We Must Fix the Verona Animal Shelter
This is Artemis. She's our rescue kitty who came to us from Rochester's Verona Street Animal Shelter. She adopted my family about 7 years ago. We were very happy with the process and the condition of the shelter. A lot has
changed since then. The shelter is a mess. It's an embarrassment and the mismanagement by the City has created a public hazard. The people responsible for this situation should be voted out / relieved of their duties. People have been coming to City Council meetings for well over a year to complain. After all of the complaints they've heard, one member of City Council who is up for re-election this year is having a hearing. That's the only action that is happening. Folks have talked to the Mayor, made phone calls, sent emails, and more. So what's wrong? If you're on Facebook, I suggest you check out the posts on the Voiceless of Verona Street page. But for those who are not on Facebook, I'll summarize.
The shelter currently has no veterinarian. Why? Because the City will not pay an appropriate salary for one. (Shall we look at some of the salaries of people at City Hall?)
The shelter is underfunded. They can't pay enough staff to be open appropriate hours. Food and other supplies run out. How morally bankrupt is that?
The shelter is overcrowded. The space is too small and outdated. It's so bad, Verona has to be a "kill shelter" in which animals are euthanized when there isn't enough room.
The hours of the shelter are not conducive to people being able to adopt animals. If you're only open during business hours, people who work a 9-5 job cannot come to the shelter to adopt an animal.
The shelter no longer accepts animals from people who cannot take care of their pets any longer. This isn't the place to discuss why people cannot take care of their pets, but if they can't, they're not able to take them to Verona, like the person who gave up Artemis 7 years ago. So in desperation, people abandon the animals. Notice more dogs and cats on the streets of Rochester? This is a public hazard.
The shelter has adopted this concept of "community cats", where they won't take in feral cats, but will neuter them (if they ever get a veterinarian again) then release them back onto the streets. Supposedly, this is supposed to take care of another problem Rochester has - rats. So our City is not taking responsibility for our issue with rats and is hoping these ignored animals will do it for them.
This situation is disgusting. Not only is the way these animals are treated deplorable, but it's unfortunately typical that it takes hundreds of people showing up for years to demand change before anyone in local government does anything. (This goes for every situation that needs remedy in Rochester, but I will address that later.)
When I am voted into City Council, I will:
- Insist funding for the shelter in the annual budget is increased to an acceptable level. This includes an appropriate salary for the continually vacant position of veterinarian and money for staffing in order for the shelter to be open more hours.
- Propose legislation that uses an appropriate building that the City already owns to replace the building on Verona Street in order to have adequate space.
- Propose legislation that prohibits a City-run animal shelter from being a "kill shelter" and that abandons the "community cats" concept.
By doing these things, not only will we be doing what is morally correct, but helping create a better Rochester.
Universal Child Care
As a part of the solution to generations of poverty and inequality, we need universal child care in the City of Rochester. The details of my plan are below, but first let’s talk about why we need such a thing.
One of the biggest barriers to employment and/or continuing education is child care. It is well known that the cost of quality child care is unreachable for those living in distressed areas of the city. If you do not have a quality option for your children, being available to work or go to school is virtually impossible.
[NOTE: Here we could have a discussion if everyone SHOULD have to work, but that’s a discussion for another time.]
Subsidies for child care go through the County, and that money goes mainly to for-profit child care entities. Does it help families? Somewhat. Is it enough? Not nearly – and that’s the reason I have chosen to make universal child care a part of my campaign.
So what would this look like?
The program would start with using facilities we already have – mostly City recreation centers, unused school buildings, and underutilized schools – to create a child care program that is run by the City of Rochester. This should start as soon as possible to begin to fill in the gaps that the County program has. From there…
Look at how the City could work with the County to combine resources.
See how the program could share resources with local Head Start programs in the City.
See if there are any privately run, in-home child care programs that would be interested in being incorporated into the City program.
Is this going to cost money? Absolutely, but I know this; we need this investment in our children in order to save money on the cost of police, jails, and other social programs. A quality, free child care system in Rochester will help with poverty, crime, and our schools. It is this fact that will help us locate State and Federal funding. Starting a City-run program will also create jobs that we should insist be union jobs at prevailing wages.
[I will be releasing a platform plank on City finances in the near future. This will also help explain how to pay for this as well as my other ideas. When that plank is released, I will put a link here.]
Roadblocks:
State and Federal regulations. There are government-created laws and rules that determine how child care is supposed to function. We know from decades of experience that this framework is not working and we (meaning City Council and City Hall staff) will have to organize citizens to put pressure on those in higher levels of government in order to make this work. And it will take some time, but this crisis is real; our needs are real and we have no choice but to fight for what our children need. For the benefit of everyone.
The City of Rochester Must Stop Genocide
Sometimes folks ask themselves, “What would I have done when Hitler was killing all of those Jews?” Well, now you know. What you’re doing or not doing right now about what is happening in Palestine shows exactly what you would have done in Germany. There are a lot of parallels between what happened there and what is going on in Gaza (and now the West Bank). It’s pretty sad that hundreds of people had to show up to City Council – some refusing to leave – just to get a non-binding resolution passed that was pretty weak.
Like in Apartheid South Africa, a way to help stop the mistreatment of Palestinians on their own land, which has been going on for decades, is to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS). In fact, Rochester should take a stand against genocide being committed anywhere.
Therefore, as a member of City Council, I will do the following:
1. Propose legislation that changes the City Charter forbidding the City from using taxpayer money to purchase any product or service from any business that supports genocide. This would not only include companies based in other countries, but those originating from the United States.
2. Propose legislation that terminates our Sister City agreement with Rehovot, Israel.
NOTE: I am ethnically Jewish. I am speaking out and acting against genocide, just like we should be doing in Congo, Sudan, and other places in the world in which racism and capitalism are devastating millions of people. Isn’t genocide a bottom line? Shouldn’t that be the one thing we can agree on no matter what our political party, ethnic background, citizenship, etc.?
References:
Walgreens is Closing - This is an Opportunity
[Before you read this, check out the article on Rochesterfirst.com.]
So Walgreens is closing their store in the Bulls Head neighborhood. Here’s what I’m taking from this story: our Mayor is a banker; he’s a capitalist. And yet he is shocked that a national corporation would shut down stores in one of the most depressed parts of our city. They are under a legal obligation to do what’s in the best interest of their shareholders – NOT the City of Rochester. That’s capitalism!
Do you know which pharmacy COULD have the best interests of the City? The pharmacy that is cooperatively owned and run by local residents, preferably those living in the Bulls Head neighborhood.
Most of us, even if we pooled our money, would not have the start-up resources to get this going. Our Mayor in conjunction with City Council could use economic development funds to help get this going, as a no-interest loan &/or a grant. They sell buildings to rich people for $1 all the time. And if Mayor Evans’ letter to the CEO of Walgreens begging him not to close the one store works, you know it will be with a ton of tax breaks.
But do we really expect our Banker Mayor to think of something like this? I know I don’t. But there ARE people who are currently on City Council who I would expect to appreciate what I’m talking about. The question is, are they WILLING to advance this idea? Some of them are up for re-election in 2025.
If they don’t, I will propose this when elected to City Council. With your help, of course.
Housing
[Updated, November 11, 2024] Let’s start with a question. Do you believe that housing is a human right? I say yes. Not only that, I fully believe that nothing that people need to survive should be sold for profit. Food, clothing, shelter, health care, and I’m adding education to that list as well.
People with power decided necessities for profit was appropriate a long time ago and the rest of us have not come together to change this.
Every person in the City of Rochester should have an affordable, accessible, safe place to live, period. We have the empty houses and apartments. We have “zombie properties” that landlords have given up on. The only reason our government allows people to exist in Rochester without a place to live is because. That’s it. Because.
With that, when elected to City Council, I will:
-insist on the use of Eminent Domain to take over abandoned and ignored property, use apprentices working with Union labor to fix such properties, and literally give them to families and individuals who then can focus on other necessities in life. This would be a modern version of homesteading.
-stop the Rochester Housing Authority from privatizing properties in their possession by converting housing in their stock to cooperative housing, then fund* public housing projects that may include new housing (which takes an extremely long time), but will initially focus on rehabilitating empty school buildings, warehouses, etc., into such public housing. Some of these properties are already in the City's possession, others can be bought, or again taken over by Eminent Domain. Some of these projects can be used for "person centered housing" in order to alleviate the devastating chronic homelessness we have in our city.
-support legislation that brings strict Good Clause Eviction protection as well as complete rent control within the City of Rochester. (See opening paragraphs)
-propose using City funds and/or find grant money to assist in establishing a non-profit that would use volunteer contractors (retired, et al.) to help city residents in need of upkeep of their house. This has been done in other municipalities – Syracuse had one for years.
-work with City Hall to create a fund to help renters who are in arrears with their rent. There are already non-profits who do this, but they cannot handle the demand. The need for this fund will reduce dramatically once rent control is finalized in Rochester.
-work to create more emergency shelters, particularly for specific groups, i.e., women, LBGTQ+, people in recovery, etc. for the immediate future; particularly in specific areas of the City. It is expected that these eventually will no longer be necessary if the previous items are enacted. But they are needed right now.
-work to have senior citizens who own and live on a property in the City of Rochester and meet specific income requirements (i.e. not having enough income) should be exempt from property taxes. [City of Rochester just implemented this after I advocated for it in my 2019 run for City Council.]
-insist that the City government no longer use Monroe County for Area Median Income (AMI) when determining apartments that are “affordable”. This current formula makes a new $1400/month apartment “affordable” even though it truly is not for most who live in Rochester. AMI should be for the City only if the project is being built in the City.
*In 2025, I will be releasing a platform plank that will explain how to pay for these and other ideas. Money will come from reallocation of current wasteful spending, lobbying for changing of Federal and State regulations, more focused grant searches, and an end to corporate welfare.
This is a living document. It will be adjusted and added to as I continue to talk with and learn from others. What do YOU think we should do about housing in Rochester?