Micron breaks ground. The Interstate 81 viaduct comes down. Syracuse will have a new mayor and SU will pick a new chancellor. We’ll see what Democrats do with a majority in the Onondaga County legislature for the first time in 50 years.
We asked our reporters to take a look ahead at the big news we’ll be following in 2026. There’s a lot on the horizon.
Dozens of local seats are up for election, determining who will represent Central New York in Albany and in Washington.
Syracuse University football gets its star quarterback back and the Bills seek a longshot bid for the Super Bowl.
And federal changes to immigration and health care policy continue to ripple through Central New York communities.
Syracuse.com will follow it all with breaking news, in-depth reporting and thoughtful analysis.
Where else would you like to see focused reporting? Send us a note at citynews@syracuse.com.
Elections, elections and more elections
Central New York is poised to play a pivotal role in state and national politics in the new year as Democrats seek to win control of Congress and Republicans try to break the Democratic grip on Albany by winning a governor’s race for the first time since 2002.
First, Republicans will have to decide on a candidate to challenge Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of Saratoga County dropped out in December, leaving Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman the GOP front-runner. President Donald Trump has endorsed Blakeman.
Democrats in Washington will try to hold onto the seat of Rep. John Mannion, D-Geddes, in Central New York as the party battles to flip the House in the midterm elections and serve as a check on Trump.
Republican John Lemondes of LaFayette is challenging Mannion, hoping to win back the seat the GOP lost in 2024. Syracuse educator Will Staton has also launched a longshot bid to run as an independent candidate in the 22nd Congressional District.
Because of a change in the state’s election law, county legislators are among local lawmakers who will join state Assembly and Senate members on the ballot in even years. Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley is also up for re-election. Republican RJ Lenhart, a retired Syracuse police officer, has said he will run.
-Mark Weiner
The beginning of the end for the I-81 viaduct
In 2026, the state will start tearing down the elevated I-81 overpass in Syracuse and close it forever.
Contractors have spent the last two years improving the ring roads around Syracuse and the approaches to Syracuse from both the north and south.
Some of that work is done or done enough to use: The northern interchange with I-81 and Interstate 481 is complete. The old Exit 3 in DeWitt exit is open. The new roundabouts on Brighton are functional.
Starting in the spring, the state plans to start building a new roundabout at Van Buren and Almond streets. That will be the first introduction to downtown Syracuse for drivers from the south.
Once that is in place, the state can start to remove the first spans of elevated highway bridges. That is expected to happen at the end of 2026 and beginning of 2027.
-Michelle Breidenbach
The beginning of the beginning for Micron
More than three years after announcing it was coming to Central New York, Micron Technology plans to break ground in 2026 for a huge chipmaking complex in the town of Clay.
When Micron secures the final permits it needs from the federal government, the company plans to start cutting several hundred acres of trees in January. It’ll have to hurry: All tree-cutting must stop by April 1 because endangered bats return to the site in spring to breed.
In early 2026, Micron also plans to start building a railyard and a conveyor system just west of Caughdenoy Road. Micron will bring up to nine million cubic yards of fill to the low-lying, swampy site just north of Route 31.
While site preparation work is expected to begin early in the year, construction and operation of the first two factories have been pushed back by two to three years. Micron now says it will produce the first memory chips in 2030.
-Glenn Coin
Rising health care costs
The rising cost of health care became a lightning rod in 2025, forming the backbone of the Democrats’ argument for the longest federal government shutdown in history. In New York, hundreds of thousands of people on Obamacare and its sister state insurance, the Essential Plan, will face thousands more dollars in costs next year after tax credits are rolled back.
State-regulated small business insurance is going up an average of 13%. Medicare Advantage plans are hiking rates to cope with massive losses arising from a quirk in Upstate hospital funding. Meanwhile, cuts to Medicaid could lead to $65 million less revenue for Syracuse’s hospitals, triggering job cuts, longer ER waits and fewer safety-net services.
By the end of the year, 30,000 Central New Yorkers face losing Medicaid under work requirements. We’ll be looking for stories about how health insurance costs and coverage rollbacks are impacting residents, doctors and essential services.
-Doug Dowty
A new mayor in Syracuse
Following a history-making election that made her the first Black mayor in Syracuse history, Sharon Owens must dive into what will be a challenge-filled first year.
Owens will have to get started quickly forming the city’s spending plan for the 2026-27 fiscal year. Syracuse has struggled with budget deficits for years. Mayor Ben Walsh clashed heavily with the Common Council last year over $16 million in spending cuts the council pushed through.
Owens will also have to lead the city at a time of heavy disruption from the Interstate 81 viaduct removal. She’ll also be under pressure to ramp up efforts to replace lead service lines that bring water from the city’s main pipes into homes and businesses, and to make sure the aging infrastructure is able to reliably provide adequate water pressure after last winter’s woes with breaks, leaks and low reservoir levels.
As Owens manages those specific challenges, she must also work on the city’s bigger long-term problems she promised to tackle in her mayoral campaign, including childhood poverty and a housing availability and affordability crisis.
-Jeremy Boyer
A new era at Syracuse University
Syracuse University starts the new year amid a search for the next chancellor. Kent Syverud will step down in June, meaning the school will spend the first half of the year picking a new leader.
The next chancellor will inherit the university during a trying time in higher education. The number of international students has fallen dramatically, the federal government has cut research grants and the demographic cliff, which stems from a birth rate decrease beginning in 2008, threatens enrollment numbers. It will be up to the leader to find alternate revenue sources to make up for international student loss and ensure future students continue to choose the university.
-Emalyn Muzzy
Immigration
Like the rest of the country, Central New Yorkers this year watched the federal government ramp up immigration enforcement. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents raided a factory, arrested drivers after traffic stops and detained immigrants who checked in at routine ICE appointments.
The effort has fueled both fear and resistance.
Our reporters will continue in 2026 to investigate the federal government’s tactics, including the types of warrants it requests. We will keep an eye on cooperation by state and local government agencies.
We will also keep reporting on the consequences – separated families, shuttered businesses and decreased college enrollment.
-Michelle Breidenbach
Democrats get a shot at county government
For the first time in 50 years, Democrats will have a majority on the Onondaga County Legislature, thanks to the blue wave that swept them into office in November.
They’ll have to get organized and establish priorities quick: They’re all up for re-election in November. They’ll be led by Nicole Watts, a novice politician who is expected to be made chair on her first days in the job.
Some new members have said they’ll focus on mental health, the county’s human services and housing in the new year. Others want to see if there’s a way to repurpose the half-built aquarium in the Inner Harbor.
-Chris Baker
Challenge to U.S. attorney
A Downstate judge is likely to decide later this year whether the top federal prosecutor for much of Upstate New York will remain in his job.
Acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone III has attracted controversy since he was appointed on an interim basis. A panel of judges declined to extend his tenure, but the Trump administration used a novel strategy to try to keep him in office. Judges across the country have found those tactics unlawful four times.
Senior U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield is reviewing a challenge to Sarcone’s authority filed by Letitia James, the New York state attorney general, who is under investigation by Sarcone’s office.
-Jon Moss
What’s next at Novelis?
After two devastating fires, Novelis Inc. looks to repair the damage and get its massive aluminum plant in Oswego County fully operational in 2026. The plant makes aluminum for Ford’s F-150 trucks, and other vehicles.
Ford estimated the first fire alone would set them back as much as $2 billion.
Novelis has said its cold mill and heat treatment operations at the Oswego County plant are back up and running. It has not yet said when it expects to have its hot mill in Scriba back up and running.
The company has applied to the Oswego County Industrial Development Agency for up to $15 million in sales tax exemptions on materials needed to repair the hot mill. To utilize the entire exemption, it would need to spend up to $187.5 million on materials.
Novelis has said the plant’s 1,150 employees have remained on the job despite the damage to the plant.
-Rick Moriarty
A Bills Super Bowl?
Buffalo will be making its seventh-straight playoff appearance, and this one seems like Josh Allen’s clearest path yet to finally reach the Super Bowl with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs eliminated from postseason play.
While the Bills have dealt with an inordinate number of injuries and have looked shaky at times, Allen’s MVP-caliber play gives them a leg up on other contenders in the AFC.
It’s an exciting time for Bills’ fans, who next season will get to watch their team inside the new $2.1 billion venue across the street from Highmark Stadium. The new stadium will have a heated grass field, and most of the 62,000-seat stadium will be covered by a steel canopy to shield fans from wind, snow and rain.
-Nate Mink
Steve Angeli’s return
Syracuse’s 2025 football season went downhill as soon as quarterback Steve Angeli tore his Achilles tendon. The Orange were 3-1 and leading the country in passing yards for a second straight season. After Angeli got hurt, the Orange lost all eight remaining games and sunk to historic lows.
Angeli was, without a doubt, the best quarterback Syracuse had on the roster in 2025, but coming back from a torn Achilles is no easy task. While the pieces around him, mainly along the offensive line and the addition of five-star wide receiver Calvin Russell, will be important, Angeli must fulfill the promise he showed leading up to his injury.
In a prove-it year for head coach Fran Brown, Angeli’s health and his new-look coaching staff will help determine whether Brown can lead the Orange back to a bowl game.
-Javon Edmonds
SU Lax
Syracuse men’s lacrosse has been steadily rising under head coach Gary Gait.
After reaching the Final Four last season, the final step on the ladder is a national championship. Gait has put together one of SU’s most challenging schedules to harden the resolve of his squad, and with a roster loaded with seniors, the expectations are to claim the program’s first NCAA title since 2009.
-Brent Axe