Marble

President Donald Trump campaigned in Syracuse Friday night for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman, drawing about 2,500 supporters to the Oncenter while roughly 4,000 protesters gathered nearby. The rally came a day after an ICE agent shot and wounded Oscar Belgal, 28, in Manhattan's Marble Hill neighborhood while he was driving with his 5-year-old son; federal authorities alleged Belgal had gang ties.

In a speech lasting more than 80 minutes, Trump attacked Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James over immigration, energy and tax policy, repeated disputed claims about election fraud and the Interstate 81 teardown, and promised Blakeman would sharply cut electric bills and taxes. Blakeman pledged to end New York's sanctuary-state status by executive order on his first day in office if elected. Hochul's campaign has branded Blakeman "Trump's puppet" and defended her record, including the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act limiting local cooperation with ICE, which some upstate sheriffs are suing to overturn. Immigration enforcement and affordability remain central issues as the governor's race enters its final weeks.

Preservationist Glenn Hinchey is restoring a brick building at 401 Hawley Ave. in Syracuse's Hawley-Green neighborhood that operated as a grocery store from roughly 1850 until 1983, when it was abandoned amid the area's economic decline. Hinchey, who has spent 40 years on restoration projects including Syracuse's Hamilton White House and the Landmark Theatre lobby, bought the derelict building 11 years ago after doing structural repair work there. He has since worked steadily to rebuild rotted floors and joists while researching the building's 1850s-era storefront appearance.

Over the decades the store passed through several owners, including German immigrant William Helmstetter, who ran it for 25 years, and Vahram Agababian, an Armenian Genocide survivor who operated it as Babian's Market until repeated robberies and vandalism forced its closure in 1983. While replacing a sidewalk this past Labor Day, Hinchey and volunteers uncovered a 1850s-era community well containing antique marbles, a pocketknife, a key and clay tobacco pipes. Hinchey plans to finish exterior work this year and hopes the space becomes a coffee shop, bakery or ice cream parlor rather than a bar.