for WXXI News This is connections filling in for Evan Dawson.

I'm Gino Fanelli.

Today's connection with me last night at the William H. Johnson Junior Terminal building at the Port of Rochester.

The venue played host to the state of the city address, an annual speech in which the mayor of Rochester lays out his plans for the future of the city.

The accomplishments of their term in office, and the good and the bad in the city.

It was a major speech for man Billy Gibbons, the last of his first term in office.

During the speech, Evans highlighted accomplishments across housing, public safety, economic development, poverty and myriad of other hallmarks of his term in office.

To discuss the state of the city, I'm joined by Mayor Malik Evans.

Mayor, thanks for being here.

Hey, great to see you.

And, I see you gave Evan the time off.

So you do to Stewart Straw.

I did, yeah.

So here I am.

so we got a lot to get through here, across, you know, all the different things that are happening in the city.

but we'll start by talking about the theme of this year's state of the city is momentum.

That word was used 52 times throughout the speech, but who's counting?

me?

You.

Right?

Right.

Me and, Brian Sharp are counting.

Of course.

and before we get into all the details and the actual issues himself, what does that term mean?

I mean, momentum means, you want to you want to continue on the trajectory that you are.

particularly when you look back at where we were.

And I think that for a lot of people, it's easy to sometimes forget because there's so much going on in the world.

But when I took office, a million people had died in America from Covid.

basically everything had, stopped at a standstill.

Building in Rochester had stopped.

every program that were serving young people pretty much was paused.

There was a there was still a debate about whether or not whether or not kids should be going back to school.

So the momentum that had happened that was going on in the, 17, 18, 19, even when we saw reductions in crime in 17, 1819, all of that had stopped as a result of the virus.

And in my first day in office, and I mentioned this in the speech yesterday.

I was in an even in office 24 hours.

And then I get a call of Julius Greer being, murdered, 14 year old kid being murdered.

So we had to say, what can we do to try to bring, our city back to a to a place where we could, start to invest again, to be able to build homes, to be able to build, affordable housing, to be able to put a, a a a stopper on the amount of violence that we were seeing.

And then we started to see these things start happening.

So the first year was the first year was better than the previous year.

and then last year, particularly as it relates to, violence, we saw, you know, 53% reductions in, in shootings and 45% reductions in homicides.

And we want I wanted to say, let's keep this momentum going, but not just on the, on that side, but also on the economic development side.

Rochester is one of the few cities in New York state that are building thousands of affordable new housing units.

we've been recognized.

I just finished shooting, a testimonial video for a video for New York State Homes and Community Renewal, where people around the state are looking at what Rochester is doing to accelerate the pace of affordable housing development.

our work around our by the black program and not just our by the black program, that's only a complement to the other building that folks in the private sector are also doing.

So the why we used the word momentum was because we want to continue to accelerate that.

And then I also wanted to remind people that you can't take it for granted.

I mean, this is this is hard work.

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

And it's very easy to stop momentum.

It's hard to get it started, but it's very easy to stop.

And one of the ways that you can do it is to take your eye off the ball, to no longer be focused on the issues that matter, because there's so much other stuff that swirls around.

And, so that's why we use the word momentum.

It's also why we do the state of the city address.

I mean, you know, some people have said, okay, they're old school, you know, state of the Union state.

Why do you why do you still do these things?

And I and every year I go to the team, I say, should we just throw like, a big party and then have me, have people come around and just.

I tell them what we're doing?

And I said, no, I think it's still important.

to tell people, how I see where we are, where we were, where we're going, and where we hope to be in the future.

So that's that's why we still do the state, the city.

And that's why momentum was the theme.

But I think it also fits into the last three years in which the first year was kind of about, planting the seeds and helping our people bloom.

It was about that.

And then last year, we talked a lot about hope begets opportunity and perceived these things that are springing forth.

All those things that I talked about last year, they hadn't yet bloomed yet.

But now this year, a lot of them were seeing the fruits of that labor.

And that is what is giving us the momentum.

And that's why you heard momentum mentioned.

How many times did you say 52 times?

52 times.

Man, I wish I could have got it to 60, but 52 times?

I'll take that.

so there's a lot to get to here.

And, the first thing that I really want to spend some time talking about is public safety.

yeah.

You inherited, a time in Rochester where post pandemic and in the pandemic, like what was happening across the country, across the country, particularly acutely in Rochester.

We were having a strong spate of violent crime, just for some numbers here, between March 17th, 2021 and 2022, 430 people were shot in the city.

That was around the peak period, during, the, pandemic era.

and as of April 21st of 2025, between that year 2024 and 2025, that number was 187.

Yeah.

Which is more less than half of, the previous figure.

But is that good enough?

Oh, it's never good enough, man.

It's never good enough.

See, that's the problem.

You know, I think, I'm a different type of leader.

And, you know, you get these people that, that that sometimes will try to misconstrue your words, like, like, you know, I hear people say, oh, he's celebrating, you know, 187 shootings.

No, what we're celebrating is the progress of the downward trajectory.

And, you know, it's why I still have the gun violence state of emergency.

Because there is nothing more sick or insidious than someone picking up a gun and shooting somebody.

I mean, that should be as rare as a plane crash, and I say that regularly.

now, granted, we do have plane crashes.

They're tragic when they happen, but they are so rare.

It's not something that we see every day.

and that's the way a shooting should be.

There's no reason why we should be having, any shootings in our country or in our city, that are mainly 99.9% of them are people who know each other.

And there are retaliatory disputes.

I mean, I went back and just looked at some of the people, that were shot and why they why why they may have done it.

And and you know what the number one reason is people say disrespect, they feel disrespected.

An argument, you an argument, it was disrespected.

And it's not like it's a random people.

Now we may have some random shootings, which we do, but I mean it's like 0.01% of the shootings are just random.

Almost every single one of them are individuals that are known to each other, and they're also almost over an argument.

So it's just, totally unnecessary.

And we want to continue to drive those numbers down.

And, you know, some people say, oh, it's going down nationally.

Well, it's not going it's in some places it is not in some places they are.

But what we have done in Rochester is be extremely deliberate about having a actual plan in order to make this happen.

I mean, it's just not something you can put something out in the ether and say, we're going to bring down shootings.

You have to have a a concerted plan.

And boy, has this been a lot of work?

Is not been easy to do this.

I mean, I have deployed every single two in my arsenal to be able to do that prevention, making sure that I give 12 and 13 year old stipends to be able to get them to learn what it means to work, expanding the number of young people that are working, advancing, mental health services in our, in our recreation centers, something that I, that I never would have thought we'd have to do in the city of Rochester.

But we've done that.

We expanded our Person in Crisis team.

When I started Person in Crisis team, I was on City council when it when it first kicked off, it was a pilot and there were two and a half, full time people.

We now expanded that into a, entire, department.

So we had to do that from the preventative side and then go to the state to get more dollars for our gun involved violence Elimination program, which targets individuals who have a propensity to, want to, want to create havoc in the streets, such as picking up a firearm or gun and then collaborating with, community organizations and then launching the Rochester Peace Collective.

And I notice I called the Rochester Peace Collective, not the Maleek Peace Collective, because a leader understands.

And this is this was another, part of the speech, you know, you were there covering it.

Then I talked about, if you notice, I didn't talk about me and how I started this, I did this, I came up with the idea for the Rochester Peace Collective.

I came up with the name, but you know what?

You know who's making the Rochester Peace Collective successful?

Those 50 plus organizations that are involved there.

So the other thing I wanted to to do is tell people that the momentum exists, not because Malik Evans is the mayor, but because Malik Evans is the mayor, has really done something unprecedented and open up the door to hundreds of thousands of regular, everyday citizens to help us plot the course in which we want to see in our in our city.

And that's different.

And that's different for most politicians who love seeing their names on thing that love standing up saying, I came up with this, I did that.

You've never seen that for me.

And you always hear me say, why?

Because in order for cities to be able to thrive and be successful, you have to engage the citizens to be with you at the side.

And it's what I said.

It might not.

You were addressed when I said I want to be a mayor, where I see I have the partners of the citizens with me at City Hall, and we do that.

And that momentum is also being built by the Nia program, which I rolled out, 47 organizations, grassroots organizations supported by, GSO, Federal Credit Union, City of Rochester and the Rochester Area Community Foundation.

They've come up with community based programs to build cohesion, in which we lost that momentum after Covid, community organizations were meeting.

They couldn't because they thought they would get sick and die.

So how do we how do we reengage?

We engage and re-energize that.

And that was the Nia program, which we, in which we, rolled out.

So that's why momentum is so important.

That's that's why it was so important to make sure that we really, use that word a lot, but more importantly, say that this isn't my momentum, but this is our momentum.

And I hope that that is what came through last night.

So I won't take another trend in, crime here, which was auto theft, but, really picked up in 2023.

This again with a national trend.

But Rochester was particularly hard hit in Kia and Hyundai.

Yeah, Kia and Hyundai, had just exponential increases in thefts in 2023.

It went down a little bit in 2024. actually a good bit.

And then a good bit.

And then it continued to come down, this year.

But it's still relatively high.

And I think this speaks to another portion of, you know, one of your focuses on the time in office with the is youth services.

yeah.

A kid, stealing a car doesn't happen in a vacuum.

There's a lot of things that happened leading up to that that led to them making the choice to do that.

So why do you think it particularly was a trend here in Rochester that this happened?

And what can be done about it?

Yeah, I think I think a couple of things.

I think it was a trend in Rochester because not just the right, but it wasn't a trend just in Rochester.

You know, I first heard about this trend from the mayor of Milwaukee.

He said, have you ever heard of something called the Kia Voice?

And I said, no, I said, I haven't heard of that.

We don't have that in Rochester yet.

He said, you will.

And then we did, and it moved west to east.

So it came from, Milwaukee, the western cities, and then, Rochester and then Syracuse got hit, then Albany.

it was a social media trend that really, that really hit it.

But I think it speaks to, the larger trend of making sure that we provide opportunities for our young people.

but also that we make sure that we deal with the whole family.

And this is why, the Jet program that we partnered with, the county executive is so very important because you cannot to your point, you know, you cannot look at a kid and say, oh, yeah, they just woke up and decided to steal a car one day.

No, no no no no.

There are lots of other indicators that show you whether or not a kid is going to be going steal a car.

Are they attending school on a regular basis?

Are they reading on grade level by third grade?

Do they have a supportive adult in the home?

Is is their parent working one or 2 or 3 jobs?

these are all indicators.

Are they involved in extracurricular activity?

If a kid is involved in an extracurricular activity or has a job, the chances of them stealing a car or getting into any trouble is almost nil.

All of the data shows that, you know, the Search Institute has the 40 developmental assets of internal and external assets that kids should have.

The closer they are to those 40 assets, the better they are in terms of being productive members of society.

So to your point, these things don't happen in a vacuum.

So the thing is, is how can we intervene before they decide that they do want to steal a car and then after they steal a car, how do you make sure that you drive down that propensity to make sure that is something that they're not going to do again?

And that's why the Jed's program has been so effective for us in the county, in the county, in Monroe, in the city of Rochester, because it's stopped and cut back the number of kids who became repeat offenders.

And we said, okay, look, you can go to school.

You may have to wear a, you may have to wear a, a ID bracelet, so that we know where you are, but you don't have to go to school.

You're going to have to go into a treatment program.

And if you don't, you're going to go over to the children's detention center.

And most of them do not want to go to the children's detention center.

They cry like little babies when they're when they're there.

So it's it's that route that you give them.

And then when you give them that root, they start to make other choices.

But if you give a kid a choice of a job or some community based organization that they could be a part of, they will choose those things.

The other point I wanted to make, and I promised young people I would do this because last week school was out and I was with young people from Jack and Jill.

I was with young people from the Hillside Work Scholarship Program.

I was with kids from rock music.

The vast majority of our young people are not still in cars.

The number of kids that still cars and mayhem in our community is levels in the less than hundreds.

Now it gets all that attention, but the vast majority of our young people and their parents are looking for positive activities, but we have to make sure we zero in on that number of, of what I call a youth at risk.

And that's why the, mental health services that we pushed into libraries, that we pushed into our rec centers are so very, very important.

And I think that's how you stem the tide of those wanting to to steal a car.

But you can't just deal with the kid alone in isolation.

You got to deal with the entire family.

Otherwise, we're just missing the boat.

You cannot solve this problem along with just saying, I'm going to deal with Geno and then not going to the home to see what's going on with his mom, his dad, his grandmother, his uncle, or whoever else is in that household.

If we continue to try to do it in isolation, that won't happen.

And I think that's why jazz is so important, because the county has the comprehensive approach, because they have social services, they have the mental health department.

They have a lot of the agencies that are, that are that are, responsible for dealing with the human service issues.

the city has picked some of that up, but it's really the county that takes the lead on a lot of that, a lot of that.

If you want to see these numbers continue to go down, we have to make sure that we continue to put investments there.

So I we got a few questions from email here.

But one on the topic, that is a question that I, I have to deal with a lot, and I'm sure you have to deal with a lot too, is, Michael, he's a lifetime lifelong resident of Rochester.

It just doesn't feel like there has been a 38% decrease in crime.

It just doesn't feel like it.

The perception is that even though you can lift off all these data points, that the perception is that crime is still up.

Yeah.

Well, I think I think there's a feeling.

But but the facts are the facts, right?

I mean, I tell people that all the time.

You say I don't feel that way.

Well, the facts are the facts.

53% reduction in homicides.

I mean, either 500 people were shot or they weren't.

Right.

And, you just gave the number of the of the low point that we just reached.

178 people were shot.

That is less than 500 plus people that were shot before.

So the numbers are down.

I think a lot of it is, personal safety.

I think a lot of it is feeling because if you, know that, you know, less people have gotten shot with in your car get stolen, then you don't feel safe, and that matters to people.

And that's why, why I why I never declare victory.

I declare momentum, but I won't declare victory because there's still too much work to do.

And that's why I guess I'm a little bit of a different of elected official, because most elected officials will plant their flag and say, hey, I solve crime, let's move on to something else.

And then what I'm saying is, no, I'm gratified but not satisfied yet.

And we still have to continue to move forward.

And yes, 53% is a huge reduction, but still one person getting shot.

Or if you're the one person whose car was just stolen, you don't want to hear about 53%.

You want to know where the hell my car is.

Right?

And I think that that's the feeling that, that you get from from from certain people.

But I think you have to be very transparent.

I ran on trust and transparency.

and that's what we do.

We put the numbers out.

they are what they are.

And then.

But more importantly, you got to get behind the numbers and talk about the stories behind them and, and what you're going to do to try to continue to be able to fix it.

So that way you don't have another Julius Greer.

Right.

And that's and that and that's the that's the important point, that I think we try to make regularly, in any of our conversations as it relates to public safety, and then also reminding people that public safety also goes beyond just violence.

Public safety is also the work we do.

Our on fire public safety is also the work we do around, healthy response like our Nurse Navigator program.

Public safety is also about, expanding our 911 center to make sure that that when you call 911, you're getting a great response and that, people have options, of things that are things and places where they can go to be able to get those to get the support that they need.

So, all of that is, extremely, extremely important.

Yeah.

And I think data give is often not comforting.

You know, you look at numbers.

Yeah.

It's numbers they don't.

Yeah.

It it is exactly.

That's that's why with the ATVs right.

You know people with people's people will say oh, you know, first off one of the things you learned in this job, you better have very thick skin, but you also better, better know who you are.

And I was like, I told you last week, I was speaking to a bunch of young people.

And he said with some of the advice you can give you, it is better to be hated for which you are than to be loved for something that you are not.

So you have to stay true to yourself.

So, you know, last week, with ATVs, which, by the way, I don't like them.

They cause they cause nothing but mayhem and destruction.

They are the number one complaint that I get in the mayor's office throughout the months of probably March to July.

so that is something that made people feel unsafe.

They felt unsafe because of the ATVs.

Now, they may not have, done anything to to scare people, but they made them feel unsafe.

so we had that.

We had to take that on as a, as a issue.

That's a quality of life issues.

Quality of life issues also make people feel unsafe sometimes.

And that's why you have to take the money.

That's why ATVs, you were there.

I think you were there when we, when we, when we said you make them either, street legal or scrapyard ready, we mean that.

And that's a result of the public saying, yeah, okay, mayor, you're talking about gun violence, reduction in the reduction in homicides, but also ATVs.

You got to do something about that.

So it's a it's a menu of sweets as it relates to public safety.

And it's not just one thing.

And when we're talking about perception, I would argue that, quality of life issues, have just as much, if not more of an effect on someone's perception, absolutely, than actual violent crime.

Absolutely.

And you know, why?

Because, sadly, not everyone knows someone that's been shot, but they know someone that might have, been run down if they're at a if they're at a soccer game.

Well, let's use a real actual story that happened because my, my kid plays baseball.

you had a baseball game and somebody starts revving up ATVs on the field while these kids are playing baseball, and the coach has to go in, have an interaction with them, and then it gets escalated, right?

So more people can relate to that.

And then someone that might have been shot and that, and that's where that perception absolutely matters.

And that's why quality of life stuff matters.

And that's why I know.

So I get criticized sometimes for saying that I'm going to address quality of life stuff, and it's like I have to address it because that also relates, to public safety.

So I wanted to move on to housing.

But before we get there, I have a email from Sally with the friends of the Foundation of the Rochester Public Library.

Sally says, as you know, the federal government has dissolved the agency that funds libraries and museums across the nation.

Started.

How is the City of Rochester addressed addressing, sustaining and supporting the library system for our community?

Well, it's a great question for first off, don't get me started on the federal government.

That's a separate show that you'll have to invite me back for happy Days.

I have, in fact, I have a meeting today about federal government stuff.

There's another big meeting coming up next week that I'm sure our communications will let folks know about after we have it related to, the federal government stuff.

We are monitoring this extremely closely.

We have already quantified, what losses and cuts and federal funding will have for us.

But, you know, I am extremely committed to libraries.

My mother worked in the library.

you know, I have a proposal right now to build probably only the second in the state, a library slash housing complex.

I've expanded library hours.

We put e-sports in our library.

We put a new computer lab in our downtown library.

We have a music studio in our library.

We just finished, expanding, our library.

We're renovating our library in the northeast.

So we are committed to making sure that we maintain our libraries.

we're going to wait to see what the effect will be on any of the federal cuts.

that will happen in our libraries, which you'll see.

I don't want to give it away, but my next budget is coming up in oh my gosh, is that two weeks?

Two weeks, I have my budget that I will be rolling out.

You will see a continued support from our side in the library.

We've been very grateful with our partnership with Monroe County, Monroe County, who also funds some of our libraries.

A joint effort between Monroe County and the city of Rochester.

So our goal is, is to make sure that we continue to support libraries.

I mean, I mean, there is nothing more important than a library.

And I need people to understand that this is not your grandmother's library.

This is not my library.

When I, when I, when I used to go where we might have had the bookmobile and, the animals used to come.

I mean, this is a library system where you can go and get your taxes done.

You have the cash program operating at a library.

We have social services operating out of the library.

We have young people that are e sports champions operating out of the library.

We have an e-sports team out of the downtown library.

You can record a demo tape outside of the downtown library.

You can rent a sewing machine from the library.

The library has now become MiFi devices.

That was our lifeline for individuals who did not have internet during Covid.

We were able to use our libraries to distribute test kits and MiFi so people could be connected to the internet.

Libraries are absolutely essential to our city, and, I really hope that the federal government will change tacks and see that they are essential not only to our city, our country, who I really worry about is not so much our community, but a lot of these rural communities and other places where they don't have, the taxing authority or the dollars to be able to support their libraries.

you know, Rochester, I think has some of the best law libraries around, bar none, both in the towns as well as in the city.

So, moving on to the issue of housing.

rent in the city of Rochester, risen dramatically since the pandemic.

the Department of Housing and Urban Development, fair market rent for the Rochester Metro drove 48, rose 48% between 2020 and 2025, from 7075 to $1149.

So what if this administration doing to make sure that every Rochester man has access to good, safe, affordable housing in the city for us?

I mean, for us, it's build, build, build.

Rochester leads the way.

And you can check these numbers in New York State with building the number of affordable housing units.

There's no there's nowhere else per capita that has built it the way that we have.

And, and we accelerated this since 2022.

So that's important.

So for us, I think one of the things that you have to do in order to bring down the cost is you have to try to build as many units as you can, and that's both affordable and market rate.

And that is what, we have done.

And we continue to do.

And I think that that is absolutely critical.

The other thing is, is that if someone wants to be able to own a home, we should be able to make sure that they have a flexible way to be able to make it into, homeownership, period.

Because for what many people pay in rent, they can pay for a mortgage and actually have ownership in that in that house.

But we have some people who, have this mentality where they think that if we're encouraging homeownership that were somehow doing it at the expense of renters, which is crazy, right?

It's just a crazy paradox.

And it's it it's a mindset that we have to break out of in this community.

We have to make sure that we have options for everybody for and, we've led the way in terms of, reconstructing old buildings.

I mean, look what we're doing at Hickey Freeman.

I mean, we're taking an old factory, turning it into housing, and then having commercial development on the ground.

And by the way, right in the heart of the North Clinton Avenue neighborhood.

And it's also going to support the other developments that are there.

Look what we're doing with a brand new build on the corner, of, Broad Street in Plymouth.

Right, right.

Not too far from City Hall.

That is going to be supportive housing with hundreds of units.

That is what you have to be able to do to solve the housing issue.

Because, I put on my banker hat, you know, I spent a lot of years in banking, and I.

And when I would give my rule of thumb, I teach people how to do a budget.

A person really shouldn't be paying more than 30% of their income to housing.

They just should not be.

And for many people, they are.

When you're over 30%, you become rent burdened.

So we have to find as many ways as we can to continue to build as many houses as we can.

And then the other thing that we have to do is to continue to make sure that we focus on the income issue that we have in the city of Rochester.

I mentioned yesterday that remap, you put out its report that showed that the poverty rate dropped over the last three years, obviously not enough, but it dropped.

But but it went down, which means that the problem is solvable.

We can solve this problem, but we also have not only a dollar amount problem as it relates to rent, but also an income problem because our rents aren't anywhere near New York City, Boston, San Francisco, or anywhere else but in Rochester because incomes are still way too low, it creates a greater burden on people.

So when you when you're now paying over 30% of your income on rent and your income is already low, to be low to begin with, what does that do?

And that's why you have to look at this from a holistic perspective.

And this is why our workforce development programs have been absolutely critical.

This is why our partnership with 11 1199 SEIU program was critical.

I, I can't mention all this stuff.

I didn't get a chance to mention it on our state of the city address, but we have a partnership with 1199 SEIU in which in which they take people who are able to get into jobs that put them in a middle class, that gets them involved in a union, that gets them in a union, increases their income, gets them in jobs like phlebotomist and technicians and increases their income, which means that then if they didn't have more dollars to spend on rent, and, and other and other important things to set themselves up for a strong financial future.

So this conversation about housing has to be comprehensive.

It just can't be one size fits all and it can't be gimmicky and or gimmicky gets attention.

It it, it makes people, get maybe get some clicks.

But this is not a easy conversation.

It's a lot of hard work.

And we have had to work hard to get the over two, almost $2 billion in housing since 2022.

And we've gotten money from other cities, which I won't say because they couldn't move fast enough to get it done.

We moved in.

That's why Center City Courtyard is moving faster, because there was another city that missed the boat, and I and we I raised my hand.

I said, hey, we're ready, Rochester's ready.

And that's what we're going to continue to be.

That's going to be our strategy.

Affordable market rate homeownership.

Some people say drill, baby, drill.

I say build, baby build.

And we're going to continue to try to build as much housing as we can.

Part of the, problem that we have here in the city when it comes to actually single family homes and so that we have an aging housing stock.

and when you have programs like Buy the Block would start under the previous administration to expand it under your administration.

This is a way to build new homes that can be bought by first time homebuyers.

the southwest portion of the project off Genesee Street had about 30 built or a part of the program, which is not nothing, but it's it's is it large enough to, feed the need for, how many houses are needed for.

Yeah, but but I have to remind people again.

See, this is the shortsightedness of people.

government doesn't have the money to build hundreds of thousands new homes.

That's not the point.

That's not the point of these programs.

These points, these programs are meant to be the catalyst.

We did, I say last night, we chose by the block in the Thomas Street area in the northeast section of the city because, yes, we built about 27 homes there.

But private development first Genesis Corporation are building hundreds.

They're going to build dozens and dozens of homes built for homeownership.

And then another senior apartment that's going to have hundreds of units.

So that's the idea.

The idea of the structure is not just that government builds it, but that you partner with others to make sure that you get the catalyst and the spark to be able to build other ones.

We're also one of the only people in the state.

They got the T grant from New York State.

T Hipp works with dilapidated structures that are in those neighborhoods.

So when we say by the block and by the way, the first by the black house, the first one didn't open up until 2023.

Okay.

So I was mayor, 2023 was the first one.

It opened up.

we we wanted to make sure that we accelerate the development of entire neighborhoods now, not just with 47 houses that are built, but with the other development that is happening, happening around it.

So each person is contributing to that, to that overall development.

And by the way, I tell people, you got a family of four, that's thousands of people, right, that have been impacted by these houses, that that are being built.

And by the way, there's no where else, nowhere else in New York State where a city is taking the lead in home construction, not one.

And if you find one, tell me there isn't one now.

Buffalo, not Syracuse, not Albany, not New York City, not one.

But we're doing it here in Rochester and, and I say we are doing it here in Rochester because we're doing it with habitat for humanity, Greater Rochester Housing Partnership, Ibero-American, development.

We're doing this as a partnership, and I am damn proud of it.

And it's something that I won't, won't, won't shriek away from because we're doing what others are not doing.

And you know who's recognizing it?

People across the country, in New York state, that's who's recognizing it.

So and the other, big part about the housing, as a whole, I mean, there's so many layers and nuances to it, but it's holding accountability for landlords.

Oh, yeah.

which the city now has a housing attorney, something that is, I would argue it's long overdue to finally have, but I just want you to give you an opportunity to speak on how some of these landlords that have that house have go derelict, have not repaired things that have caused health and safety hazards.

How they're the city is moving to hold them accountable and make sure that they are keeping a standard of living that is, frankly, humanitarian for the city of Rochester.

Well, you know, the standard of living is you heard what I said during a speech yesterday.

I don't know if you remember what I said, you know, you remember what the question I said was a person should ask as it relates to their house.

Let me say you were paying attention.

I was paying attention.

But, fill me in.

My memory isn't so good at it.

Wasn't paying attention.

I you should know it.

It's this thing.

Would I want to live here?

Up there?

Okay, I do remember.

Do you remember that?

Fair enough.

I saw you get up a couple of times.

You know, I know it was a long speech.

You and my son were, I get restless.

Yeah.

I saw you getting restless.

I saw you looking at your watch a couple of times.

Look.

But should I want to live here, right?

That that is that that is the message.

And I've been clear.

The housing attorney, we take them to city court or state supreme court.

We've gotten close to $1 million in, in and recoveries that we gotten from people.

And what I've said was when people say, well, I'm going to sell my stuff and get out of the Rochester market, well, most of the people that say that we want them to do that, and that's what we we have encouraged them to do.

and, this was a problem that had been building for decades, right?

It only it builds for decades.

And when not what I laugh about is, you know, and people say, wow, okay, you I think I was in office for four months when I appointed the Housing Equality Task Force.

And I actually had people say, oh, you didn't solve it yet.

I said, wait a minute, I've been here for months.

but we moved aggressively, quickly in decisively, and we made sure that that it was not fit for man or mouse that we stepped in, but more importantly, that we said we were going to send a message by holding those accountable that were getting in the business that had absolutely no business getting in the business.

And that's what we're doing, and that's what our housing attorney is doing.

Oh, by the way, we're also one of the only cities in New York state that has a housing attorney that is dealing with these issues, both commercial structures as well as residential structures.

We had to send a message that we had these teeth.

You even what I call them.

I'm test saber tooth tiger.

There you go.

He was of course I remember that.

And I got the saber tooth tiger on my desk and and, you know, we're using it and people don't like it.

But you know who does like it?

The good landlords.

Because the good landlords, we get the bad name from the bad landlords.

And I mean, when you have somebody in New York City.

Yeah.

The true story, there's one guy and yeah, I think you may have reported on him.

You did do a story on this.

I mean, he was like, you know, I mean, we were going after him for multi-millions of dollars and 31 million hundred and $31 million.

I don't know if we're ever go after him, but he should not be able to do business anywhere in the world.

Period.

But this guy for years had gotten away with having substandard properties, being an absentee landlord and thinking you can get away with it.

So we said, no, we are not going to have it.

And I think that we sent that message loud and clear, and I just didn't want to send the message by standing on the steps of City Hall yelling and screaming about what should be done.

You actually got to have action behind these things.

And that's what I do.

And, you know, we have to move from from rhetoric to results.

And it's way too much rhetoric in this world.

And it's why people hate politics.

And I got that.

And I remember and I remember a woman telling me, mayor, just make sure that you work to make sure you get results.

Leave the rhetoric to the rhetoric, people.

You know, you stand up what we need to do.

And it's like, okay, but here is the problem.

You've identified it.

Well, what's the solution?

And that was our solution.

Our solution was making sure that we had a housing attorney, that we increased the number of code enforcement officers, that we also made sure that we, applied to the state for our ticket program, that we expanded our by the black program, that we accelerated the pace of building of, affordable and market rate housing that is part of the overall comprehensive housing strategy.

The strategy just can't be that I'm going to be get people in the housing.

You actually have to have a strategy that works and is coordinated and collaborative with other people in order to make it happen.

And I think that that's what you see, with our housing attorney, it's not going to solve everything, but it's one piece of the overall puzzle.

As we talk about making sure that we have housing in a city where people will say, what, I want to live there, what I want to live there.

So, as we're moving from housing to development of the whole, if reelected, you are likely to oversee some of the largest development projects the city has seen in decades.

top of the list.

There is inner Loop North price tag of about $220 million.

And I want to get a sense, because you did talk about this during the state of the city last night, is how it best serves the neighbors of where the inner loop is now.

This was a, urban highway that was built that separated the neighborhood.

it's filling it in can be argued as undoing a past wrong.

Right.

How do you do that?

And make sure the voices of the people that live in that neighborhood are heard and forefront?

Yeah.

So, you know, I won my Democratic primary June 24th, I think, of 2000, 21. the next day I was on the phone with Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and they said, what do you want from us?

I said, you know what?

I need the Inner loop to be funded in.

A week later, we were there announcing $100 million for the.

And we were there talking about getting money for that inner loop.

My first business day in office, the governor was here.

I said, I need that money for the inner loop, and I need a state park.

Fast forward February 2022.

We got 100 million for the Inner loop, and then Chuck Schumer secured another 100 plus million for the Inner Loop.

So now we have 200 million for the inner loop.

I say that because it takes work.

This takes work to be able to do it.

It takes partnership.

It takes collaboration.

but what we've said to the neighbors are very clear that we will not do this project to them.

We will do it with them.

The first inner loop should have never been done.

You tore apart a vibrant neighborhood of churches, of business owners, of homes in this place, these people, by putting something that was basically, moat for polluting the area with cars.

And we don't want that to happen again.

And now that we have this unique, once in a generation opportunity, this is literally a once in a generation opportunity.

You won't see this again for another hundred years.

How do you make sure that it continues to work when you have 20 plus acres of developable land where you can build homes, where you can have businesses, where you can have great green space, where you can when you where you can make sure that we're one community, we're not separated by, but by a loop.

We're actually continuously all together.

This gives us a very, very unique opportunity to be able to do that.

And I think that, we will continue to engage the community.

And we started very early and I think in the beginning people were like, why are you talking about this is not going to happen until 2000, you know, 26, 27 because we want to make sure that people were on the ground or on the ground ready.

And the other thing is we want to make sure there's some workforce development components.

So that way people that live in the neighborhoods can have the ability to also work on this project.

Because imagine 50 years from now, you can you can, someone can tell their grandkids, hey, I worked on that project, I was there, I was there a part.

We were bringing Rochester, we're bringing the city back together.

And so this gives us a very, very unique opportunity.

But I but I need to remind the listeners that this was hard work.

This money wasn't just sitting around.

We had to go to the state.

And almost all of our big projects, the city.

We can't afford to do these projects on our own.

Our budget doesn't apply for that, our bonding authority.

So all of our big projects, all of our big capital projects, all those big shiny projects that people talk about, those are all capital dollars that come from New York State.

And if they didn't come to Rochester, they would they would go take the money and put it somewhere else.

But I've been making sure that we get our fair share in that inner loop.

Dollars are, proof positive of us being very effective in getting the dollars, that Rochester deserves that we've been missing out on for so many years.

And I'll return to that point.

We're going to hear for our first and only break of the hour, we'll be, back talking more with a member of Kevin's.

From WXXI news, I'm Jasmine singer.

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Then in the second hour, we'll learn what's stalling progress in offshore wind and what experts think it will take to stay on course.

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Tune in this Friday on Environmental Connections.

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And we are back and connections.

I'm Gino for now live sitting in for Evan Dawson.

We are talking to Mayor Malik Evans about the state of the city.

following the address last night and where we left off was, talking about federal funding.

yeah, with a presidential administration.

Which one has called for the withholding of funds to sanctuary cities like Rochester?

I think it's, a worthy question to ask of what's the path forward here?

I mean, the city does receive federal funding.

We do.

We receive federal funding.

it's a significant amount of money.

but first off, let me say that we are in compliance with any federal law.

We are we are our our city policy, which has been around since 1986, has confirmed that, we would not violate the law.

We I take our oath to uphold the law.

So we believe that we, we we follow the law.

But I also want to remind people that New York State, city of Rochester sends a significant amount of money down to the federal government.

You know, so so I need people to understand that this is not the federal government's money, period.

It's not their money.

Your money.

The taxpayers money that you send to the federal government when you get a tax refund, you know, say, oh, I'm getting a tax refund.

That's the money that you pay that you're getting back.

So for anybody to think they they can use your hard earned tax dollars as a, as a, as a credible or cudgel.

We're not going to we're not going to we're not going to tolerate it in Rochester.

So we are not going to take anything laying down as it relates to anybody trying to remove dollars from us, because we number one, we follow the law.

And number two, why should I have to beg for something that already belongs to us?

I mean, it's like somebody come into your house and then you got to beg them to go to be able to use the bathroom.

Wait a minute.

I'm asking you to use the bathroom in my own house.

So we're going to have to ask the federal government to please don't take money from us that we send to Washington.

New York State is probably tops in terms of the state in terms of sending money to Washington.

The only time that that that wasn't the case was during, it was during Covid when we got a lot more Covid relief funds.

But those funds have now gone.

So you can do the analysis and see how much money New York State sends to Washington, DC.

So this notion that the federal government can somehow.

Number one, tell localities what to do.

Or threaten localities with money.

That, by the way, is already their money.

It's just lunacy and something that we're not going to take standing down.

I'll tell you that.

This is a conversation that is just not happening here in Rochester.

It's happening at the U.S. Conference of Mayors is happening with the Democratic Mayors Association, is having with the New York State Conference of Mayors.

These are all organizations that I'm meeting with on a regular basis.

I'm on the phone every other week at a meeting today with Congressman Congressman Morelli about this, a meeting next week with local community leaders about this.

This is something that people need to pay attention to, because in many of these situations, these are things like life and death.

I mean, you know, when you when you have talks about, cutting things that have been very effective, like Head Start or drug or drug treatment programs, when we all agree that we have an opioid epidemic that is the worst in this generation.

So this notion of, federal funds being withheld from anybody, is just is just not something that we can, stand for because it's not like we're begging for something that is not ours.

This is not some kind of charity or philanthropy.

These are taxpaying dollars of citizens of Rochester, Monroe County in New York State.

So any conversation that you're having about, what you do in the situation, what do you do?

I mean, how do you stand up for the fact that this is our money and that the city complies with our laws that are taking away federal funds that we paid into, is inherently at odds with the idea of an independent city.

What do you what do you do to actually stand up to the federal government that the result of that?

Well, there's lots of avenues.

I mean, you know, we were just an amicus brief.

I mean, we didn't advertise it.

why?

well, we just had an amicus brief with, several cities, on behalf of the University of Rochester, where they tried to, cut in IHS funding, which is which would have been absolutely detrimental to the city of Rochester in the hundreds of thousands of city residents that work at U of R. so there's there's that avenue, there's advocacy.

There's, there's, there's, leaning in to, the facts and putting it out there, but it's also making sure that we work very closely with our, with our representatives in Washington and that Senator Schumer, Gillibrand, Morelli, as well as our state representatives, because a lot of a lot of the federal funds also flow through the federal government as well as the county.

So it really has been really convening and working with all of these, folks that are there.

And as mayor, you're really the quarterback because you can't control everything.

But there are things in which we have standing where others don't, in which we can make our voices heard in order to make sure that we stop a lot of this stuff.

And if someone filed a goes against the law and we have a very good law department, then we will we will also see what we can do from, from get relief from, from a, from a legal standpoint so that that's what you have to be able to do.

But what you can't do is throw your hands up and say, oh, there's nothing we can do, or what you can't do is just get up and yell about it and then not do anything, because that's what people are sick of.

They want.

They want to be able to see results.

and, they also want to know that there are people fighting for them, but they want to make sure that there are people fighting for them and getting results and not just having a bunch of rhetoric and, that and that's what we that's what we've been, trying to do, and that's what we will continue to do.

And we'll monitor this as it, as it happens.

Knock on wood.

I think the jury is still out.

The budget, federal budget is set to be done again in September.

So in a couple of months, we'll really start to see where the rubber meets the road.

The other thing I want to say is, is that you can't only believe in the rule of law when it suits you.

You can't only believe in the rule of law when it suits you.

And if someone or an entity has appropriated dollars for something through a legal, legally outlined process like Congress, who who controls the appropriations process and they've allocated money to a municipality or a nonprofit organization right now, unless is interpreted some different way in a court of law, it is illegal to pull back money that has already been allocated to you through an appropriations process.

That's number one.

But then I'll go back to my first point, which is.

We should not have to beg for money that is already ours anyway.

Our taxpayer dollars.

And I think there's a lot of uncertainty right now with what the future even looks like.

and.

On the issue of just particularly sanctuary cities, I've had a lot of conversations with people that are scared of what happens.

going forward, they may have family that's undocumented and, how the city will, what the city will do to, with maintain that sanctuary status and I want to give you a chance to talk about that part of the issue of, Rochester sanctuary status.

I mean, what do you what do you say to someone who is scared about what the federal government is doing right now?

And, what the city plans to do?

Well, look, I would say that, you know, I gave the quote yesterday from Martin Luther King about exhaustion.

You cannot give in to exhaustion.

As I said to a group the other day, I said, I will always follow the law.

I have to follow the law.

And we believe that we are following the law.

But we will also make sure that we advocate for our values and for what we believe in.

As a city of immigrants.

That's what we are.

There's only there's only one group of people that weren't immigrants.

And it's and it's people that look like me, black folks that came here, slaves, everybody else.

You know, I don't I'm sorry.

And Native Americans.

Yeah.

I figured that one.

Yeah.

Native Americans and folks that came here slaves.

And by the way, my people have been here for hundreds of years, hundreds of years.

So the question is, is that are we going to turn away from that as a, as a country and as a city?

I think the question in Rochester is, no, we're going to follow the law.

And and that has been my my conversations with anybody in the federal government since forever.

We follow the law.

We don't break the law, but don't try to push things on us that we're not responsible for.

And I think that that's I think that that's the note I think the that's the note, that that people need to, need, need, need to take away with we need to make sure that people still feel safe and feel valued, but people are concerned.

I mean, I wish I could say they should.

They shouldn't be, but they should be.

They should be concerned because the minute you're not concerned means that you are not paying attention.

But I will tell you, as I said yesterday, you cannot give in to exhaustion.

But I think the other thing is, is that what we what we must have is we must have results, not rhetoric.

And there are there is just so much stuff now, loud noise, a lot of noise.

And, you know, we didn't we didn't talk about social media, but, you know, I try to, Yeah, but you know how I feel about social media.

you know, I'm just so sick and tired, of elected officials, just just doing performative stuff without actually getting results.

I think it's why I think it's why it's hurt.

Democrats.

I think it's why it's hurt.

I think it's why it turns people off politically.

It's why it's hard to get people to be able to vote because they're like, what are you doing?

You just putting on a show?

But what are the results that you're getting?

And that's why the state of the city address is so important, because I'm able to actually give people concrete numbers, even they don't listen to it.

I'm able to actually say, okay, I told you I was going to do this.

Here's where we are and here's where we fell short.

But what we have more so of is people identifying a problem, getting everybody into a tizzy and then not providing any type of solution.

Other than this rhetoric.

And I think that that is what people, get tired of.

Because, you know what?

It's hard work to do.

What I just talked about to, to bring groups of people together to meet to, to file lawsuits when necessary, to be able to get a nonprofit organizations together.

It's very, very hard to do those things.

And it takes a lot of work.

And I hear that we're coming down to the end of the program because I hear the music.

The music is coming on.

That means that I'm being played off like The Sandman or at the Oscars or the Grammys.

So I'll stop talking there and turn it back over to you, Gina.

Well, mayor, I appreciate the time on this.

we have my mayor, Malik Evans, talking about the state of the city.

And, you know, for now, I am an investigative reporter at WXXI.

Thanks for tuning in.

Thanks to, you know.

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