Sunday School 7/26/26

For your Sunday School lesson this week, I spent time in CNN's State of the Union classroom, which was in a New York State of mind.

First up for host Dana Bash was House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Bash noted the Dems are launching something called '100 Days Out Weekend of Action,' a sprint to the midterms, by hosting over 400 events across the country. At the same time, they have to figure out how to regain the majority either through the center or through the "activist left." Noting the latter group wants to "defund the police, abolish ICE, aid to Israel, open borders," she asked Jeffries if he was planning on moving on any of those issues if they win in November. 

Rather than answer her question, he said the Ds would focus on what unites them, and that's "a focus on fighting for an affordable America" because "life in this country is far too expensive," and that's something the whole party agrees on.

Too many people are working hard, they're playing by the rules, but they can't thrive and they can barely survive, not enough food on the table, not enough gas in the tank, unable to actually regularly and consistently afford to pay the rent or pay the mortgage. We want to drive down the cost of groceries, drive down and lower the cost of gasoline, drive down the cost of housing, and also make sure that health care is affordable for every single American. 

Bash tried again, asking whether the party's policy proposals will "be in line with" what some recent progressive winners want, or if they'll move towards "the moderate area" if they win the swing states.  Again, rather than answering the question, he chose bumper stickers: push back against the "one big ugly bill" and its Medicaid cuts, extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies, stop the "reckless and costly war of choice," and stop Trump's tariffs.

After two non-answers, Bash took a more direct approach, noting Jeffries has reportedly "clashed" with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who's campaigning for progressives, even those challenging incumbents, "including members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)." She asked if Sanders and others are making it harder for the Ds to win, and if that's what led to the clash. 

Jeffries said it wasn't a clash so much as a "candid conversation" with Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), chair of the CBC PAC, and it was about a single North Carolina primary. He added that he thinks Sanders and House and Senate Dems "understand the stakes" - taking control of Congress,

so we can end this MAGA extremism that has been unleashed on the American people that is actively hurting hardworking American taxpayers, and actually commit to making life more affordable for the American people.

She gave him one last chance to explain how he'll handle the progressives; according to him, "not a single person" among the incoming members has raised any of the issues Bash mentioned, other than how Dems are pushing back against the administration's immigration policies, including ICE.

The last question was about New Jersey's non-citizen voting disclosure; Bash, noting that Dems say this "doesn't happen," wondered if the discovery causes a problem for the Dems.

I think that I continue to have confidence in state and local authorities in making sure that there's going to be a free and fair election in November, and, if modest or minor challenges emerge, such as the one that was disclosed voluntarily by the authorities in New Jersey, that it is immediately corrected. And that's what I expect will continue to happen. 

And then? Back to the bumper stickers: Trump and the Rs and voter suppression, their failure to lower prices, the war, skyrocketing gas prices, and Medicaid cuts, before saying this:

They have nothing to run on. We're going to run on fighting for an affordable America.

The next New Yorker in the classroom was Border Czar Tom Homan; he's a North Country native who maintains a home in Sackets Harbor, where protestors have made their views on ICE known.

Bash led with asking if he knows "specifically" what's going on with the ICE officers who were involved in the shootings in Texas and Maine, and whether they'd been reassigned or placed on leave. Homan said he hadn't been involved in the investigations and didn't know the officers' status, but said that the policy is that they'd be put on leave during the investigation. Bash seemed surprised that, "as border czar involved in this," he didn't know for sure what had happened to the agents. He made it clear that ICE reports to Markwayne Mullin, and said

I've said from day one I won't comment on an investigation, but I can tell you I haven't specifically tracked these cases, but I can tell you, per policy, they're usually put on administrative leave pending the investigation, pending sworn statements, internal affairs interviews and the entire investigation. They usually will not be put back on duty until the investigation is over and either have been cleared or, if they've got problems, then they may not go back at all.

That last comment opened the door for Bash to bring up the domestic violence allegations against the officer in Maine (which the officer has denied). According to court documents, one of his ex-wives said that "she experienced severe domestic violence in her marriage and that he always displayed violent behavior, and even that, if anything ever happened to her, he'd be the one to look at." She wondered whether someone "with those issues" should be an ICE agent. 

No, if those of those are facts, he -- I don't think he should ever have cleared vetting. When they hire somebody, they put them through a vetting process and look at all that stuff. So, I know, based on that information -- that's part of the ongoing investigation... -- did the vetting process fail? Was that information not available? Did they not know? So, there's a separate administrative investigation on what happened here.... But the vetting process, I -- if that was factual, he would have an almost impossible time to pass vetting.

Homan said all ICE employees (some 30,000 of them) go through vetting and "this is a kind of a rare instance." And this is just one aspect of the ongoing review.

So, the training is under review. I know this specific case, as far as the vetting, is under review by the internal affairs section. So we will see where it lies. But, certainly, if this person had that type of history, it would have been a vetting issue, and it should have been brought to the attention of those who makes those decisions.

That led to Bash questioning the training, as she did the vetting, pointing to the race to "find as many undocumented immigrants as possible to deport." Homan disagreed with that premise, noting that every law enforcement agency reassesses training protocols and makes changes as needed; he even did that when he was the ICE director. And, he pointed to what Todd Lyons, ICE director last year, told Congress - that while training has changed, the amount of training did not.

They just stopped the duplication. Now it's being reviewed and... look, can we add additional training?  I think Markwayne Mullin made the decision, well, let's do a temporary pause and make sure we -- the officers have what they need to be safe and do the most safe, secure arrests possible. And that review was done pretty quickly.  

Yeah, that 'pause' is a thing, right? Here's Bash:

...during what ended up being a very brief pause, like a day, the homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, said that vehicle stops would be paused, and then the president very quickly overturned that directive. But while the pause was in place, you did say it was done for the safety of the officers and whether something could have been done... my question for you is, how is it possible that all of that got accomplished in just the one day that the pause existed?

Homan pointed to some immediate changes, including at least one officer with a body camera to record all stops, and a journeyman agent assigned to them, as well. 

... (Acting ICE director) David Venturella sent an instruction out that he wants at least one body camera on those vehicle stops, so we have everything on video. So, whether the officer did something right or did something wrong, whether the alien did something right or wrong, it's on video. And I'm a big supporter of video cameras. I'm a big supporter, because I want the American people to see what that officer saw when he took whatever action they took.

Frankly, everyone wants that - the public has wanted that for months. 

Moving on to the panel discussion, we've got three more New Yorkers in the game: Congressmen Tom Suozzi (D), who represents part of the North Shore of Long Island and Mike Lawler (R), who represents folks in Rockland and Putnam Counties, and Syracuse native Maya Willey, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. GOP analyst Alyssa Farah Griffin, a native Californian, was also in the mix.

Bash, herself a native New Yorker, opened with a clip from Trump's hour-long rally/WHCA dinner speech.

What do we do here? Is this supposed to be fun? I hate some people. I shouldn't say this. I'm president. I'm not supposed to hate. I'm supposed to love everybody. Sloppy Chris Christie, one of the sloppiest human beings you will ever meet.

Ilhan Omar, one of my favorites. She ought to get the hell out of our country. She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be in our country. You can't call J.B. Pritzker a fat pig, please.

Briefly, here's what the panel thought:

• Fara Griffin: Listen, he bombed, but the most offensive thing about it was that it wasn't funny...   and President Trump, by the way, can be funny... That did not show up...  I asked myself at the end of what felt like 90 minutes we will never get back of our lives, what was the point of that? It didn't unify him with the press, it didn't ingratiate him more, and he didn't really seem to have any goal. We're talking about Czech crystal, and then we're insulting, kind of going through the greatest hits... I'm not sure why he was there, to be honest. 

• Suozzi: It was just mean. I thought it was just mean-spirited. It wasn't funny. It's supposed to be an entertaining, fun night, and it was just, I thought, mean-spirited.

• Lawler: ... I think it was important for the president to go... from that standpoint, it was a positive... I think he could have been a lot funnier... Frankly, some of the stuff that is said on CNN about the president in real time is a lot harsher than anything he threw on Friday night... I definitely think the president could have brought a little more levity to it than he did

• Willey: Unfunny, mean, all of the above...  one of the points of (the dinner) is to celebrate the First Amendment and free speech... we saw not only a refusal to allow any political satire, in the form of having a comedian there. We also saw a president attacking journalists because they won awards on topics that he didn't like...

Shifting gears to the midterms and a CBS/YouGov poll showing that 78% said the administration is not focusing enough on lowering prices, Lawler was up first; he touted his own record of focusing "almost exclusively" on affordability, including pushing the SALT limit increase and the bipartisan housing bill (enacted by 'executive indifference'), and noted

...it was a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican White House that worked together to get it done. It was bipartisan. There were a number of Democrat initiatives in there as well. But this will actually increase supply, lower prices, create greater access to capital. These are the things the American people want us to focus on, and that's what I have been focused on.

Suozzi, on the other hand, reminded Lawler that they were both at the Inauguration last January, when we were all promised prices would come down fast. And he pointed to "five specific points directly related to this administration that are raising prices."  (I count four, but who's counting?)

Everybody knows the tariffs increase people's prices, make your food more expensive every day, make your business more expensive. Everybody knows that the war is causing an increase of gas prices at the gas pump. Everybody knows this is the biggest deficit in the history of the United States of America, which causes upward pressure on interest rates, make it impossible to buy a house, to lease a car, to pay for your credit card. Everybody knows that they have cut health care premium tax credits. You and I worked together to try and save the premium tax credits...

Farah Griffin said the Rs are looking to the White House to "please get this president on message" about bringing down prices, but there's "not a great story to tell right now."

With the Iran war going -- continuing to go on, gas prices are not coming down the way that we hoped they would. The ongoing tariff regime, which we seem to announce more tariffs day in and day out, Mexico, Canada, what is next? And this is -- this is where you have got to have sound advisers around him. I imagine Susie Wiles is in his ear saying, 'you have got to get on message ahead of these midterms,' because to -- if you're the president, investigations come, accountability comes if you lose the House and potentially the Senate.

She also said they missed the boat and he should have held a big event for the housing bill, saying

... he completely missed the opportunity there. It's remarkable the inability to see what the American people voted for him to do and then deliver on it.

Willey gets the last word, noting that the messaging is not enough, and furthermore, 

... the truth is, these are self-inflicted wounds. These are not natural occurrences in high prices. These are the creation of decisions this administration has made, the Iran war being a really big and obvious one lost on no one.

And that's a wrap. Did you learn anything? Did the New Yorkers represent the state well? Drop a comment!

The Update Desk: One Corner at a Time (Again)

It's been a while since I last talked about the new Salt City Market that's coming to downtown Syracuse.

I first wrote about it in June 2018, when we learned that the Allyn Family Foundation (AFF) was planning to revitalize one of downtown's 'parking lot corners' into a mixed-use facility.  Here's an excerpt from that post:.

Early last month, the AFF announced the formation of a new nonprofit organization, the Syracuse Urban Partnership, which will develop our old parking lot into a mixed-use building with apartments, space for philanthropic agencies to collaborate (the AFF will have offices there), and a 'food hall' similar to those we get to see in larger cities like Philly's Reading Terminal Market. The market is designed to help make it possible for folks to get into the restaurant business, such as the ones who have been featured at the With Love project.

In January, I was happy to update that the AFF, in addition to having vision, also had ears. There was a contest to name the new food hall, but the choices that were presented for a community vote, well, they fell short of our expectations.  Here's an excerpt from the update post.

I vaguely remember the social media post where we could vote, and the overwhelming number of comments asking why it didn't mention Syracuse or the Salt City; I might have even given a 'like' to a suggestion with one of those in the name, if I remember correctly.

And it turns out, the AFF listened to what people wanted, and the name has been chosen: the Salt City Market. It's perfect, and it's a perfect example of ensuring the kind of community buy-in that the organization is looking for. Maarten Jacobs, one of the AFF folks, said

We want this to be a space that people feel they have ownership of the minute it opens.

That was a huge step for the project, I think - right from the get-go, the AFF cemented their commitment to having this really be a project that's both of and for the community. And now, where do things stand?

There's moving forward nicely, actually.

Throughout the summer, aspiring market food vendors have been able to test their items with community members; one vendor a week has been featured in the Salt City Market Takeout Friday program at the Westcott Community Center.

Even better, the groundbreaking for the $25M complex was held this past Monday. The Foundation's Executive Director Meg O'Connell noted

This project has been years in the making and it's really coming together today to acknowledge the diverse talents of our residents and also acknowledging that to be a prosperous city, we must with intention, work to provide opportunities that are inclusive for all. 

Continuing to stress the diversity aspects of the market, here's part of what project leader Maarten Jacobs said about the supportive nature of the space:

The idea is to create an environment all under one roof where all walks of life can come and experience the diverse flavors of Syracuse. We're intentionally with primarily entrepreneurs of color, both native born as well as new residents in our community.

I've been excited about this project from the beginning, and now that construction has started, I'm looking forward to seeing this vision come to fruition.

And speaking of vision, the photo above is a rendering of the building from SaltCityMarket.com  -- it's definitely something to look forward to.  Stay tuned!

Quick Takes (v33): Carson and Katko

Quick Takes

There was an article in my local paper today, about the possibility that Ben Carson, president Trump's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, might pay a visit to Syracuse to see what's going on here.

According to Mark Weiner's article, Carson met with Congressman John Katko recently and talked about the Syracuse Surge and, according to Katko, he

expressed interest in visiting Syracuse to see how the city plans to transform its economy with public and private investment centered on a series of projects on the south end of downtown. 

The plan includes a new STEAM  high school that will be open not just to city students but to kids from all of the school districts in Onondaga County. The school would be dedicated to the more common STEM curriculum - science, technology, engineering and math - and also add focus on the arts, too.

Katko suggested that HUD could play a "leading role" in the Syracuse Surge, which ties in to rebuilding the Pioneer Homes project and redeveloping the whole southeast end of downtown, including whatever happens with the I-81 viaduct project, and said that HUD money could "help jump-start" development efforts.

And, Katko said they also talked about the ongoing issue with lead poisoning here; new funding was approved in December to get our lead paint abatement program back up and running, after funding was cut off due to disagreements between the City and HUD back in 2012.

Whether or not you're a Carson or Katko fan, we'd be nuts to not want a Cabinet member with good intentions coming here; after all, NY historically gets a lot less from the federal government than we pay in. And if there's a chance that HUD will come through with some money and other assistance to help us rebuild the south east side of downtown, and continue their commitment to helping us get rid of the lead that's still causing issues for kids in Syracuse,  I'm all for it.

The Update Desk: STiR Projects

Back in November, I wrote in this Grains of Salt post about a new innovative program the City of Syracuse was participating in.

What's a city to do when there are more services needed than it can possibly provide?

Try something completely different, that's what.  And that's what Syracuse is looking to do, by joining the Startup in Residence  (STiR) program.

STiR connects governments with start up companies via a 'challenge' process; when there's a match between a governmental jurisdiction and a startup willing to work on the problem, a sixteen-week 'residency' begins, with the goal of having a viable solution at the end of the collaboration.

Syracuse put five challenges out for review, and we just learned which ones will be moving ahead:

• Camino will develop a permit management platform that allows for collaboration and communication between both permit applicants and city employees.
  
• Vite Labs is tasked with creating a crowd-funding platform to connect low-income renters to people willing to provide short-term no-interest loans for security deposits.
• Local company Zivics will work on a citizen engagement tool for the city's Trauma Response Team (TRT) to engage residents after traumatic events, such as violent crimes. 

Two other challenges, related to waste management and autonomous snow removal technology, did not get selected to move forward.

Grains of Salt (v32): Housing Stability

Grains of Salt

A local elected official with whom I'm connected on social media started a great conversation yesterday morning, about  some of the government programs that work to renovate older homes in cities like Buffalo and Syracuse.

In some cases, according to an article in The Buffalo News, renovations can cost several hundred thousand dollars on homes that end up getting sold for less than a quarter of the cost of fixing them. There are multiple drivers of the high costs of renovation, including getting old houses in compliance with building codes; asbestos and lead abatement; a limited number of contractors to do the work (Buffalo seems to have only three), and dealing with rehabs in historic districts, among others.

Buffalo is not alone - we have some of those same issues here in Syracuse. I live next door to a home that was extensively and beautifully renovated through programs and grants under the auspices of the Greater Syracuse Land Bank (GSLB), something I've talked about before. This house was a little different than some; it was the only one in the neighborhood needing this level of help, so it got a full home makeover and only then was sold, at market value. In other cases owners can purchase houses at a very low cost, promising to renovate them; sometimes, there are multiple houses on a street or in a neighborhood are all owned by the GSLB.

There are currently over 900 properties in the GSLB inventory including empty lots, demolition candidates, and single or multi-family homes needing some level of renovation. And that's just what's been turned over to them -- it doesn't represent the entire stock of properties in Syracuse that need help - or need to be demolished. And, it doesn't touch on another issue that's having an impact on our city: housing stability.

I admit I hadn't given much thought to 'housing stability' until I had the chance to vote on initiatives for Syracuse's Innovation Team, or I-Team, to tackle under new Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh's administration. Housing stability, which finished second in the public vote, was chosen after consultation with the Mayor and the Common Council. Doing something about sidewalks was the winner of the public vote, but that's more transactional than transformational, and is being looked at separately.

So what is housing instability and how does it impact a city? Here's how the I-Team describes it.

...the high frequency of forced moves that our residents endure. Many of these moves are forced by poor housing quality, unstable neighborhood conditions, and high costs of housing in relation to income.  All of these conditions can contribute to doubling up and overcrowding in housing units, chronic homelessness, and a high rate of unplanned residential mobility. Frequent moves have damaging financial and health impacts on our residents and neighborhoods, especially on our school-aged children.

Some of the recent numbers on this are quite alarming:

• 25% of city residents move at least once per year, higher than in other upstate cities and more than double the national average (2011-2015)
• 21% of those under 17 years of age live in a different house than they did a year ago (2011-2015)
• over 54% of renters are paying more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities(2015)
• some 11,000 people lose their homes due to eviction each year (2017)
• one in 10 students in the Syracuse City School District were homeless (2016)

Clearly, these problems are complex and there's no magic wand that will fix them, just as there's no magic wand that will restore the city's available housing stock to the quality needed to foster strong neighborhoods and increase the attractiveness of the city, helping to grow our tax base and to maintain or even expand city services. 

The hope is that the I-Team and their partners will be able to come up with ideas that will help us start tackling the housing instability issue incrementally, whether it's by focusing on particular census tracts, or through how we handle landlords who aren't consistently providing safe housing to their tenants, and more.

And, equally important, hopefully other politicians will join my social media friend in talking about these issues in as many venues and methods as possible. Throwing something out on social media can be fraught with all kinds of negative possibilities, but it also can spark an intelligent, respectful conversation, which is what we managed to do on the housing topic. The more of these we have, the better.

About that Congressional Housing Allowance

Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz was the Chair of the House Oversight Committee, until he quit in the middle of his term.

Chaffetz, you'll recall, was the one who promised to investigate the daylights out of Hillary Clinton if she became president.

It's a target-rich environment. Even before we get to Day One, we've got two years' worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain't good.

Clinton having lost, and Chaffetz having to now investigate a GOP-controlled White House, it's not really all that much of a surprise that he's leaving. It is a little surprising that, in an interview with The Hill shortly before he quit, Chaffetz noted that he might have left office even if Clinton, had been elected.

AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

I vowed that I would get in, serve and get out, and at some point you have to say, 'Let's get off this crazy train and get a better balance in your life.' It's hard to say, but I think I'd still probably come to the same conclusion.

On his way out, he talked about  gridlock in DC, and his future plans, which seem consistent with the standard path taken by other political graduates - seeking board seats, writing a book, and of course, not confirming the rumors that he's going to become a contributor on cable news; he's going to Fox, of course.

He also noted that he sleeps in his office, as do many of his colleagues, because it's expensive to live in DC.

Washington DC is one of the most expensive places in the world, and I flat out cannot afford a mortgage in Utah, kids in college, and a second place here in DC. I think a $2500 housing allowance (note:per month, or $30K annually) would be appropriate and a real help to have at least a decent quality of life in Washington if you're going to expect people to spend hundreds of nights a year here... There are dozens upon dozens of members living in their offices, and I don't know how healthy that is in the long term.

The article goes on to note

While Chaffetz said $174,000 a year is a "handsome" congressional salary, he explained that subsidizing lawmakers' housing costs in the pricey DC metro area could actually save taxpayer dollars. If he had a proper home in Washington rather than a cot in his office, Chaffetz said, he wouldn't need to fly home every weekend on the taxpayer's dime, and his wife, Julie, could visit more often. 

Chaffetz has a point; we can't really expect our elected officials to do a good job if they have to sleep in their offices, or in someone's basement. I doubt I'd be effective under those circumstances. And, of course, who can complain about wasting taxpayer money?

But - rather than giving them more money, with no guarantee that they're stop living in their offices or stop flying home every weekend, what if we took the $16,000,000 bucks the housing allowance would cost annually (535 x $30K), and instead invest that in available properties in DC?

You know, actually build housing in neighborhoods that are currently in need of help, or rehab existing housing units, and have the congressmen live there?  We don't need anything extravagant - nice two-bedroom apartments, maybe 1200 - 1400 square feet or so, where they can bring their families once a month. A combination of housing types -- single family, duplexes and triplexes, even right-sized 8 or 10 family units could be put up.

There are plenty of available properties -- here's a list of some 160 of them from December 2016 put out by the Property Acquisition and Disposition Division (PADD) of the DC Housing and Community Development agency.

You'll notice that properties are available all over the city; many of them appear to be clustered together, so there could be concentrated bursts of neighborhood development and improvement, and the congressmen could really establish a sense of community pride with the other residents.

To do it right, we'd want the properties added to the tax rolls, so that DC gets a much-needed economic boost. I'm sure Congress can figure out a way to make that work, since they pretty much control what happens in DC.

DC residents would have jobs; infrastructure would be improved; neighborhoods would be reborn; more people would feel comfortable living in the neighborhoods; schools would improve; food deserts would disappear; medical facilities could be built; neighborhood police stations could be built, improving relations between the good guys and the people they serve; politicians get to know and understand the people they serve.and the real life challenges they face...

The list of benefits is almost endless, and they play right into the desires of both parties. And imagine if we could encourage bipartisan neighborhoods?  Wouldn't that be something?

Conservative politicians always suggest that throwing more money at something is not the right approach to take, and that handouts are bad. For example, according to this article on Salon, Chaffetz himself has a history of being conservative when it comes to housing money - for the poor, anyway.

In 2011, Chaffetz touted legislation to kill the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, a pool of money by mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide housing relief for low-income Americans. 

With Fannie and Freddie under federal government conservatorship and losing billions of dollars a quarter there is no need to have an additional requirement on them to send a portion of their revenue to special interest groups at the expense of American taxpayers, reads a 2011 press release from Chaffetz's office.

So, let's take a page out of his book, and do something constructive with our money, instead of just handing it over to Congress, that most special of special interest groups.

Maybe this is something that Chaffetz can champion once he gets some of those board seats he's after?