>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

We continue our series of conversations with the candidates who are appearing on your ballot as early voting starts on Saturday, just three days away.

It is not a national election year, but local elections matter very much.

And it's not just the primaries.

And that's why today and tomorrow we've got two candidates who are on the ballot for mayor of Rochester.

Tomorrow is the Conservative Party candidate, Louis Sabo.

And today it's the Democrat in the race.

It's the incumbent mayor, Malik Evans, who is back with us in studio.

Mr.

mayor, welcome back.

Nice to have you.

>> Good to be here.

>> you know, we we often talk about the fact that if you're in rural America, Republicans dominate the primaries.

That's where the election tends to be.

If you're in urban America, if you if you are winning the Democratic primary, you tend to win the election.

But there's a general and I, I don't suspect you take it for granted.

You work all the way through the finish line there.

>> I don't take anything for granted.

There's only two ways to run unopposed and scared.

Right?

So you you always run.

You don't take anything for granted.

I can remember during the primary, you know, I had, I don't know, 2 or 3 other people ran.

It seems primary.

Seems like 100 years ago.

It will say that because of what happened, what's going on at the federal government every day is like 20 years.

so you can't take anything for granted, you know, and often people will say, oh, you got it.

You don't have to.

You have to work until the end and you have to earn every vote.

And I think I've shown that in every election I've run.

you have to work, you have to work, and you have to not stop working.

You know, we just had an event on Monday.

Get out the vote.

Rally for Democrats on, on on Monday.

And we will continue to do this through the weekend.

And, and and until Election Day.

I make phone calls.

Up until 8:55 p.m., even in the even in the general election, I remember the last time I was on the ballot for mayor.

I think I was the only name on the ballot.

I made phone calls up until the polls closed.

>> Worked.

>> To the finish, because there's other candidates that you want to help as well.

But but also because you want to you don't want to take it for granted, and you want people to understand.

And then there's this concept where people say off year elections and you and you hear me say, there's no such thing as an off year election.

>> I agree.

>> With that.

Every year is an election.

And in fact, in many, in many instances, local elections are more important than the federal elections.

They're all important.

But local elections are just as important as federal elections.

But they don't get as much attention.

And it's important for us to let people know that there is an election taking place on November 4th.

>> What animates?

You?

I'll start with you, and I want to hear what you think you're hearing the most from the voters.

But is there an issue, one for you that is undone, that you that you say a second term is going to be very much focused on?

>> I think one of the things that is extremely important is housing is always a top issue for folks.

We've had a lot of success in terms of housing, in terms of building thousands of affordable units.

homeownership is something that you hear from a lot of people, particularly young people who are looking for homes.

So we are trying to find innovative ways to increase the number of homeowners.

in the city of Rochester.

So I think that that is important.

obviously, our challenge around the opioid epidemic is something that is serious.

You hear us talk about homicides, but the number of people who die from overdoses are in the hundreds in our community.

So that's that's extremely important addressing mental health, making sure people continue to have access to jobs is important.

I made a promise that I said, any young person that wants a job should be able to get one.

And we've had the highest numbers of young people working in the city of Rochester ever.

we want to continue to expand that, but we also want to make sure that we have adults connected to jobs of the future, and that involves training.

so that's extremely important.

and then our infrastructure work is critical.

You have so many places across the country where you can't even get fresh drinking water.

Think about that.

In 2025, there are places in the country you could jack places like Jackson, Mississippi, where they struggle.

other places that struggle with some of the most basic infrastructure things.

So my lead pipe program, I want to be lead free by 2030. the next term will take me to 2029, and I hope that we will be every single lead service line I've committed to replacing every single one by 2029.

So we want to make sure that we see that through.

so those are all work, work that we'll need to continue into a second term.

We have great momentum, but we weren't that work to continue.

Now we have been thrown a curveball.

On January 20th.

We were we were thrown a curveball where we went from having a reliable partner in the federal government to no longer having a reliable partner.

And that is going to create a lot of challenges for us.

It already has, and it will continue to prevent challenges going forward, where, for example within the next couple of months, we could have over 50,000 residents in Monroe County, mainly in the city of Rochester, no longer have access to Snap benefits.

That should make people nervous.

>> we could have projects that federal money was appropriated for.

have the federal government try to claw that back.

So these are all things that we have to that we have to work on and things that I've been dealing with, since since January 20th, as we talked about ad nauseam on this, on this show with, a federal government that no longer cares about local control and is now trying to bully their way into local government, which I think anybody, Democrat, Republican, independent or whatever your party is needs to stand up to because that is not what the Constitution is all about.

>> So let's talk just a little bit about the point that you make about Snap benefits.

50,000 people could lose benefits.

and I don't know how much room a city like Rochester has to try to mitigate that.

What can you do?

>> We have we have we have no room.

The city has no room.

And in fact snap runs through the county.

So we are right now partnering with Monroe County.

We're partnering with Foodlink and other community based organizations to see what we can do to understand the requirements.

Some of it may be you either have to volunteer or work a certain number of hours.

So how can we create a system to make that happen?

So that way we can make sure that people don't don't lose those benefits, but also tell the story to and partner with people in other counties to know that if people lose food and so many of these people are working poor, you know, there's this, this misnomer that people aren't working and they're lazy, that that is that couldn't be the furthest thing from the truth.

I haven't met one person yet that woke up and said, you know what, I don't I don't want to have a job today.

They might be 0.000 1% of the population, but the people I know they are, they are.

Some of them are working poor.

Some of them are might might have other externalities of things that they can't control that have that has put them in a situation.

So we really have to get innovative to see how we can try to find a way to close this gap and ensure that that people have access to basic food, nutrition.

When people don't have access to basic food and nutrition, bad things start to happen.

Same thing with health care.

But food is first because that is Maslow's hierarchy of needs as food, clothing and shelter, you start taking away food.

It's a challenge and you can't.

I can't stress this enough.

food banks are already stressed to stretch to capacity as it is now because of high, high, high, higher prices.

So this is a major storm that is coming our way.

And we've been trying to prepare for it the best, best way we know how.

But it's something that's going to have a major impact, not just on Rochester, but Monroe County and across the country.

>> Dealing with the federal government.

We also see, of course, the ongoing efforts by the Trump administration suing so-called sanctuary cities like Rochester.

first of all, is there an update on that lawsuit from the feds against the city?

>> Yeah, we we are hoping that we will be hearing soon in terms of on our motion to dismiss this, this frivolous lawsuit that was brought by the federal government.

As you know, we are involved with a number of other lawsuits against them as well.

you know, we think that we are on stand legal principle.

The bottom line is, is that all we are saying is, is that we're not looking to violate the law, but the 10th amendment to the Constitution is very clear.

And it states that the federal government does not have the ability or the power to commandeer local resources to do a federal job.

And we stand on that.

Our policy says that, and we believe that we will be successful in court, and we look forward to the ruling.

We're very encouraged by the ruling that recently came out of Chicago that basically affirmed what we have been arguing, arguing in our case, and it is our hope that we will be successful in that, in that regard as well.

>> Last hour we had John Perticone the Democrat who could be the next supervisor in the town of Irondequoit.

He said that he would have to listen to a lot more people in his town before he even considered the idea of sanctuary status.

And for the moment, he thinks police should be working alongside federal agents like Ice.

federal agencies like Ice.

In regards to apprehension or deportation that he thinks officers it makes sense to have local police alongside.

And it sounds like I think the point that you're making is not that you want to inhibit, but that you don't have any obligation to assist.

>> We don't have we don't have any obligation to assist in the law is clear on that.

It's like I don't have any obligation to assist with the collection of federal taxes.

I'm interested in collecting local tax and sales tax.

So it's amazing how, number one, the federal government created the immigration crisis that they have in our country.

And how dare they come to the locals that didn't say, hey, we started the fire.

But by the way, you're going to go put it out now?

I don't think so.

It's not our job.

The Constitution is clear and it goes against every single constitutional principle and so-called conservatives, who always were about local control, are now all of a sudden changing their tune and saying that now the localities should be responsible for doing the federal government's work?

I don't think so.

We collaborate with the federal government and state government in many local ways.

But but in that collaboration does not mean us doing your job for you.

Do the job yourself.

It's not our job to do it, and our people deserve to feel safe.

And one of the reasons why we have the rule is, is because we want people to be able to feel safe, to go and report crime to our local police departments if they know that, if they pick up the phone and call a shooting that happened, or a car that was stolen, and they know that there's a chance that they might be arrested, they will not help us with public safety.

And as far as I'm concerned, I want my public safety numbers to continue to go down.

Which, by the way over 50 over the five year average, we're down about 55% in shootings from where we were at the top of the pandemic.

And I want that to continue.

And how you continue, how is that able to continue?

It's able to continue when you are able to have the community and our local police department working together.

>> Last month, there was an incident that was pretty highly publicized.

Big crowd gathered, a couple of roofers were apparently the target of ice, and then a number of local elected officials showed up.

Some people who work on these matters, I mean, it was dozens of people, if not hundreds of people.

And ice left.

Did you think that was the right response to that, that situation?

>> Well, I think that the question is, is that they probably left because were they following their their proper protocol protocols?

and, and if you are going to take anybody in, guess what?

The Rochester Police Department or anybody else, you have to have a, you have to have a judicial warrant, not an administrative warrant.

So the question was what did they have?

And is it safe to try to go get somebody down off of a roof in the middle of the day when they're working?

I mean, you don't know the status of those people.

And if you don't produce the proper paperwork, you got to follow the law.

We can't be law and order only when when people think it suits them.

You have to be consistent.

One thing about me, people may not like it.

I'm very consistent across the board.

And if you are going to do any action when we do, we bust drug houses and arrest people all the time for doing some heinous, disgusting things in this community.

But we follow the law and the federal government.

They too have to follow the law.

But it seems as though they have rules for thee, but not for me.

And I think it's important that we we send the message that follow the law and follow the Constitution.

The Constitution just can't be followed when it meets your needs.

It needs to be followed all the time.

>> One other note before we turn to housing, which you mentioned, it's a big issue for you, but Rochester hasn't been on a list that I've seen that The White House has even talking about sending National Guard, et cetera.

to.

They've talked about, obviously Chicago.

>> I'm on the other list.

I'm on the list of 32 cities that that they're targeting for sanctuary cities.

>> Yeah.

>> They're suing.

I'm not enough of.

>> Their list.

I know what would happen if if Rochester moves into that discussion, what would you do?

>> What do you think?

Right now, I am in court.

What about 4 or 5 different lawsuits?

We'd sue.

We'd sue immediately.

That's not.

That's not the federal government's role.

And they don't have a right to do that.

they it is it is against the Constitution, period.

>> Do you think there's a public safety reason for them to be in Chicago, L.A., Washington, D.C.?

No.

>> You don't believe that.

That's not the rule.

The governor, the way this is supposed to work and the way it's worked for 100.

Well, no, I'm sorry.

>> 250.

>> 249 years.

The way it's worked for 249 years and ten months.

Is that the mayor picks up the phone and says, hello, governor.

I need you to do the National Guard.

And then maybe the governor might say, hello, Mr.

President, I need that is the way it's supposed to work.

Now, if we're going to rewrite the Constitution and change it on behalf of our 250th birthday, then that requires a constitutional, maybe a convention, and maybe it going back to the states, and you do, and you're doing some amendments or ratification to the, some, some, some changes to the, to the Constitution.

If, if, if we're not going to do that, then how about we just follow the law and that's the way it's supposed to work.

But the you can't use the National Guard for politics, period.

It's not.

You can't do that.

If I that'd be like me using the police department for politics.

You can't do it.

You're not supposed to be done.

It's bad.

It's bad for the country.

It's bad for our communities.

You can't do it.

>> Talking to Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, who's running for reelection.

Early voting starts on Saturday.

You mentioned the importance of housing in a possible second term.

And first of all, you mentioned adding new units here.

I don't know how many actual units your administration has added.

Do you have a count on that?

>> Absolutely.

I know we've since since 2022, in terms of affordable units, it's been over over 3000 affordable units has been added.

Over 850 market rate units has been added.

dozens and dozens of new homes have been built as a part of by the block.

And these units that I'm talking about are units in which the government was a partner in, because we don't build homes ourselves.

but there's other folks who did not you know, use work with us to do that.

So that's not counting any other anything else that was built.

But in terms of us being participants in or helping to spur you looking at close to 5000 units that we, that we have that we have done.

And by the way, we are a model for New York State, a model for New York State.

You can ask anybody, you can talk to the New York State Home for community Renewal's or anywhere else.

There's the saying that sometimes you're a profit somewhere else, and a stranger in your own land.

We are recognized across the country in in New York State for our approach to what we've done for affordable housing.

And I want to be that same way for for, for home ownership.

going forward, we know how to do it here in Rochester.

>> But you still need a lot more inventory, don't you?

>> A lot more inventory.

We need.

But we are not as worse off as some of the other people.

But we want to continue to build, build, build and create the conditions where we can build.

As you just saw, just a couple of just, just this month it was either this month or last month.

We have a pilot program in which we're building modular homes.

Right.

so next month, we'll do phase three of our by the block program.

So we are making sure that we bring people together to try to build in our communities, to make sure that we have inventory, the access to affordable housing where people can play 30% or less of their income, is absolutely critical to ensure that people have good housing stability in our community.

>> Just few weeks ago, we had Jeff Cook on this program.

Good guy.

Yes, we had Council member Michael Patterson.

we had Eric Frisch from your administration, and we were talking about these factory built homes that are going to go in market view.

they are I think there's seven lots, nine total houses.

And we're going to probably see a market, probably see a lot of demand.

We're talking about price tags on these homes that are going to be around 150, $150,000, which ten years ago.

That would be a different story today.

That's almost unheard of for homes.

And one of the the sentiments expressed on that panel was this.

And I want to get your take on this.

Michael Paterson, Council member Paterson said, this is the beginning of the beginning.

And he said it is a great thing for the city, but it must be the beginning of the beginning.

It can't be a story where a year from now we talk about, well, we did nine more, he says.

We need 90 more and then we need 900 more.

And so if at the end of a second term of yours, which you're likely to win, we're not talking about hundreds more of these.

Would that be considered a concern or do you expect that this is these nine homes are going to be the likely the floodgate and then it's 50 and then it's 100 and then it's 300?

>> I hope so, I hope so.

and it will be with the market can bear, you know, one of these things that's different from by the block is, is that this is not really being done at a subsidy.

Right.

this is this is different.

It will be what the market can bear.

all we provide is the land, which we have lots of.

So if you are interested in getting a lot, you you call, you call our office.

>> And about a thousand bucks a lot in some cases.

>> You can get a lot.

You can get a good deal because we want to.

But guess what?

In the long run, we make good money from it because then we can tax it.

Right.

And you get more taxable value in the city.

So that's important.

So you know, I hope that it is the beginning.

I hope it is.

To Mike's point, I think I hope it is the beginning of the beginning.

It gives an opportunity.

It had unanimous support across City Hall.

And it is our hope that this will be the beginning of the beginning, because if we can give people access to home ownership at a moderate price, this will be a game changer in terms of creating generational wealth, which I'm still trying to teach some people with generational wealth.

There's some people think that that's a bad word.

but it's good for them and their families to have generational wealth.

But they don't think people in the city could have generational wealth.

And that's the other part of a second term of saying, what standards do we expect for the city?

you know, I'm always amazed when people think, oh, well, it's just the city.

They shouldn't have that.

Well, no, we should.

Yes, we should.

And that's why the show that you had with Jeff Cook was on with that sending a message of is, you know what?

We should build new homes in the city.

And if people aren't going to do it, then the city will work with people who want to do it.

And that's why we applaud Cook Properties for taking the lead and saying, you know what, we're going to try this on these lots over in northeast.

Rochester.

And why why we love our other partners.

That helped us with buy the Block over in southwest Rochester, over on Thomas Street and on Dr.

Samuel McCray way and on Superior Street.

This is how you get things done.

And I'm about getting things done.

I don't have time for idle chatter or philosophical discussions.

People are demanding action, and I hope that they will see that over the last four years.

That's what I did.

I said, we're going to build new homes.

We built new homes.

I said, we're going to make sure young people get jobs.

We got jobs.

I said, we're going to plant 6000 trees.

Right now we're at 5998 trees.

By the end of this month, we'll be at six.

Is that true?

That's correct.

Will be at 6000 trees.

and you'll see, because we'll be having a ceremony in the next couple of weeks.

staff, make sure that we get that scheduled next step, the next couple of weeks to celebrate that 6000 tree.

Although, remember I said 5000?

We're actually we're actually ended up exceeding that goal by 6000.

So I hope that people have seen what we say has been equal, what we do.

I said we need to we need to make economic empowerment the center of what we do.

So we launched the Office of Financial Empowerment.

And before the end of the year, we were rolling out, roll out our children's savings account.

We already rolled out our positive rent reporting strategy.

We relaunched Bank on.

So your actions have to equal your words, and your words have to equal your actions.

And that is what the Evans administration has been about over the last four years.

Not philosophical discussions where you sit in your pajamas eating Cheetos, posting on social media, not doing work.

The only place.

>> Who's doing.

>> That there's a lot of people.

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

And we have made sure that we were that we worked hard.

And by all measures, we have been successful with more work to do.

>> Mayor Evans has talked a lot about public safety.

I don't know many public leaders who haven't.

I know it's a big issue here.

>> Well, no, not some of them have not.

>> Okay.

>> So no, some of them have not particularly Democrats who are afraid to talk about public safety.

>> And tell me more about that.

>> You know, because because they see public safety to someone else.

But but I talk about public safety because we live it.

I think some leaders are, you know, they kind of run from it.

We should not run from public safety.

>> Are there leaders in government right now who.

>> well, I mean, I mean, broadly, I'm not talking about in Rochester, we've talked about public safety.

All the leaders in Rochester.

Yeah, yeah, all the leaders in Rochester have talked about public safety.

>> But you think your party has ceded this issue too often?

>> Oh, yeah.

Absolutely.

Why do you think Donald Trump is trying to send in the National Guard to some of these other places?

Because we're always afraid.

We always we're always afraid to talk about it, not me.

And we should talk about it because it is usually either number one or number two issues.

You know, remember I ran for office.

So I've done several polls.

It polls number one or number two all the time.

It's either housing or public safety period.

Regardless of where you live, regardless of demographic, regardless of race, regardless of whatever ZIP code, public safety is always at the top of what it is that is important, and that's why I have made it the center of our administration and have and have made it a strategy through our Office of Financial Empowerment through the Rochester Police Department.

being preventative and setting up a violence prevention section, because by the time someone's dead and you're putting on a toe tag and the medical examiner comes, that's too late.

It's why we set up a non-fatal shooting team to make sure that we look at every non-fatal shooting as if it was a homicide.

You know what the average clearance rate of a non-fatal shooting is nationally.

What do you think it is?

I like testing you.

>> The average clearance rate.

>> Of a non-fatal shooting, not a homicide.

Nationally.

>> Oof.

>> 19%.

>> I was going to say not a big number, right?

>> 19% nationally in Rochester.

I just checked the numbers on Tuesday, 40%.

What it was four years ago, something like 16%.

So public safety has because because it sends a message.

And, you know, there was this article that was very poorly written about the gun violence emergency that we had.

And I was actually offended by the article.

I was and I was offended by it because they said, oh, well, I was offended by it, but also I was happy by it because it highlighted the success that we've had.

And it said, you know, the mayor has has brought down violence, he's brought down crime, but he still having this, this, this gun violence emergency.

Well, yeah.

Because you know what?

Two shootings are too many.

We need to make shootings as rare as polio.

Although with RFK and now I don't know if polio is going to be rare anymore, but shooting should be as rare as somebody contracting polio.

>> What offended you in this article?

>> That people think that we should be okay with ten shootings, or 20 shootings, or 30 shootings, we should not have.

We?

I want folks to understand that we should be offended anytime there are.

There is one person shot.

It should be so rare.

And other towns in this town, in this community, in other suburbs, sometimes they have zero shootings.

No one, no one gets shot, right?

Go look at all the all the towns in Monroe County and see the Irondequoit shootings.

Greece has had some shootings.

Pittsford hasn't had any shootings in Rochester.

The message that I've given to the community is that we have to say that one shooting is too many, and when you see the reasons for some of these shootings, it tells you that we can we can get there when you're shooting somebody because it's a love triangle or because someone took your parking space, or because someone disrespected you on social media, or because you didn't like the way someone looked at you, or because you're getting revenge.

Those are all things that should not be happening in the 21st century.

And it's why I'm so passionate about us getting to a point.

And people say, are you nuts?

You're never going to get to a point where you have no shootings.

And I say, why not?

Why not?

We must imagine a world and that is our goal of Mayors Against Mayors for Illegal Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

We want to get to a point where where a shooting should be as rare as polio, as rare as a plane crash.

And I think that we can get there eventually, but it's going to take a lot of work.

I'm so proud of us having a 55% reduction, the lowest point we've been at over the five year average, but we still have so much work to go because when you have 50 shootings, to me, that's still too many.

I think we're not where we want to be, but thank God we are not where we were, where we were.

>> I don't know if this is what you're referring to, but you know, as an example of some of the response to your gun violence emergency.

Some business owners in the East End have said, well, now we got barricades up at times.

Now we've got some infrastructure in place related to this and some of our possible clientele doesn't like it.

Are we pushing them out to the suburbs?

>> True.

Not true.

Because because here's how the numbers bear it out.

So every every Tuesday I get an update on how many people enter the East End.

between.

By the way, let's clarify this only on a Saturday from 10 p.m.

to 2 a.m., one day a week on a Saturday.

prior to our interventions that we have put that we have put there two weeks ago, we had the highest number of people into the East End between 10 p.m.

to 2 a.m.

ever.

Over, over, close to 4000 people, not counting the people that were there, not there before.

We have had not one.

Shots fired incident, not one open container arrest, not one violent incident.

Since we put that into place.

and the vast majority of the businesses there are doing extremely well and are extremely successful.

We will never sacrifice public safety for entertainment.

And the other thing I will tell you is, is that those interventions were put in place because you know who lives, you know who lives around that area.

People that live on Gardiner Park, people that live on Alexander Street, people live in those neighborhoods.

Remember, we have more people living within the downtown area, close to 11,000 people than we've ever had in history in the East End is no different.

So yes, we do it for the entertainment purposes, yes.

But my concern is also for the individuals who live there who don't want to have bullet casings in the back of their backyard at 2 a.m.

when the.

>> I take the point.

But your larger point is that the actual concern about pushing business away, that hasn't happened.

You don't think?

>> No, no it's not, it's not.

It happened.

The evidence is not Bourne that out at all.

And in fact, if it's done anything, it's actually enhanced businesses because now they're able to use this as a tool to attract people to a safe environment when they know someone's not going to pull out a gun and put it to their head.

>> let me grab a phone call on the issue of safety from Robert.

Hey, Robert.

Go ahead.

>> Where is he calling from?

>> Robert, where are you calling from?

Fairport.

Calling from Fairport.

>> Yeah, yeah.

The question I have is that talking about safety rooms had their, rmsc After Dark event on Saturday of this past week, 14 car windows smashed.

guns stolen from a car, apparently.

And this is not the first time this sort of thing has happened.

I know what that particular event.

A lot of people were dressed up in Halloween costumes.

Kind of an interesting event and so on.

And I know that there have been similar incidents of broken windows and smash and grabs in places like the parking lot and so on.

This stuff really wrecks the quality of life.

When is this going to get under control?

>> Well, I think I think one of the things that we have to make sure of is that, number one, that when we arrest individuals who perpetrate these crimes, that they're being held responsible for their for, for, for, for their behavior.

Right.

And I think that that is always a challenge.

The quality of life crimes are, are always a challenge, but something that we continuously focus on, on, on a regular basis.

And I think it's a partnership between police and it's a partnership between between the organizations and the businesses that are there to make sure that there's ample security that there's ample lighting and that we, we continue to, to, to fight against it.

But but it is a challenge across the country of people who feel as though they have no ability.

They have the right to go and smash somebody's car.

Some of it's personal responsibility, but some of it is law enforcement, some of it's private security.

But I want to be clear.

There's no there's no magic bullet, and you're not going to police your way out of individuals that go around smashing, smashing cars.

There are a limited number of police officers, right?

We don't we don't have thousands and thousands of police officers, officers on every corner.

But how we have been successful in terms of stemming the tide on that is by working with the businesses and organizations to make sure that there is a partnership with the police department and the private businesses, and to ensure that there are there is ample security.

So one of the things that we do as a city is we provide security training to any business that might have experience, let's say a smash and grab grab or any of those other things to help supplement their security and, and work with the Rochester Police Department.

but but but part of it's criminal justice, part of it's what happens to the individuals that are then arrested?

Because, by the way, we have arrested hundreds of people for for smash and grabs and for car thefts.

We do it.

We do it regularly.

We do it every day.

>> Is the system working with that?

>> No, no, the system isn't working.

The system is not working because there has to be a consequence for when they do that, you no longer can mandate someone to go into treatment, for example.

And that's and that's a challenge in our judicial system.

Years ago, you would be able to say, I sentence you to drug court, I sentence you to mental health court.

Now it is more of a choice for a person.

And that creates that creates a challenge.

But how you stem this is through partnership.

I will say whenever anything bad happens in the city though.

Oh yeah, it's on the news.

You hear about it, right?

Any, any, any bad incident that happens in the city?

It's heightened when stuff happens in Fairport, you don't hear about it as much, but they have some of the same challenges out there.

these things are not just unique to the city, particularly when you look at the opioid epidemic and the number of individuals that have overdosed all over the county.

You mainly hear about it when it when it when it happens in the city.

And that's something that we also is a challenge for us from a public relations standpoint.

But just from the visceral aspect of smashing somebody's car window, that is one of the most personal things that you can do.

And it really pisses people off.

It makes them extremely angry.

but to solve it, it has to be a partnership.

And and that's how you're able to really have success in terms of stemming the tide of that type of wanton destruction.

And.

>> listen, before we get to our break and then we got a lot more to talk about in our remaining minutes.

And it's going fast with the mayor of Rochester, Malik Evans, who is running for reelection, a listener named Patrick and Rochester just wanted to make sure we clarify when you talk about a clearance rate, you talked about non homicide clearance rates in cases, what you mean by clearance rate.

>> Oh great.

Great question.

So clearance rate is, is that Evan Dawson shot John Smith Evan Dawson is arrested.

That's that's the clearance rate.

You've identified the perpetrator and you've and you've arrested them.

So in nonfatal shootings because sometimes people don't want to cooperate.

Low, low low clearance rate.

So we've put together and we're one of the few in the country and few in the state, a nonfatal shooting team in which we now treat shootings.

as homicides in terms of investigations.

And that has allowed us to increase our clearance rate.

>> All right.

Let's get our only break.

Come right back.

We've got more questions for the mayor of Rochester Malik Evans, who is running for reelection.

Early voting starts on Saturday.

I'm Evan Dawson Thursday on the next Connections.

Candidates for Monroe County Legislature.

One of the candidates for Penfield Town supervisor and the Republican running for mayor in the city of Rochester.

Part of our series of conversations with the candidates all wrapping up this week ahead of early voting, which starts on Saturday.

Talk to more candidates with you on Thursday on Connections.

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>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson you mentioned opioids, Mr.

Mayor, with the Opioid Settlement Fund, Monroe County got 9.4% of the settlement agreement and 2.6% was allocated to Rochester.

Specifically.

What is the plan with those funds?

>> Well, we've been working extremely hard.

We have we actually have an opioid task force that consists of community members, members of city government and county government.

We put out a plan in terms of how we plan on allocating those dollars.

We've already spent some opioid dollars for our neighborhood ambassador program, or we call it Nap, and we now have a neighborhood ambassadors to address the opioid crisis and some of our toughest areas.

Monroe Avenue, Lough Avenue, North Clinton Avenue, and Lyell Avenue.

And these programs are on the ground.

Programs in which these ambassadors go and help individuals who might have substance use issues, get them into treatment and into jobs.

And we believe that we've been very successful in that.

If you look at the number of opioid deaths in the city, in the city and in the county year over year from 25 or 20 3 to 25, they have gone down.

They're still entirely too high.

But this is a major, major initiative of mine.

It's something that I am very excited about to continue to work on.

We are seeing some of the most dangerous drugs that we have ever seen in the history of our country.

stuff that is deadly.

some stuff that even even Narcan cannot bring a person back from.

So one of the ways in which we have to do this is making sure that we work with individuals that might have a propensity to get involved in substance abuse and get them to be away from it.

get them away from it, but also work to make sure that we offer people treatment in a way out.

And I've been so pleased with our work around our neighborhood ambassador program, out campaigning.

I run into people all the time that says, hey mayor, I'm one of your neighborhood ambassadors, and I've been clean for six months.

Hey, mayor, I'm one of your neighborhood ambassadors, and I've been clean for eight months, and now I got.

And now I have my own business, and now I have a job, and it's just something that is extremely, extremely important to me because we've seen the opioid epidemic, regardless of the ZIP codes, wreck neighborhoods, wreck people's lives.

And this is really a larger community issue.

and this is not just something that is unique to Rochester.

It's something that is affecting folks all throughout Monroe County and in our country.

>> I feels to me, and this is just my own perception, that 5 or 6 years ago, we heard more talk in different cities about supervised use and approaches like that.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Is there is there is there a movement away from that kind of idea in American cities, or how do you feel about supervised?

>> I'm not sure.

I think some people talk about it.

Some people are for it.

My, my, my, my priority is to get people is to try to work, to get people into treatment and make sure that people have resources to get the support that they need with the organizations that are on the ground, getting them connected to people.

when a person feels a connection and I've seen this through our ambassador program, when they felt as though they were all alone and at their lowest point in all they had was that drug.

It's easier to just go to that drug.

But when you have a support system and you build that support around them, for me, some of the most powerful things that I've seen is there's a particular woman.

And obviously for privacy, I won't I won't give the name.

But since I was a kid, this woman has been on the street.

She joined the neighborhood ambassador program over on over in the North Clinton Avenue.

And for the first time in probably decades, she now has she now has her own apartment, and she is now clean.

And I think that that is the power of when you invest in people's lives and put them in an environment where they can have when they where they can have that supportive environment.

It's why I'm such a big, big supporter of supportive housing.

you know, we just had a huge ribbon cutting for Center City Courtyard, which is which is probably one of the largest supporting supportive housing units we have in our city.

With CDs monarch, where we have probably 6 or 7 organizations that work in there to provide supportive supports for people who are who are coming back from substance abuse veterans that might be coming from PTSD and formerly formerly homeless folks.

Their lives change.

And, I mean, I'm not a I'm not that of a sensitive guy, Evan, as you know.

But I will tell you, I got teary eyed when I, when I, when I was taking pictures with some of these folks and they were saying, wow, I'm going to be living here.

And I've been clean for nine months.

They are so proud of that.

They are so proud of that.

And that is where hope and opportunity meet.

I can't sit up on the show and say, oh, we got to give people hope.

You also have to give them opportunity.

And I and our ambassador program and our work through our opioid work has given people opportunity, and that has helped restore the hope.

We still have a long way to go, but that is the way we start to change people's lives, people's lives, and that is how we will change the city.

>> another set of funding.

My understanding is Arpa funding sunsets at the end of 2026.

>> Goodbye, goodbye, Arpa.

>> So the American Rescue Plan.

And does that mean any programs or any funding that's happening in Rochester will end?

anything going away?

>> Well, not for us.

We've been we were very smart on it.

We were very smart early on.

And what we did was we said, for example our advanced peace program that was funded with Arpa dollars, but we knew that Arpa was going away.

We've now done local dollars for that.

our neighborhood ambassador program.

We use some money for that.

But now we said, now we use an opioid.

funds for that.

So for our perspective, if something is very effective, we have tried to make sure that we did not try to plug it with Arpa.

We knew that Arpa was a temporary sugar high.

It was like getting all the candy my kids are going to get for Halloween, but they don't get that candy every, every day or every week.

They get that.

All that candy just for Halloween for about a month.

And then after that, once it's gone, it's gone.

I'm not going.

Going out and buying 10 pounds of Sour Patch Kids.

Although I do love Sour Patch Kids, right?

So we knew that Arpa was like that.

It was a temporary sugar high that would not be used for ongoing operating expenses, and those that use it for ongoing operating expenses are getting a nice surprise.

So we will miss Arpa.

but we are so glad for what it was able to do.

Was able to help us with a lot of capital projects.

It was able to help us pilot a lot of things, and it allowed us to take some things that we were piloting to now use them permanently.

As an example, our advanced peace program or our Peace Collective program.

>> one other question from me, and then I'm going to turn back to some listener questions.

we reported yesterday that Rochester City Council has approved funding with the Rochester Housing Authority for the Fernwood Avenue Apartments project and a new branch of the Rochester Public Library.

The city will be a commercial tenant under a long term lease agreement for the library space.

does the new library lead to any cuts at existing library staffs or.

>> No, no, no not yet.

No no no, we don't plan on closing any libraries.

The whole idea of this was because the northeast only has one library.

So we wanted to find a way to bring another library to the northeast.

So this brings another library to the northeast.

we will be going backwards if we had to close the library, because we're opening up another one.

now, if things got tough, we'd have to have another conversation.

But right now, there are no plans.

But this is a huge project.

And this will be again, I think is another one of my legacy projects.

As I start to look to the future and see what the Evans legacy be, I will be able to say that I am the first mayor to ever have a housing project in a library.

In the same building, and I'm probably the first mayor in God knows how long to be building a brand new library, and one of the few mayors in New York State to have a housing project in a library.

This is a huge deal.

It is something that I am extremely, extremely proud of.

It's something that I've been working on for four years.

And to Michael Patterson, who's the northeast representative, he's been asking for a library in the northeast for another library, the northeast, for like ten years.

So not only are we going to have a new library opening in the northeast Fernwood, and we're trying to come up with a name for it.

so, guys, I haven't forgotten folks.

Staff, I'm still going to give you some ideas for names.

but we're also going to have a brand new library opening in Maplewood.

New library.

Right now, they're in temporary space.

So libraries raised Malik Evans.

I mean, it's why we brought the bookmobile back.

They are critical to the success of our community in the 21st century.

And it's a very, very exciting project in Rochester should be very proud that we're going to have it.

>> On YouTube watching their on WXXI News YouTube channel.

Brian says he says nationalize our G&A.

But I think what he probably means is public utility instead of with our genie.

>> Yeah, well, that would cost billions.

It would cost lots and lots of money, and you'd have to do it from a regional perspective if you were going to do that.

The city of Rochester, we can barely handle the bonding that we have right now.

we would go bankrupt in terms of the bonding.

You'd have to do it from a regional perspective.

>> So no, no city, no city utility.

Do you want to see a county utility?

>> I think I think that that, again, would be extremely hard to do.

I think you'd have to make the case for it.

And that would again, it's it's extremely, extremely expensive.

>> Jane wants to know if you're watching any of the programs that are going to be rolled out under Mayor Mamdani.

He's got to win first.

Mamdani he's got to win in New York City first.

He's talking about grocery stores, things.

>> Like that.

>> Are you following that?

>> Anybody watching this is one of the things I love.

Okay, I like the question, but this is one of the things that I, that I struggle with.

he should be watching what we're doing in Rochester.

>> Zohran Mamdani.

>> He should be watching what we're doing in Rochester.

let's see, we had a guaranteed basic income program.

We have a positive rent reporting program.

We have.

We were the first in New York State to do zoning for for, for for legal, for legal marijuana.

We have a childhood savings program.

I led the effort to have universal pre-K.

Let's see, 20 years before New York City had it, we lead the state in terms of per capita, in terms of affordable housing units that we have been able to build.

We're doing an entire rewrite of our zoning code in Rochester we have the we have launched the Office of Financial Empowerment in one of the few cities that has a bank on coalition in which we have hundreds of banking partners working in rowing in the right direction.

I would hope that mayors across the country, as many are, are watching Rochester.

I'll be presenting in Salt Lake City about our Neighbors Building Neighbors program, which is now called Nia Neighbors in Action program, in which is the most progressive program in terms of getting neighbors involved.

I really hope that people are going to be watching what we're doing in Rochester.

but mayors, we all learn from each other.

We're all part of us.

Conference of mayors and if Mr.

Mamdani is elected in in in November, he'll get the opportunity to sit down with a lot of us mayors that share stories and work together.

But I hope that people are watching what we're doing.

>> That's a great answer.

I don't mind that, but I'm curious to know, are you rooting for Mamdani?

Who are you rooting for?

>> Zohran Mamdani I'm rooting for.

I'm rooting for Malik Evans to win.

I think that he's the favorite.

I mean, he's the he's he's the he's the he's the Democratic guy.

But I will tell you one thing that's interesting about him.

And I think that what politicians can learn from him is that he was a happy warrior.

If you look at if you look at the way he ran his campaign, he's he was positive.

He he didn't denigrate his opponents unless they came at him.

He never threw the first punch.

He would always punch back if they threw at him.

And he was very focused on what he talked about.

He talked about affordability.

Now, some of the other stuff, that a lot of people may disagree with him on.

He never really talked about that.

He talked about, you know, he stayed in that affordability lane, which if you are in New York City, I was just there a couple of weeks ago dealing with some issues.

I was there for the National Urban League and boy, is it expensive.

Yeah.

Right.

So he he talked about, I mean, the cost in New York City are just astronomical.

And he he zeroed in and focused in on that.

But if you noticed, the guy's got a smile on his face.

He's he's he's a happy warrior.

And in politics sometimes it can be a little a little I don't want to say superficial, but people like to connect with people.

And he has the ability to connect with people and that.

And that is and that is very powerful in terms of messaging.

He knew how to talk about the issues that were important to people, which were which were affordability.

And that's and that's an issue in New York City that is top of mind.

I have family in New York City.

I got friends in New York City that, that that's that's an important issue.

But I will tell you, one of the things I have not made myself a national political figure.

I always laugh at these elected officials like that start weighing in on like, national stuff.

Is this as if somebody asked them?

Nobody's asking me.

I mean, no one cares about what I think in Rochester.

I'm just focused on Rochester.

>> Like, are you going to be following, like, so a city owned grocery store?

The Mamdani campaign has talked a lot about the cost of food and city owned groceries.

>> Is that.

>> Does that look viable here?

>> Yeah, I, I don't know, I don't I don't know we'd have to look into that.

But we do have our Rock grocery program, which I would ask him to look at.

and I think that other people around the country has looked at our grocery program in which we collaborate with more than 50 grocery stores throughout the city to work with them on lowering prices and offering healthy food in our neighborhood.

so, yeah, I don't, I don't know, I think I think some of his stuff might be experimental.

We'll see, we'll see, we'll see what happens.

But I think that I would say, look to Rochester.

>> All right.

Joel has two questions for you.

He says the mayor stated in the newspaper that the city should not be in the business of running an animal shelter.

What is the alternative?

What would he like to see happen?

>> Well that's interesting.

When did I say that?

In the newspaper.

>> Okay, so I'm telling you what Joel said.

Okay.

Do you think he misquoted you?

>> I don't know, but, I mean, it's ours.

We got it.

Guess what?

We're going to be in the business, whether I like it or not.

I mean but I think that right now there is no alternative.

We have to.

We have to run the animal shelter, and we have to do everything we can to to continue to have partners.

That is one of the hardest jobs that in city government is running on an animal shelter.

But but it's extremely important.

We just spent millions of dollars on renovations over there, some of them which should be done already if they haven't already been completed.

But it is a important part of city government.

what we would like to see is larger partnerships in order to help us to be able to do that.

And anybody that wants to donate money for a new shelter, we'll put your name on it.

we would we would love that for sure.

>> Yeah.

he also is curious to know, would the city consider buying the Hungerford Building and renting to artists?

>> Oh, man, don't get me started.

I. I love the hunger for building, and I and I know, I know almost all the artists that were in there.

It's a shame what's happened to the Hungerford building.

I don't know if the city would buy it, but I think the city would be very interested in brokering a deal similar to what we did at Main and Clinton.

By the way, has anybody seen the corner of Main and Clinton, which was an abomination for almost 50 years?

Did you see it?

Do you see it now?

Evan?

Have you seen the corner of Main and Clinton?

I've been there all the progress.

That was a promise that I made, and that was a promise that I kept.

I would like to do something similar with the Hungerford building.

If I can bring the right people together.

What I was able to do with Main and Clinton was I was able to bring four people together.

And then now you see what we got.

I would like to be able to do something similar with the Hungerford building, because that really should be an art space.

It is just an amazing building in the city, and for a while it was going well, and now that's a whole 'nother show as to what's going on over there now.

>> Is the city moving more in a direction of being, for example, with the library, a commercial tenant, instead of owning buildings?

>> Well, no, it depends.

It depends on what makes sense.

If we own a building, for example, we own a huge building.

for example, the Loretta Scott building, which used to be the old Chamber of Commerce.

We own it.

It depends on what makes sense from a financial perspective.

You know, I'm a former financial guy, so the numbers it depends on what the numbers say.

So if it's something that someone will that that it makes sense for us to rent and somebody else to own.

That's good.

But if it's a building that we already own, we may, we may keep owning it and then put dollars into it.

It all depends on the capital stack.

using a banking term there and what the ongoing operating expenses might be.

And, you know, those are all things that we take into consideration when we think about whether or not we should own versus a leasing.

Leasing.

I always tell people, think of it simply think about your your own life.

You're going to lease a car.

Are you going to buy a car?

So we same thing in city government.

Should we lease it or should we buy it?

We look at the pros and cons of both.

Both have benefits and both have drawbacks.

>> and Lauren wanted to know if you've met the new superintendent of Rochester City Schools and what you think I Eric Jay Rosser.

>> I have met the new superintendent, and in fact, I have monthly meetings with the new superintendent.

So because, as you know, I stick my nose a little bit in the school district.

I don't do anything publicly.

I always tell people whenever I have comments or concerns, I go directly to the source.

I don't I'm not one of these people that sit in my pajamas with Cheetos and say, the school district should be doing something.

I tell them to their face.

>> What is going on with Cheetos.

>> Because this is just something you see.

You know what?

I saw somebody they were posting on social media.

They were eating Cheetos.

So that's why.

>> It's Cheetos.

>> But no, he is.

But we need the school district to be extremely successful.

And obviously in the city of Rochester, I have said to the superintendent, I will do whatever I can to make the school district successful.

I will tell you that as part of my second term, I do have some ideas as it relates to education, and I'll be rolling those out in due course.

>> Okay.

and one more from Pat, who had this to say, says interestingly enough, I just drove past a beautiful modular ranch, single or double wide.

And I'm not talking trailers.

I think investing in ranch homes keeps people in them longer because they don't have steps that we all know can cause falls in our elders.

If you're going to buy a small city lot, you should probably have a modular home.

It's probably the most cost effective way to get things done.

And maybe there's a partnership there.

>> Amen.

Absolutely a partnership.

And you know what we need in the city.

We have very few ranches in the city, and we need more ranches.

I look at my home I live in now, man, I'm not going to be able to age there.

It's a lot of stairs either.

I'm going to have to stay in this great shape that I'm in.

you know, six feet.

I'm about 160 pounds.

I'm gonna have to stay in that that that type of shape in order to go up and down all the stairs that I have in my house.

And he is 100% right.

We love to partner with people and get more ranches built in the city for sure.

Rochester Monroe County has one of the highest populations that are aging the fastest, and one of the most requests I always get is mayor, can you help me find a ranch?

so he's he's right on the money there.

>> 20s.

What do you want to leave with listeners as we wrap up this conversation.

>> I think what I would like to leave with listeners is I am so grateful for this, for the support that this city has given me over the last four years.

It has been extremely difficult.

It's only going to get more hard, but I hope that I have proven that I have been a leader that has delivered on the promises that I have made, and I and I ask that you go to the polls starting Saturday because Election Day may be November 4th, but the actual election starts on Saturday.

And I ask that you go to the polls and vote ro a all the way for Malik Evans and all the Democrats at the top of the ticket.

>> Thank you for making time for us, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Malik Evans.

Running for reelection on the Democratic Party line tomorrow.

The conservative in the race, Louis Sabo will join us.

And it's a series of conversations with the candidates for office.

The mayor's right, early voting starts on Saturday.

Even though Election Day itself.

Tuesday, November 4th.

Vote early vote, vote early, he says.

How about just vote early?

from all of us at Connections.

Thank you for listening.

Thanks for watching.

Wherever you're finding this, this program.

Thanks for being with us.

We're back with you tomorrow on member supported public media.

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