City & State_02152016

February 15, 2016

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EDITOR’S NOTE / Contents

Michael Gareth Johnson Editorial Director

The opening acts of the 2016 presidential race have not disappointed. As a political magazine focused mostly on the state and New York City, we don’t typically commit many resources to covering the race for the White House. Let’s be honest – there are plenty of reporters following the candidates around.

But this year, the political theater could have a real impact on the state of New York. In this issue we took a look at some of the storylines developing ahead of the state’s April 19 presidential primary. And we couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a special Playbill-inspired cover to capture the drama and intrigue of the race.

After much debate, we decided to use the iconic art from the musical “Rent” as our guide, allowing us to cram in the large cast of presidential primary characters who each still have roles to play.

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EPISODES III & IV Reporters Justin Sondel and Ashley Hupfl continue their journey across New York’s upstate cities, exploring the infrastructure needs of Rochester and Syracuse.

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THE RACE FOR PRESIDENT Senior Editor Jon Lentz takes a look at the particularly theatrical primary season, and whether New York will play a starring role.

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NEW YORK SLANT Activist Glenn Martin makes the case for closing Rikers Island, while Slant columnist Bertha Lewis points out that the real scandal of the New York City Council wage hike is how it ignores council staffers.

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BACK & FORTH A Q&A with former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

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MAGAZINE

City & State is the premier multimedia news organization dedicated to covering New York’s local and state politics and policy. Our in-depth, non-partisan coverage serves New York’s leaders every day as a trusted guide to the issues impacting New York. We offer round-the-clock coverage through our weekly publications, daily e-briefs, events, oncamera interviews, weekly podcast and more.

Editorial Director Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstateny.com Senior Editor Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com Managing Editor Ryan Somers rsomers@cityandstateny.com Associate Copy Editor Sam Edsill sedsill@cityandstateny.com Staff Reporters

CITY & STATE MAGAZINE Our award-winning print magazine delivers long-form cover stories, investigative exposés, indepth industry analysis and entertaining features on a weekly basis.

CITY & STATE FIRST READ With over 20,000 subscribers, the free daily First Read e-brief summarizes the top political news, editorials, schedule items and more – all in your inbox before 7 a.m. cityandstateny.com/first-read CITY & STATE INSIDER Insider subscribers receive the weekly magazine, access to all policy events and an exclusive daily email featuring our take on the news and groundbreaking commentary. cityandstateny.com/insider CITY & STATE EVENTS City & State hosts dozens of panel discussions, live Q&As, receptions and more each year featuring powerful politicians, industry leaders and experts from across the state. cityandstateny.com/events CITY & STATE CAREERS City & State Careers connects professionals to career, continuing education, and professional development opportunities in and around New York government, advocacy, business and more. careers.cityandstateny.com

Ashley Hupfl ahupfl@cityandstateny.com Justin Sondel jsondel@cityandstateny.com Sarina Trangle strangle@cityandstateny.com Web/Engagement Editor Jeremy Unger junger@cityandstateny.com Editorial Assistant Jeff Coltin jcoltin@cityandstateny.com New York Slant Editor Nick Powell npowell@cityandstateny.com Editor-at-Large Gerson Borrero gborrero@cityandstateny.com Columnists Michael Benjamin, Nicole Gelinas, Alexis Grenell, Bertha Lewis

CITY & STATE REPORTS City & State Reports recognizes outstanding New York corporations and business leaders through a series of awards ceremonies, conferences and special publications.

On the Cover February 15, 2016

New York Slant is City & State’s new platform dedicated to opinion and analysis, with columnists and contributors providing an informed perspective on the daily news cycle. nyslant.com

City & State’s video interviews and podcasts feature interviews with lawmakers, policy wonks and business leaders, garnering more than 250,000 YouTube views and 10,000 Livestream followers.

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POLITICAL POWER Couples 2016

By JEFF COLTIN

For many, politics is a calling and the best way to serve a community.

To the skeptics, it ’s all about money and power. No matter why these movers and shakers got into politics, they all got love out of it.

Here are eight of the most politically potent couples in the Empire State.

Howard Glaser, former top aide to Gov. Cuomo + Karen Hinton, press secretary to Mayor de Blasio Karen and Howard met while working at HUD in Washington in the late 1990s alongside Cuomo and de Blasio. They have four children.

Bill Hochul, U.S. attorney, Western District of New York + Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul Bill and Kathy met as Assembly interns in the early 1980s. They married in 1984 and have two children.

Melissa DeRosa, chief of staff to Gov. Cuomo + Matt Wing, communications lead at Uber Melissa and Matt met working together in Cuomo’s press office in 2013. They are currently engaged.

Jeff Simmons, executive vice president at Anat Gerstein + Alfonso Quiroz, ConEd spokesman Jeff and Alfonso met through a friend while attending the U.S. Open. The pair married in 2012, but Superstorm Sandy canceled their honeymoon.

Frank Hoare, general counsel at the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services + Cathy Calhoun, chief of staff, state Department of Transportation The pair have held numerous jobs in government over the past two decades. They married in 2013.

Jesse Smith Campoamor, director of community affairs, New York City Comptroller’s Office + Sadye Lee Campoamor, director of community affairs, New York City Department of Education Jesse and Sadye met at a summer camp in 1997 and bonded over both being Jewish Latinos. They married in 2012 and are expecting their first baby in March.

Richard Buery, New York City deputy mayor + Deborah Archer, New York Law School professor and Civilian Complaint Review Board member Richard and Deborah met at Yale Law School, where he took a class because she was the TA. The pair married in 1997.

Bob Hardt, NY1 political director + Brigid Bergin, WNYC City Hall and politics reporter Bob and Brigid met through a mutual journalist friend. True New Yorkers, their first “official date” was a Yankees game.

The pair married in September.

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THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED MINUTES

By ASHLEY HUPFL

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not held a press conference in Albany in more than 230 days. While state Capitol reporters wait (somewhat) patiently for the governor to agree to answer our questions over the last seven-ish months, City & State decided to look at how long it’s been in practical terms.

IN SEVEN MONTHS …

- Earth has traveled about 340 million miles.

- Americans drink roughly 85 billion cups of coffee.

- A fetus can grow arms and legs, and eyelids and ears are beginning to form.

- The average human can grow 3½ inches of hair.

- A NASA probe can travel to Mars.

- The average expeditioner can climb Mount Everest more than three times.

- About 2,290,000 babies are born in the U.S. - About 1,458,000 people die in the U.S. - A CrossFit athlete can lose 100 pounds.

- Half of the Empire State Building was built (it took 410 days).

- “El Chapo” escaped from prison and eluded Mexican authorities before he was apprehended.

- The U.S. won the first Gulf War (6 months, 3 weeks, 5 days).

THINGS THAT TOOK LESS THAN 230 DAYS: - The Declaration of Independence was drafted and approved (17 days).

- A pioneer family could traverse the Oregon Trail (six months).

- A Boeing 747 aircraft can be built (three weeks).

- Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first 50 Apple I computers (30 days).

- Twitter was created (less than four months).

- Facebook was created (less than a week).

Building affordable housing that New Yorkers need New York faces an affordable housing crisis. NYSAFAH members are taking action to address this crisis by providing safe, quality housing for low- and middle-income New Yorkers, while advocating for more of the programs and funding that make it possible.

Creating good jobs and leading MWBE and local hiring efforts The average affordable housing development creates more than 175 construction jobs and 20 permanent jobs – and these developments are driving job growth across the state. We are proud to prioritize MWBE and local hiring efforts alongside our affordable housing goals.

Strengthening communities and growing local economies Too many New Yorkers live in areas of concentrated poverty. Our members are leaders in mixed-income development that brings greater opportunity to struggling neighborhoods and promotes diversity in communities across New York. Each new affordable housing development is an economic engine that generates millions of dollars in sustained activity for local residents and businesses.

NYSAFAH is working toward Housing for All with its New York State Affordable Housing Solutions: Five Year Plan.

Visit us at http://www.nysafah.org to learn more.

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L L I W , ED L T T E NS U S E C RA Y R A IM R P E H LE? O T R H G N T I I R W AR T S A Y A K PL R O Y W E N

By JON LENTZ

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THE

PRIMARY

SEASON

THE DAY AFTER U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders coasted to victory in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, dozens of his grassroots supporters gathered in a Brooklyn pub to plot their next steps. Many had knocked on doors or made calls in the Granite State to persuade voters to back Sanders, and they were exhilarated by his 22-point win over Hillary Clinton.

Some had already scheduled trips to help get out the vote in South Carolina, an upcoming state on the

Democratic calendar. And several predicted that the contest would remain competitive through midApril, when New York holds its presidential primaries.

“Am I hoping Hillary Clinton is upset by then? Yes. Realistically?

Probably not,” said Ben Serby, a young South Slope resident who has been actively campaigning for Sanders since last summer. “But I think our momentum will certainly carry through then.”

Sanders’ momentum from the first two states – nearly tying Clinton in Iowa and trouncing her in New Hampshire – has left the Democratic race so unsettled that the nomination could still be up for grabs in nine weeks when New York voters cast their primary ballots.

In what would be an even more unusual turn of events, the ongoing free-for-all in the Republican field, with party officials trying in vain to rally around a single establishment candidate to overcome businessman Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, could actually give New Yorkers a say in selecting both

Feb. 1 - Iowa Feb. 9 - New Hampshire Feb. 20 - South Carolina (R), Nevada (D) Feb. 23 - Nevada (R) Feb. 27 - South Carolina (D) March 1 - Alabama, Alaska (R), Arkansas, Colorado (D), Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia March 5 - Kansas, Kentucky (R), Louisiana, Maine (R), Nebraska (D) March 6 - Maine (D) March 8 - Hawaii (R), Idaho (R), Michigan, Mississippi March 12 - District of Columbia (R) March 15 - Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio March 22 - Arizona, Idaho (D), Utah March 26 - Alaska (D), Hawaii (D), Washington (D) April 5 - Wisconsin April 9 - Wyoming (D) April 19 - New York April 26 - Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island May 3 - Indiana May 10 - Nebraska (R), West Virginia May 17 - Kentucky (D), Oregon May 24 - Washington (R) June 7 - California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota (D), South Dakota June 14 - District of Columbia (D)

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parties’ nominees for president.

“We planned on it from the start to make the New York Republican Party and New York Republicans, on a grassroots basis, decisive in the nomination of the next president of the United States,” said Ed Cox, the chairman of the state Republican Party. “We did that by positioning our primary on April 19, and we’re the only Republican primary on April 19.

The positioning is based on … the number of good candidates that we had on the stage way back when this decision was being made.”

So far, all is going according to plan for Cox. The New Hampshire results prompted two Republicans, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and businesswoman Carly Fiorina, to drop out, but Trump, Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson all survived to compete in South Carolina, the next state up for Republicans.

Cox noted that a number of the primaries between now and April 19 distribute delegates proportionally, which will make it hard for any candidate to secure the nomination outright. March 15 does feature a number of winnertake-all states, including Florida and Ohio. But after that it’s five weeks until New York, with only Utah, Arizona and Wisconsin in between.

“We always expected there would be more (candidates) than four years ago,” Cox said of the GOP field. “Maybe three candidates, maybe a vice-presidential candidate posing as a presidential candidate, that they will, in that five-week period, we’re the gateway to that remaining 40 percent of the delegates who are left unchosen.

That could be decisive.”

Such an outcome would be a departure from the norm, in part because New York’s date on the primary calendar has typically been so late that voters have already anointed the frontrunners. One exception was in 2008, when the race between Clinton and then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama was still going strong by the time the state’s voters

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cast their ballots. This time around, Clinton is expected to rebound in Nevada and South Carolina, but Sanders could continue to surprise.

Even if Clinton surges ahead, her Democratic rival has displayed an impressive fundraising ability that could keep him in the race for weeks.

“My sense is that both the Republican race and the Democratic race will have some significant activity going through March, perhaps even into April and the New York primary,” said Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the Nassau County Democrats. “I can’t say whether they’ll definitely be very competitive. I believe on the Democratic side, it’s likely that by mid-April Hillary will have a commanding lead in overall delegates. Nonetheless, I think the Bernie supporters are so energized and so motivated that they’ll keep the New York primary active.”

IF EITHER PARTY’S nomination is still up for grabs when New Yorkers vote on April 19, however, the long-term impact might be less on who ultimately becomes president and more on a local political matter: control of the state Senate.

For months, political observers have predicted that state Senate Democrats would perform strongly this fall, possibly even winning enough seats to retake the majority. In a presidential election year, greater turnout typically paves the way for Democratic

gains. In addition, Clinton served as a U.S. senator in the state, and as a presidential frontrunner she could draw strong support – and potentially boost turnout.

But some changes came sooner than expected, most notably the ouster of former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos after a corruption conviction. The vacancy left the Republican conference with just 31 seats, one shy of an outright majority. State Sen. Simcha Felder, a New York City Democrat, caucuses with the Republicans, giving them a tenuous majority,

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and state Sen. Jeff Klein’s fivemember Independent Democratic Conference could revive a powersharing partnership that kept the GOP in control in the past. But if a Democrat fills Skelos’ Nassau County seat, there’s no guarantee Felder or Klein would side with the Republicans.

The special election, scheduled for the same day as New York’s presidential primary, could be critical.

Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat who has touted his record as a prosecutor, is set to take on Christopher McGrath, a little-known Republican lawyer.

Some observers have suggested that if Clinton and Sanders are still battling out on April 19, higher turnout among Democrats could tip the race in Kaminsky’s favor.

“If you’re the Democrat trying to win Dean Skelos’ old seat, you’re rooting for this primary season to go heavily and all out into New York, because this is a Democratic state and you’ll see a maximum turnout of Democrats,” said Lawrence Levy, the executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies. “There are no scenarios at present that aren’t political science fiction that would have Bernie Sanders winning a New York primary against Hillary Clinton. So the bigger story is the impact down-ballot.”

Of course, it’s also possible that the Democrats will have essentially made their presidential pick while the fight for the Republican nomination rages on into April, and that could spur increased GOP turnout and instead give McGrath a timely boost.

“There is no question in my mind that if, come April 19, there is an active Republican race for the presidential nomination, and the Democrats are over, that that will give an advantage to the Republican candidate in that special election,” said Steve Greenberg of the Siena Research Institute, which will be polling the race in the coming weeks.

“Likewise, if the Republican race is all but over but there’s still a hot contest going on between Sanders and Clinton, I think that would give an edge to the Democratic candidate

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in that race. If neither party has active primaries still going on by then, I think it’s sort of a draw. That said, that’s just one factor among many that will play into that special election.”

NO MATTER WHAT happens, New York has already played at least a supporting role. In Iowa and New Hampshire, three of the four winners have strong ties to New York. Clinton was New York’s junior U.S. senator. Sanders’ accent still gives him away as a Brooklyn native. Trump, the real estate executive, reality TV star and entrepreneur from Queens, underperformed in Iowa but came away with a convincing win in New Hampshire. And the early results have only stoked former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s interest in a potential independent presidential bid.

But Serby, the Sanders campaign volunteer, said he was unsure how much local ties might translate into actual votes for candidates like Sanders and Clinton.

“I look forward to voting in New York in the primary,” he said. “I feel like my neighborhood is gaga for Bernie. I don’t really see any signs for Hillary ever. But it’s New York – people don’t really put up signs that much anyway, because we’re not used to being courted by these candidates because we’re so late in the primary process.”

And for many New Yorkers, having a local cast of characters playing on the national stage is far less important than the issues raised by the candidates, whether it’s the size of the federal government or income inequality.

“Bernie hasn’t lived in Brooklyn in years,” said Helen Wintrob, a psychologist at the gathering of Sanders supporters in the borough.

“Hillary Clinton is from Chicago, and she only came to Chappaqua when she wanted to run for Senate.

And Trump comes from Queens, but …”

Jon Lentz is City & State’s senior editor.

Contact him at jlentz@cityandstateny. com. Twitter: @jonathanlentz

Our Perspective Our Perspective

Grocery Grocery Worker Worker Retention Retention Act Act Provides Provides Security Security in in Supermarket Supermarket Industry Industry

By Stuart Appelbaum, President, Retail, Wholesale and Department By Stuart Appelbaum, President, Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW and Department Store Union, Retail, Wholesale RWDSU, UFCW arlier this month, Mayor de Blasio signed the Grocery Worker Retention Act (GWRA) arlier this month, Mayor de Blasio signed into Grocery law. TheWorker new law is a victory the the Retention Actfor (GWRA) 50,000 people in New City who work in into law. The new York law is a victory for the supermarkets, and it is a victory for the city’s 50,000 people in New York City who work in consumers. Weand applaud mayor the city supermarkets, it is athe victory for and the city’s council for bringing much-needed consumers.

We applaud the mayorsecurity and thefor city workersfor in the supermarket industry, and for council bringing much-needed security for passing legislation that protects workers common-sense in the supermarket industry, and for all of us. passing common-sense legislation that protects The GWRA provides for a 90-day transition period to eligible all of us. employees following a change ownership of period to eligible The GWRA provides for ain90-day transition a grocery store.

And you don’t have to look of employees following a change in ownership very hard store. to findAnd examples whyhave we needed Law brings mucha grocery you don’t to look this law volatile industry. needed security very hardintothis find examples why we needed Law brings muchIn in December, 2013, workers at the for workers in a this law this volatile industry. needed security Trade In Fair Supermarket in Queens volatile industry.

December, 2013, workers found at the out for workers in a they’d be getting coal forinthe holidays.

Theout 50 Trade Fair Supermarket Queens found volatile industry. hardworking mencoal and for women at the store they’d be getting the holidays.

The 50 reported to work, find out thatstore the store had suddenly been hardworking men only and to women at the sold — and nowout jobless andstore had had to leave the property reported to that work,they onlywere to find that the suddenly been immediately.

Thethey newwere owner was underand no had obligation to the hireproperty them sold — and that now jobless to leave back, and longtime shoppers at the store had unfamiliar faces immediately.

The new owner was under nonow obligation to hire them handling food and taskedatwith the store clean. faces back, andtheir longtime shoppers the keeping store now had unfamiliar Andtheir last food year, and thousands supermarket in New York handling tasked of with keeping theworkers store clean. were affected the A&P chain declared bankruptcy.

And last when year, thousands of supermarket workers inStores New York including Pathmark, Waldbaum’s, Emporium, and Food Basics — were affected when the A&P chainFood declared bankruptcy.

Stores 52 in all —Pathmark, were affected.

Many of Food thoseEmporium, stores closed, including Waldbaum’s, andand Foodmany Basics — others changed Thousands of workers theirand jobsmany in an 52 in all — were hands. affected.

Many of those storeslost closed, instant.changed hands. Thousands of workers lost their jobs in an others In both cases, workers — through no fault of their own, and many instant. of them of workers the RWDSU — lost no their jobsofwithout anyand notice.

In members both cases, — through fault their own, many They andmembers their families of ajobs sudden lossany of pay and of them of thesuffered RWDSUbecause — lost their without notice. benefits. werebecause put at risk the lossloss of skilled They and And, their communities families suffered of abysudden of pay and and experienced workers who benefits.

And,supermarket communities were put atknew risk bybest thehow lossto ofserve skilledstores’ and customers, most importantly, how to properly safely experiencedand supermarket workers knew who knew best how toand serve stores’ handle the food that New Yorkers buy and eattoevery day.and safely customers, and most importantly, knew how properly provided theeat GWRA willday. give New York handleThe thetransition food thatperiod New Yorkers buybyand every City grocery workers period valuable time toby prepare for their future.

But, The transition provided the GWRA will give New York there are more than valuable 175,000 time grocery store workers throughout New City grocery workers to prepare for their future. But, York State.

That’s why the RWDSU supports the passage of a there are more than 175,000 grocery store workers throughout New statewide storethe worker retention law.the Thepassage state’s grocery store York State.grocery That’s why RWDSU supports of a workers and millions of shoppers deservelaw. theThe same statewide grocery store worker retention state’s grocery store protection asmillions those inofNew York City. workers and shoppers deserve the same protection as those in New York City.

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For more information, visit For more information, visit www.rwdsu.org

www.rwdsu.org

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ALBANY

SYRACUSE ROCHESTER

BUFFALO

BINGHAMTON

Last fall, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced a five-year, $29 billion capital plan to fund the MTA, downstate officials breathed a sigh of relief.

But in upstate New York, lawmakers responded to the huge funding commitment with demands for an equitable investment in the deteriorating infrastructure in their own districts.

Underscoring the argument, local officials and advocates say that without a major investment in infrastructure in upstate cities, many of Cuomo’s efforts aimed at spurring economic development will be for naught.

In this ongoing series, City & State traveled to five major cities to meet with local officials and get a firsthand look at the needs of each city.

This week, our “Empire State Builds Back” series takes us to two places that are not so far, far away: Rochester and Syracuse.

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EPISODE III - ROCHESTER GOOD PLANNING, REGULAR MAINTENANCE ARE CITY’S GREATEST WEAPONS Story by JUSTIN SONDEL Photos by BRENDAN BANNON

- Obi-Wan Kenobi

ON A SUNNY day last fall just before Thanksgiving, dump trucks sat on massive mounds of dirt and rubble in an east Rochester neighborhood. In a surreal scene, the construction equipment was parked nearly at street grade on a section of a depressed highway that until November 2014 was traversed by just a few thousand cars each day.

With the help of federal and state funding, Rochester is now trying to right a wrong from a period in planning when the automobile was king and highspeed roadways were paramount in designing infrastructure.

When completed, the $20 million effort will bring a small section of the Flower City’s notorious Inner Loop back to grade, reconnecting east side neighborhoods with downtown and replacing 12 lanes of road that acted as an economic moat with pedestrian and bicycle-friendly parkways that city officials hope will promote new development in the area.

Jim McIntosh, Rochester’s city engineer, said that the stretch of the Inner Loop that’s being filled in only saw about 6,000 cars a day in recent years, meaning the

barrier for neighborhoods that could otherwise benefit from easy access to Rochester’s downtown business districts was essentially pointless.

“I think we’re trying to, I guess, build the city for people versus for cars,” McIntosh said.

“That’s kind of where we were.”

Closer to downtown, construction workers in bright yellow vests and hard hats were

working below a pedestrian bridge in the warm afternoon breeze.

The bridge, which spans the gorge near High Falls, is not dangerous at this point, but could become unusable within a few years without regular maintenance, due to the area’s frigid weather, in addition to everyday wear and tear. The crossing is important for people who walk to work from nearby neighborhoods, but also for businesses that benefit from recreation in the city. The Genesee Brewing Company recently invested in its building on the edge of the gorge, creating a tasting room, restaurant and banquet facilities with views of the falls. Directly across the gorge is Frontier Field, the city’s baseball

Rochester City Engineer Jim McIntosh stands on the pedestrian bridge that runs across the gorge near High Falls.

stadium, an easy walk that would otherwise be five or six blocks, McIntosh said.

“There’s destinations on both sides that people want to get to,” McIntosh said. “Without having the pedestrian bridge you wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Rochester has been pursuing a number of other projects and focusing on maintenance in order to help private businesses thrive, such as repaving roads and repairing bridges, and is putting a high priority on heavily traveled thoroughfares, especially those that run through business districts.

ROCHESTER HAS BEEN able to keep up on maintenance and tackle bigger projects like the Inner Loop in part because of good planning.

Take the city’s water system: About a century ago, city planners had the foresight to build a system that is largely driven by gravity.

In Western New York there are about 100 water pumps, and each one requires maintenance and repairs whenever it breaks down. In contrast, Rochester and the surrounding communities of Monroe County have just one massive pump.

The county invested in upgrades to its water infrastructure in the 1970s, spending millions of dollars in the process. While it was a huge upfront cost at the time, it

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resulted in a more reliable, cleaner and safer system that does not require the hundreds of millions of dollars that other metro areas like Buffalo and Syracuse need to maintain service, or – as in parts of Western New York – clean up severe pollution in waterways.

“I guess I would say that we have a strong maintenance program and that helps us make due with what we have,” McIntosh said.

Still, McIntosh stressed, the city does struggle to fund projects.

Despite a capital projects fund in its budget that not all upstate cities enjoy, Rochester still has more projects planned than it can fully fund each year.

“I think we try to be proactive, but the funding to do that is limited,” McIntosh said.

The city got some big news last year. In July it was announced that the region would become home to a $600 million photonics center, part of a federal program working to drive innovation across the country. Then, in December, officials learned that a state panel selected the region as one of three to win $500 million in economic development money as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative – often called the “Upstate Hunger Games.”

A good deal of that money is set to go toward capitalizing on the photonics center and the manufacturing opportunities it presents.

Mayor Lovely Warren said she feels that with the investments coming to Rochester, it will be increasingly important to address infrastructure needs to continue to attract new employers and

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An open hole lets workers access the underpinnings of the pedestrian bridge for regular maintenance. industries.

“We have, as a community, done a lot to maintain the investment and to develop ways in which we can prolong certain types of residential street improvements or with our bridges and other things, but we can always utilize more money,” Warren said.

In order to attract and retain those companies and industries, the city will need to earn a reputation as a place with reliable infrastructure on all fronts, especially at a time when so much attention is being paid to the deplorable conditions of roads, bridges and water systems across the country.

“As the leader of this city, my job is to work with our business community, work with our unions, work with our state, local and federal officials, for them to understand what our immediate needs are,” Warren said.

“Hopefully they will bring in the resources that we need to take care of those needs.”

New York’s brutal winters mean that roads must constantly be repaired or replaced, regardless of how well a municipality keeps on top of maintenance.

“It’s more about those everyday street infrastructure improvements that people are driving on that you want to make sure are safe,” Warren said. “We do our best at the city with the funding that we get to prioritize and develop a strategy around that.”

Still, particularly in the Northeast, maintenance of roads is difficult because even if the surface roads look brand new, the infrastructure underneath may need serious upgrades.

Terrence Rice, the director of the Monroe County Department of Transportation, said that even with a strong program in place for prioritizing road projects, it can be hard to find needed reconstruction funds. In addition, many times it is difficult to know just how bad the infrastructure beneath a road is without digging it up.

“That’s where we struggle with money, if we need to rehabilitate or reconstruct, because we can’t do as much as we’d like to,” Rice said. “There’s just not enough money.”

Rice said that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature have responded well to unique

situations, providing extra funding over that last two years after the long, hard winters that punished the entire Northeast.

“Without a doubt, the freezethaw cycles we have give another hit, another negative on how long our system is going to last,” Rice said.

Rice said he is optimistic about what the recent federal transportation deal will mean for Monroe County and other municipalities throughout the state.

He is also glad that legislators and advocacy groups are pushing for additional infrastructure funding for upstate in light of the state’s deal to help pay for New York City projects through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The governor has since promised $22 billion for upstate infrastructure projects, although the bulk of it is not new money.

“We’re hoping, from the local standpoint, that now with the deal with the governor down in New York City with the MTA, if you’re going to give additional money to the MTA, well let’s have that much money, that same amount going to the DOT as a whole, with some of it coming to the locals,” Rice said.

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CityAndStateNY.com

EPISODE IV - SYRACUSE WITH UNDERGROUND PIPES RUPTURING ON THE REGULAR, CITY SEEKS NEW FUNDING STREAMS Story by ASHLEY HUPFL Photos by HEATHER AINSWORTH

ONE DAY LAST fall a work crew in Syracuse accidentally struck a water main, sending water gushing into the air like a geyser. A worker operating an excavator scrambled to fill the hole, and then the workers quickly resumed their work.

The occurrence is not unusual in Syracuse. Any time city workers dig up the streets or sidewalks to repair underground water lines, they run the risk of making the problem worse. Many of the pipes that carry the city’s drinking water have not been maintained or updated since they were installed decades ago, and some have shifted their position and become unstable, leaving workers to operate blindly while trying to patch the city’s crumbling infrastructure.

The problem isn’t unique to Syracuse, either. A report by the state comptroller’s office estimated that the state would have to invest $535 million annually to maintain the water systems across the state.

In 2012, however, New York spent only about $88 million on such infrastructure.

Syracuse has become the poster child for upstate New York’s severe infrastructure needs.

According to state figures, the city experienced a 42 percent increase in the number of breaks involving its drinking water infrastructure in the first five months of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013. Last year alone, Syracuse recorded 372 water main ruptures,

“WE SEEM TO BE MADE TO SUFFER. IT’S OUR LOT IN LIFE.” - C-3PO an average of more than one a day.

“These numbers are growing and growing and growing. We’ve started to have water main breaks in the spring and summer and (are) pulling up pipes from, you know, the 1800s,” Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner told City & State. “We’ve started to see our infrastructure – our water mains – really suffer under the fact that for the past 20 years, the federal government and the state government have cut back funding to allow us to keep our infrastructure in a state of repair.”

SINCE TAKING OFFICE, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has tried to spur economic development in upstate cities, and his administration has helped bring large high-tech plants to Albany and Utica, where two nanoscale plants have been built, and Rochester, where a new photonics center will open.

Syracuse officials argued that they had been overlooked, but the region scored a win in December when it garnered one of the three $500 million awards as part of Cuomo’s $1.5 billion Upstate Revitalization competition – also known as the “Upstate Hunger

Above: A work crew strikes a water main in Syracuse, flooding a hole.

Below: Mayor Stephanie Miner says more investment in infrastructure is critical to helping the city rebound economically.

Games.” Though the award is sure to help Syracuse, the funding is slated for economic development projects like the Inner Harbor project, and not for infrastructure.

The Inner Harbor project envisions a mixed-use space for residential, retail, educational, hotel and community facilities, although it has become bogged down by a spat over tax exemptions pitting Miner against Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney.

Even if the Inner Harbor and

CityAndStateNY.com

other projects do move forward and spur job growth, officials worry about constructing new buildings and developments on top of old infrastructure. But a major challenge in trying to identify funds to make needed repairs is the city’s shrunken tax base.

Syracuse, like many other cities, experienced a decrease in population decades ago amid a nationwide exodus from cities to the suburbs. Syracuse was built for a population of about 250,000 people, Miner said. Currently, there are about 148,000 residents.

“What are you going to do about that?” asked Mahoney. “We can’t just keep going the way we were going and try to fill the budget gaps that exist because of that decrease.

It’s not working. You have to do something different. When you saw in the 1960s the flight to the suburbs, anybody involved in city government in those days should have foreseen the erosion of the tax base.”

Mahoney said the city needs to find a better way to fund government besides through property taxes. For example, one of her first acts as county

17

executive was to rearrange the way Onondaga County allocates sales tax revenue to cut funding to towns and villages while reducing city and county property taxes.

Mahoney also warned that those who live in the suburbs and travel into the city for work should not ignore the infrastructure issues in the urban core.

“If you think it’s not your problem, you’re sorely mistaken, because the jobs are going to leave,” she said. “If you want to fix the water mains in Syracuse, then you should be encouraging economic development.”

Miner agreed, saying that more investment is critical to helping the city rebound economically.

“People believe that government should take care of their infrastructure,” Miner said.

“That’s the history of how we built up our economy and became the Empire State, whether it’s the subway system in New York, the Erie Canal or the bridges on the road to Canada. That’s what has built economies.”

Miner, however, has put more emphasis on the need for more funding from the state and federal

governments. The mayor has estimated the cost of replacing Syracuse’s 550 miles of water pipes at about $726 million.

Cuomo has said upstate cities need to focus on economic development so that the urban centers can fix themselves, telling the PostStandard that he has no plans to provide new funding to Syracuse or other upstate cities for water infrastructure. Instead, he told Syracuse officials to propose economic development plans, like the Inner Harbor project “on steroids.”

The mayor suggested that different strategies – in addition to extra funding – would help.

“I think we have a real opportunity to have a ‘dig once’ philosophy, where we as a society say we should dig once, modernize our water mains, sewer lines, use technology to modernize it and then cover it all up and put a brand new road on it,” Miner said.

“We’ll be getting a five-for-one hit on that.”

IN RECENT YEARS, Syracuse has experienced an influx of young adults who appreciate the perks of living in urban centers, reversing the flight from cities in the 1960s.

As a result, Syracuse’s downtown area has had an economic rebound, spurring new housing.

“We’re doing these great developments in, for example, the

Inner Harbor or downtown, where you have these burgeoning developments, business and great projects,” Miner said. “Yet, we’re putting them on a foundation of infrastructure that is rotting out.”

On a road near a newly revitalized area in the city, above the new Onondaga Creekwalk, is the Evans Street Bridge. The timber-decked bridge, which has cracks in its pavement and wood so large that the water flowing underneath is clearly visible, is one of the five off-system bridges in the city that are rated as deficient by the state Department of Transportation. Despite the rating, the bridge sees active traffic each day.

As Miner sees it, one of the problems with securing funding for infrastructure is that people don’t think about it until something goes wrong.

“When you wake up in the morning – and it’s happened to me – and you go to brush your teeth or take a shower and nothing comes out of the sink, you think, ‘How can I function?’ ” Miner said.

“Because of the age, because this is such an important foundation of economic development, because it’s such an important part of New York’s history – and Syracuse’s history – I think the time is ripe and people understand that infrastructure is a fundamental mission of government.”

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CityAndStateNY.com

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True, New Year’s resolutions should be about bettering oneself and investing in more worthwhile activities. But your health and fitness aren’t the only things that might require more of your attention this year.

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CityAndStateNY.com

offering bachelor-level knowledge alone, someone with a graduatelevel degree offers professional skills that apply directly to his or her field.

2. INCREASE YOUR EARNING POTENTIAL

A graduate degree will help you obtain employment when you otherwise wouldn’t have gotten the job. And, as you know, employment means money. While many bachelor’s degrees allow you to make rent, a graduate education lets you make a living – and have fun doing it.

The phenomenon of higher education beyond a bachelor’s degree improving one’s earning prospects is nothing new. Jonnelle Marte of The Washington Post states, “People will come out with the potential to earn a much bigger paycheck … (which) wouldn’t have been possible without the advanced degree.”

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Anything worthwhile takes work, so while graduate school may seem daunting now, it’s actually a great investment for your future.

3. EXPLORE YOUR PASSIONS WITH EXPERTS

In many ways, undergraduate education only scratches the surface of entire schools of thought and paths of learning. If you want to further pursue your interests in an exciting environment, graduate school presents the perfect place to do that.

Whether you are an engineer, writer, nurse or social worker, there are still entire oceans of unexplored territory. Attending graduate school helps you study relevant topics in more depth and under the guidance of experts in your field.

Furthermore, the professors and colleagues you work with while in graduate school will create a vast new network to connect with and

draw from for future engagement.

It never hurts to have more professional contacts, after all.

If you love what you do now, think how much more enjoyable it will be in the context of a graduate degree and the pathways that open up as a result.

4. BECOME A THOUGHT LEADER IN YOUR FIELD

According to a recent article by Tad Walch of the Deseret News, schooling makes a big difference in where you end up. According to Walch, five Brigham Young University graduates made the Thinkers50 list this year, which is “the world’s most prestigious ranking of business management thought-leaders.”

Interestingly enough, four of these five successful people also possess graduate degrees.

It’s no accident that thought leaders and industry moguls tend to

have a little more education on their CV. Pursuing further education often leads to academic and professional recognition, and provides unbeatable career opportunities.

In truth, graduate students often participate in industry-altering and field-affecting research. Whether you are working toward a master’s in English or a doctorate in mathematics, it’s highly likely that you’ll somehow contribute to the world’s knowledge during your graduate schooling.

For all these reasons and more, consider beginning your application to graduate school. If you gain acceptance, there’s a lot of work in store, but also limitless opportunities.

This article originally appeared on KLS.com on Jan. 19, 2016. The article has been edited for space and clarity.

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NYSlant.com

POURING TAXPAYER DOLLARS INTO RIKERS IS NOT ‘RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT’

By GLENN MARTIN

WHEN NEW YORK CITY Mayor Bill de Blasio presented his $82.1 billion preliminary budget on Jan. 21, he described it as a reaffirmation of his “commitment to responsible government.” But in at least one respect, this budget severely undermines that commitment.

The mayor proposes spending an additional $100 million on Rikers Island, New York City’s own Guantanamo, described as an “urban shame” by city Comptroller Scott Stringer. Instead of pouring more scarce public resources into a historically failed institution, we should focus on closing it and replacing it with a less expensive, modern and rehabilitative decentralized jail system worthy of a city that takes pride in its progressive reputation.

I experienced the violence on Rikers Island firsthand. As a teenager, I was detained at Rikers for a shoplifting accusation.

I WAS ATTACKED BY A GROUP OF RESIDENTS WHILE THE CORRECTION O F F I C E R S LOOKED ON AND LAUGHED. I emerged On one of my first days,

with four stab wounds inflicted by writing pens melted and fashioned into shanks. I survived and earned respect, but I also learned that the guards didn’t care if I lived or died.

This is the “culture of violence” that, over two decades later, still pervades Rikers. In 2014, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara completed his investigation into the treatment of adolescents detained at Rikers and concluded that “a deep-

seated culture of violence is pervasive throughout the adolescent facilities.”

Since then, the conditions in the jail have only worsened.

A recent report commissioned by Stringer found a 19 percent increase in the rate of assaults at the prison.

Just in the past few months, Rikers Island guards have been indicted for brutality, for smuggling contraband – including weapons – into the jail and for conspiring with detainees to attack other residents. Correction officers have also been the victims of dangerous assaults. And awards in civil suits brought by victims and their families are costing the city a fortune.

In the face of this litany of urgent concerns, de Blasio’s $100 million reform proposal is troubling. Hiring 542 more correction officers brings the total number of officers to 10,220 to guard fewer than 9,900 residents – an unheard-of guard-toinmate ratio. Extra guards may be a victory for union boss Norman Seabrook, but it hasn’t fixed Rikers before and won’t fix it now. And giving another $7 million to McKinsey & Company – a top consulting firm with hardly any experience in jail reform – is baffling, considering that violence on Rikers increased last year after McKinsey got a $1 million contract to reduce it. When it comes to Rikers, failure appears to pay handsomely.

The idea that Rikers Island can be “reformed” is an illusion. The organization I founded, JustLeadershipUSA, and a growing number of city advocates, activists and public officials are demanding that the mayor close Rikers, including Stringer and former city Correction Commissioner Martin Horn.

Closing Rikers Island and creating a network of small, modern and safe communitybased jails throughout the five boroughs is not a new or radical idea. It was seriously considered by the Koch administration in the 1980s, and again by the Bloomberg administration. In both cases, political challenges arose that prevented closure of the jail complex. But we are in a different era today. There is growing bipartisan agreement that mass incarceration must end. Congress is debating reform, while President Barack Obama is taking executive action. Just last month, President Obama banned the use of solitary confinement for juveniles and adults incarcerated for low-level offenses in the federal prison system. He received widespread editorial support from mainstream media outlets throughout the country.

De Blasio clearly understands the need for and value of bold action on criminal justice reform.

His outspoken opposition to the NYPD’s use of stop-andfrisk and his appeal to end “a tale of two cities” have been widely credited for his landslide victory in 2013.

So de Blasio, of all people, should know that moderate reforms and lip service aren’t going fix Rikers; New Yorkers need – and deserve – bold action. By closing Rikers, the mayor can move closer to fulfilling his promise to make fairness, equality and dignity for every New Yorker a reality.

Glenn Martin is the founder and president of JustLeadershipUSA.

NYSlant.com

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CITY COUNCIL PAY RAISE OVERLOOKS KEY STAFF MEMBERS

Our Slant

By BERTHA LEWIS INSIDERS KNOW THAT if you want to find out what’s really happening in the New York City Council, you don’t ask the members, who are constantly running from one district event or meeting to another – you ask their staff.

Council staffers are the ones answering the phones, drafting bills, writing letters, dealing with advocates and pushing their bosses’ agendas through the legislative process.

The only people who seem to have forgotten this are the members of the mayor’s Quadrennial Advisory Commission and the 51 members of the council.

Last month, the commission recommended double-digit raises for every office holder in city government, including the mayor, comptroller, public advocate, borough presidents, district attorneys and council members. The council decided to take this a step further and voted to approve a 32 percent raise, with a nice little retroactive bonus, too.

Don’t get me wrong – I think the raise is long overdue and 100 percent deserved. But while editorial boards have gone nuclear on the alleged link between the pay raise and the mayor’s horse carriage plan, the real scandal is that that these hardworking council staffers will not be getting a pay bump.

The City Council became a minority-majority body in 2009, and I’ve witnessed a steady demographic change in staff as the chamber’s membership has diversified.

But except for a few central staff positions, these jobs are embarrassingly underpaid.

Some council staff members make less than $30,000 per year. There’s no guaranteed minimum, no job security and no union.

These jobs have historically given black, Latino and other

minority constituencies major influence over policy and budget issues by shaping the positions of the elected officials they work for. And they remain the pipeline for developing the next generation of elected officials, agency commissioners and other leaders.

But underpaying these jobs makes it harder to attract blacks and Latinos, or anyone who has to worry about rent or student loan debt. Instead of hiring a policy analyst with ideas for improving NYCHA and food stamps drawn from personal or family experience,

THOSE JOBS GO TO INDIVIDUALS WHO ONLY LEARNED ABOUT POVERTY FROM A POLITICAL SCIENCE CLASS.

The council briefly acknowledged its underpaid workforce in 2015 by giving them a 1 to 2 percent costof-living adjustment – not even enough to cover the gentrification-fueled rent increases that most black and Latino neighborhoods are facing.

I hope that any council staff members who wrote their boss’ talking points for the vote considered mentioning that they were embarrassed to be voting on a 32 percent raise when their staff is struggling to make ends meet – right before getting to the bill’s “good-government” reforms.

Bertha Lewis is the founder and president of The Black Institute.

NICK POWELL OPINION EDITOR

BRINGING HOUSING BONDS OUT OF THE SHADOWS In a recent post, I took Gov. Andrew Cuomo to task for his proposal to strip New York City of its control over tax-exempt affordable housing bonds – or volume cap – giving veto power over the bonds to the three-member Public Authorities Control Board.

If we assume bringing the bond allocation process out of the shadows is really what this proposal is about – rather than a clear vindictive play against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan and the city’s Housing Development Corporation – then there are more serious concrete steps that can be taken to provide more accountability.

The federal volume cap allocation is driven by a per-capita formula, with a third of the pool going to state agencies, such as the Dormitory Authority and the Housing Finance Agency, another third placed in reserves to be doled out later in the year as needed, and the final third going to industrial development agencies across the state.

If HDC or any other industrial development agency requires more volume cap for funding a housing or economic development project, they have to report on how much cap they have already used, and go back to the state to request additional bonds. As far as housing is concerned, HDC has been enormously successful in using its bonds – generating over $4 billion in tax equity through volume cap that would otherwise have to be made up with city subsidies.

The state is a virtual black box as far as publicly reporting this bond-allocation process, with most of the negotiating with IDAs conducted behind closed doors. None of the IDAs publicly list the number of projects they have in their pipeline, including HDC. Instead of giving the Empire State Development Corporation veto power over any reallocation of volume cap from an IDA to another eligible local agency – which would severely hamstring the city’s IDA from transferring those bonds to HDC – why not amend the proposed legislation to force these agencies to publish detailed information on their development projects? This information would include the name of every housing development, the developer, the distribution of market-rate versus affordable units, and the amount of volume cap and debt subsidy used to finance the project.

This would allow the state to better prioritize who gets these bonds, and also allow the state industrial agencies, and HDC, to better manage expectations on how much bond financing they will receive, so they can organize their development pipeline accordingly. It’s certainly a better course of action than allowing the governor-controlled Public Authorities Board and Empire State Development to interfere with the city’s affordable housing goals.

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CityAndStateNY.com

THE PEOPLE MOVER

A Q&A WITH FORMER U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY RAY LAHOOD

DONALD MIRALLE/ZUFFA LLC

Ray LaHood, a retired Republican congressman who isn’t afraid to work with President Barack Obama or to praise Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has built a career on amiability with Democrats. One of the few Republicans selected for Obama’s Cabinet, LaHood served as the secretary of transportation in Obama’s first term and continued to work in that realm as a senior policy adviser at DLA Piper and as co-chairman of the MTA’s Transportation Reinvention Commission in 2014. City & State’s Jeff Coltin talked with LaHood about relationships in Congress, Cuomo’s Penn Station plan and the Tappan Zee Bridge project. The following is an edited transcript.

C&S: You’ve been somewhat critical of Obama for not staying committed to the bipartisan ideals that he ran on in 2008. Do you think that is something our next president would easily be able to change?

RL: You have to work at bipartisanship. And the way you work at it is by building relationships with people and by building friendships with people and using those relationships and friendships in a way that can enable you to either get legislation passed or resolve issues or tackle some of the big problems. Relationship building and friendship building, these are things that take time. It’s not something that you can do overnight. One of the advantages that some presidents have had is the fact that they’ve had relationships with members of Congress. It depends on who gets elected. If one of these people gets elected that’s served in Congress and knows people and has relationships, they have a huge, big head start. If somebody gets elected that really doesn’t know who the leaders are and has never really had opportunities to meet them, develop relationships, then it will take some time to do that.

C&S: Gov. Andrew Cuomo is considering and actually moving on some really big infrastructure projects. Do you think New York is a leading state on transportation issues, or do you need to see more action?

RL: Gov. Cuomo is a leader on transportation and infrastructure.

I think he’s now putting his money where his words are. He talked a lot about improving transportation infrastructure when we were at the Department of Transportation; we were intimately involved in the Tappan Zee Bridge and we’re supportive of that project being funded, in part, at the federal level.

I like the approach that Gov. Cuomo took in respect to LaGuardia; again, public-private partnership, not just relying on state or federal government, but also on private dollars. I like his approach on

the Gateway Tunnel project. He’s probably set the standard as a state that’s a real model for tackling big infrastructure problems and doing it in a way that reflects that it requires not just public money, but private money, too.

C&S: Cuomo’s proposed Penn Station revamp is using, in large part, private money – and leveraging private money was one of the recommendations given by the MTA Reinvention Commission you co-chaired in 2014. Do you think that’s the best way to get long-stagnating projects to happen?

RL: There’s not near enough money in Washington or in the state of New York. You have to find the resources wherever you can, either from private dollars or from foundation money. Gov. Cuomo has been very creative in his approaches to tackling big infrastructure projects and funding them.

C&S: The Tappan Zee Bridge replacement is going to cost some $4 billion. How important are massive infrastructure projects like that to the state and the whole region at large?

RL: What infrastructure does is it creates jobs for the people that build the infrastructure, but it also creates economic development opportunities. When you build a bridge, you’re building a corridor of economic opportunity! When you build a roadway, that’s a corridor of economic opportunity. All along these large infrastructure projects, you see businesses locating, you see jobs being created. Not only jobs for the people that are building the infrastructure, but the jobs that are being created as a result of the infrastructure being there.

Infrastructure is a win-win in terms of jobs, economic development, economic opportunities, and nobody understands that better than Gov. Cuomo and he’s really laid out a really big, bold New York.

For the full interview, visit cityandstateny.com.

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