Rita Paniagua, who is running on the Democratic and Working Families Party line, is vying to keep her seat as an at-large member of the Syracuse Common Council.
Paniagua is facing Raquan Pride-Green, who is running on the Working Families Party line, and Chol Majok, who is running on the Democratic Party line.
Paniagua started in politics after joining the Spanish Action League in 2003, she said. She has previously served on the Syracuse City School District Board of Education.
How do you think that the city can up its housing capacity? How would you persuade the county and the state to solve this problem?
The city is doing a lot in terms of housing. There’s the Syracuse Surge, which is the program that was presented by our mayor, when he was first elected. Right now we are right in the process of developing what that is and that’s going to go on for years. You don’t restock housing in a city in two years. So that’s something that’s going to live for a while.
In terms of city council, how do we make sure that things are being addressed, you know, in an effective way for the city? We just need to make sure that we understand with our decisions, who are we affecting? Is it effective for how many people because sometimes it’s not about just a neighborhood or just us particularly because it’s what we think is best its what is best for the community and the numbers that we affect in it.
Do you think that safer streets and other anti violence programs are adequate? And how would you tackle juvenile crime and gun violence?
So I think that the Safer Streets Program after it went through all the, I mean, the reshaping of the program, and the involvement of collaborations throughout community agencies. It’s a pilot. Nothing is perfect, but we can certainly learn from what we see in this first round.
We’ll just make sure that we gather the data that we need to make this a very successful program. It will be re-evaluated and reassessed to see if it’s something that’s working. We haven’t—it’s not out there yet. So yeah, so we will see when it starts. There are also other programs like the Police Athletic League program that Jimmy Oliver runs through the Syracuse Police Department as well. And those are all very good initiatives that integrate the police and the community working together wherever we can find an instance where this happens. We’re creating unity within the community and the police force. And that’s very important.
How important do you view the issue of lack of reliable transportation in the city? How would you fix that?
The bus is going to be only $1. So it decreased the cost to get on the bus, so it’s better now. And they’re opening up a couple new routes. That will ease a little bit the problem that we have with transportation. There’s also the Bus Rapid Transit process that we are very much all aligned with, I think at Council, it I think it’s something that will bring a huge solution to the city.
How would ensure that the outcome from the I-81 and Blueprint 15 projects are fair and equitable?
So I-81 is a project that will be coming differently, we just don’t know when it’s already started in certain parts of the corridor. However, I don’t think that we’ll see many changes within the next two or three years. I did support the grid, the community grid at all times. I think that right there will bring a lot of traffic to the city where we’re gonna see a lot more business within the restaurants, stores, and the community in general. From new people coming into the city to spend their money, it will increase our tax base. It will increase the prosperity of our businesses. So those are all good things for the city and the business community.
Blueprint 15 will bring another asset to the city and will bring solutions to housing and commerce.
When they do start, how could you ensure as an at-large counselor that the projects are fair and equitable?
That’s not an at-large counselor-only decision (to make the projects fair and equitable). A lot of people are involved in a decision like that. You were asking before about how the county and the city work together, that’s one that’s a place where we definitely need to work together. The best thing to do is to be well informed. So that decisions that are coming down are also well-informed so that we can make sure that we are effective in what’s going to be affecting the community and the city in general.
What are the strengths of the city? And how would you utilize them as the at large counselor?
So I think that one of the things that brings the most strength to our cities is the diversity in the city and the way that our communities are. The influx of our immigrants and the people living in the city, the residents, right, that come from other countries is one of our biggest assets. I think that there is a lot to be learned from each other.
It brings a lot to our education system as well. We are a medium-sized city, and our numbers in residents has not changed for a while. Lately, it’s grown a little bit. But the city when we are in a crisis, we all come together, and we face the crisis as one community. And those are all assets. Because we can count on each other to bring solutions to whatever that may be.
How would you plan to address the lead poisoning issues in houses across the city?
So right now, I am part of the city and county LeadSafe coalition. And we’re working very hard to bring programs into the cities and city residents, where we are doing home inspections, education, testing, all kinds of initiatives to make sure that we are addressing the lead poisoning in the city.
Just yesterday, we were having that conversation with the Tenants Union Association as well. And the one thing that sometimes we encounter, I think more than we would like, it’s the fact that in some of the communities that are highly affected by lead are communities where English is not the first language and we’re being very challenged with that.
We’re trying to work through this problem, hoping we can integrate to the mix interpretation services and maybe work with the agencies in these neighborhoods that know the residents already. So we can serve the people in these communities. If we go to the place they trust to be served, I think we’ll have a better outcome.
