Save The Cafe (Garzone's)

DEADLINE Monday, 6/16/14~ My father, Charlie Garzone, came to Syracuse with his mother in 1917.  Originally from Milan, Italy, they began our family business, "Cafe Garzone" at 2426 South Avenue.  People everywhere remember and can recount stories of meeting their 'special someone's' there, celebrating their weddings, their birthdays, carving their name in a table top, Charlie's juicy steaks and big square hamburgers,  The Kennel Club's fancy dog shows in the yard, the Eliminator's famed Motorcycle Gangs private weekly meetings where they would rev their Harley engines and exit the big parking lot, two by two, side by side...I remember...I peered out an upstairs window as a child.  I remember...being the youngest of my mom (Anne and Charlie's) six kids...my mom cared for my dad's first two there, also...my brother Chuck Garzone (who my mom used to say hid pies under his bed), and Carolyn, who, being older, sacrificed and helped us younger ones to grow...she remembers even more...the South Hill Stables up on the back land...riding lessons, State Fair Shows, and fox hunts...right there...the vacant parcel that backs up to Cornell, Mitchell, and Armstrong Pl.  Right there.
We owe taxes. We want to pay them.  My brother, Danny Boy, passed in 2009. My mom fell ill spending a year in a nursing home. She never got to have that lunch with him that day...that day he died.  Yes, he was loud, and didn't always, (hardly ever), make the right choices.  But he was known as 'The King of the Hill, he was an average size man with an enormous Personality, crass at times, funny as hell, and with a heart that held such love for his mom, Anne, and 'the Cafe' as he called it...he broke his back to work it...to bring in the business...to make it survive...until, eventually life and all it's weight, broke him. His heart.  Danny's love of his mother, the Cafe, his dear wife Lori, Tommy, Little Lori, and  Danielle...his devotion to those he loved...you could see it. Hear it in his stories.  Cafe Garzone was his home.  And, home to all of us.  It is no mystery why I love Johnny Mathis songs and the Andrew Sisters....they were what I waited for. Lying on my blanket on the floor by the heating vent. Listening. Waiting to hear the laughter and the music. Waiting. For my mother to be done working and come upstairs to me...
Cafe Garzone has been kept closed due to various actions by the city of Syracuse since 2010. We have complied with what we can.  We have been in the news for causing "flooding to our neighbors".  We have not.  I have proof.  But still they keep us closed. We ask for help from them. They make it harder.  There are break ins and damage to the building.  It sits vacant.  We call for help. We get none. They make us 'deals' and 'offers' that benefit them and say we should be 'thankful'...they sit, and wait...we try...we wait...the time goes by...and, without being able to open...there is no money to pay the mounting tax debt.  
We have about 3 - 4 months, with luck, a little longer the tax department tells me.  We need to raise money for taxes. If not, the business my grandmother, father, and brother gave their lives for will be taken. Seized and then probably destroyed for office buildings...Our mother, Anne, is now 88.  I want to show her it is open, one more time...'Look, Mom!  It's like it used to be! Look at all the cars!' And, tell her her beloved son, Danny Boy and husband Charlie are looking down on it...and smiling.
Please help us 'Save the Cafe'~
Cafe Garzone 2426 South Avenue, Syracuse, N.Y 13207