Syracuse opens free roller rink to help city heal

Syracuse waived admission to SYR Skate on Sunday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., turning the new Clinton Square roller rink into a free place for residents to gather after a violent week. City officials handed out skates for anyone who needed them, a simple move meant to keep the space open to families who might not otherwise step onto the floor.

A shooting in Syracuse left a 16-year-old dead and a 13-year-old fighting for his life, and Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick described the shooting as accidental before the shooter turned the gun on himself. The city used skating, music and an open downtown plaza as a low-pressure way to give people a place to be together.

SYR Skate itself is built for that kind of use. The city laid down about 17,000 interlocking plastic tiles to create a 15,000-square-foot outdoor rink in the middle of Clinton Square, the same surface that hosts the city’s winter ice rink each year. Mayor Sharon Owens cut the ribbon on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, after asking Parks and Recreation Commissioner Syiesha Byrd for a seasonal family activity that would let Clinton Square serve a different purpose in warmer weather.

The rink opened with weather complications on June 23, then settled into a run that has outlasted the city’s original one-week plan. Popularity pushed the schedule out by several weeks into July, and the rink remains open to both roller skaters and skateboarders. It is open dawn to dusk through Sunday, with five-dollar skate rentals available on some days, and city staff and skilled trades workers laid the floor through a rainy night before opening.

Clinton Square’s current layout turns 25 in September. Parts of the Interstate 81 project may force some Clinton Square events to relocate in 2027. The rink can be shifted to other events and festivals across Syracuse during the summer.