On the night of Oct 4th after the candidates forum I was approached by Jim Welch from the Working Family Party to invite me to a candidate night on Friday Oct 14th. I wrote it in my calendar.
Unfortunately I never received a confirmation or time until Oct 9th. The time was 7:30pm and I had a conflict with a family event at that time. Had it been earlier- even 6:30- I would have been there.
It is too bad, since I am not avoiding or ducking anybody. I will be at the Olde Judge Mansion (in the same neighborhood) Tuesday Oct 18th from 5:30-6:30pm and everyone is welcome to visit and exchange ideas or ask questions.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Tom Wade letter
Earlier this week the Record published a letter authored by Democratic County Chairman Tom Wade. In the letter, Wade basically stated the Democrats used an effective screening process and found quality candidates while the Republican process was clearly flawed and took rejects and underqualified people to comprise their council slate.
This is more typical partisan nonsense. The Republican cnadidates are well qualified and are consiencious, concerned citizens. Why take cheat shots at them? The Democrats outnumber the Republicans in enrollment by more than a 2-1 margin, they should be able to take the high road and win every time.
I authored a rebuttal to this nonsense which will appear in the Record soon, possibly on Sunday Oct 16th.
What really saddens me is that for the first time the city has new faces and young faces running, which is great. Why behave this way? Is it intended to discourage people from coming forward unless you have gone through the "partisan" ranks.
His assertion that Republican candidates are getting lots of cash is ridiculous. We are fund raising on our own and have less to spend than our Democratic opponents. The Republicans have no city chair and only an acting county chair at this point-we are working largely on our own or as a group. NO ONE IS PULLING ANY STRINGS or GIVING US TALKING POINTS.
Try to read my response. I make my point. Wade is an embarrassment to the Democratic party.
This is more typical partisan nonsense. The Republican cnadidates are well qualified and are consiencious, concerned citizens. Why take cheat shots at them? The Democrats outnumber the Republicans in enrollment by more than a 2-1 margin, they should be able to take the high road and win every time.
I authored a rebuttal to this nonsense which will appear in the Record soon, possibly on Sunday Oct 16th.
What really saddens me is that for the first time the city has new faces and young faces running, which is great. Why behave this way? Is it intended to discourage people from coming forward unless you have gone through the "partisan" ranks.
His assertion that Republican candidates are getting lots of cash is ridiculous. We are fund raising on our own and have less to spend than our Democratic opponents. The Republicans have no city chair and only an acting county chair at this point-we are working largely on our own or as a group. NO ONE IS PULLING ANY STRINGS or GIVING US TALKING POINTS.
Try to read my response. I make my point. Wade is an embarrassment to the Democratic party.
Candidate Forum
The second candidate forum took place Tuesday Oct 4 in the former School 12 in the South End. All 22 candidates were in attendance. The event drew a good crowd.
Each of us was given a minute to make remarks about ourselves and why we were running, then there were six questions we answered in a rotating order. The moderator was my former editor, Lisa Lewis, who is still the editor of the Record.
I felt the evening went very well. For the most part everyone behaved with civility, although there were some boos early on, which fortunately were not repeated.
The questions ranged from city hall to sustainability and quality of life issues.
I maintained the position I have held all along that moving city hall to the Dauchy Building is not a good idea. I continue to feel city hall should be relocated to a building which is not now nor ever was on the tax roles. This would keep both the Dauchy and Verizon properties on the tax roles which is in the long term the best solution for the tax payers. A recent suggestion by councilman Mark McGrath to look at School 1 in Troy is very appealing to me.
With respect to sustainability, I attended a composting workshop hosted by RPI and left very impressed. Getting food waste out of the garbage stream makes sense. The challenge is going to be the initial start-up costs. It will take years to get the money back and begin to feel a real savings. The same is true of solar panels on government buildings. Another great idea, I just hope the initial costs can be found via grant or partnerships. All these ideas have merit, and I am open to them.
Quality of life issues are the toughest. Code enforcement is working hard and according to one of them I spoke with at length the current mayor put some teeth into waht they do. Despite this, there are still problems. One of them occurrs when a bank forecloses. They need to hire a local management company to maintain the property. One homeowner in South Troy is livng next to a home which has been vacant for six years and is slowly deteriorating right next to the home she has lived in for 62 years.
This situation is terrible and we have to find a way to address this. The new ordinace requiring banks to report who is responsilbe for the property is a step in the right direction. Every home in the nieghborhood suffers when a home is left vacant for too long.
The other thing often left unsaid is the responsibility of parents. Many domestic police calls are for matters which have more to do with parenting than anything else. The city can't raise children. Parenting is the single most important job in our society and it is a shame everyone does not understand this.
I look forward to attending other evenings like this one, but everyone should feel they can send me an email question or idea anytime.
Each of us was given a minute to make remarks about ourselves and why we were running, then there were six questions we answered in a rotating order. The moderator was my former editor, Lisa Lewis, who is still the editor of the Record.
I felt the evening went very well. For the most part everyone behaved with civility, although there were some boos early on, which fortunately were not repeated.
The questions ranged from city hall to sustainability and quality of life issues.
I maintained the position I have held all along that moving city hall to the Dauchy Building is not a good idea. I continue to feel city hall should be relocated to a building which is not now nor ever was on the tax roles. This would keep both the Dauchy and Verizon properties on the tax roles which is in the long term the best solution for the tax payers. A recent suggestion by councilman Mark McGrath to look at School 1 in Troy is very appealing to me.
With respect to sustainability, I attended a composting workshop hosted by RPI and left very impressed. Getting food waste out of the garbage stream makes sense. The challenge is going to be the initial start-up costs. It will take years to get the money back and begin to feel a real savings. The same is true of solar panels on government buildings. Another great idea, I just hope the initial costs can be found via grant or partnerships. All these ideas have merit, and I am open to them.
Quality of life issues are the toughest. Code enforcement is working hard and according to one of them I spoke with at length the current mayor put some teeth into waht they do. Despite this, there are still problems. One of them occurrs when a bank forecloses. They need to hire a local management company to maintain the property. One homeowner in South Troy is livng next to a home which has been vacant for six years and is slowly deteriorating right next to the home she has lived in for 62 years.
This situation is terrible and we have to find a way to address this. The new ordinace requiring banks to report who is responsilbe for the property is a step in the right direction. Every home in the nieghborhood suffers when a home is left vacant for too long.
The other thing often left unsaid is the responsibility of parents. Many domestic police calls are for matters which have more to do with parenting than anything else. The city can't raise children. Parenting is the single most important job in our society and it is a shame everyone does not understand this.
I look forward to attending other evenings like this one, but everyone should feel they can send me an email question or idea anytime.
Campaign update
It has been much too long since my last blog, so I will post three this morning on different topics. I have been going door-to-door and scheduled three hour long appearences around the city to try and meet and listen to as many people as possible.
I was at Graham's Cafe in Lansingburgh Oct. 10th and Flavor Cafe on the 13th and I will be at the Olde Judge Mansion Oct.18th from 5:30-6:30pm.
I will be at chowderfest today and will continue to be in as many places as possible. It really isn't much different than when I was a news photographer. I was all over the city then only in a different capacity.
My billboard is up at the junction of River & King Streets. It will be up until election day. Thanks to my wife, Deborah, for the design.
I was at Graham's Cafe in Lansingburgh Oct. 10th and Flavor Cafe on the 13th and I will be at the Olde Judge Mansion Oct.18th from 5:30-6:30pm.
I will be at chowderfest today and will continue to be in as many places as possible. It really isn't much different than when I was a news photographer. I was all over the city then only in a different capacity.
My billboard is up at the junction of River & King Streets. It will be up until election day. Thanks to my wife, Deborah, for the design.
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