Syracuse New York With Scott Hier

[00:00:00] Intro/Outro: Welcome to the Where Do Gays Retire podcast, where we help you in the LGBTQ plus community find a safe and affordable retirement place. Join Mark Goldstein as he interviews others who live in gay friendly places around the globe. Learn about the climate, cost of living, health care, crime and safety, and more.

[00:00:22] Intro/Outro: Now, here's your host, Mark Goldstein.

[00:00:31] Mark: So today we're going to take a deep dive into central New York, Syracuse, New York, with our special guest, Scott Hier and we'll tell you a little bit about Scott. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Scott to our show. He was born and raised in Syracuse, New York. Scott lived in lives in Camillus, a charming suburb just outside of the city.

[00:00:56] Mark: Now you can correct me if I'm wrong. It was Camillus. [00:01:00] Camillus, okay. Camillus. Sounds like Camilla, but he comes with a rich background in workers compensation where he honed his negotiation skills over a commendable 23 year career at an insurance company specializing in high dollar claims for a decade.

[00:01:18] Mark: During the challenging times of COVID 19 in 2020, Scott pivoted towards a new passion, real estate. After completing his licensing in September 21, he transitioned from his corporate role in early 2022 to focus full time on helping individuals and families find their perfect homes. His previous experience has proven invaluable, especially in helping buyers navigate the complexities of real estate transactions.

[00:01:46] Mark: Scott's journey into real estate began over 16 years ago when he first recognized his passion for the field. Although initially held back by financial constraints, his love for home renovations and genuine [00:02:00] satisfaction in assisting others to achieve their dream of home ownership kept his interest alive.

[00:02:06] Mark: Today, he's not just selling homes, but he's helping to familiarize newcomers with the myriad opportunities that Central New York offers, ensuring they understand the buying and selling process thoroughly. Scott, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us and sharing your insights and experiences in secure in Syracuse's , vibrant real estate market.

[00:02:31] Mark: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. And otherwise, yes. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for coming. So tell us so Syracuse I think has a population of around, well since 2021, it had around 150, 000. Would you say that's correct? Okay let's talk about the climate and geography a little bit Scott.

[00:02:54] Mark: Can you describe Syracuse's typical climate and weather patterns throughout the year and [00:03:00] How does the city handle the heavy snowfall in the winter? I know you get quite a bit of snow.

[00:03:06] Scott: Yeah, we do. So, yeah Syracuse is known as one of the snowiest cities in the U. S. Past couple of years though, our our winters have been pretty mild, shockingly.

[00:03:15] Scott: Last year, I didn't have to pull out the snowblower, so it was great. Yeah, we had like one big storm and that was about it. We're so prepared for that because being here all my life, I've seen bigger snow storms and obviously not so much in other years. All the suburbs, they're great. The city's even great.

[00:03:31] Scott: The city, when you know, the plows they do have when it gets like really excessive snow, they will bring in Like dump trucks to put them into haul it out off the city because there's city streets. It's just too hard. There's a main road that goes right up until the hospital. So they try to make sure that's always clear.

[00:03:46] Scott: But yeah, I mean, for the most part it, we have our traditional four seasons. You know, the summers can get into maybe like the nineties low to mid nineties. Which I've noticed obviously since being a kid, it was certainly gotten warmer. Yeah. But, you know, we definitely got our [00:04:00] traditional four seasons when, like I said, winter has just been great.

[00:04:02] Scott: Rochester and Buffalo been getting a little bit more of the snow lately than we have the past couple of years, which I wasn't hating,

[00:04:08] Mark: but you get a lake effect, right?

[00:04:09] Scott: Yeah. We get the lake effect usually from Lake Ontario. Yep. So we get a lot of that. But past couple of years we've lucked out, you know, we really have.

[00:04:16] Scott: So, which is great. So climate change. Yeah. Yeah. I'm waiting for one of the years to actually hit. So,

[00:04:23] Mark: so for you guys, Climate change is not awful because

[00:04:28] Scott: now

[00:04:29] Mark: you just get less snow and more warm weather.

[00:04:34] Scott: Yeah, we still do get the snow. Don't get me wrong, but it's nowhere near, you know, like it has been. And there's been years where we've certainly had 80, 90, 100 inches in a year in a season.

[00:04:44] Scott: And there's others we've been down. You know, 2030 inches. It's just so arbitrary as to how it is. So, yeah, but we still do get snow. There's still obviously plenty of time to do your winter activities here. It's just not debilitating. That's good, which is

[00:04:59] Mark: nice. Yeah. [00:05:00] Yeah. So. Is how is Syracuse prepared for climate change?

[00:05:05] Mark: Do you know at all?

[00:05:07] Scott: Well, I do know for a lot of things here they are getting a lot to like, to solar energy now is what they're doing. So we have a couple of solar farms actually going in. One just passed in Manlius, which is a suburb of Syracuse. They're doing a big solar farm there.

[00:05:21] Scott: There's one down in Tully, which is about a, maybe 30 to 45 minute drive out of Syracuse. They're putting one in there. And what it's doing, it's allowed to do like a shared solar so you can on your electric bill, you can request that and they guarantee you at a minimum of a 10 percent savings on it.

[00:05:37] Scott: So your energy is pulling from solar rather than from the grid itself. So, so they're trying to help with that. Other than that, there's not a whole lot going on. They do have a couple windmill locations that they're doing trying to get energy from there as well. Do you ever get flooding? So, every now and again, but it's not so where we get a lot more flooding is a lot of times when it's extreme thaws [00:06:00] in the spring.

[00:06:01] Scott: So like if we have a lot of snow for some reason, then all of a sudden it gets really warm that we can get it there. We have had a couple this past year, we had a couple of big heavy rainstorms. So in some places there, because it had not rained for about a week, two weeks, so the ground just couldn't absorb it as quickly.

[00:06:17] Scott: It came down. So we had a little bit of flooding then. But here you wouldn't need like flood insurance unless you're in a specific designated flood plane or anything like that.

[00:06:26] Mark: Right. Good to know. Good to know. Okay. Let's talk about a little about the cost of living. So the housing market, rental market, your expertise utilities, cost of living, healthcare and all that good stuff.

[00:06:41] Mark: Let's start off with the housing market.

[00:06:43] Scott: Sure. So our housing market. So, Syracuse is, has always been, and actually still is a very, well, a lower cost place to live. Just overall our housing, you know, unfortunately, our houses have gone up in price exponentially over the past, Two, three [00:07:00] years, even when I started real estate, we're seeing it.

[00:07:02] Scott: But the problem is that Syracuse is just catching up with the rest of the nation is the problem. So our houses here, like average house costs made about 150, 175. Now it's more like, yeah. So yeah. So now it's more like two 50, you know, so those are going up and they've gone up fairly quickly. So it's almost like went from zero to 60 in two years, rather than over like a five or 10 year period.

[00:07:23] Scott: So it's a little bit of sticker shock to people. But still for what you're getting up here. Yeah, there's a lot more bang for your buck. We do have a lot of out of state buyers coming in a lot of investors coming in

[00:07:34] Mark: What would you say the median home prices in Syracuse is compared to the U.

[00:07:39] Mark: S. average? It's lower, right?

[00:07:42] Scott: Yeah, I would say here you can, you know, depending on again, where you want to live, of course, whether you're in the suburb city, whatever type of house, but I'd say prior to like around 150, 160, 000 I've had buyers. Yeah. I've had buyers that have lower thresholds and we always find them a home.

[00:07:59] Scott: It may not [00:08:00] be exactly where they want to be. You know, it might not be in the suburb, might have to be a different part of the suburb possibly. But yeah, houses are very reasonably priced in my opinion, compared to what I see in other cities. Absolutely. And I think that's why we're seeing a big drive in house sales going up as quickly as they are.

[00:08:16] Scott: Past couple of years, houses are going sometimes 40, over asking.

[00:08:21] Mark: Wow. So yeah. Because it's so low and reasonable really compared to everywhere else. Yeah, exactly.

[00:08:29] Scott: But unfortunately, because of that, so the rental prices have gone up a little bit because now the people that maybe can't find a house now are trying to find a rental, you know, so now the landlords are kind of taking advantage of that a little bit.

[00:08:40] Scott: And again, I don't think the rentals are out of place. Out of the norm. It's just for us. It's a little bit different because we're not used to seeing it.

[00:08:48] Mark: What's the average you think of

[00:08:49] Scott: it? I would say, yeah, here for how much did you say to

[00:08:53] Mark: bedroom to bath?

[00:08:55] Scott: Maybe 14, 1400, 1500. Yep, I know. Pretty cheap [00:09:00] compared to Exactly.

[00:09:02] Scott: Newer places go for maybe like 2, 000, maybe 2, 200. So they are building a lot more developments for rentals than homes, because obviously you can get a lot more out of them, because you can fit more in them. So yeah utilities here, same thing, you know, we have obviously you know, natural gas and electric for the most part.

[00:09:21] Scott: There's different parts of the area, like Solvay, New York has their own grid, so there you're all on what's called Solvay Electric, so there your bill could be maybe, 25, 30 a month for electric, for everything. Yeah. So that's a sought

[00:09:36] Mark: after

[00:09:36] Scott: area to live in.

[00:09:37] Mark: And that's for what do you have?

[00:09:40] Mark: Your heat is an electric heat or gas. So

[00:09:43] Scott: there you would have like baseboard heat. Correct.

[00:09:45] Mark: Yep.

[00:09:46] Scott: It in Solvay traditionally like me, myself, other people, they have either boilers or forced air, which runs off natural gas traditionally. So I never, it's your electric bill in the winter. So for me, I like it a little cooler in my home.

[00:09:58] Scott: So I would say probably [00:10:00] maybe like one 80

[00:10:02] Mark: for your electric in the winter

[00:10:04] Scott: for electric and gas. That's both electric and

[00:10:07] Mark: gas. Okay.

[00:10:07] Scott: Yeah. So if you like it, you feel like going to be a little bit warmer, or if you have a larger home, you still might see your bill, maybe two to 50 sometimes three depends on what you like.

[00:10:16] Scott: I just prefer a cooler personally. So that's how I am.

[00:10:20] Mark: Yeah.

[00:10:20] Scott: So

[00:10:21] Mark: That's pretty average, I guess. Yeah. It sounds high for, the Syracuse maybe but it's in comparison here. I mean, we can't shut our air conditioning off all summer long. So our bills are in the two hundreds.

[00:10:38] Scott: And that is the nice part.

[00:10:39] Scott: So that's why I love the four seasons here. So when you're going from spring to summer, You don't have to have it. I mean, my bills sometimes been as low as 90 because you have nothing on. And then also now when you're going from summer to fall again, same thing. Yeah, my bills like 100, 110, because it's just electric and just the gas for the hot water heater.

[00:10:59] Scott: So because you [00:11:00] can leave the windows open at night, you don't have to have the AC on if you don't want to. That's nice. So you do get a little bit of break here and there, but sometimes our winters are cold, even though we don't have snow, they're cold and. Yeah. Can just depends on how much you want to bundle up in the house, right?

[00:11:11] Scott: Let's talk about

[00:11:13] Mark: temperature. So in the winters, your winters, you can get easily below zero.

[00:11:20] Scott: Correct. Yeah, we do get below zero at times. That's like in the dead of winter and night, obviously, clearly. You know, I'd say like, if we're looking at like a low during the day, You could get into like the single digits possibly with windchill you know, maybe into the teens that'll happen traditionally where maybe in the twenties, thirties, it's cold enough, but you know,

and when it gets,

[00:11:43] Scott: yes, especially with the windchill.

[00:11:44] Scott: So, yeah, when you get the, when you throw the windchill in there, yeah, I mean, it's cold, it is cold.

[00:11:50] Mark: Then it's time at that time of year. You can come to Phoenix.

[00:11:53] Scott: Exactly. That's it. That's when you go to your war. That's when you go on vacations, you take your cruises and you go down South for a little bit.

[00:11:59] Scott: Yeah, exactly. [00:12:00]

[00:12:00] Mark: That time of year is beautiful too. So in the winter. So,

[00:12:03] Scott: yep. And like I said, this past winter, geez, we were sometimes thirties, forties, fifties. I mean,

[00:12:10] Scott: It was just unheard of. It's like, this is kind of crazy. It's Christmas and it's 45 degrees out.

[00:12:15] Mark: Yeah.

[00:12:15] Scott: So

[00:12:17] Mark: yeah, it's like, yeah.

[00:12:17] Mark: The past two years. Have been unusually warm everywhere, wherever you know, even in Europe, everywhere has been warmer than normal. How about health care costs? Do you think health care costs is anything above the average, below the average?

[00:12:36] Scott: Probably not. No, I'm going to say no. We have some great hospitals here that specialize.

[00:12:41] Scott: So we have upstate we have St. Joe's and we have Krause. Those are our big hospitals that we have here. And they all kind of specialize in certain things. St. Joe's is big for stroke care. St. Joe's is also a St. Joe's and Krauss both actually do stroke care. I should say in St. Joe's is one of the top 15 in the country nationwide for that for heart [00:13:00] surgery and then upstate has a cancer center and for a lot of clinical trials and then part of upside, they also Golisano Children's Hospital as well.

[00:13:09] Scott: So a lot of people come from Around for that. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, exactly. And the cost in general, I mean, yeah, they are what they are

[00:13:19] Mark: pretty. Yeah.

[00:13:20] Scott: I mean, it's kind of high everywhere

[00:13:23] Mark: and, but I'm, I would assume that Syracuse market is more affordable than others. So,

[00:13:30] Scott: I would, I think so personally, but of course I'm, I've always been here too, so I've never been somewhere else to see, but when I talk to friends and stuff, yeah, I mean, yeah,

[00:13:39] Mark: You get people that live in the north country, ours, like near Watertown an hour north from you that if there was something major going on, they may not have the local hospitals out there.

[00:13:54] Mark: So they come down to Syracuse to get to get their treatment.

[00:13:59] Scott: Yeah. And [00:14:00] that's why it's so great being so close to everything because that's, and they're all the hospitals are like within a cluster, so they're all within like a handful of blocks of each other too, which is great. So like Golisano Children's Hospital is near upstate, which is then like adjacent to Crouse and St.

[00:14:14] Scott: Joe's is just down the road. So yeah. So if you're like at one and need to be transported to another one, let's say if you're having an issue or you need the specialty, it's easy to get you right there because you're a five minute drive, you know, via ambulance or car, whatever down the road.

[00:14:27] Mark: Right.

[00:14:27] Scott: So, yeah.

[00:14:29] Mark: Okay. Now, is Syracuse set up where you could walk? Is it walkable?

[00:14:37] Scott: The city is, yes, the city is walkable. They, over the handful of years now, they've put a lot of they've revamped all the roads for bike lanes too.

So

[00:14:47] Scott: throughout the city, we now have bike lanes. They're specific. I have a couple of friends that live in the city.

[00:14:51] Scott: They have condos down there. They love the walkability. There's shops. There's right. There's obviously we'll get delayed. There's a ton of restaurants. So yeah, [00:15:00] there's a lot of things that's walkable. It would be hard to not probably have a car I'm going to say, but we do have public transportation though as well.

[00:15:07] Scott: So, I mean, what do you have? We have buses. Correct. Yeah, we have buses. We have a central bus here, which you can do like day passes, week passes, things like that. That goes everywhere. It goes through Onondaga County, like Cayuga County, goes up to Oswego, goes all the suburbs. So it really can take you wherever you need to go.

[00:15:26] Scott: You don't have trains. So we have an Amtrak here. Yep. So we have Amtrak. We have a hub there. So we have a Greyhound bus station in with Amtrak which is right outside the city. So you can easily take an Amtrak down to New York for the day and it's like 60 bucks and it's a five hour trip and which we did this past year for our crews.

[00:15:45] Scott: So, yeah, so we did that, which is nice. So instead of driving and instead of driving and afterward, but so you get off your cruise and you just take your check and then uber home. So clearly, obviously we do have uber lift, things like that as well. All the [00:16:00] shared services we have here as well. We have a lot of like bike trails, a lot of running trails.

[00:16:05] Scott: Things like that too. Not necessarily for transportation clearly, but they did do this whole huge Onondaga Creek walk, which takes you like all the way through the city it's like five miles. So it's, they read, they did all that through, which is nice. So there's a lot of people that from the city that utilize that.

[00:16:21] Scott: So it's like a safe area to be able to walk bikes. You're not in the roads or anything like that.

[00:16:26] Mark: You wouldn't bike in the city in the winter, right?

[00:16:30] Scott: You would be surprised. People do. People

[00:16:32] Mark: do.

[00:16:32] Scott: People do. Yeah, because that's their mode of transportation. So some people do. I personally wouldn't. I'd be like, yeah,

[00:16:40] Mark: sliding all over the place with ice because I'm sure black you have black ice

[00:16:44] Scott: yep. When I was in the insurance company, one of our offices used to be downtown and we would see it. We would see it, you know, and I, to get back to, you know, clearing in the snow, they are really good at it because we've had it for so long. They have it down to a science. So within a matter of [00:17:00] hours, you do have mainly just like wet pavement because they stay plowing that salt.

[00:17:04] Scott: So, I mean, you can have slush and things like that, but people do still bike through it though. Believe it or not.

[00:17:10] Mark: Yeah, I could imagine. I've been upstate New York. During snowstorms, like Thanksgiving time, visiting family. And it's like, Oh, are we going to ever get out of here? And the plows come through and they're amazing.

[00:17:28] Mark: I mean, they're like we were in Oswego one year, I remember. And I was like, Oh my God, are we going to ever get out of here? And the plows just come and just plow it all over the place.

[00:17:40] Scott: Yep, there it's and that's the funny part like I've had friends over and like, oh, geez, am I going to get home to go give it a half hour?

[00:17:46] Scott: You'll be fine. And yeah, plows come through. They clear the salt and we're prepared for it. My brother used to live in Boston and up there. They're not used as much snow when they get it. So, you know, there it's a little bit more. Debilitating, but for us here, we're [00:18:00] so used to it. I mean, it's funny. We go to work and there's a foot of snow on the ground.

[00:18:03] Scott: We don't,

[00:18:04] Mark: you know, drive

[00:18:05] Scott: and we're out of the way. We're so used to it. We're like, like, oh, it's you had seven inches of snow. I'm like, yeah, it's fine. Just,

[00:18:11] Mark: I'd be white knuckle.

[00:18:13] Scott: I wouldn't even drive. Yeah, there's many a times we it just doesn't, if you live here long enough, it just doesn't affect you because you're just so used to it.

[00:18:20] Scott: So yeah.

[00:18:21] Mark: Yeah. How are the potholes in the infrastructure?

[00:18:25] Scott: So they have been working on those as well. So that's always a big complaint of everyone because we get so many because we warm, cold, warm, cold, warm. It must be constant. It's constant. The road

[00:18:36] Mark: is constantly under construction.

[00:18:38] Scott: Is it pretty much is?

[00:18:40] Scott: Yeah, but I will say, I mean, they do their best because there are so many come spring, but yeah, it certainly is. So there's like actual number. You can call the city and be like, Hey, there's a pothole on Sunday. Exactly. It's like, Hey, you go fill it in because it's going to blow my tire. Cause it's so big.

[00:18:57] Scott: So, and once they're notified, they go out there pretty, I [00:19:00] would say within like a day or so they try to fit it in. So, yeah. So I know they try to do their best here. There's just so many of them though, just because the salt and then again, the coldness. So, but yeah, pothole. Yeah. Come spring. You definitely got to swerve a bit.

[00:19:15] Mark: Yeah, I can imagine. But that's interesting. I'm glad to find out that parts of the city is walkable and bikeable and you can get around. Are there stores that you like, how has the downtown set up? Is it just mostly You know, corporate skyscrapers, or do you have like a downtown with stores?

[00:19:36] Mark: And

[00:19:38] Scott: We kind of have a little bit of both. So yeah, so there's definitely some down there that are like more of the skyscrapers, the bigger buildings bigger banks corporate buildings, things like that. What they've, what I love that they've been doing is, you know, we used to have old department stores down there, like Sibley's or.

[00:19:52] Scott: Addison days, if anyone remembers those and they're renovating these old buildings into now condos.

So

[00:19:58] Scott: it's, so they're [00:20:00] gorgeous. The inside, they have like the original brick. It's very industrial though. So if that's not your thing, they have others that are a little more finished. So they try to make where those are, they're trying to utilize these old buildings with the history and keep them there.

[00:20:12] Scott: And there are stores there is, like I said, there's restaurants. The one thing they are lacking a little bit and they're trying to get in there is a grocery store of some sort. There's little marts here and there, but nothing like a full fledged grocery store that where you wouldn't, where you could just basically walk to.

[00:20:26] Scott: And they've been talking about trying to put something down there for a handful of years, and I believe it's still in the works because they are seeing a lot more revitalization in the city itself, especially downtown.

[00:20:37] Mark: What's your supermarket chains that you have there? I can't remember.

[00:20:40] Scott: We have Wegmans, which is big.

[00:20:42] Scott: We have Wegmans, which is big. One

[00:20:43] Mark: of my favorites.

[00:20:44] Scott: Yeah, we have Topps here, and then we have Price Chopper. We definitely have, we have Aldi's, Walmart, obviously we have some super Walmarts. Our targets have grocery stores in them now. So, you know, not huge, but I know enough. So really in the suburbs, there's so [00:21:00] many options.

[00:21:00] Scott: In the city, it's a little bit harder. A little bit harder.

[00:21:02] Mark: Yeah. Yeah. Because it's more industrial and more corporate. It

[00:21:06] Scott: is. It's, yeah. And they're trying to change it, like I said, a little bit. And every now and again, they'll do open houses down there. So for real estate agents, we get down there, we can see them.

[00:21:13] Scott: They're just, they're absolutely gorgeous. I love what they're doing to them, you know. And they look so great. But they're utilizing the original buildings, which is what I love. Cause I love seeing a home with its historical charm still in it, you know, original hardwoods or original, whatever you can. It just gives it so much character rather than just tearing it down and building something new.

[00:21:33] Mark: So tell us speaking of like neighborhoods in the downtown, are there specific neighborhoods you like or recommend if someone, Was looking to move to Syracuse

[00:21:46] Scott: Really, and it depends. So if you want to be in the city, like there's what they call it, it's called the Holly green area. That's like the Northeast area of the city.

[00:21:54] Scott: That's more there's a lot more LGBTQ residents there. Really any [00:22:00] place you go though. Cause so you know, In Syracuse, any of the suburbs where, you know, LGBT is really sprinkled throughout, you know, we really don't have like one specific or holly green areas probably has no neighborhood. No, not really.

[00:22:11] Scott: Holly green is probably like the best. I would say for that. But other than that, yeah, it's really just throughout.

[00:22:16] Mark: You recommend any specific neighborhoods that are really nice.

[00:22:20] Scott: It depends on what you're looking for. Truth be told. So when we have people that move here in my job as an agent, obviously we have people that are looking either potentially for schools.

[00:22:29] Scott: You know, I had clients not too long ago, they're moving from downstate. They're looking for different school districts for their children. Depends on if you want to be closer to amenities, if you want more land. So it really just all depends on that aspect, really what your, Looking for is what's more important to you, you know, some people don't want to be in your life, the hustle and bustle, like the centralized of the suburbs.

[00:22:51] Scott: They want to be away from like the major arteries and want to be a little bit further out. We can do that. I laugh because I tell everyone everything, everything is within 20 [00:23:00] minutes of Syracuse. It really is because there's so many highways. I mean, everything's so designed. It's just, yeah, I'm like,

[00:23:07] Mark: 10, 20 minutes that way, or

[00:23:09] Scott: exactly.

[00:23:10] Scott: So I tell him, Oh, it takes you 20 minutes. So like everything takes 20 minutes. I said, yeah, it really does. It does take 20 minutes. It

[00:23:16] Mark: just is what it is. So getting back to the LGBTQ community is do we have community centers?

[00:23:25] Scott: Yeah, there's a lot here in Syracuse. We have a CR Health and also the Q Center that they do a CR Health.

[00:23:33] Scott: They I've done like a 5K walk for them. They're non-for-profit. They do fundraising. They help with chronic illnesses including hiv aids. They do like a syringe exchange program. The Q Center's a safe place for L-G-B-T-Q teens that potentially have been kicked out of their home. That they were trying to partner with the rescue mission here locally to build a facility for kids that have, you know, been kicked out of their home because they come out as gay or [00:24:00] transgender or by we have We have inclusive medical services here at Upstate that's geared more towards, you know, just LGBT healthcare in general, that can be like your PCP for transgender services medications we have the Transgender Alliance of CNY here which is a social and support group for them.

[00:24:21] Scott: We have Q Law Which is an LGBT group for legal issues. They assist with like name change, gender marker changes, employment birth certificate modifications things along those lines. The biggest ones we have are CNY Pride. That's a non for profit. It's all volunteer. I actually participated in that this past year.

[00:24:42] Scott: Every year they do a pride festival here, which is great at the Inner Harbor, which is right outside the city. What I love about that, it's gotten bigger and bigger over the years. This year I actually had a booth there and it's just so great to see families with their kids there and they're not gay, but they're just there to enjoy their allies.

[00:24:59] Scott: Yeah, [00:25:00] exactly. And The company that I work for hunt, we actually march in the parade. We're one of the few agents, agencies that do our brokerages. I should say that do so myself and another woman, we had a booth there this year and we had people come in and I said, that was so great to see us there, you know, because it's just the visibility.

[00:25:17] Scott: Yeah, we have

[00:25:18] Mark: I didn't realize Syracuse was so progressive in

[00:25:21] Scott: that. And that's the thing. It's there. It's just, you just got to look for it. It's always there. There's so many support groups and everything here. ACR Health is so great. Them specifically, I worked with them for years. Like I said, we always did like an AIDS walk run every year and our team would raise money and there's all sorts of different groups that do that.

[00:25:40] Scott: We have Sage of Upstate they're not for profit. They promote, actually promote like health and wellness. being of LGBTQ exactly. So there are, for those, For like support groups and things like that. We have a lot, there is a lot of those there. And then we have a lot of things that are more for social, you know, we [00:26:00] have we have come out CNY.

[00:26:02] Scott: That's a recent group that just came out that elevates the needs and desires of LGBTQ people. And you can support, excuse me, support, like, or promote, I should say at the same time, like inclusive businesses events, things like that. The one thing that cause I only came out like. Maybe eight or nine years ago.

[00:26:19] Scott: So I'm kind of a newbie to the whole thing as well But what they had here and they started which is called the guerrilla gay events and it was almost like guerrilla warfare type of thing So what they would do is they would take over a bar like once a month and they would post on Facebook where this pop up Social event is so we would infuse that business with All the LGBT in the area that wanted to come socialize, meet new people, friends, things like that.

[00:26:45] Scott: Yeah, that was a lot of fun. You see your regular friends, new friends they also just started doing one, which is the Guerrilla Gay Cafe. So if you don't want to go out at night, or maybe don't want to drink or be in the bar scene, it's just at a local cafe, and they do those during the day on weekends, [00:27:00] which is nice.

[00:27:00] Scott: That's great, yeah. The Facebook page, LGBTQ Syracuse is huge. That's great. That's a local spot for news events. I think I found, did I

[00:27:12] Mark: find you there?

[00:27:13] Scott: That's where you found me. Yup. Exactly. So they're at about 2000 members now which is great. And they're trying to help put together a like a portfolio of all LGBTQ people.

[00:27:25] Scott: LGBTQ owned businesses so that way if somebody comes to Syracuse or as an ally They can go to a list of what they want and say hey, you know here. I know I can go that's Yeah, cuz just the other day I was in the group and I was seeing that somebody was looking for Their daughter who is trans trying to find a place to have their hair done So they were trying to find a place that would be accepting of it,

right?

[00:27:47] Scott: and Out Syracuse, New York, excuse me, out Syracuse. com is another one where they do have basically it's listing all your owned and family and friendly businesses. Again, allies, things like that. We also [00:28:00] do like, our MBT big stadium here for the Syracuse Mets every year, they do a pride day for there for that.

[00:28:06] Scott: Which is nice. So they give out like, rainbow jerseys flags, things like that. So again, everyone comes together on those days in June. Traditionally we have the the other thing that I personally participate in is what's called it's, it was called the gay 5k. Now they're changing it to pride 5k.

[00:28:22] Scott: Because they want to be again, more inclusive, because there's so many allies there. And again, I love it because there's so many families that go.

[00:28:31] Mark: Yeah. They're

[00:28:32] Scott: just allies and they just go because, you know, they're exposing their kids to it, which is great. I mean, It's life. It's so important. So I love seeing that.

[00:28:43] Scott: I love, love, love seeing that. So between the pride festival and the run, it's just, it's absolutely great. And there's just so much to utilize in our community here in Syracuse.

[00:28:53] Mark: I love it. Yeah, it

[00:28:54] Scott: is. It is truly great. It really is.

[00:28:57] Mark: So, okay. So you [00:29:00] have, it's an inclusive environment. You have community support from allies.

[00:29:06] Mark: And you have your events during the year. It's great. Really that's what you look for in a city or a place to live. Let's talk a little bit about arts and culture. So I know Syracuse is a large city. So, curious as I'm really not familiar at all with. Any of the cultural scene and theaters, galleries, and stuff like that.

[00:29:31] Mark: You want to give us an idea of what you have?

[00:29:35] Scott: We got them. So, downtown in the city of Syracuse, we have the Everson museum of art. You can go there year round. They have different art that they caught that they either own or bring in for you to view. What's great that they do is at Christmas time, they do what's called the festival of trees.

[00:29:50] Scott: So you can go and it's like over a two week period and local businesses, corporations, they decorate their own trees and you can bid on them and buy them. [00:30:00] There's always usually an LGBT tree, a tree of some sort there. So it's, and it's a big thing that a lot of people go to look for every single year to do.

[00:30:08] Scott: We have the landmark theater here, which is historical. They renovated that not too long ago. That is just absolutely stunning inside. They, there we get Broadway and Syracuse shows that tour. So we have season tickets to those that we go to. You know, in the past, it's been the big shows this year.

[00:30:25] Scott: We have Beetlejuice you know, Les Mis, Mamma Mia. So all the big shows we've had Hamilton here several times. So it's kind of, I was going to say, it's bring a little Broadway to Syracuse, which is nice. And the shows are absolutely great. Syracuse university or has their own drama department. So we have Syracuse Stage, and then adjacent to there is the Storch Theater, which what they do there is Syracuse Stage will run its own plays and musicals, and the Storch Theater next to it helps the drama students get professional experience.

[00:30:57] Scott: So they will put on their own show, [00:31:00] so this past year we went and saw Head Over Heels, which not a lot of people know about. It's a great, it was on, it was off Broadway, I loved it, I saw it in New York, and it's all the, Music of the Go's and Belinda Carlyle, but, and they did a great job on it. So we also have the ON Center here, which they do some shows there.

[00:31:18] Scott: That's more like touring, maybe like a Cirque du Soleil type show. They'll do those there. We have the Civic Center. Same type of thing. You know, they'll bring in like the Nutcracker. Sometimes it'll be at Civic Center. Sometimes it'll come to the Landmark. We get comedians here as well at Landmark and Civic Center.

[00:31:34] Scott: We've had Wanda Sykes here. We've had so many.

[00:31:36] Mark: Do you get concerts there too?

[00:31:38] Scott: So we do. So yes, so we have we do get some smaller concerts. I'll say they're more like, like a niche market, like a Westcott theater, like the palace theater. We get them there. We also have the the the Empower amphitheater, which just had Post Malone there.

[00:31:56] Scott: We've had Janet Jackson there Luke Bryan, we get big people [00:32:00] there. We have the Dome. Which used to be called the carrier dome. That's how some people still know it. We have pink come in there to a sold out show of like 60, 000. We've had Billy Joel there. We've had Elton John. So we definitely get everybody.

[00:32:16] Scott: We do. The amphitheaters had Tim McGraw to Dave Matthews band and a lot of them come on a regular basis. Regarding, you know, plays and musicals. Still, we have Red House, which is downtown. That's phenomenal. I've been there several times. They do their own thing. We have the Museum of Science and Technology downtown.

[00:32:34] Scott: That's big for kids and adult. I love it. But so it is what it is. I mean, it's just fun.

[00:32:39] Mark: Do you have like a planetarium?

[00:32:42] Scott: Inside of there, I believe they do. I haven't been in a while because they do a lot of school trips there because there's just so much stuff to do there. And that changes, you know, inside periodically as well, too.

[00:32:52] Scott: You know, like for museums and stuff, we have the Erie canal museum. We're known as the salt city. So we have Erie canal museum. We have the [00:33:00] historical association of Onondaga County. Syracuse university has their own art museum. We have the Camillus Erie canal where I actually run. It, they're, it's the, like the original store.

[00:33:10] Scott: It's the actual Erie Canal that they tugged the boats on. Right. And like, you're running next to it, which is kind of mind blowing. We have the greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame. There's no shortage of culture, say .

[00:33:22] Mark: I was, doesn't sound like you have a shortage at all. No. So if you have your culture fix.

[00:33:28] Mark: You can get, yeah that's awesome.

[00:33:30] Scott: There's so many, there's just so much to do. And sometimes there's so many shows. We have CNY Playhouse, which is independent. They do great shows there. Yeah, there's just so much, if you're definitely into theater or musicals, there's no shortage at all whatsoever here for that.

[00:33:46] Mark: That's cool. I thought, Oh no, you'd have to go to New York or down to the city.

[00:33:52] Scott: And what's great is if you want to go

[00:33:53] Mark: to,

[00:33:54] Scott: You know, Mark, and if you want to go to New York, it's a five hour train ride down and you can make a great weekend and be [00:34:00] right back.

[00:34:00] Mark: That's

[00:34:01] Scott: what I love about living. You're so close to everything.

[00:34:04] Scott: Everything is just within a handful of hours away.

[00:34:06] Mark: Yeah. We used to drive up to Syracuse or even further, an hour further north from the city. So awesome. Yeah, it's great. All right. Let's talk about dining and restaurants. Do you have, I'm sure you don't have a shortage of those either. No

[00:34:26] Scott: shortage.

[00:34:27] Scott: So, yeah, no shortage. Also, the city, what they do in surrounding area, they'll do, also do food festivals every year. There's several. They do like, this past weekend was Festa Italiana. They do a Greek festival. There's a Ukrainian festival. They do a Middle Eastern cultural festival. There's a Macedonian festival.

[00:34:46] Scott: So, these are throughout the year. And you get all the different types of foods at all, which is great. People, mainly traditionally, obviously spring through fall. But Downtown. Downtown. There's no shortage of restaurants. We seem to be more heavy in [00:35:00] Italian here, which I love. I'm not Italian, but I still love it.

[00:35:04] Scott: We have a restaurant, which is one of my personal favorites downtown, which is pastabilities or they call it pastas. That was on diners, drive ins and dives. We've had a lot of celebrities go there when they're in town. We've had Chevy chase go there. Eugene Levy's gone there. Kevin James, Richard gear was there with his father for his birthday.

[00:35:23] Scott: It's all homemade. It's just phenomenal. I love it personally. I know it's so good. And Richard gear was there obviously, cause he graduated from a North Syracuse high school year. So he's got ties to Syracuse. So he comes back periodically. There's a downtown, we have Funkin waffles. Which is another restaurant that puts a little spin on the breakfast food, but it's all different types of waffles.

[00:35:44] Scott: They run diners, drive ins and diners as well. Sounds like fun. It is. It's definitely different. One of the big things that people look for here is dinosaur barbecue, which they now have one, I think, down in New York City. I think maybe Brooklyn possibly.

[00:35:57] Mark: When I, when we lived in Westchester, there was one there.[00:36:00]

[00:36:00] Mark: Yeah it's

[00:36:01] Scott: good. I mean, if you like Bart, it's great. I love it. We have the other place I really like that. It was just at recently at the when we did the pride festival downtown, it was, it's called the salt city market and it's a building they renovated not too long ago. And there's Middle Eastern food in there.

[00:36:16] Scott: There's Vietnamese, there's Ethiopian, there's Jamaican, there's Thai, there's Cali max. It's all, right there for you. And that's all pretty much downtown. That's just downtown. So the suburbs, my favorite, I got to say again, Italian, but it's Sant'Angelo's and it's in Liverpool, New York. It's actually gay owned.

[00:36:34] Scott: The two gentlemen own it. One is a chef. It's phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. I They have fried goat cheese, which I didn't think I'd ever, but God, I love it. It's absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. So St. Angela's is one of my tops up there. A special occasion. I'm going to St. Angela's usually I get chicken parm no matter where it is.

[00:36:54] Scott: So I just absolutely love it. It's just amazing. You know, and everyone asks me, he's like, you know, what's Syracuse known [00:37:00] for? What do you guys have? I'm like, well, we don't have like, a dish per se. But when I tell people like we're known for salt potatoes and you're like, well, what the heck are those?

[00:37:07] Scott: So I know it's open salt potatoes. So yeah. So, you know, you got your mini potatoes, you boil them in the water with the salt and that's just a staple here, you know, or Hoffman hot dogs. It's a brand Hoffman hot dogs. They're made locally. You're now starting to see them in some of the grocery stores like down South.

[00:37:24] Scott: We get them up here. They have a little bit of a snap to them, the casing and. Like, some people won't eat any other hot dog unless it's Hoffman. Like, snap spicy? Nope. Like, the actual casing just has a little bit of a snap to it. It's the actual casing of the hot dog. Okay. Yeah. I know it sounds a little weird, but

[00:37:42] Mark: Wonder how good that is for you.

[00:37:44] Scott: I don't know. They're absolutely phenomenal. I love them. Like anytime there's a party, it's like, you know, they're like, Oh, what do you have? You know, if you don't have Hoffman that now it's like, okay, well, it'll do, but it's not the same, but yeah. But we have, you know, in other dunes, it's Italian. We [00:38:00] do have so many other restaurants down to, we have a, we have steak houses.

[00:38:03] Scott: We have

[00:38:03] Mark: Michelin starred. Do you know,

[00:38:06] Scott: I believe, yes, there's some downtown that are, there are start. Yes. We, of course, obviously in the suburbs have also your chains, you know, you have your Applebee's, your Longhorns, your, you know, Red Robins, we have all them here too. But downtown, you're seeing more so of all your, you know, privately owned.

[00:38:22] Scott: Which I like to support. I mean, not that I don't go to a chain and that's why I always go to San Tangelo's because first of all, I just love, I can't talk enough. I just love it. It's so good. It's just phenomenal, but I try to go there because it's locally. Oh, first off it's LGBTQ owned. And not only just for that, it's just phenomenal food.

[00:38:38] Scott: And that's why I like going to possibilities downtown too. I like them both, but San Tangelo's is just, if I don't want to go in the city. I go to the, I go to the suburbs, I go out there.

[00:38:46] Mark: So those two establishments, so they'll have to overnight me some of their food.

[00:38:52] Scott: Or next time you visit, let me know.

[00:38:53] Scott: I'll take you. We'll go. Cause it's so good. It's so good. Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:38:59] Mark: We have to get [00:39:00] back there soon, so

[00:39:02] Scott: yeah, and we have to see if you know, in the burbs, we also have, we do have Greek restaurants which I tried myself not too long ago, which shockingly, I really loved. It was so good.

Yeah, Greek

[00:39:11] Scott: was so, so good. We have some Thai places you know, you have some Japanese hibachi places in the suburbs, which are really good. So yeah, if you're a foodie at all, we probably got a shortage.

[00:39:24] Mark: There's no

[00:39:24] Scott: shortage there either. We got it. That's we're kind of like the Syracuse is kind of like the hidden gem.

[00:39:30] Scott: I think it's overlooked for a lot of people cause they don't like the snow.

[00:39:33] Mark: Oh yeah. Well, what do people do in the winter when they don't go out? They go out to

[00:39:36] Scott: eat. All right. We're going out

[00:39:38] Mark: to eat. What else is there to do? Go to the movie. Yeah. You have movie theaters too. I'm sure.

[00:39:44] Scott: Yep. We have one in the mall here in destiny.

[00:39:47] Scott: We have an hearing Camilla's huge

[00:39:50] Mark: mall.

[00:39:50] Scott: What's that? We have destiny USA. Yep. Is that what it's called? I thought it was called something else. It used to be called carousel center. And then they renamed it. They did an [00:40:00] addition. Then they renamed it to destiny side. So there we have theater. And then we also have movie tavern, which is one of those where you can order food and you get a nice leather recliner.

[00:40:11] Mark: Yeah. Nice. Yeah. I'm

[00:40:12] Scott: all about that. So that's where I go. As long as I don't

[00:40:16] Mark: doze off during the movie, I'm good. So that's my problem. That's my problem. I can't go to a movie after five, 5 PM. I got to go. It's the same thing with theater. It's like, no.

[00:40:27] Scott: Yeah.

[00:40:28] Mark: Yeah.

[00:40:29] Scott: Yeah.

[00:40:29] Mark: I once paid for late minutes on Broadway and we went out to dinner on a Friday night after work, full day of work, had pasta, had a pasta meal.

[00:40:40] Mark: I sat down in the seat and I was fighting my eyes to be open. I was like, Oh, I need toothpicks for my eyes. And I was just fighting it. And then just, I said, I can't do it. The hell with it. And I fell asleep. The next thing I know, standing ovation. I'm looking around. I was like, no wonder why they call this late miserables [00:41:00]

[00:41:00] Scott: and I have never seen it.

[00:41:02] Scott: And that's our first show in this. And some people said you, you might really like, and we'll see. And that's one reason why I actually ended up starting doing my partner. I did season tickets because I would just pick and choose and I'm like, no, this is going to force me to go to things that I may not like.

[00:41:16] Scott: Some of them I really liked and I never thought I would. So I'm kind of glad I do the season tickets. It's

[00:41:20] Mark: just, yeah, that's good too. Yeah. We have done that here too. It's, we could walk to our theater. It's like two blocks away. Oh, nice. So yeah, it's nice and nice getting theater tickets. Cause you you're forced into it.

[00:41:33] Mark: It's like, all right, we're going to see this no matter what. So

[00:41:37] Scott: exactly.

[00:41:39] Mark: Okay. What about, are we crime and safety? How's the crime situation in Syracuse?

[00:41:50] Scott: So, per the U. S. News and World Report, they have Syracuse like as a 7. for safety. I personally have never felt [00:42:00] at risk or anything like that ever in all the years I've ever lived here.

[00:42:06] Scott: There was several articles that came out, you know, in 2024, violent crimes is down. It's in a downward trend. Incidents involving shootings are down 56%. If really any event, I don't care whether it's an LGBTQ event. If it's a regular event, we do what's called taste of Syracuse downtown, where all sorts of vendors get together.

[00:42:24] Scott: You can taste all different. There's always so much police presence. There's never, I've never really ever had an issue no matter where I've gone. I wouldn't say it's any more or less than probably anywhere else. But I've never felt unsafe

[00:42:36] Mark: ever. Do you feel, so you feel safe if you had to go out and walk your dog at two in the morning?

[00:42:42] Scott: Yeah, I would be, I wouldn't have an issue, no. No, I wouldn't have an issue with that at all. You know, and depending where, if you live in the suburbs, like I live in Camillus, so Camillus actually has their own police, so they patrol the neighborhoods just regularly. Other areas and other suburbs also have their own in addition to just the regular, [00:43:00] you know, city or state.

[00:43:01] Scott: But no I've never run into an issue. My mom lives in Syracuse. I'm only about maybe 10 minutes from her. So I'm just a little bit further from her. We would be out till one, two in the morning. We never had any issues or we'd be, or we'd be downtown. Yeah. I mean, again, clearly things are going to happen where they're going to happen regardless.

[00:43:19] Scott: But I don't personally see it being any form of an issue any more than the norm. I'm going to say, you know, every now and again, there's a bar fight. Of course, there's going to be

[00:43:28] Mark: Do you think the crime is below the national average in Syracuse

[00:43:33] Scott: or

[00:43:34] Mark: about the

[00:43:35] Scott: same? I would say it's either about the same or maybe a little less just because, you know, when we watch the news, I don't see it nearly as much.

[00:43:42] Scott: You don't hear about it as much. And that's why I said, you know, there's a couple of years ago, you know, that someone had made a threat, they were at destiny, the mall. So when the pride festival starts or the parade, it's over in the inner Harbor, which is right down the road from there. And he was threatening, somebody was threatening to do a [00:44:00] bomb of something.

[00:44:00] Scott: What I'm like, you know what, I'm not worried, I'm not worried. There was so much police presence, which is just the norm anyways. It wasn't any more or any less, but they took it seriously. They found the person I'm like, I'm going. Yeah. You know, I'm not going to let something like that stop me from celebrating who I am and attending a parade and marching in it.

[00:44:20] Scott: So, yeah, so I'm like, it's not going to happen. So, yeah, so no, I think we're, I think we're pretty good here. I never really hear of any issues. Like I said

[00:44:28] Mark: no, maybe we'll move to Syracuse and

[00:44:31] Scott: we're going to go to Sant'Angelo's.

[00:44:35] Mark: Absolutely. Oh, it sounds like it really, you know, I've been there and I have my, you know, in laws live there and, you know, our relatives live there, but never really got to know the community.

[00:44:49] Mark: I was only there a short period of time. So relatively safe. And what else about the city makes it special to [00:45:00] you?

[00:45:00] Scott: You know, the cities I, what I like about it is when I have other people that visit here from other areas, bigger cities, Syracuse is decent size, but there's never really an issue getting in and out of it.

[00:45:12] Scott: It's never, I mean, I used to work downtown in the city, you know, there's traffic, but it's not like crazy. It's not like you're in traffic for hours or anything like that. So it's, you know, even when we do to our, we go to our Broadway shows in Syracuse at landmark, you know, there's clearly, you have thousands of people leaving or something, but it's still.

[00:45:33] Scott: You're in traffic, maybe 10 minutes. I mean, sometimes you can even avoid it entirely. So I like that aspect of it. You know, sometimes it can be a little tricky because you're street parking. So it can be a little bit harder to find spots. There are some parking garages down there. So you have to walk a couple of blocks, which is not the worst thing to a restaurant or something, which I almost prefer doing because you're not right next to it.

[00:45:52] Scott: How about parking in the

[00:45:53] Mark: winter?

[00:45:55] Scott: Parking in the winter. So you can still park on the road. So they do clear it enough where you can try to park on the road. [00:46:00] They do the odd even. So you can only really park that on one side because then obviously the plows got to get through. So, during the summer times, you can do both.

[00:46:08] Scott: And then some areas. So after I think it's like 6 o'clock, then you have to pay for parking on the road or it could be 5. I'm trying to remember which one it is, but you can do free parking on the road. And some of the lots are free then too. Otherwise, you know, all the hospitals obviously clearly have, they have street parking there, but they also have their own parking garages that you can go into, which is what I just, it's just easier.

[00:46:28] Scott: And in just the area, just in general, like we talked about is just so close to everything. You know, you're, you know, two and a half hours to Canada, Niagara falls, you're four and a half or five to New York city, you're five hours to Boston. You know, you're a couple of hours to the Adirondacks.

[00:46:44] Scott: If you want to go hiking there's just so much out there. If you're a woodsy person, if you're not, if you're a winter person, there's plenty. If you're not, there's still stuff to do. And. It's just all around. It really has, I think, a little bit of everything for everyone. [00:47:00] And I think when I talk to people, their biggest thing is, Oh, the snow said, okay, let's take the snow out of the equation.

[00:47:05] Scott: Is there something else you don't like? They're like, no, it's just the snow. And they're called like, okay, I get it. I do no

[00:47:09] Mark: places. Perfect.

[00:47:11] Scott: I know. And I get it. And when I start talking to people just as we are now, I just don't think people realize how much. Syracuse really does have to offer. And I think it's mind blown to them.

[00:47:23] Scott: And that's why I love getting buyers from out of state because I educate them. I said, you know, yeah, you got this, and like, really? I'm like, yeah, you got this here and you can go here. They love it. You know?

[00:47:32] Mark: Yeah. It does have a lot. It seems like it does have a lot to offer considering. I mean that you have to look at all of.

[00:47:40] Mark: Every perspective of what a city offers, you know, as far as retirement or just living there. So does it, no place is perfect. So you guys are cold. You might have snow, but you know what, here in Phoenix. Where we [00:48:00] bake in the summer, it's hot, it's not a pretty thing, you know, just you know, you stay in your house.

[00:48:07] Mark: So I equated to like the Northeast when we lived in New York City, you don't really go out much in the winter. You go to restaurants and you do what you have to do indoors, you know, so pretty much the same. And

[00:48:20] Scott: the

[00:48:20] Mark: one

[00:48:20] Scott: thing I do like is Syracuse does kind of pivot to the winter, so you don't have to be.

[00:48:26] Scott: A big outdoorsy person to enjoy even some of the winter things like Beaver Lake, which is in Bollinsville area. It's all trails and stuff. Now you can go. There's like a lake loop. It takes like an hour to walk around. But during the winter. You can cross country ski the trails. You can snowshoe the trails.

[00:48:42] Scott: You can just enjoy, you can rent them there. It, they have little things that are just enjoyable downtown. They do an ice skating rink. You can ice skate right there where they do the Christmas tree every year. That's

[00:48:53] Mark: nice.

[00:48:54] Scott: It's, there's just all these little things that you can still do. We have lights on the lake here.

[00:48:58] Scott: So on a dog, a lake, you can [00:49:00] just drive through and it's miles of Christmas lights. That's nice. So you don't have to even leave your warm car if you don't want to, you can enjoy it. So yeah, we just got so much here. And again I just, I say it again, I'll say it again. I love that. We're just so close to everything.

[00:49:15] Scott: Everything is always about 20 minutes from your house. And if you want to travel somewhere and get out and go to New York, Have at it. You can do it very easily

[00:49:24] Mark: now. How long have you lived there all your life? I lived here all my life And do you think you'll retire there?

[00:49:31] Scott: I probably will. Yeah, I love to travel, but home is always home.

[00:49:37] Scott: And I've even thought about selling my house here in Camillus where I'm at, but I'm like, I have so much. I mean, it's seriously, it's like a five minute drive to my gym. It is three minutes down the road to my Costco or movie theater. What more do you want? I know, I have everything. I have a Home Depot down the road.

[00:49:56] Scott: I have a Lowe's up the road. I have a Target five minutes from me. I have a [00:50:00] Wegmans grocery store. I have an Aldi at the end of my hill. I'm like, I, where am I going? I know the highway is so close and we're, I'm very close to the state fairgrounds. So we have the New York state fair every year, which just ended that ends on Labor Day.

[00:50:14] Scott: That's huge. And I'm only maybe 15 minutes from there.

[00:50:18] Mark: So why would you want to?

[00:50:19] Scott: That's the thing. It's like, where am I going to go? I am so centrally located to everything. It's like I, and I've said that some of them like, geez, I'd love more room in my house. But I'm like, where am I going to go? I'm just, the location's perfect for me.

[00:50:32] Scott: And it's like, it's, but no matter what suburb you're at. The highway's always close to you. There's always stores around you. The city's usually again, 15, 20 minutes away. It's so funny. Cause you just always say it, but when you get here, it's true. You're like, everything's about 20

[00:50:46] Mark: minutes away.

[00:50:47] Scott: So it's just so funny.

[00:50:48] Scott: Cause that's what everyone jokes about. Oh, it's 20 minutes. Good. It really is 20 minutes.

[00:50:52] Mark: That's great. So, yeah, that's great. So yeah, it's a great place. Why move somewhere else that, you know, you have to do other things [00:51:00] and it's so comfy and homey. You know what I'm saying? I figure when I

[00:51:04] Scott: retire, I can just retired.

[00:51:06] Scott: I can just vacation to warmer spots. And that's what I do now with real estate. Clearly our summertime is our busiest. We sell curly year round, but you know, you have a little more downtime in the winter months because not, you know, not as many people are still selling or buying, Hey, I go on a cruise go vacation, go see some friends, you know.

[00:51:24] Mark: Yeah, I'm retiring, I'm hiring it. It's fine. I'm retiring in a week, , so. Oh, congrats. Thank you. Congrats. So in the summer, I mean summer is just about over, it's for Phoenix, summer lasts until probably October , but yeah, it's still in the nineties. So, you know, next going forward, next summer or the summer, you know, going forward, we plan on just traveling someplace a little bit cooler, probably the

[00:51:53] Scott: Syracuse.

[00:51:54] Scott: Come on up. You know, we're starting our apple picking, our hay rides are starting, the leaves are

[00:51:59] Mark: [00:52:00] changing. I miss the apple picking. Cause we used to like living in the city. We used to go. Either Northern New Jersey or upstate, a little bit upstate New York to these little farms. And, you know, we do an apple picking or they were picked.

[00:52:15] Mark: We would just pick them.

[00:52:16] Scott: You can do that too. Yeah.

[00:52:18] Mark: And some of the

[00:52:18] Scott: best cider donuts. Oh my God.

[00:52:21] Mark: Cider donuts. I want to know that was a cider

[00:52:25] Scott: doughnuts. Yeah, we go to a place in Weedsport. It's called Owens Orchards here. We love, we've been going there for 20 years. The best cider doughnuts, my God.

[00:52:33] Scott: And they come out warm. Ah, for the love of God. But they're so

[00:52:35] Mark: they like soak them in cider.

[00:52:37] Scott: Nope. It's actually the dough is made with apple cider. So it's infused in it. Yeah it's really good. Sounds a

[00:52:44] Mark: little dangerous to me. They're

[00:52:45] Scott: so good. And, you know, and then in the winter, like, you can even, I don't know if you've ever done it, you can cut your own Christmas tree down.

[00:52:52] Scott: So there's tree farms here. You can go, my mom and I did that for years and, you know, we made a tradition of it. It was one of our [00:53:00] things, a Saturday we would drive out.

[00:53:01] Mark: You'd chop it down yourself.

[00:53:03] Scott: Yep. Get on my hands and knees, chop it off. And then they tag it and they'll bundle it for you to put on the top of your car for you.

[00:53:10] Scott: Yup. So many families do that. They give you an

[00:53:12] Scott: An axe. You can, Nope. They give you like a bandsaw.

[00:53:15] Mark: Oh,

[00:53:15] Scott: you can do that. I actually bought this thing that looks like a it looks like a chain for a chainsaw, except it's got handles on the end. So you just go back and forth and it cuts right through.

[00:53:25] Scott: We did that probably for 10 years. My mom's like, I'm done with the real trees now. So we went to artificial, but we, she bought. She looked forward to, it was like our tradition, you know, that was a thing. So we went out and you know, the trees always look much larger or much smaller. You get them in the house cause you bring them home.

[00:53:42] Scott: Like, I'm going to have to cut about a foot of this off because it's way too big. Cause it didn't look quite as big on the farm, but yeah, but apple picking, we'll be doing that another weekend or so. And yeah, I'm just so excited. I love them all. I

[00:53:54] Mark: miss the seasons.

[00:53:55] Scott: One of my friends just moved back from Florida.

[00:53:59] Scott: He's, this is his [00:54:00] first fall in like 15 years. He's like, I am loving every minute of it.

[00:54:04] Mark: Yeah. We lived we're away from New York 10 years, so we moved to Florida first and we're here six years for the four years there. So we really haven't had fall winter in 10 years. So I know I kind of miss, not that I really miss the winter in the snow.

[00:54:25] Mark: I really don't. Because I always said, just show me a picture on Facebook and I'm good, but I do miss the fall. You don't

[00:54:32] Scott: get the feel.

[00:54:33] Mark: Yeah, I don't get the, when it's 80 degrees and it's Christmastime, it's like, you know, it's not snow and where's the snow.

[00:54:43] Scott: That's how it is. Like for me here, though, when we have warmer, the warmer winters, it, to me, it just doesn't feel like Christmas at the time.

[00:54:50] Scott: I have my lights on, I got the tree up, but it just doesn't get, you're missing that feel. Yeah. But I went running the other day at the Erie [00:55:00] canal down the road for me and like, it was a warm day and the leaves are starting to like every now and again, you got the smell. Oh, I was like, this is a, this is what it's on.

[00:55:07] Scott: Like I was loving it.

[00:55:10] Mark: You know, beautiful. Yeah. And yours changes. It's before the city. So before New

[00:55:15] Scott: York city, Adirondacks will probably start changing very soon. They're probably a week or two. They'll start. And then it moves towards us. So yeah. And they're saying this year we are the place to be for foliage and rather than new England, which there was just an article on that.

[00:55:30] Scott: So I'm like, okay, I'm all for it. Sign me up. Sign me up. I'll be posting my Facebook without a doubt

[00:55:37] Mark: that I'll be taking the look at that. For sure. So, in wrapping up what advice would you give someone considering retirement in Syracuse, and what key factors make Syracuse a great place for the retirees especially for those in the LGBTQ community?

[00:55:55] Scott: I would say initially, I think people need to at least visit, you know, you know, and I would say [00:56:00] visit different times of the year, you know, not just maybe so if it's a place you're actually looking to retire in the winter, yeah, I would say, yeah, if you're not a really necessary winter person, I would say probably try come during the winter time and just to see what it's like, see what Syracuse has to offer.

[00:56:13] Scott: And if we have things here that you would love to do during that timeframe, and if it's, you know, would work for you. I have some people that aren't huge fans of summer, believe it or not. And they're like, geez, no, I'm all about having the four seasons. I think you definitely got to come and at least visit.

[00:56:26] Scott: Stay for maybe a weekend, a week, if you could tour around, see what we really have to offer and try to settle in a little bit, you know, poke around a little bit here and there and see what's available. Because I think when people start, they're really going to see, wow, there really is a ton here. And again, like, as we mentioned, I think it's kind of mind blown to a lot of people, like I said, my buyers and my buyers, more so they're like, geez, I never realized this.

[00:56:49] Scott: Yeah, it's here. You just got to find

it.

[00:56:52] Scott: Exactly. And I even have friends are like, oh, geez, there's nothing to do. I'm like, are you kidding me? There's this festival this weekend. There's, you can go here, you can go there. There's so much going [00:57:00] on. Yeah, so absolutely. You know, check it out, you know, don't go on someone else's opinion because clearly what they like and don't like could be opposite from what you like.

[00:57:09] Scott: We just have, and again, Not to repeat myself again, but there's just so much and it's really an all inclusive Well rounded city that really offers. I think a lot for a lot of different people for different things Like I said, you know during the summers if you're a car person they do car shows here The nationals are here at the fairgrounds.

[00:57:30] Scott: People come from across the country, but that's huge here. You know, if you're, you know, more into like nature, like I said, we have several state parks. You can camp out there close to us. You have we have green lakes. That is a man made lake that you can walk through or there's a beach you can stay on.

[00:57:46] Scott: We have Chittenango Falls, which is gorgeous in the fall. Again, Adirondacks aren't far from us. So there are states, but just beautiful. It is, there is just so much. And that's like, how could I move? It's like, you know, what [00:58:00] else would someone else give me that I don't have here that I'm missing? Cause I personally, I don't really feel like I'm missing anything.

[00:58:06] Scott: Right. Yeah, there's no reason. People are like, well, geez, you know, there's no subway or nothing. Well, I don't know if Syracuse really needs to utilize a subway per se, but you know, we don't have stuff like that, but I think we got a lot of little things from big cities, bigger cities, and it's all here for you.

[00:58:22] Scott: Like I said, we get the Broadway shows that travel here. We don't have to go to Fidelano. I wish you had underground walking.

[00:58:29] Mark: So in the winter that

[00:58:31] Scott: we don't have, yeah, we don't have you know, especially down downtown again, when you're walking in the winter, clearly, because when I worked on there, it is, it's windy, clearly, because it's going whipping right through the building.

[00:58:41] Scott: So

[00:58:42] Mark: New York City is like that, too, you know, really windy and nasty. Yeah,

[00:58:49] Scott: but yeah I think especially any retirees, especially the LGBT, there's just so much here. You're retiring. If you're a big volunteer, there's so many groups you could volunteer at that would love the [00:59:00] support or help. You know, that you could get involved in, even if it's just once a year or if it's every year or one event or several events there's usually, there's just no lack of, there's Of something to do in regards to volunteering as well.

[00:59:14] Scott: It doesn't even have to be anything in the LGBTQ if you don't want it to be. There's so much more out there going that, yeah, that they utilize. I try to personally find things that are more LGBTQ just because obviously because of my who I am. And I've seen some of it firsthand. I've seen, you know, friends have problems with their families.

[00:59:32] Scott: I've seen it, you know, so I know it exists. And I tell people like, Oh, that doesn't happen. I go, no, it does. And if you don't think it does, then You're missing the mark because it really does happen.

Right.

[00:59:44] Scott: You know, whether you want to believe it or not, it is a thing. So, yeah, there's just so much here that I'd be, I would love to hear what someone is looking for that we don't have.

[00:59:53] Mark: Right. That's a good, you know, that's a good And

[00:59:57] Scott: if they only say snow, then I don't want to hear it because [01:00:00] that's the only thing.

[01:00:03] Mark: So how do you see Syracuse evolving over the next decade? What would be the biggest draw for new residents?

[01:00:10] Scott: So I, we are getting, so it's been nationals, we're getting micron here.

[01:00:16] Scott: Which is going to be set. It's a semiconductor plant in clay that's coming. Yeah. That's going to be huge here. They're trying to utilize, figure out what the housing issue is going to be regarding this. So they're trying to start building and things like that. Cause Syracuse isn't like maybe like an Arizona.

[01:00:31] Scott: Where we build a whole entire, you know, street at once. We don't do that here. We build house by houses. Yeah. So we don't build neighborhoods at one time. We build houses. So they're trying to figure that out. I definitely see, it's nice to really see parts of the city that are being revitalized. Like I said, they're renovating buildings for condos and things that for people and for affordable housing.

[01:00:54] Scott: I love seeing that. I think Syracuse is definitely becoming, and I think it's getting on a lot more people's whereas [01:01:00] before it was like, you know, yeah, Syracuse. Yeah, again, snow. That's all you ever hear of snow, right? Like there's so much more to us than just snow. But yeah, that's all you hear. So I definitely see it's going in the right direction, definitely going the right direction.

[01:01:13] Scott: I think COVID hit a lot of people, clearly a lot of small businesses shut down, unfortunately, just because you know, we do still have a few LGBT bars here. We had a couple that did close that I used to go to that was great. But again, there's again, just no shortage of places to go though either.

[01:01:29] Scott: So I think while some went down, you know, in close, there were new ones that were coming up and I, it's nice to see Syracuse evolving and that they are doing some things that supporting the community. It just in general, not even just LGBTQ, but just in general, that's great.

[01:01:43] Mark: Yeah. You mentioned condos.

[01:01:44] Mark: Do they have a, like a condo community? Is there, are there many condos?

[01:01:49] Scott: There's not a lot here. We don't have a lot of them. We have a condo unit that's actually in East Syracuse as well. That has an HOA attached to it. Cause it's more, it has like, you know, grounds to it and everything else. So grass [01:02:00] and things like that.

[01:02:01] Scott: Downtown, there is the, you do pay HOA, but it's more for like your security. The security at the door, you know, the taxes, your you know, trash, things like that. Right. But we don't have a lot of them. That's one thing Syracuse doesn't have a ton of our condos. It's mostly single family homes.

[01:02:16] Scott: It's mostly single family homes. We do have a lot of like townhouses that do have HOAs, but you're also getting like a community pool with it. You're getting a gym, things like the clubhouse type of a thing. Exactly. We do have a couple like 55 and older communities, air communities, but they are more, it's more of a six single family homes though, but they, you know, you pay the age and they do everything for you.

[01:02:39] Scott: So while you're still utilizing one level living, like a patio home but you're not having to do everything with it. So that's, so some of those are like a year or two wait to get into yeah. Cause just for that reason, there's not just, there's not enough of them. Yeah.

[01:02:56] Mark: So where could our audience find you if they were looking [01:03:00] to purchase, you know, a home in Syracuse?

[01:03:04] Scott: Yep, they can I have a website through through Hunt which is where I currently work. I don't have it off hand, so how bad is that? My email they can always email me. Do you want me to just go ahead and give the email or?

[01:03:15] Mark: Yeah, you can give the email if you have it.

[01:03:18] Scott: Yep, so my email is scott, S C O T dot hire, H I E R.

[01:03:24] Scott: At hunt real estate. com. You can find my business page Scott hire through hunt real estate. I have a business page. I'm on Instagram and I'm on LinkedIn as well. I welcome anyone with questions or anything more than happy to help them out.

[01:03:38] Mark: Yeah. I could put that in the show notes. So people could contact you and.

[01:03:43] Scott: Absolutely.

[01:03:44] Mark: I can give my cell number out too. If

[01:03:45] Scott: you'd like,

[01:03:45] Mark: I have that as well.

[01:03:47] Scott: Yeah. We can put

[01:03:47] Mark: that in the show notes if you'd like.

[01:03:49] Scott: Yeah, sure. Yeah, I welcome anyone with questions or anything about what we offer any questions that we have or maybe something that they don't know if we have. If I don't know, I'll definitely find them an answer.[01:04:00]

[01:04:00] Mark: That's great.

[01:04:01] Scott: Yeah.

[01:04:01] Mark: Well, Scott, you've been great. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mark, for

[01:04:05] Scott: having me. I appreciate it.

[01:04:06] Mark: Oh, my pleasure. And thank you for all of your insight and on the Syracuse area. And yeah, thanks again. And we'll see on the next one. My absolute pleasure. Thanks. Thank you.

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