriving. While downtown is the heart, our neighborhood business corridors are the arteries carrying downtown’s growing prosperity into our neighborhoods. Empty buildings where business existed sends neighborhoods a message: “You’ve been abandoned”. These structures which once housed local business must be restored or repurposed so that abandoned commercial or retail spaces are ready for a local business to move in and turn on the lights.

Those businesses need access to technical assistance and capital. I am committed to continuing the work of the Resurgent Neighborhoods Initiative to invest in our neighborhood business corridors to foster small business opportunities and meet neighborhood amenity needs.

Sharon Owens featured on City & State