(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato here.

For the first time we are honored to introduce the Mayor of the great city Of Paterson, New Jersey, Andre Sayegh.

Good to see you Mr. Mayor.

- Good seeing you, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- You got it, we are taping this program on Valentine's Day 2023.

I actually saw you on the air of NJ Spotlight News, our colleagues in NJ Spotlight News.

You were talking about the earthquake, Turkey, Syria.

I'm not even gonna date us in terms of what the death toll is.

That's not what our focus is.

It's horrific, it's unimaginable, and the entire focus of this conversation is largely around how we can be helpful.

Paterson has the largest Turkish population in the United States, correct?

- That is correct.

- And your family, your mom is from Syria?

- She's from Aleppo, Syria, which is very close to the epicenter of the earthquake and 90 kilometers outside of Turkey.

- Andre, to what degree...

I saw you on the news.

I reached out to you and I wanted to do this, because, first of all, I don't think people appreciate, not just the impact there where this horrific earthquake happened of 7.8 magnitude.

It's their loved ones here.

Talk about that, Mr. Mayor.

- Steve, if the pandemic has taught us anything, there are no barriers, there are no boundaries.

It affects us all in a certain way and it's a global constituency.

So the people I represent here have people there, whether it's Turkey, whether it's Syria, so they're seeing the harrowing photos, they're getting the phone calls.

They may not be able to reach certain individuals.

And early on, when I reached out to the Turkish ambassador in Washington, he was saying, "Mayor, we need search and rescue teams immediately."

I saw that they were able to save two brothers.

But, unfortunately, they're starting to transition to the search and recovery efforts.

We're still holding out hope, but like you said, we're not focusing on that number.

We're focusing on the relief efforts.

It's a humanitarian effort.

And like I stated before, if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it's really how to mobilize, especially, an engaged global constituency.

- We're gonna be putting up websites that allow people to be helpful in whatever way that means.

What is your sense... And again, we're taping this now and we'll air it as often as we can, because of, unfortunately, the devastation, pain, and suffering, and it'll just keep going on unfortunately.

Question, what is your sense of what is needed most?

- So speaking to the consul general from Turkey and also individuals who are connected to the efforts in Syria, sleeping bags, and they need tents.

Because think about this, Steve, they've been displaced and I'm hearing a number of accounts that people are sleeping in their cars.

So they don't have anywhere to go.

So in addition to monetary donations that we've been receiving and working with houses of worship on getting back to both Syria and to Turkey, they've been asking for sleeping bags and they've also asked for tents.

- Mr. Mayor, it's not an accident when people come from other countries to certain communities.

I've often talked about the fact that my grandparents immigrated from southern Italy to a small neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey.

There was an Italian-American community there.

Why have so many people from Turkey immigrated to Paterson?

Why Paterson?

- Well, it started with the Syrians and the Lebanese.

They came in the late 19th century, and as you know, Syria, Turkey, they're bordering each other, and so word probably got back, and they said there's work in Paterson.

So it had a reputation of being welcoming for people who come from the Middle East.

And so, obviously, you want to come to this country and feel comfortable, and, obviously, become gainfully employed, and Paterson, at one point, was the first planned industrial city in the country.

So we were the Silk City.

We're the silk capital of the country.

- I'm curious about this, you understand politics better than most.

There is no place for politics in this discussion.

To what degree have you found everyone from any particular political perspective point of view, with our country being as polarized as it is, committed to wanting to be helpful to the people of Turkey and Syria?

- It's interesting you should pose that question, because we had a vigil this past Saturday for both Turkey and Syria, and we had a Republican county commissioner come up from Morris, and we said, "This is not a bipartisan effort.

This is a partisan effort," I should say.

"This is a humanitarian effort."

So, irrespective of your political party affiliation, all you have to do is care about people and all you have to have to do is wanna help people.

If we have the resources, why not?

And if there was anything more American, it's like we meet the need, we have to meet the need now.

- Again, we can talk about politics in our country, which is not the point of this conversation, but there's war going on.

There's this civil war going on.

Talk about the Civil war and how that complicates an already incredibly difficult, painful, and horrific situation.

I know I use that word too much.

- It definitely exacerbates the situation.

Let's think about this.

You're fleeing a country that's unfortunately been plagued by civil war for over 11 years.

And, Steve, I have to tell you, we're very welcoming in Paterson.

We're the most diverse city in the state.

We have Syrian refugees here in Paterson and we've helped them get employed, get them in school, get their children in school.

So I'm anticipating we may have Turkish refugees coming to Paterson in addition to even more Syrian refugees coming to Paterson as well.

And there's some success stories with that early wave with Syrian refugees.

They become business owners.

Shawarma, like food, is, obviously, people need to eat and they've come here, and they've made quite a living for themselves in Paterson.

So if the next wave of refugees comes from Syria and Turkey, Paterson will be ready for them.

- But, Mayor Sayegh, I'm curious about this, again, politics aside, again, no place in this conversation, but there has been a longstanding anti-immigrant movement, line of thinking.

People are passionate about the issue of immigration and what asylum means and doesn't mean, what fleeing a situation like this...

I'm curious, to what degree do you believe cities like Paterson across this nation, communities will be open to taking in people from Turkey and Syria regardless of what they may think about the leaders of those countries, because it's a humanitarian effort?

- Yeah, this is an exigent circumstance.

So we have to do what we can to accommodate individuals that, in the past were fleeing the civil war or fleeing someone they deemed to be a dictator.

And now you're getting out of this country, because you probably have very little left, if anything at all, and you may have family in Paterson.

So that's the beauty of our city, because we've established ourselves as a hub for immigrants.

Somewhere safe-- - But can you take them in, Andre?

How many people can you take in, in terms of the city's infrastructure economically, it's not a rich city, to actually deal with what's needed, please?

- So just to elaborate on that, I'm having those conversations already to see what the capacity is, because the 2010 census had us at 146,000.

We took in Syrian refugees and some other refugees as well.

The latest census had us at 160,000, and we actually think there is more people here, but there's a story I want to tell you.

You'd appreciate this.

This gentleman fled Syria, came here, and he opened up a restaurant in Syria.

He's a journalist.

They broke his hands.

He can't even use his hands.

So he came to this country.

He sought refuge and he's raising his family here.

We want more of those stories in Paterson.

- Andre Sayegh is the mayor of Paterson.

He is working with so many others to try to make a difference in this "humanitarian effort," which he doesn't need air quotes, it is.

And Paterson, again, has the largest Turkish population in the country.

Andre, I wish you all the best.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Steve.

I appreciate it.

- Let's try to make a difference, folks.

That's why those websites were up there.

You decide who you want to give the money to and where you believe it'll have its greatest impact, but that's the point of this conversation.

Whether this program is seen in March, April, May, the need will be just as great.

I'm Steve Adubato.

We'll see you next time.

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