We should campaign in our cities for municipal development banks, public versions of Mondragon's co-op bank, the Caja Laboral Popular Sociedad Cooperativa de Credito, which would provide technical assistance and financing to develop co-ops and other community-owned businesses in our cities.

Full paper at: http://community-wealth.org/content/municipal-development-bank

From Howie Hawkins' 2005 campaign for Mayor

Sustainable Syracuse Vision Maps and Drawings

Public power may be most popular plank in the Green platform. But whether we build Destiny USA or a Sustainable Syracuse is the most important issue facing the voters in this election. The decisions around this issue will shape Syracuse for a generation.

Both major party mayoral candidates, Driscoll and Mahoney, support the Destiny USA project. The Green Party opposes the Destiny USA project because it subsidizes a private developer to be the city's planner. Its marketing hype about powering it with renewables does not change its basic character as anti-ecological monument to sprawl and consumerism that depends on exploiting cheap labor and natural resources the world over. Destiny USA would make Syracuse itself a barracks for low-wage workers who service upscale tourists.

from the 2005 campaign for Mayor

High levels of poverty and unemployment have become entrenched in recent decades as service and retail jobs have replace many of the jobs in manufacturing. These problems are more concentrated among, but not exclusive to, African Americans and other people of color in Syracuse .

Without basic changes in how Syracuse approaches economic development and shares its benefits, there is no reason to believe poverty and unemployment in the city will be reduced. Syracuse needs a new approach.