Making Syracuse More Affordable
We need to invest in building more affordable housing in the City of Syracuse— not just luxury apartments. Policies that lead to the construction of more housing that would bring down costs include: rezoning the city for more multi-family/higher density units, removing parking requirements for housing, reducing lot size requirements, and taxing under-utilized spaces like parking lots.
Since 1980, the wealth of the top 0.1% has almost doubled, while the working and middle classes have seen almost no increase in wealth. This is because CEOs and corporate executives are hoarding profits for themselves, when this money should be in the hands of the working and middle classes. We need to have a union worker on the Common Council to support unions in getting more worker pay.
On Day 1, I’ll be sure to get Good Cause Eviction back on the Council’s agenda and doing everything I can to get it passed. This policy would protect renters from unfair price hikes and evictions. We also need to ban landlords from using AI pricing software that artificially inflates rents. Finally, we need to get landlords to put their properties on the rental registry and enforce code violations.
Investing in renewable energy just makes sense— it’s not only cheaper than fossil fuels, but also doesn’t pollute our atmosphere and worsen the climate change crisis. Furthermore, if Syracuse experiences climate-related damages, we need to hold fossil fuel companies responsible and be sure they pay their fair share.