Syracuse New Times
by Walt Shepperd
Jacob Roberts is registered in the Green Party. In 2000 he ran unsuccessfully as a Green Party candidate against state Sen. John DeFrancisco. On June 27 he approached the local Green Party nominating committee seeking their endorsement for this fall's mayoral race. He had a shot, since Howie Hawkins, whom the party ultimately endorsed, would rather have run for councilor-at-large. But Roberts told them he didn't want to run as a Green.
"I wanted to run a non-political race," Roberts said this week, "without the dogma of the national and international party. I'm more interested in creating a grass-roots, people-oriented Syracuse-specific campaign. They want to push the Green agenda."
A quick scan of Roberts' preliminary platform outline, however, reveals myriad echoes of that agenda. Neighborhood governing councils, neighborhood city halls with decentralized public services, an expanded common council, a municipal power authority and a priority on environmentalism have been Green Party cornerstones since it began organizing locally in 1989.
Roberts, who is running on the Youth Empowered Sustainability (YES!) ticket, proposes partnering with Destiny, while the Greens advocate public development. But the basic difference between Roberts' platform and the Greens' is that he wants a vibrant fun-filled downtown mecca and they want an extension of the living wage.
"I think we only need one Green running for mayor," Hawkins reflected in response to Roberts' announcement. "At first I thought he had the energy to go ahead, but he wanted to run as a YES! not as a Green and several of the folks on the committee thought it sounded like a lot of hype without any followup. First he's got to get on the ballot. He's starting late. I don't know what kind of organization he's got. All I know is the Republicans are badly split. The Rockefeller-Pataki Republicans on the East Side are not happy with {Joanie} Mahoney. The Republicans didn't even circulate petitions in the 17th Ward. Except for hardcore Democrats there's not a lot of excitement for {incumbent Democrat Mayor Matt} Driscoll. Nobody's happy with Niagara Mohawk so the issue of public power is getting a lot of good response. I'm finding that whether they agree with me or not, people respect the fact that I've been out there all this time raising the issues and we're getting more volunteers all the time."
Roberts, most notably a founder and one-time executive director of The Institution of a Now Culture (ThINC), said that after registering his campaign committee, treasurer and bank account with the county Board of Elections last week he is ready to start knocking on doors to collect the 1,500 signatures needed by Aug. 23 to secure a line on the Nov. 8 ballot. "For the past six months I've been meeting with a small but dedicated group of professionals from different fields, experts on different matters, who believe in the future of Syracuse," he noted. "This {campaign} is a continuation of a movement from my efforts in Syracuse, mostly through ThINC over the past decade. I want to create a bustling city with a small-town atmosphere with mom-and-pop stores. I think this campaign will resonate with 40 Below. I'm definitely carrying a torch for the 40-Belowers in this community; 40 Below was my baby, in response to the Richard Florida initiative. It got a little bit co-opted, turned into another young professionals group, but I went along for the ride."
Dan Young, a coordinator of 40 Below at the Metropolitan Development Association, credits Roberts as one of several people whose discussions at the Coffee Pavilion in the weeks following Florida's presentation resulted in the formation of 40 Below. But it's not a political organization, he cautioned. "40 Below is not publicly endorsing any mayoral candidate," he said. "We encourage a healthy discourse on the race at our meetings, but we want to focus on the key issues identified at our conference."
Posted by syracusegreens at August 3, 2005 02:50 AM