Merging Catholic Churches…Another One Bites The Dust

Consolidations and mergers seem to be everywhere these days. I had always thought in times of such overall instability, religion would be the one steadfast anchor to fall back on. But it seems with the growing national trend of closing and merging Catholic churches, even the church will be hard to trust. St. Therese’s and Our Lady Of Solace churches are merging into All Saints Church this week - marking the latest closure under the massive reorganization of the seven-county Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse.

Most of the hard feelings and frustrations in this merger was lack of consideration of the church communities in decision-making by the Diocese, as it has strung both parishes on for quite some time. The Diocese chose St. Therese’s church as the site for All Saints Church because of its location, leaving the community around Our Lady Of Solace in disbelief.  St. Therese’s was built 82 years ago as a temporary structure and bears no comparison to the beauty and hard work put into building Our Lady of Solace.

But there was no big protest or backlash at St. Therese’s on Monday. Just a small group of dedicated parishioners mailing out registration forms and mass schedules to the core members (about 440 people total) of both parishes. Parishioners and volunteers expressed sadness more than anything else for the loss of community and church family as they knew it. 

The church hopes that merging the two parishes will help make up for declines in clergy and church members and make masses fuller to attract more parishioners from the area. But parishioners foresee numerous problems and a huge question mark of how many Our Lady of Solace parishioners will switch over.

“Some will and some won’t. Generally you lose 30-40% of the congregation in a merger…and some can’t come this far in the winter-time,” said Sister Mirabito.

Reconstruction on St. Therese’s will continue around the schedule of masses starting this Saturday for All Saints Church, until the altar is extended, the interior is painted and the installations of artifacts from Our Lady of Solace are made.

I think this experience covering the merging of these two churches was a gem of a story, deeply embedded in the emotions and personal ties of a community. I admire the resolve of the people we spoke to for their dedication to their church, its history, and their ability to rise above a devastating situation to which they are helpless in remedying. 

Churches in Syracuse are Closing their Doors.

At 21, it's hard to imagine turning 40, much less being part of one organization for 40 years. Today we met a woman who was part of Our Lady of Solace Church for that long. When Sister Mirabito told me about her involvement in her church, I thought of my own grandparents who always sat in the front pew, who never missed communion, and who like Sister Mirabito would be devestated if their parish closed. But that's what Sister Mirabito and others at Our Lady of Solace are going through as they get ready to go to their first mass as All Saints parishioners next Sunday.

The Syracuse Catholic Diocese is planning on closing a total of 40 (see a theme in numbers here?) catholic churches throught the city. When churches close, parishes from different churches merge. Sister Mirabito said that when this happens the parish loses 30%-40% of its people. Its no wonder she said what she will miss the most is the people who can't make it to the new All Saints Church, which is at the old St. Therese location.

People from both St. Therese and Our Lady of Solace Church said that waitng while the Diocese chose which church would be the new site of All Saints, was painful and emotional. But for one young woman who was part of St. Therese, changing the name was much more difficult than changing the location. She has burried three family members through St. Therese Church, and while she will always have the memories of those loved ones, losing the name of where they rest has been difficult for her.

I have a soft spot for the elderly, having brought communion to my grandmother's house every Sunday mass and wheeling my other grandmother from her room to the nursing home chapel, it was difficult seeing Sister Mirabito close to tears today.

Although it was an emotional topic for some of the people we talked to today, covering the story was fun! We were at a meeting for new involved All Saints parishioners, they were sending out letters welcoming people to the new church. They were all very candid about their lives, joking around with each other, and just like my grandparents...they didn't want me to leave their meeting without having a cookie or a sandwich.

Boil Water Order in Fulton.

Boiling Water
(Photo by News Channel 9)

There was an e.coli scare my freshman year in the Fall of 2005. Everyone in the dorms received Aquafina water bottles in their mailboxes twice daily and was urged to keep their faces misaligned with the shower head when bathing. I worried about what I was going to drink, how I was going to brush my teeth, wash my hair, and make my hot tea in the morning!
It was pretty frightening.


These are the thoughts that ran through my head when we went to Fulton today to cover the boil water order. Luckily I was only a student when the scare happened on campus and I didn’t have to worry about cooking for my family or washing dishes in my home. However, these were some of the problems Fulton residents were facing when the order was issued.

We went to Save-a-Lot and interviewed Ed, the Assistant Manager, and a few other residents. Ed gave us a lot of information. He was very experienced, seeing as how Channel 9 and 10 had covered the story and interviewed him previous to us getting there. Our other interviews were decent; they contributed by sharing the burden of boiling water. We got a lot of pictures of bottled water and solutions such as frozen dinners that offer people alternatives to cooking with water.

However, it was very difficult to get enough pictures for the story because we were limited to our location in Save-a-Lot, and we didn’t have a lot of time to explore random restaurants because we were 45 minutes away from the familiarity of Syracuse. We could have improved the story by getting some pictures of people boiling water in their homes or pictures of people boiling water in a restaurant or school. This would have allowed our viewers to see the hardships of boil-water-orders.

Losing money in this economic slump? Apparently it's a good time to start a business...

I couldn't believe it when I heard it either. Start a business now, in this bad economy? Sounds crazy to me... but as Rhonda Abrams told me in USA Today, many of today's top businesses were formed during depressions or recessions.

And when you already know you probably won't have any better job opportunities coming your way, starting a new business doesn't sound like such a bad idea. There's also a lot less to lose in a crappy economy, so you might as well take a chance. You've already lost most of your money anyway.

Here in Syracuse, there are plenty of entrepreneurs taking chances, as I discovered today. The South Side Innovation Center is a hidden gem that is actually run by the university, and Whitman students involved in the entrepreneurship program work there.

The center does some great things. They let new businesses rent out office space in the center for up to three years at a reasonable rate, and with the rent comes support and advice on how to develop a business. Funk 'N Waffles is one of their current tenants.

Now Abrams' story on the economy seems to ring true for the center, because starting a small business in Syracuse seems to be a popular option. Only a few weeks ago they expanded and can now provide space for 22 businesses (they started with 15).

So besides all of the great stuff they do for businesses, the center has some fun stuff too. My favorite thing was their test kitchen, where new restaurant owners can try out new recipes.

All in all, the South Side Innovation Center seems to be doing well in Syracuse, even with this bad economy. It's definitely a good thing, because the city will definitely benefit.

Syracuse tackles vacant houses

219 Grace Street, Syracuse NY

I would love to see what Syracuse looked liked 100 years ago. I picture rows of beautiful victorian houses facing tree lined streets. Their owners had good jobs, and kept them up - they took pride in what they worked so hard to achieve. How times have changed.

Today, city opertaions director Tom Carroll said there are around 1200 vacant houses in Syracuse - about 2% of the city's housing stock. So many beautiful old homes that are rotting away. Their windows are smashed, roofs leak, and their floors sag. Many have had their copper pipes stolen and sold for scrap, while others have been partially burned out and boarded up.

They pose problems to the whole neighborhood. Not only are they eyesores, they become the center of illegal activity. They are used for gangs, drugs, prostitution, and other things. Tearing them down doesn't do much either. Empty lots also invite criminals, and are an equal blight on the urban landscape.

I hope the city's plan to start selling these properties for a dollar to developers, along with a 7 year tax break and up to a $45,000 grant per house, can start to reverse the trend of urban decay. Progress is already being made with single family homes with the help of the non-profit Home HeadQuarters, Inc.

It is important that these historic building be saved whenever possible. They add a character to a neighborhood that cannot be replaced. There are 11 houses that the city showed to developers today. The one I was at, 219 Grace St. , is nextdoor to a new build by Habitat for Humanity. While this is a great program, their houses do not fit the character of the niehgborhood. They are not the right size, only a single story, and are not placed well on the the land. They have no character. The wreck nextdoor, while falling apart, has character and charm. As houses like these disappear, so too does the personality of the neighborhood.

We are lucky, in a way, that we can start fighting the problem of vacant housing now before it is completely out of control. In Buffalo, Carroll says there are around 15,000 vacant homes - 20% of that city's housing stock. That city has one of the highest vacancy rates in the nation. Probably why it was named one of the top ten fastest dying cities in the US. Here in Syracuse, things could be a lot worse.

South Side Innovation Center - where economic dreams are still alive

What I like most about reporting is the amazing people you get to meet. Covering today's story was no exception. Robin and I found ourselves at the South Side Innovation Center on South Salina Street, barely five minutes from campus. What brought us there was an article in USA Today arguing that believe it or not, now is actually a good time to start your own small business. At first, it sounds crazy, especially with the way the economy is today, but it raises some great historical facts. 16 of the 30 currently listed Dow Jones companies were started during a depression or recession, including big names like Disney, Procter & Gamble, and GE. And during the 1970's economic slump, a few other companies were born - including Microsoft.

So we headed to the SSIC to see what we could learn about starting a small business during rough economic times. But what we found most interesting about the SU-run center was not what they did there, but who they were. My favorite interview was with Angelo Coker, Jr. His grandfather began the family's construction business 50 years ago in Syracuse, and now Angelo and his father run it. Angelo could not be more thankful for the center, but what really struck me was the way he answered our last question: what do you think about starting a small business now? He thought about it for a second, and then said, "If you can start now, during a rough time like this...then you can stand through anything." As he said it, he had a small, thoughtful smile on his face, and I know he truly believed in what he was saying. Everyone else there that we talked to had similar optimism that things would turn around soon, and the economy would get back on it's feet. It was an incredible place to spend a few hours, and we left with the impression that if anyone could turn the economic situation around, it would be people like Angelo and the rest of the South Side Innovation Center.

$1 Houses

This was a mess...literally. The story started out with us heading to the Rural/Metro building for a 9am presentation and Q & A between the potential buyers and the city officials.

At the meeting, Tim Carroll, the City of Syracuse Director of Operations, looked a little flustered with faced with a bigger than expected crowd and tougher questions. At one point, a member of the audience asked about preventing corruption in the selection of who will own the properties so the city officials did not just choose friends. Carroll responded by saying, "Whatever" as if he was still in middle school.

Also, I was distracted by Andrea Bullard, the reporter from NBC 3, and not because she's attractive. She was not even paying attention to the meeting. She did not have ner notebook out and she only wrote down one note. I did see her yawn, pick her fingernails and glare at me though. The pride of Plattasburgh State grad should probably step up her game because in my opinion, that wasn't really reporting.

When we finally got to see the houses, we were the first to arrive at 1105 W. Colvin. We had to sign a waiver to go in so we could not sue the city of Syracuse if we were to get injured, which was not very reassuring. Then, the man waiting from the city warned us that there might be racoons inside according to the neighbors. We cautiously crept through the door to find out the racoons were actually upstairs. What we did find was a disgusting house that I would not even want to buy for a dollar.

One potential buyer that we talked to but did not want to be on camera was on her 7th stop of the 11 houses and only had one yes on her paper as a potential purchase. She said that most of the houses were needed too many repairs for her to take the time and money and invest in them.

Besides that, the rest is in the story.

Parking

Syracuse is running a pilot program regarding back-in angle parking. Right now the only spots in the city dedicated new style parking is on Erie Blvd. from the 100-200 block.

Starting Nov. 1 nine additional neighborhoods will have back-in angle parking. It's an additional parking pilot until April. If all goes well most parking in the city might transform all the available spaces to this type of parking.

The reason for the switch is safety:

- Opening doors in the spots is away from traffic better protecting the driver

- The trunk is near the curb so it is safer/easier to load or unpack trunk

- It takes less steps than actually parallel parking


The reaction to the new spaces was mixed. Some people called it "stupid" while others used expletives to describe how much they liked it.

When we tried using the spaces, we had no problems. It just felt usual, but once you did it a few times it felt natural, kind of like riding a bike.