August 19, 2002
Buffalo in Black and White:
What people said to Mayor Masiello
Buffalo in Black and White:
What people said to Mayor Masiello
Nearly 70 people spoke to Mayor Masiello at Waterfront School the evening of August 15, 2002. (For comments on that event, visit Buffalo in Black and White: What happened at the Waterfront School) All the nonwhite speakers opposed the plan to eliminate the at-large members of the Council, as did at least a third of the white speakers.
What follows is a sampling of what people said to the mayor. At least, what in theory they said to the mayor; some people were performing as much or more for the radio or television audience. I tried to sample the best, the worst, the most interesting, the most unintentionally revealing. Some of these statements are really smart and insightful; some of them are really addled and stupid. I'm including both extremes so you'll have a sense of the range.
An underline indicates a word or phrase I couldn't make out. Ellipses indicate a passage I cut or that I couldn't hear because the people in the Adelphia studio were making too much noise. If there is no dash or ellipsis, you're reading the entire statement.
A note on the transcriptions: Usually, when I translate an oral statement into a print statement, I remove the little tics that people use in speech to provide the service punctuation marks provide in print. For example, people begin far more sentences with "and' in speech than they do in writing; the word makes sure people hear the period. You don't need it when you can see the period and those speakers wouldn't write it, so I'd ordinarily edit it out. But because I printed some of the loopier statements verbatim (I wouldn't know how to make the prose rational), I thought I should present the more cogent statements verbatim as well, just to be fair.
—B.J.
"This is not a debate"
Mayor Anthony Masiello, introducing the session
I want to caution all of you that this is not a debate, this is not a discussion, this is not an answer and question session. This is an opportunity for the public to express themselves and their feelings, either individually or who they represent, on the plans that are before us.
"The sad part"
George K. Arthur, former president of the Common Council and chair of the Citizens Advisory Commission on Reapportionment
The nine members of the Citizens Advisory Commission on Reapportionment, were appointed by you, the Council president, all with the approval of the Common Council. Nine citizens who went about their work without fear or favor. We held five public hearings. Meetings every Wednesday. We debated the many proposals that were given to us and the various forms of government that the Council could have taken, from following the five precinct districts, to leaving the Council the way it is, or increasing the number of Council members. Uppermost in our minds was that we wanted to recommend to the Common Council and you a system that would stand the test of the next ten years by giving to the citizens of Buffalo a plan for good, honest, decent and balanced government. We did just that.
The sad part is that no one—not the Council special committee, not the media, not even you—looked at our product. You would have thought that the special committee would have invited us in for the sake of the record just to ask the questions how and why did we arrive at the decisions that we did. Everything being talked about today, we talked about yesterday. We were the only ones to follow the four mandates of the city charter. The Common Council has not followed those mandates. We talked about how do you govern for the future? How do you maintain a system of checks and balances between the executive branch and the legislative branches of government? Our plan does that and more. We unite. We united the business district. We unite the Elmwood strip. And for the first time in Buffalo, the Hispanic-American community is united in one district so that they will have greater influence on the affairs of the city than they do today.
And we did something else. We kept the integrity of the various communities intact. Our plan is not perfect, but then you would have to walk on water to come up with a perfect plan and even then somebody would not be happy. But our plan is a lot better than the plan you have before you, and would serve the future needs of the citizens of Buffalo. We strongly urge you to veto both local laws and to move to adopt the citizens' plan, Mr. Mayor.
...damaging those people who can least afford access to power...
David Collins, former Council member
My name is David Collins and I'm here to request that you consider vetoing the item that is currently before you. I raise that issue because as one who has been in the Council for a number of years, who understands the process, I'm in the community, I live in the community, and I've not seen anybody yet who can tell me, who can give me one good reason why this item should not be vetoed.
It is divisive. It has created an air of distrust among the little people, those people who don't understand the process. And those are the people who really need to have access to government. By reducing the number of councilpersons you now have reduced their capacity to access power and the political system. So when you reduce the number of council members you are then damaging those people who can least afford to access power.
There are a couple of issues that I think we should just kind of look at. Buffalo—I love this city. Buffalo has been a great city for me and I love it. However, there have been some studies that describe this city as being one of the most racist cities in America. One of the most racist racist cities in America. That is not a tag I think we want. And I don't believe that having some major public official, public elected officials, propose legislation that feeds that image of the city of Buffalo. I frankly detest it, I don't like it, I don't like having my city described in that fashion. I think that those people who are responsible for proposing that kind of legislation should rethink, repropose, look at what damage is being done to us now, and come back with a more rational plan.
Now, mayor, you have, in my estimation, demonstrated some leadership over the years. I think that you know the right and you know the good and you know the bad. This is bad. You don't need this. I respectfully ask that you use your office to deny this piece of legislation so we can be about this business of healing the city the way we know it ought to be. Thank you. Thank you very much.
"Nine one one"
Arthur Eve, Deputy Majority Leader, New York State Assembly
Good evening. I've prayed over this quite a bit. I've not had anything upset me as much as this whole situation. Prior to the Common Council hearing, I fasted for three days—Friday, Saturday and Sunday—and my sister in Christ in Albany said, "God will give you direction."
That Tuesday, the Lord said to me, "Nine one one. Nine one one." Nine districts, a council president, and one at large. And, it came from God, without any question.
You and the Council president appointed a committee, a committee which came back with a recommendation of moving down to eleven. The Common Council voted unanimously for those people who they recommended. So you had a democratic process. One of the people whose seat was recommended to be eliminated grabbed the leadership and was able to convince his other colleagues and you to not do that.
And so the Lord didn't say to me, "Get rid of one of the district councilmen." The Lord said "Nine one one."
I feel very strongly that our forefathers who recommended electing the Council president did it because they wanted to have the person next in line if something happened to a mayor, God forbid, that a person elected by all of the people would emerge as that mayor if that previous mayor resigned or died or whatever the case happened. And that was good sense: someone elected by all the people to replace the mayor, not someone that five people would get in a room and cut deals, and cut deals, to have that person selected as the Council president.
It is against, some people might say, "well, you're going against recommending eliminating one of the black at-large." I didn't even think of that. I thought of it later on. The Lord said to me, "Having only one at-large and the Council president, you're removing the lady who said she's not running [Rose LoTempio, who had previously announced her plan to retire at the end of her current term] and one of the black council members at-large. Not now, but next time." And the Lord said, "That's fair, that's fair."
If this thing goes to a ballot the way that it is now, this will divide this city. And Mr. Mayor, you know, I fought for this city, and you've given me credit for delivering time and time again. I will say to you, this and casino gambling will destroy this city. No one will want to come and set up a business in this city. And you know that companies look and read the daily newspapers for a year or two before they decide to move to a city. And if they've been reading what's going on here, they've got to be out of their mind to want to come and move into the city of Buffalo.
Mr. Mayor, on behalf of my pastor and teacher, T. Anthony Bronner, and a host of people of all races, and our religious leaders, and even your own Human Relations Commission, appointed by you, came out unanimously and said "Don't sign this." Go back to the tables and negotiate. I'm recommending only eliminate two. Okay. Eliminate two. Two at-large. And nine one one.
If you read the 91st psalm in the first verse in the Book of Psalms it says "Those who hide under the wings of God almighty." Okay? God wants to put us under his wings. Mr. Mayor, let's save the city. Let's come back together as one. Let's don't leave a legacy, Mr. Mayor, okay? I love you, my brother. I love all of us who work for this city, okay. Don't leave a legacy that you, your wife, your children, your children's children, and all of your relatives will have on them from now till they die, that this city was divided under your administration worse than anyone who's ever been mayor of city. Mr. Mayor, I don't want you to have that legacy. It is not fair to you, it is not fair to you.
And we beg you and plead with you, that if there's anything I can do, and I know some people don't like my nine one one and they've said it in the press as such, I believe is from God and I believe it is a compromise that is fair and just.
"We don't have nothing"
Romeo Mohammed
...you got the whole world, you got the whole country, you got the whole continent. Why take everything? You won't enjoy it. You will not enjoy it. ...No offense, white people. They got the cops, got education, they got city hall, they own the police force, they own the board of education. They got all the top. We don't have nothing. Now you gonna run us off? Then who we look up to? Who do you think the black man is going to look up to then? If you kill our hope in the system then y'all gonna create a problem that you don't need. If Buffalo's Common Council costs $600,000 a year, all you got to do is to tax the firemen, policemen, teachers, anybody that works in the city of Buffalo that don't pay taxes, charge them $100 a month and make them kick in. And our problem be solved. We really don't have no problem. Thank you.
"We need our district council members"
Sister Mary Augusta Kaiser
Good evening. My name is Sister Mary Augusta Kaiser. I'm with the __________ Streets Watch Committee. I'm here tonight to strongly encourage you not to eliminate any of the nine council districts. I believe we need all of our district council members. Because of our budget constraints we realize that the Common Council needs to be downsized. The opinion of our eleven-block area is that the Council should be downsized at the level of the members at-large. We believe that the nine districts should remain intact and any cutting of positions that needs to take place should be done at the level of the council members at-large. It is our belief that the nine districts are needed to address the specific problems of those districts. Although some districts have fewer residents than they had before, especially in our central city, the problems and difficulties have not left them. We need our district council members. As grateful as we are to some of our at-large members, we do not feel that they have adequately addressed our problems. Local council district members know what our problems are and do address them. They live in the area.
Through our efforts and the strong support of our Fillmore council member [David Franczyk] we retained K-Mart on Broadway. This was something we worked long and hard at to build. We appreciate all the efforts that our council member put into retaining it. Furthermore, the Fillmore district, if it were divided in half, would be lost in the shuffle. Would any other area council members want that to happen to their district? At the present time the Fillmore district is in rough shape and needs significant services. Why cut a district when the people persons need lives in their district, not someone at large? In 1980 I believe it was that the city cut the at-large members down from five to three. Now, in 2002, it is the city's duty to eliminate more of the at-large positions as it addresses the present budget crunch. We urge you to retain our nine councilmanic districts and eliminate the positions at the at-large level. Thank you very much.
"…Hooting, hollering, and playing the race card…"
Joseph Andrycha
First, I'd like to clarify the downsizing movement of our Buffalo Common Council. It did not start with the present seven members of this Council in favor of it. That the clergy, politicians past and present, and speaker after speaker fingerpointed at them, shamefully insulted and with hateful, irresponsible inflamed rhetoric labeled them, along with all the city of Buffalo residents as the third most racist in the nation. And for what reason? Just for expressing their opinions in this democratic country which we are justifiably expected and encouraged to do which you and I are doing here today!
Now back to how the downsizing of the Common Council started. The downsizing movement started 'way back in the year 1998, four years ago, with the charter revision commission, public hearing meetings where neighborhoods held all over the city, the Buffalo citizens and taxpayers demanded it and never got. And did you know that at that time, in 1998, four years ago the three council members at-large offices that were asked to be eliminated were two whites—Rose LoTempio and Barbara Kavanagh. And only one black—Beverly Grant. There was no fuss made, hooting, hollering and playing the race card at that time. Now that the shoe is on the other foot and now that the council at-large change from a white majority with the recent election of Charley Fischer replacing Barbara Kavanagh to a similar black majority, the proposed elimination of the councilman at-large office are labeled as offensive, targeting the blacks, and racist.
The proposed elimination of these council members at large and the council president a way back in 1998, four years ago when the majority was white, the charter revision disregarded the city of Buffalo residents' wishes after a six-to-five vote to keep the reduction issue off the ballot in the last election, quote, "to the seven council members. Congratulations on your insight. It is high time that at least some public officials worried more about the fiscal future of our government entities than about the possible loss of their own jobs.
What a refreshing whiff of clean air coming from downtown city hall. More power to your judgments. Thanks again from the Buffalo taxpayers that pay your salaries and for taking their side in the downsizing of the Common Council movement. I thank you.
"What are we, collateral damage?"
Andres Garcia, community activist
There is not process which clearly demonstrates the raw political power of the majority than reapportionment. That is why the majority in the Common Council have adopted this to shamelessly again split the West Side Hispanic community into two, possibly three, councilmanic districts. What are we, collateral damage?
I do believe that a majority of the people in this city want a smaller council. But to achieve that goal, we need to be fair. A plan which totally disenfranchises one minority community and diminishes representation and politically weakens another minority community has the potential to divide this city along racial lines for years to come.
Whether you like the color of the skin of your neighbor or the person sitting in a cubicle next to you at work, we are all in this together. The beauty of this city is the diversity. If this city is to prosper and regain its stature as a great city, we must find consensus and we must work together whether we like each other or not.
So Mr. Mayor, I am asking you that you reflect on the consequences of continuing a fight along racial lines for months and perhaps years to come. This process is a political fight the lines of which were already drawn. Therefore, I am asking you to veto this plan until a plan can be developed which is more fair to everybody. Thank you.
"It's a bad plan for Buffalo and its citizens…"
Marilyn Hochfield, attorney
Mr Mayor, my name is Marilyn Hochfield. I live on Norwood Avenue in the city of Buffalo. I've come here to ask you to veto the nine-district-councilmember plan adopted by the Council in a seven-six vote. It's a bad plan for Buffalo and its citizens I believe, for four principal reasons:
Number one: Elimination of all councilpersons-at-large reduces not only the Council but the opportunity for all Buffalonians to have a greater voice in the choice of their representatives. Right now we have a voice in choosing five members of the Council—our district representative, the three councilpersons-at-large and the Council president. With the majority's plan, we have an opportunity to choose only one representative. It is a plan that is radically less democratic.
Number two: The at-large council members play a vital representative role in being beholden and answerable to the electorate at large and providing a system of checks and balances against the strong executive representation that I believe we should have in the city of Buffalo. Members of my Norwood avenue block club have often appealed to at-large Council members for assistance on issues important to our neighborhood. And that assistance has often been forthcoming from our at-large members even more so than from our district representatives.
Number three: Having a nine-member Council made up of only district representatives is a solution that lends itself to fragmentation and turf wars, another reason for retention of at least some councilpersons-at-large and rejection of the radical plan of the Council majority.
Number 4, and most important: any plan that is so divisive along racial lines as that proposed by the seven majority members of the Council and opposed by the six African-American members is bad for the city. This city cannot survive and prosper with the sort of racial division that the majority's plan has engendered, a radical plan that eliminates three African-American members of the Council in one fell swoop.
It is not too late to choose another course. The 11-member Council plan put forward by the commission appointed to consider an appropriate downsizing, has the virtue of eliminating only one at-large seat and one district seat. The people of the city should have an opportunity to vote on that plan. Reduction from a 13 to an 11-member council is less radical, more democratic, saves money and should be given a try. It is not worth the relative pittance in extra savings that the elimination of the two—that is, from 11 to 9—seats would cause when measured against the harm so destructive to the harmony and goodwill of our city as the nine-member plan voted on by the majority.
Mr Mayor, when you started this evening's proceedings, you said that you hoped we would come out of it more united as a city than before. I believe that the nine-member plan adopted by the Council majority would not accomplish your purpose to see a united city. And I might say, Mayor Masiello, I have always viewed you as someone I have always voted for because of your particular sensitivity to all members of this community, your ability to have comradeship with all members of the community. I think we should go back to the drawing board, at the very least, give the voters an opportunity to have a choice among plans. Thank you very much.
"I have political ambitions"
Robert Biniszkiewicz, real estate salesman
I have political ambitions. In fact, the truth of the matter is I intend to run for Common Council at-large in 2003. I've been planning to run for that for some time. And if the at-large positions are eliminated it presents a problem for me. The question for you, unfortunately for me, is not that, but whether it's good or bad for the city. And at the risk of cutting my own throat politically, Mr. Mayor, I want to argue with you that it is good for the city to cut this Council to nine members and I want to explain why.
First, I lived five years in the Fillmore district as an adult and I think it's important that that district has representation. Second, the Common Council presidency is a position that should be elected from within the Common Council. Every other level of government, from the United States Senate and Congress, to the New York State Assembly to Erie County legislature, the leadership is chosen from within that council, that body. It should be that for the city of Buffalo in order for the Common Council to have a working majority.
It has been expressed to you that it's racist to cut half the minority positions. I would like to explain to you that it is an accident of the law of averages that three out of the four positions are currently minority-held, and the reason is, in 1999 there were three white candidates, three African-Americans, and one Hispanic candidate. The three white candidates drew 5000 more votes, Mr. Mayor, than the three black candidates. What happened is, that there were three strong white candidates, they divided the vote evenly. There were two strong black candidates and one weak black candidate, and because of that two got more votes. It could just as easily have been two whites that were city-wide, one Hispanic, and no blacks except for Jim Pitts.
Lastly, even though it cuts my own throat politically, it will leave us a more racially balanced council in the future. Dave Franczyk signed his political death warrant with this proposal because the African-American community will be united in getting him out of office next year. The only reason he was able to get in this past time was because Karen Elkinton and Ron Fleming split the African-American vote, and that won't happen next time. Thank you.
"We should be too busy to hate"
Antoine Thompson ,Masten District Council member
...We did ask for other meetings to be conducted. A decision was made to cut us out of that process as well. We wrote letters to our mayor, we wrote letters to our colleagues asking for them to veto this plan, not to vote for this plan, and our prayers and our pleas fell on deaf ears....We ask you to do the right the right thing and not further divide this city. We should be too busy to hate and we should be too busy to be about this type of activity....
"…a Pontius Pilate moment"
Jim Anderson
...several Council members who have put you in a very, you heard it, it is a bad situation for you to be in. But leadership can survive in the face of this. You stand at what could be considered a Pontius Pilate moment. You can wash your hands and say, "I just did what the Council said do." But that is not noble leadership on your part. I would encourage you to be encouraged, to take that strong leadership role and veto this plan. Not because the Council needs to be downsized. The majority of people are not arguing that.
The real argument is centered on the fact that this is a devious plan served upon you and now trying to get you to serve it upon the people. Don't do that. Stop it now. Don't let this disease go any further. You can do it, mayor, and I call upon you to do it.
I further call upon you to do something else. Don't let this ill will that can come up because of political skirmishes that go on affect you now. It's hard to step out of it because, hey, we all come up in an atmosphere that says somebody hit me, hit him back. Don't hit him back. Take the noble step. Take the daring step that leaders are known to take. Be encouraged, mayor. You're the pivot point for this entire city right now, and everybody's pulling at you, wanting you to do this or do that. It does not yet appear what you will do. But I say be encouraged to know that if you veto this plan you have made the right move. You have allowed not only the Council but this whole city to go back and discuss what has been brought up and view the fact that we do need to downsize but we need a better plan.
We need a fair plan. It would have been more proper to bring the plan that the Citizen's Advisory Committee brought in the daylight, where everybody had a chance to participate, that was a fair and proper course. But they did not accept that. But this plan by the seven in the dark is not the plan for you to sign off on and serve it up to the citizens of this great city and say, "Okay, tell me what to do." Be encouraged, mayor. Veto this plan.
"…a devastating indictment of Martin Luther King…"
Richard Kern
I'm Richard Kern. I live on the West Side. I hadn't planned to come this evening. But I was watching on television and heard so many people praying I got worried about the safety of the rest of you. I decided to come down here and try to separate god and politics. They have to be kept far apart.
I'm deeply pained, actually, by this discussion, because as a long-time civil rights and housing activist I'm pained to hear so many people from the black community that I've known for a long time see this government so differently than I do. I believe that this discussion really is about broken government and about the demise of the civil rights vision. To think that forty-some years after the civil rights movement we have to think solely in terms of black versus white is a devastating indictment of Martin Luther King who dreamed that we could all someday live together and that the content of our character would determine our worth, not the color of our skin. And I really am pained that so many black people can say today, without shame, that skin color is so important. I know the pain the black community has gone through historically, and I'm very empathetic with that, but I think we have to get beyond that and talk about how any of us can represent all of us and be held accountable to do that.
And I guess that's why Bob Biniszkiewicz talked about his being in favor of downsizing in contraindication of his own interest. That may be true of me, too.
I am deeply angered at the demise of James Pitts's leadership. He started out as a very progressive politician a number of years ago, and now I view him as extremely obstructionist and actually practicing the politics of race in a way that is deeply destructive to poor people in this city of all colors.
MASIELLO: Excuse me for a second, Richard. I appreciate your comments, but I really think we should not get into personalities. Let's try to stay on the merits of the issue.
KERN: We're talking about race. Race is far more personal than anyone's name. The Council president, let me say.
MASIELLO: I'd rather not get into personalities, though. Let's stay on the merits of the issue, okay? I appreciate your—
KERN: I don't see how we can divorce this. Your personality is being tested on the recall initiative.
MASIELLO: That happens and I understand it and I have to deal with it. But I really—
KERN: Okay. Let's say, a leader of the Council I have watched engineer HUD monies into $150 million of reconstruction of public housing, apartments for the poor, in a city that is having a falling rate of home ownership, plummeting property values, diminished population, 25 thousand vacancies, and I am watching HUD corruption in this city being channeled into a racial politics agenda that I think is deeply destructive to poor people of all groups, and we have to challenge that.
This particular downsizing of the Council is far less than I would desire but I do believe that we have a culture in this city that the at-large positions have gotten into pursuing communities of favor. The Ellicott district has gotten massive infusions of poverty funds and yet remains one of the poorest and most segregated and lowest rates of home ownership in the city. And we have to look at the performance of the Council. The Council is eating up far more than the few hundred thousand that we're talking about because of the special interests the Council people get into. Particularly those at-large people. I have found those people of particularly little interest when it comes to the civil rights, housing and justice issues that I strive for. We need to downsize. This is painful. I would wish that we had five or seven districts. But let's start. We need to do something dramatic to give a message that this city is heading out of its rut of too much government, too much unaccountability, and too much corruption.
I've been prosecuted 12 times for exposing corruption. I know the corruption. Please change this government. Thank you.
"Franczyk's revenge"
Kamal Fields
I'm really here to advocate that this city needs a healing right now. This city is in bad shape. It's not dead, but it's definitely ill. Whether you talk about the deficits that this city is facing, whether you talk about the politics the city is facing, it's ill and it needs a healing. And I really suggest people need to take a deep breath and just think about what's being done to this city right now.
I'm really surprised, first of all, that we're here, because all leading up to this I heard you, Mr. Mayor, saying that you were an advocate of the downsizing, that you would sign anything that the Council put before us. So I'm surprised that you are allowing the citizenry of this city to speak its mind. I hope that you're listening and not just going through a process.
But this city needs a healing right now. This great Buffalo, this All-American City, this fifth most racist city, this City of Good Neighbors, it definitely needs a healing.
We've adhered to a lot of garbage, a lot of baggage, from old, old times. This whole issue of race is a bogus issue. There's one race, which is the human race. People need to get beyond this black/white thing, but we all grew up here in America so we deal with this black/white dialogue.
Get beyond that. This city really needs a healing.
I'm really not in favor of the way this whole issue came about. The person who spoke before me, you can see the white population as a victimizer, you have seven European-American descended people, so-called white people, sit in a room all by themselves and make a decision which negatively impacts a majority of people who they do not look like, then you can see how other people might kind of think that that had something to do with it.
Think about that. If seven African-Americans-descended came in a room and decided to eliminate half _________
I don't like the downsizing because of the way it was done. And I will remember my councilperson, who is Marc Coppola, who I respect and who I supported and who I voted for, for making what I think is an ill-thought-out decision.
When you sit as seven people with no representation—how could you sit in a city as diverse as this in an all-white room and take a decision for the people. How can you do that? How can you do that? It just does not make sense to me. And I think that people who have representatives who do not necessarily look like them—as I say, that whole issue of race is a specious thing in the first place. We're all part of the same human family. How you can sit and do that is beyond me.
So irregardless of whether you think it's a good plan or a bad plan, it is a plan that was done in the wrong way.
This is really what I call Franczyk's Revenge. And people signed on to Franczyk's Revenge because the committee that you recommended that he or his district be absorbed by other districts. And as his revenge, he comes up with this other plan. Other people signed on to Franczyk's Revenge. We had a wall that was built around the city, it was called Makowski's Folly. This is Franczyk's Folly. You can join it if you want, but you're going to reap the results of it.
This is really a time, and a lot of things have happened, this is a time when we had a presidential election that was the closest in history. Things like that give you a time to stop and think and reflect. But politics doesn't allow that. It says, "I got the small majority, let me go ahead and run with the bone. Run away with it from the other people." That's why we need more statesmen, more representatives, and less politicians in the whole process.
"Let's wage war against the street criminals"
A white man about 40 in black gold shirt and round wire rim glasses, moustache. I couldn't hear his name because the Adelphia Panel was talking when it was called.
I want to thank the mayor for the opportunity to appear tonight at this hearing. Basically I would urge the mayor to sign the Council redistributing plan. The majority of the Council has determined that this proposal should be considered by the people of this city. Please honor the will of the majority of the Council and the majority of the voters and citizens of the city who they represent. Let's get on with the vote and respect our democratic principles.
Secondly, let's stop talking about phoney changes of racism and start talking about improving necessary and essential city services, such as police protection, protection which is presently at dangerously low levels throughout our city. Let's work on rehiring the 32 laid-off police officers, redeveloping our outer harbor area. Let's wage war against the street criminals who are destroying our city. Let's rebuild our infrastructure: streets, sidewalks, water and sewer lines. And do the essential work that all local government is charged with. Please ignore the pleas of professional politicians who, for some unknown reason, could not find enough fat in the one-half billion dollar budget to fully fund our police department. Let the voters decide the issue. And if they approve it, let's move on. If they reject it, let's move on. Thanks very much.
"I'm very proud to be your mayor"
Mayor Anthony Masiello
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the public hearing this evening. The hearing started at six o'clock and it's going to end around nine o'clock.
I think, I don't think, I know what's on the hearts and minds of the people of this city really is about a better Buffalo, a Buffalo that works, a Buffalo that functions, a Buffalo that gives people hope and opportunity. And I'm very proud to be your mayor, especially after hearing what I heard today. Obviously we have problems. Obviously we have issues to be resolved. Obviously we all have to do a better job. This mayor, our council, the people in this room, others who are responsible citizens, all have to elevate their game, so to speak, to make this city a better city, a city that all of us can be proud of.
And this is a tough decision, and it won't be taken lightly. But I want all of you to know that tonight I'm proud of you, I'm encouraged by what you have said. I believe that our future is better because of you and others in this community who have spoken out on this issue, on both sides of this issue. And I know that people are going to be watching this very, very closely.
But I do think that the public tonight, watching this program on Adelphia, listening to it on WNED, reading about it tomorrow in the papers, I think will have a better understanding because the tone is different tonight. The tone is about what can we do together, what can we do to make it better, what can we do to all live in sync with one another. And as your mayor I'm going to do everything I can to bring out the best in all of us, to unite all of us, and to make this city work for future generations.
God bless all of you and thank you very much.
"You may not want to call it racism"
Rev. Robert E. Baines, Network of Religious Communities (on the Adelphia panel, after Masiello and everybody else went home)I think that we've heard the voice of the people and I hope all those that were listening heard well. I want to say that I think a lot of us wanted to say some nice public things, we don't want to call it racism, say that we are just that divided in the city of Buffalo. But the truth of the matter is that we do not know each other. We have not sat down and talked with each other. One would have to be totally blind and retarded not to see that this city, as old as it is, never elected a black mayor, never moved close to it. I ran for political office and I'm convinced that, and I'm saddened to say, that white people do not vote for black people on the whole. That's not the problem. The problem is we really, and even the people who are speaking here tonight, a lot of those people who were saying "there's no such thing as racism" wouldn't live next door to me...
…I don't want to sit here and say that we don't have a degree of bias and prejudice within our hearts. And that's okay. You don't have to live next door to me. But when you sit at a table and decide intentionally that you're going to program me out of the city budget or power or whatever it is, then that's evil. I don't have to particularly like your character, but I must respect who you are as a human being.
And when we have this kind of racism that we see in the city of Buffalo, and you may not want to call it racism. When we have this kind of polarization in the city of Buffalo, it hurts all of us. It hurts the white as well as the black. Because if you're going to hold me back, if I'm not going to be in the job with you, if I'm not going to have an even playing field, go to the same schools, and get the same kind of job after I go to school, you're going me now or pay me later. You're going to pay me, you're going to pay my children and you're going to pay my grandchildren, one after the other. We talk about welfare and millions of blacks on welfare and that sort of thing. I cannot teach my people that we have a level playing field and expect them to go out there and get into the real world and be pushed back and set aside.
And if we were to really tell the truth, that's there. For whatever reason it's there, it is. Whether it's "I don't know you, I haven't annexed myself to you, talked to you, really got to know you," that's why you mistrust me, then for whatever reason—it is.
We don't have to call it racism, we can call it difference, we can call it cultural, we can call it black, we can call it white, call it whatever you want to call it. We have a problem there.