Excavators started clawing down the first public housing apartments in McKinney Manor Tuesday to make way for the new East Adams neighborhood – an ambitious 11-phase, $1 billion redevelopment near downtown Syracuse.

In the end, 672 units of public housing are scheduled to be torn down and replaced with nearly 1,400 new apartments for both current residents and tenants paying market-rate rents.

The 25 two-story townhomes at Angelou Terrace are the first to go. Named for the poet Maya Angelou, they were built in 1989 on 11.1 acres.

McKinney Manor has 50 more units on three cul-de-sacs next door to Pioneer Homes, the hundreds of brick apartments that line the elevated Interstate 81. Those are scheduled to be torn down in phases between 2026 and 2033.

Demolition started at sunrise Tuesday

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