Sharon Owens

Sharon Owens is running for election as Mayor of Syracuse. She currently serves as the Deputy Mayor of Syracuse, and over her career, Owens has worked to see the people of the City of Syracuse overcome the structural impacts of environmental factors, including smog, lead-based toxins in homes, and toxins left as remains of industrial and commercial development. Deputy Mayor Owens is committed to resolving the devastating health impacts these environmental factors can cause, like asthma and COPD. She recognizes both the increasing role that man-made climate change has had on her community, and the heavy impact on energy and natural resource demand of the increase in people in the region and new technologies like artificial intelligence. Owens believes that recent weather trends, including extreme winter events like Buffalo’s recent blizzard in 2022/23, Rome’s devastation from tornadoes, smog produced from Canada’s excessive wildfires, and extreme cold and heat waves in Syracuse, require serious consideration and action. She is currently supporting efforts to create a mapped, comprehensive understanding of Syracuse’s carbon outputs in the city’s operations, from fleet to street and everything in between. Deputy Mayor Owens believes in building a more resilient Syracuse that is able to meet the increasing impact of extreme weather events on our people to ensure their safety.