The American People Have Spoken

While I was sitting here late last week doing the math and scratching my head on the damage from all of the health care related judgments and bankruptcies in Central New York so far this year (here are the ugly numbers), our elected representatives in Washington were doing what they do best: wasting time, wasting money, and wasting their breath with outright lies and truth-stretching, all played out in front of a national media that's afraid to tell the public what's really going on.

Yes, they're messing around with shutting down the government, and in another couple of weeks potentially jeopardizing the good faith and credit of the country, by passing spending bills that would fund the government - except for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or more commonly, the ACA).  The first bill sent by the House to the Senate led to Canadian-American Ted Cruz (R-Texas) babbling on the floor of the Senate for 21 hours or so, only to be shut down procedurally by Harry Reid, who I think may be the least exciting thing ever to have come from the state of Nevada. After the 100 - 0 vote to move on (yes, Cruz voted to move on, just like everyone else did), the Senate proceeded to strip off the ACA defunding amendment and send what they call a clean bill back to the House, with a 54 -44 vote.

Saturday night, the House Republicans gathered in a booth in the corner in the dark in the back to chat, then came out and had some more votes, and passed another version of a funding bill that will be rejected by the Senate just like the last one was.

This version includes a delay in the ACA until 2015 (by a 232-192 vote), a repeal of the medical device tax that's part of the ridiculously complex ACA funding plan (248-174), and would allow businesses to choose whether to include contraceptive coverage in their no-cost-to-the-member preventative services.  This hugely controversial provision of the women's preventative services benefit package already comes with a religious exemption, but it's more complicated than just saying "I disagree on religious grounds" and so many (on both sides) see it as cumbersome.

The House will also continue funding for military-related programs, via another amendment to their bill, which is a nice tip of the hat to our soldiers who may otherwise receive an IOU from Congress -- while Congress would of course get a paycheck.  This one passed by a vote of 423 -0. I'm not sure exactly why this was not important enough to make the cut for the first bill?

Throughout all of their 40 some-odd votes to repeal the ACA and their defunding efforts, the Republicans insist that "The American People Have Spoken" (which whether written or spoken must include the emphasis of capital letters) - and don't want Obamacare.

Well, to an extent, the Republicans are correct: The American People Have Spoken on this subject several times already. The Affordable Care Act was debated and passed by both Houses of Congress, and signed by the President. It was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. And, Barack Obama was re-elected president last November. Weren't The American People Speaking then?

Not surprisingly, when the health care reform act is called Obamacare, which is how the Rs derisively refer to it, people have a more negative response to it than when it's referred to as the Affordable Care Act. Why? Because, not for nothing, The American People are remarkably gullible when it comes to sound bites and advertising.  Bacon ice cream, anyone? Pharmaceutical advertising?  How about that full page Cialis ad in the paper?  Because after all, nothing says "Good Morning!" like an erectile dysfunction conversation over a waffle and a cuppa.

The Republicans also fail to mention when they talk about The American People Having Spoken is that when surveys show that The American People don't like Obamacare, there's a pretty good percentage who don't like it because it doesn't go far enough. Yep -- depending on the survey, as many as a quarter of the people who don't like it don't like it because it's not good enough.

Finally, and more importantly, surveys of The American People Speaking also show that folks simply don't understand what the ACA does or includes.  For example, this recent poll by NBC news found that:

• 34% admit they don't understand it very well
• 35% understand it only somewhat
• 30% understand it pretty well or very well

Folks, that is what the Republicans are counting on - that they can cloud the discussion with nonsense (death panels, for god's sake, people still think the ACA includes death panels!), cram some nonsense advertising down people's throats, and then throw some cutesy sound bites out there for the media to soft-pedal. It's beyond ridiculous.

What they will not mention, however, are survey results like this: in the same NBC poll, 73% of The Americans Who Have Spoken say they're already satisfied with their health coverage.  Which is cool -- because the ACA implementation began in 2010; so, many folks who are satisfied with the coverage they have now, are satisfied with benefits that might only be available because of the ACA.  Pretty sure the R's are not going to be tossing that statistic around much.

Yes, the American People Have Spoken.

Let's move on. Fund the government, and oh, when you have something meaningful put together to amend the ACA, I'm all ears.

Sidebar: Tuesday's Number

This week's listing of judgments and bankruptcies brings to an end the third quarter's reporting. The totals are up almost $700,000 compared to the second quarter.  By category, here's where things ended up:

• Judgments filed:         $6,196,947
• Judgments satisfied:        983,813
• Bankruptcies:                  518,448
• Total dollars:              $7,699,208

 And here's the damage year to date, for the 946 listings:

• Judgments filed:        $19,195,769
• Judgments satisfied:      2,243,739
• Bankruptcies:                1,130,048 
• Total dollars:             $22,533,556 

As I've noted in the past, there is potential for some of this to be 'self-inflicted', meaning folks who could pay their bills but for some reason choose not to; there's also some duplication -- folks actually do pay off their debts, and so could be listed at one point in the 'judgments filed' column on the ledger and again at a later date in the 'judgments satisfied' column.

But it's still a pretty big, pretty ugly number, isn't it, just for our little Central New York region?

Tuesday's Number: $982,643

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, there were 29 people listed with new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $956,737.

This week, there were no satisfied judgments to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider.  

And, there were two health-care related bankruptcies, totaling $25,906.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wanted: A New Hotel Syracuse (or an old gargoyle)

Three days a week, when I leave the Centro Hub and head off to the Murbro parking lot between  Salina and Clinton to meet My Sweet

Sue Drummond photo, July 2012

Baboo for the ride home, I stare at the empty Hotel Syracuse; the gargoyles on the roof glare back at me, wondering what the heck we're thinking leaving them sitting there ignored all these years. 

Across Onondaga from the original Hotel, the former Hilton Tower also sits empty, partially boarded up, the decorative brickwork in the sidewalk crumbling with neglect.

How is it that so many times over the years, bad owners have been able to keep the city of Syracuse and other developers from moving forward with renovations to the Hotel Syracuse?  And how much longer will the willing be held hostage by the unwilling?

I've lived in Syracuse long enough to remember the Hotel open for business; the Lobby bar and the piano man; the St. Patrick's Day and New Year's Eve parties; Zell's men's store and other retail establishments,restaurants and bars that populated the street level; our beloved Coach Mac and others living upstairs; seeing the local high school kids all duded up for their proms, and so on.

Years ago, I worked at the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, when the offices were on the first floor of the Hotel, on the Onondaga Street side. I remember the many meetings we sponsored in the conference rooms, breakfasts in the restaurant off the lobby, and parties on the bridge between the old Hotel and the Tower.

What I can't remember is how many times someone has bought the Hotel, and threatened to refurbish it, only to end up not paying their taxes, and letting the grand old Hotel slide a little further into disrepair each time, the few remaining businesses falling one at a time, like toy soldiers.

It was bad enough when it was local investors who were unable to complete the deal. It got much worse when, for some reason, Syracuse became the place for Israeli investors to dump their money.  (Anyone remember Eli Hadad?)

Plans along the way included apartment or condos, not only in the tower but also in the adjacent Addis building; reducing the number of rooms in the original hotel, to allow for larger rooms with more modern amenities; and of course there would be revitalized retail establishments and restaurants in that area of downtown.

A slide show in this article from The Post-Standard back in November 2010, one of many they've done over the years on the ups and downs of the Hotel, reflects both its promise and despair; on the one hand, there are pictures of the gorgeous lobby, one of the ballrooms, and folks working in the kitchen, but also damaged rooms, uncompleted renovations, and so on. That conflict of the "is now/could be" has been part of the Hotel's history from the beginning. 

Former P-S columnist Dick Case did a story a few years back with  "Mr. Hotel Syracuse", Spencer Wallace, who used to manage the Hotel.

Candle-maker Eric Will, who was president of the hotel at its 25th anniversary, wrote that the Hotel Syracuse had its beginning "early in the year 1921, when a small group of men, eager for opportunities to serve their city, undertook the building of a new hotel. There followed days of anxiety, months of privation and years of hard work."  The hotel corporation faced bankruptcy when the building was just a skeleton on the skyline of southern downtown. The corporation had to be reorganized with new money poured in to the project.

"Accomplishment was not simple," Eric Will wrote. "Obstructions were encountered, seemingly, at every turn.  Propaganda was rife. There were those who preferred that a new hotel should not succeed."

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Except for the fact that, of late, efforts to overcome the kind of obstacles that the Hotel faced from the beginning have been unsuccessful.  Earlier this year, there was some talk that the City of Syracuse would look into perhaps using eminent domain to get the Hotel away from the absentee owners, who completely ignore the property until someone else expresses interest in it. 

Let's listen again to Eric Will:

"Completely paid for - and modern in its appointments and equipment - Hotel Syracuse stands ready to meet anew the challenge of a greater Syracuse that must come with tomorrow."

The Hotel Syracuse once helped us meet our civic challenge; it now presents a challenge for city and county officials. It's one of our 'gateway' properties; it's in an area -- the Warren Street canyon -- that needs attention. Now's the time for Mayor Miner and her team to help get this property back in local hands, so that willing local developers can proceed with their plans. 

If not, can someone help me get the gargoyles down? They'd look great in my garden.

Tuesday's Number: $374,257

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, there were six people listed with new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $185,405.

This week, there was one satisfied judgment totaling $76,234 to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider.  

And, there were two health-care related bankruptcies, totaling $112,618.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Andrew Cuomo's Sense of Humor

Earlier this summer, our Sonova Governor Andrew Cuomo, working with legislative leaders, got approval to create the Financial Board for Restructuring for Local Governments, announcing that:

Localities across the state are facing a growing financial crisis of soaring retirement costs while their populations stagnate and property values drop.The only options for struggling municipalities cannot be bankruptcy or being subject to a financial control board. This legislation would create a Financial Restructuring Board for fiscally distressed cities to turn to in difficult times. By helping localities to make tough decisions and manage their finances now, the State as a whole will benefit in the long term because we simply cannot afford to kick the can down the road any longer.

The Board includes 10 members, including four state government bigwigs (the State's Budget Director, Comptroller, Attorney General, Secretary of State) and six others appointed by the Sonova:

Of these six appointees, one will be recommended by the Temporary President of the Senate, and one will be recommended by the Speaker of the Assembly. At least one of the Governor’s appointees will have significant municipal financial and restructuring experience.  

Cuomo's relationship with Syracuse's current mayor, Stephanie Miner, is somewhat strained. Miner, who co-chairs the state Democratic Committee, has made no secret of her disagreements with Cuomo on the state's role in helping cities, specifically Cuomo's proposal allowing cities to spread their pension payments out over several years, something Miner considered kicking the can down the road.  

She also disagrees with a key provision of the legislation that created the new Restructuring Board, the part dealing with arbitration on municipal contracts.  The way the law was worded keeps certain contract talks out of the new arbitration process -- including the current 'at impasse' negotiations with the Syracuse firefighters.Why is that important?

Before calling an impasse, Local 280 of the International Association of Fire Fighters had asked the city for 6 percent raises for two years, plus no increase in health-care contributions, according to personnel director Robert Stamey. Firefighters now pay $45 a month for individual health insurance and $75 for family coverage.

That's quite a break for the union; in the new process, the Board must consider a city's finances and ability to pay for the contract as the major components in their decision. It's hard to imagine any upstate New York city being able to sustain this type of contract, or any Board of arbitration agreeing to it.
 
Back to Cuomo -- just last week, he failed to endorse Miner in her primary against Pat Hogan and Alfonso Davis, although she won handily anyway.

So, with that backdrop, now that the time has come to get the new Board up and running, guess who Cuomo tapped for the FRB? None other than Matt Driscoll -  former bar owner and former mayor of Syracuse. Here's the logic behind his appointment, according to the press release issued a couple of days ago:

Matthew J. Driscoll is the President and CEO of the Environmental Facilities Corporation. Prior to his appointment in 2009, Mr. Driscoll was the Mayor of Syracuse where he spearheaded multiple environmental, energy and sustainability initiatives; instituted a performance-based accountability program for city government which saved millions of dollars for city taxpayers; and also helped make the City of Syracuse the first city in the country to offer free college tuition to every student who graduates with a Regents diploma. After serving from 1998-2001 as the President of the Common Council, Mayor Driscoll led comprehensive planning and development of downtown and neighborhood housing development, as well as an action plan for the modernization of the city school buildings.  

Some of the things in Driscoll's resume have been continued or expanded under Miner's administration, including Say Yes and the school modernization plans.  And what about that 'performance-based accountability program' that Driscoll instituted? That's SyraStat, which the city is no longer using. 

In a 2009 article looking at the Driscoll legacy, The Post-Standard noted that the city figured the program saved taxpayers about $50 million over eight years -- no small potatoes there. It's easy to wonder what SyraStat or similar programs would point to as opportunities for our city now, if Mayor Miner went before this board for help. 

Do you think that's what Cuomo is thinking? Or does he just have an odd sense of humor?

Tuesday's Number: $321,693

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, there were 17 people listed with new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $215,044.

This week, there were three satisfied judgments totaling $22,710 to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider.  

And, there were two health-care related bankruptcies, totaling $83,939.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Another Parade of Homes, Outside the City

This week the 'Syracuse' 2013 Parade of Homes opens. As with some of the other recent editions, the Parade is not being held in the city of Syracuse, it's in the town of Lafayette, along the Jamesville Reservoir. Some previous Parades have been in Onondaga, Manlius, Howlett Hill, and Clay (next year will be the fourth time there).

Last year, I imagined a parade-style investment in the city and what that could mean to our future; I can't help thinking the same thing again this year, and hope that our candidates for mayor would imagine the same thing.

I appreciate what's happening in our downtown neighborhood, and won't complain about our ridiculously high occupancy rate for the lofts and funky apartments -- and I love that people are investing in saving our old buildings and supporting the city's core.  But we need similar support in the city's heart -- our neighborhoods.

Looking at some data gathered by the US Census bureau, it seems obvious that we need something bold, something shocking, something completely different, if our city is to survive.  Check out these numbers, which are the estimates for 2007 - 2011:

• Only 41.9% of our total housing units are single family homes; over 20% are two-family, and 14% are more than 20 units;
• The vacancy rate was 15.5%;
• 59.3% were renter-occupied, not owner-occupied;
• 75.5% of all houses were built before 1960; 49.5% were built before 1939.

Imagine being able to restore dozens of those older homes, bringing back their glory and making them safe again. Imagine having professional landscapers transform entire city blocks with green spaces, in collaboration with existing sustainability efforts. New sidewalks and lighting. Active neighborhood watch groups and neighborhood associations. Increased owner-occupancy rates.

Cities thrive when committed people live in them, people who have skin in the game. Schools improve; businesses move in; tax collection increases, and services can continue to be provided to all city residents. There are lots of committed people already in Syracuse, and many neighborhoods are building or maintaining their identities, including Sedgwick Farm, and Lincoln Hill, and Eastwood, and Strathmore and Tipp Hill (their website is under development).

There are lots of other neighborhoods could use that same kind of identity-building, community-building, thriving-city-building energy. We should be able to fix a lot of houses with type of private investment made on the 2013 Parade homes, coupled with block grants and other funding that might be available for this type of work.

Imagine a Parade of Homes in Syracuse.

Questions for Stephanie Miner, Pat Hogan, and Alfonso Davis

Tuesday is Primary Day, and we in the city of Syracuse have a choice to make. Three Democrats are running for mayor: Stephanie Miner, the incumbent; City Councilor Pat Hogan, and businessman Alfonso Davis.

I have some questions for them:

1. How will your administration harness the energy that has made Armory Square so successful and expand the boundaries of ‘downtown’ to include the rest of the center city, and broaden the nature of development to include more businesses, not just more residents?
2. Expanding the city’s tax base can only happen if people stay in our neighborhoods, or if we can get more people to move in and make the city their home.  What plans do you have to improve neighborhoods and encourage people to live in the city?  Do you support requiring city workers to live here? And if yes, what will you do to encourage that?
3. There are many programs out there designed to help kids of all ages be successful, yet we continue to have poor graduation rates, even as we invest in improving our educational facilities.  What do you think is the single most important thing we can invest in to keep kids in school through graduation, and how would you pay for it?
4. What are you REALLY going to do about crime in Syracuse? Take a look at my zip code – 13205 -- and give me some specifics on what your administration will focus on to reduce crime here. 
5. We hear lots of talk about public/private/educational collaboration to help solve our problems. What are your priorities in this regard, and give some specific examples of the type of activities we can expect to see on your priority issues?
6. What's the one quality you possess that makes you the best candidate to lead Syracuse for the next four years?

I'm hoping I hear from the candidates, and if I do, I'll share their responses.

Tuesday's Number: $753,658

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings. 

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

This week, there were 24 people listed with new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $699,378.  

This week, there were two satisfied judgments totaling $28,354 to a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider.   

And, there were two health-care related bankruptcies, totaling $25,926.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.