Democrat Matt Driscoll
Republican Joanie Mahoney
Green Howie Hawkins
Cleanup plans for Onondaga Lake
Driscoll said he remains opposed to the technology being used at the Midland Avenue sewage treatment facility, saying it's "bad for people, families, neighborhoods, bad for the environment and bad for the future" of the city and region. If Onondaga Creek didn't exist, sewage overflow would be piped underground to the Metropolitan treatment plant, he said, the solution he supports.
"I think it goes without saying that all of us would like to see Onondaga Lake clean, but I think we'd also like to see Onondaga Creek clean," Mahoney said. She remains unconvinced that the technology behind the Midland Avenue sewage treatment plant was the best for cleanup or for the surrounding neighborhood. The community could use anticipated economic spin-off from a clean creek to justify spending more on the plant, she said.
Hawkins questioned why the city didn't join the Onondaga Nation to fight for the highest level of cleanup. He advocated sewage separation and biological treatment of the waste, and a "people's waterfront" on the lake with parks and public access, mixed-income housing and mixed use development, instead of Destiny USA.
Addressing the loss of quality of life in Syracuse
As mayor, Driscoll advocated and got a comprehensive plan for Syracuse, he said. His administration has used Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative funds to cluster developments within communities, worked with nonprofits to gather resources to address housing and neighborhood issues, added police and firefighters and spent more money on schools, he said.
While the region leads the state in job growth, Mahoney said, the city has lost about 400 businesses in the last four years. She said she will lead a wide-ranging assessment of methods, resources and priorities. Poverty must be addressed, she said: "It permeates all the other issues." Solving it is the right thing to do, and must happen to address crime, schools and economic development.
To combat crime the city must create jobs and recreation for youth and boost community policing, Hawkins said. Reshape the city design through "neighborhood-directed development," develop natural assets such as Onondaga Creek, build light rail service, even re-dig the Erie Canal, he said. "What the city needs is the capacity to be a developer. Right now, the developers call the shots and we react."
Public relations and how they intend to handle failures
"Spinning (opinion) doesn't serve any purpose at all, it's really learning from challenges," Driscoll said. An example, he said, was learning that the private developers needed to advance the Excellus project were unwilling to invest because of the downtown Centro hub. He brought officials together to secure federal funding and commitments to move the central bus stop.
Statistics are being spun to paint a picture of crime, education and jobs that conflicts with reality, Mahoney said. "I intend to keep it real and I intend to ask people . . . to go into the neighborhoods and look around for yourself whether things look any better now than they did four years ago," she said. She will earn trust by being plainspoken and talking about the issues the way she sees them, she said.
We have to learn from our failures, Hawkins said. The decisions that led to today's conditions, he said, resulted from "elite planning." He called for neighborhood assemblies to direct development and place representatives in city government, and development of community- and locally owned businesses. "That way, we're in it together, we invest in it together and we correct it together," he said.
Posted by syracusegreens at October 13, 2005 02:12 AM