The Syracuse downtown area is full of beautiful architecture. There are many excellent restaurants to choose from. Every Summer downtown is full of multiple festivals and music events. The Landmark theater hosts broadway touring shows and its interior is amazing. The large fountain in the square turns into an open ice rink during winter. Several large murals and art installations are also to be found on buildings and in some of the smaller parks.
the buildings downtown are all remnants of a bygone era. when I grew up there you could take a bus to downtown from Eastwood to go shopping at Woolworths and others, all before malls. Sears was at south end of downtown on Salina I believe. Its was awesome, with NYC style structures, Marble and Brass, a little metropolis. then came shopping town, Fayetteville mall, Great Northern mall, Carousel Mall.....then the decline as everyone moves out. Is it a city now? last I knew it was borderline cite with population around 100k. Factories moved out because of NAFTA and GATT signed by Clinton and the slow hiss of manufacturing became low paying service jobs. Blue states are only good for wealthy, where they hover in the hills, the rest is slow decay. Tax dollars brought in high tech businesses but that just fed the burbs. The Syracuse Savings Bldg (now Bank of America) building you showed on Erie Blvd was there when the Eire Canal was Erie Blvd before they filled it in and made it a road. You can still see parts of the canal in East Syracuse. they tired to revive downtown in the 80s and 90s, which is why you see so much bricks and trees between sidewalks and curbs.