46 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Authority,” but these went unaddressed. “In just 25 years, the promise of Pioneer Homes had changed. By the time Black residents had access to the development, the Authority no longer saw it as a place that would scientifically improve the lives, morality, and social standing of working families. Rather, it became a space where socalled ‘ungovernable’ tenants were expected to discipline themselves through managing maintenance at their own expense.” Pioneer Homes, once justified through paternalistic ideals of “scientific” uplift, was recast as a site of disorder, where residents were no longer seen as subjects to be improved but as problems to be managed. In place of institutional responsibility, blame was redirected onto tenants themselves, reframing systemic disinvestment as individual failure. Redlining and racially discriminatory lending practices fundamentally shaped the economic landscape of housing. In neighborhoods like the 15th Ward, banks systematically refused to issue loans to Black residents, preventing property from appreciating in value over time. As a result, this land remained some of the cheapest in the city, and especially vulnerable to top-down intervention. Devalued land became an easy target for large-scale “transformation” projects. Today, the neighborhood faces yet another intervention. As the city plans to remove the Interstate 81 corridor, it has introduced the East Adams Transformation Plan, a proposal that would demolish Pioneer Homes and replace it with new residential development. Framed as a redevelopment effort, the project once again promises that displaced residents may be able to live. The first institutionalized tenant voice came through the Blueprint 15, a nonprofit who claims to advocate for the needs of residents. Its role, however, has largely functioned as a liaison, communicating the city’s development strategy to residents affected by demolition. As Jess explains, “Blueprint’s position has largely been used as a resident liaison that communicates the city’s new development strategy to Syracuse Housing Authority residents impacted by the most recent wave of planned demolitions.” She continues, “It is a liaison, which is not the same as having a democratic voice.” Rather than enabling meaningful participation, this structure limits residents’ influence over outcomes: “There’s no power. You are taking a report, and you are telling the contents of that report to the people who live there.
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