This thesis examines the impact of the Onondaga County Emergency Work Bureau (OCEWB) on Onondaga County from 1931 to 1933. The OCEWB was created as part of the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA), a pre-New Deal work relief initiative by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The work begins with an examination of the history of work relief in New York State before the Great Depression, followed by a discussion of the formation of TERA, which allowed for the creation of the Onondaga County Emergency Work Bureau. The projects, personnel, challenges, and ultimate dissolution of the OCEWB are discussed with an emphasis on local political conflicts that stymied potential successful projects. Two case studies, the Onondaga Lake Parkway and Village of Jordan Erie Canal Park, are undertaken to illustrate the impact of the OCEWB on different parts of the county from the 1930s to the present day.