2025 election Q&A: Syracuse Common Council at-large candidate Hanah Ehrenreich

Ehrenreich, a Syracuse native who recently moved back to the city, will appear on the ballot under the Democratic Party line. 

She is running for one of the two at-large seats alongside fellow Democrat incumbent Rasheada Caldwell. They do not have a Republican opponent.

For Ehrenreich — a longtime nonprofit leader and the former director of development at the Jowonio School, an alternative, nonprofit school that aims to bring an individualized approach to education for preschool children — investments in infrastructure, proactive climate action, and a thriving New American community are all key to Syracuse’s future.

“That brings Syracuse into a new and sustainable urban life,” she said. “I believe in a bright future for Syracuse, and I want to work with communities to build that.”

Ehrenreich is a self-described progressive policymaker, a Westcott resident, a Nottingham High School graduate, and a mother. 

She has been endorsed by the Working Families Party of New York, the Onondaga County Democratic Committee, Eleanor’s Legacy, a nonprofit that supports women running for office on a pro-choice platform, and the Upstate Progressive PAC.

Her father — Ron Ehrenreich, the founding CEO of the nonprofit development organization and credit union Syracuse Cooperative Federal Credit Union — was the vice presidential candidate for the Socialist Party USA in the 1988 presidential election, as the running mate of Willa Kenoyer. 

Central Current asked Ehrenreich five questions about the issues facing the district and the city as a whole. Below are her responses:

Central Current: How would you vote on good cause eviction legislation if brought to the council for a vote tomorrow? 

Hanah Ehrenreich: I would vote to affirm Good Cause Eviction. The conversations that I’ve been having with landlords and with [New York State Tenant Bloc] and with the housing development community in Syracuse show that we need both assistance to create good quality housing and universal protection for renters. 

The additional housing supply has to be dense. It needs to be aligned with transportation priorities. It needs to be walkable. It needs to be people friendly, and it needs to have onramps for a wide variety of income levels — both to own and to rent. 

In terms of tenant protections we need, across the board, people to understand that they have rights, and we also need to help landlords that might be in over their head with aging infrastructure to repair that so we can continue to have good quality housing available for all people in this city. 

Central Current: How will you find millions in revenue to address the potential multi-million dollar fiscal cliff the city could be facing this next budgetary cycle?

Ehrenreich: We have to invest our current city money in areas that create revenue for the city, and we need to protect our citizens by engaging with businesses that are not currently paying into city tax structures. 

I also truly believe that the path to self sustainability for the city lies in home ownership and collaborative partnership. I think that there are partnerships that we can build with state entities, that we can build with nonprofit entities, and that we can build with for-profit entities that will provide sustainable funding for quality city services. 

People want good roads. People want on-time and manageable trash pickup services. People want great schools. People want a walkable, vibrant city filled with arts and music, and I think that we have the ability to provide those things. I think that we have good people working toward it. But we can do even better, we can bring the ideas that citizens have that they’ve channeled to the representatives to fruition. I’m looking forward to working on that.

Central Current: The city has a backlog of properties in the foreclosure process that could help the Greater Syracuse Land Bank and other housing partners rehabilitate and build new housing. How will you help speed this up?

Ehrenreich: I’m going to be upfront that I need to do a little more research, and I haven’t yet sat down with Katelyn Wright, who is the director of the Land Bank. I have also not yet sat down with the corporation counsel or the lawyer that the Common Council has engaged. I’m not sure where the road blocks are. 

Having worked at cooperative federal, a foreclosure process is, generally speaking, lengthy. It’s not an overnight, easy snap of the fingers. I don’t know why this process is taking longer than anticipated, or if there is an easier method of grouping methodology. I’m sure that the city is dotting the i(s) crossing the t(s). I want the Land Bank to succeed as much as anyone does. 

I’m still learning this process, but it seems like there are ways that we can put city money to work, both freeing up properties for purchase by concerned neighbors, engaged citizens, families looking to locate together, as well as doing our due diligence by law to make sure that we are not disenfranchising property in a way that is terribly illegal.

Central Current: Mayor Ben Walsh established protections and policies aimed at safeguarding Syracuse residents from over-encroaching surveillance technology in his 2020 Surveillance Technology Executive Order. 

The protections, though, are not codified into city law, meaning that a future mayor could strip the safeguards and set the stage for unrestricted and potentially intrusive and dangerous use of these technologies. Will you codify the protections and policies established in Walsh’s Surveillance Technology Executive Order?

Ehrenreich: I need to understand more specifically what those regulations were before I can promise to codify them, but I will say very strongly that I am aware of the abuses in other communities, of Flock Technology, of ShotSpotter, and other methods that we use here in the city that can pose a danger to the rights to privacy. And also to the ability to safely access to health care of members of our community, and I want to be firmly on the side that I don’t believe in surveillance states. 

I don’t believe that people should be surveilled going about their regular daily lives, and I am firmly behind the Syracuse Police Department in terms of having technology that reduces harm and that protects officers of the law. But all of our technology needs to work together to protect our citizens.

Central Current: Now that the dust has settled, how would you evaluate the Council’s decisions during this year’s budget battle with the City of Syracuse? Do you stand by the cuts the Council made?

Ehrenreich: I have talked to people on both sides of the budget skirmish, and I think what it comes down to is we could not afford a $27 million deficit budget. We also cannot afford to cut areas that provide revenue to the city. 

It seems like we need a much more collaborative relationship and free exchange of ideas in some way to prevent this from happening again. I don’t believe that we can afford deficit budgets. We also have to have a phased approach to growing city revenue and reducing those deficits. 

I don’t believe in magic bullet solutions. I think that we’ve got a lot of smart, talented people working at city hall, and a lot of dedicated people on city council who are trying to do the right thing. 

So I would not have done it the way the Common Council did. I am going to be facing this exact same thing in May of this coming year, and I hope to do it better. I hope we can talk better. I talk more collaboratively, and to better effect, with the city government, we have to work together. There’s no other way to protect the city from the budget shortfalls that we’re facing.

Democratic Socialist Hanah Ehrenreich is running for an at-large seat on the Syracuse Common Council, aiming to build a bright future for the city.

Ehrenreich, a Syracuse native who recently moved back to the city, will appear on the ballot under the Democratic Party line. 

She is running for one of the two at-large seats alongside fellow Democrat incumbent Rasheada Caldwell. They do not have a Republican opponent.

For Ehrenreich — a longtime nonprofit leader and the former director of development at the Jowonio School, an alternative, nonprofit school that aims to bring an individualized approach to education for preschool children — investments in infrastructure, proactive climate action, and a thriving New American community are all key to Syracuse’s future.

“That brings Syracuse into a new and sustainable urban life,” she said. “I believe in a bright future for Syracuse, and I want to work with communities to build that.”

Ehrenreich is a self-described progressive policymaker, a Westcott resident, a Nottingham High School graduate, and a mother. 

She has been endorsed by the Working Families Party of New York, the Onondaga County Democratic Committee, Eleanor’s Legacy, a nonprofit that supports women running for office on a pro-choice platform, and the Upstate Progressive PAC.

Her father — Ron Ehrenreich, the founding CEO of the nonprofit development organization and credit union Syracuse Cooperative Federal Credit Union — was the vice presidential candidate for the Socialist Party USA in the 1988 presidential election, as the running mate of Willa Kenoyer. 

Central Current asked Ehrenreich five questions about the issues facing the district and the city as a whole. Below are her responses:

Central Current: How would you vote on good cause eviction legislation if brought to the council for a vote tomorrow? 

Hanah Ehrenreich: I would vote to affirm Good Cause Eviction. The conversations that I’ve been having with landlords and with [New York State Tenant Bloc] and with the housing development community in Syracuse show that we need both assistance to create good quality housing and universal protection for renters. 

The additional housing supply has to be dense. It needs to be aligned with transportation priorities. It needs to be walkable. It needs to be people friendly, and it needs to have onramps for a wide variety of income levels — both to own and to rent. 

In terms of tenant protections we need, across the board, people to understand that they have rights, and we also need to help landlords that might be in over their head with aging infrastructure to repair that so we can continue to have good quality housing available for all people in this city. 

Central Current: How will you find millions in revenue to address the potential multi-million dollar fiscal cliff the city could be facing this next budgetary cycle?

Ehrenreich: We have to invest our current city money in areas that create revenue for the city, and we need to protect our citizens by engaging with businesses that are not currently paying into city tax structures. 

I also truly believe that the path to self sustainability for the city lies in home ownership and collaborative partnership. I think that there are partnerships that we can build with state entities, that we can build with nonprofit entities, and that we can build with for-profit entities that will provide sustainable funding for quality city services. 

People want good roads. People want on-time and manageable trash pickup services. People want great schools. People want a walkable, vibrant city filled with arts and music, and I think that we have the ability to provide those things. I think that we have good people working toward it. But we can do even better, we can bring the ideas that citizens have that they’ve channeled to the representatives to fruition. I’m looking forward to working on that.

Central Current: The city has a backlog of properties in the foreclosure process that could help the Greater Syracuse Land Bank and other housing partners rehabilitate and build new housing. How will you help speed this up?

Ehrenreich: I’m going to be upfront that I need to do a little more research, and I haven’t yet sat down with Katelyn Wright, who is the director of the Land Bank. I have also not yet sat down with the corporation counsel or the lawyer that the Common Council has engaged. I’m not sure where the road blocks are. 

Having worked at cooperative federal, a foreclosure process is, generally speaking, lengthy. It’s not an overnight, easy snap of the fingers. I don’t know why this process is taking longer than anticipated, or if there is an easier method of grouping methodology. I’m sure that the city is dotting the i(s) crossing the t(s). I want the Land Bank to succeed as much as anyone does. 

I’m still learning this process, but it seems like there are ways that we can put city money to work, both freeing up properties for purchase by concerned neighbors, engaged citizens, families looking to locate together, as well as doing our due diligence by law to make sure that we are not disenfranchising property in a way that is terribly illegal.

Central Current: Mayor Ben Walsh established protections and policies aimed at safeguarding Syracuse residents from over-encroaching surveillance technology in his 2020 Surveillance Technology Executive Order. 

The protections, though, are not codified into city law, meaning that a future mayor could strip the safeguards and set the stage for unrestricted and potentially intrusive and dangerous use of these technologies. Will you codify the protections and policies established in Walsh’s Surveillance Technology Executive Order?

Ehrenreich: I need to understand more specifically what those regulations were before I can promise to codify them, but I will say very strongly that I am aware of the abuses in other communities, of Flock Technology, of ShotSpotter, and other methods that we use here in the city that can pose a danger to the rights to privacy. And also to the ability to safely access to health care of members of our community, and I want to be firmly on the side that I don’t believe in surveillance states. 

I don’t believe that people should be surveilled going about their regular daily lives, and I am firmly behind the Syracuse Police Department in terms of having technology that reduces harm and that protects officers of the law. But all of our technology needs to work together to protect our citizens.

Central Current: Now that the dust has settled, how would you evaluate the Council’s decisions during this year’s budget battle with the City of Syracuse? Do you stand by the cuts the Council made?

Ehrenreich: I have talked to people on both sides of the budget skirmish, and I think what it comes down to is we could not afford a $27 million deficit budget. We also cannot afford to cut areas that provide revenue to the city. 

It seems like we need a much more collaborative relationship and free exchange of ideas in some way to prevent this from happening again. I don’t believe that we can afford deficit budgets. We also have to have a phased approach to growing city revenue and reducing those deficits. 

I don’t believe in magic bullet solutions. I think that we’ve got a lot of smart, talented people working at city hall, and a lot of dedicated people on city council who are trying to do the right thing. 

So I would not have done it the way the Common Council did. I am going to be facing this exact same thing in May of this coming year, and I hope to do it better. I hope we can talk better. I talk more collaboratively, and to better effect, with the city government, we have to work together. There’s no other way to protect the city from the budget shortfalls that we’re facing.