Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin brought his campaign for New York governor to Albany on Friday. Keeping his focus on public safety as he runs against Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, Zeldin appeared at a pizzeria on Ontario Street — in a neighborhood that has struggled with a raft of shootings and other crime in recent months. Polls show crime is one of the top issues on voters’ minds in the midterm elections, but Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan says Zeldin’s approach misses the mark. Sheehan, a third-term Democrat who supports Hochul’s campaign, spoke with WAMC’s Ian Pickus.
I certainly think that it is important that we address issues that are impacting our city and we are looking for partners who will ensure that we have the measures in place that we need and the funding in place that we need in order to deliver on public safety. And quite candidly, Lee Zeldin has not been there for us as a congressperson. He, you know, has not addressed the scourge of illegally trafficked guns that are being trafficked over state lines. He voted against the rescue plan, which provided funding that went directly to our first responders in order to compensate them for all of their hard work during the pandemic, that was something he voted against. And so, you know, we're really working on solutions and I'm really pleased with the work that we're doing with the business owners on Ontario and in that area, their response, their acknowledgement that we all have to work on public safety together and we are implementing strategies as we speak to address some of the issues that they raised, and some of the concerns that they had. So, we're working on it here on the street, you know, at the local level, and what we really need is support at the federal level to have common sense gun laws, and to ensure that we have funding for our first responders.
What are those strategies that you're implementing?
So, some of the things that we heard from the business owners was that after school lets out, after the high school lets out, there are young people who are coming to the park and you know, that they had some concerns about some of the behaviors that they were engaging in. And so, we have rec aides that are now going to that park after school hours to engage with the youth, to talk to them about what they want to do, in order to be able to have after school activity there, as well as connect them with after school activities for when the colder weather hits, and you're not going to be able to go to the park and play basketball. We want to be able to ensure that they have a safe place to go after school, and are working with them to get an understanding of whether it's the Boys & Girls Club, the boxing gym, you know, what are their interests? And so, you know, that really goes a long way in helping to send a message to our young people that we care about them, and we want them to be engaged, we want them to use our parks, we want them to be engaged in healthy activities. And it's also, you know, having that presence there. It doesn't always have to be a police officer, you know, having other adults who are in the community engaging with people who are in that park has really created an environment there that shifted almost immediately. So, you know, that's one of the things that we are one of the ways that we are addressing the concerns that we've heard.
This is a neighborhood that saw a big problem with crowd control among college students, especially early in the semester, this is late summer, and you said, you know, this basically can't continue. Have things improved since that one, especially very busy weekend where nearby, as police were trying to corral a large group of college students late overnight, there was a separate shooting?
Yes, we have seen a very significant reduction in those large gatherings. And, you know, Ian, this is a tale as old as time. Large gatherings in this neighborhood have been happening for decades. We, you know, we had the famous “kegs and eggs,” but that wasn't the first time that there was an issue with large parties in this neighborhood. And so, we are constantly reeducating every new class that comes in, you know, these are college students and they transition in and transition out. And so, we work really closely with the colleges. We know that we have to ensure that we are educating students about what is and is not allowed in the neighborhood. What is and is not really safe for a neighborhood. Irrespective of gun violence, you know, these large crowds that are blocking the streets are creating safety issues for those who are blocking the streets as well as those living in the houses in and around that area. And so, it's a constant education effort, and we work, as I said, very closely with our university partners. They've been outstanding in getting the word out about what our expectations are for those who live in that neighborhood.
Back to Zeldin for a second. If I could paraphrase what he's been campaigning on, he says, you know, Democrats are in control in New York State and in many of the cities like yours, Albany, and the policies have not worked to decrease crime or you know, the spike in shootings that's gone on for the last couple of years. How would you respond to that?
Well, we are decreasing the number of shootings in our city. We have taken more and more illegal guns off the streets. We are working with our community partners to address violence, and we need for those who are in Washington to recognize and understand that the decisions that they make, or the lack of action that they take has a direct impact in our communities. And so, I would say to him, what is your answer in Washington to the fact that we have taken a record number of illegal guns off the streets? 70% of them traffic here from outside of the state. We have common sense gun laws here in New York State. If you look at our state, compared to other states, our per capita use of guns and gun deaths, demonstrates that. We are on the low end across the country of gun deaths per capita. But we need to have common sense gun laws across the country, where in order to purchase a gun, you have to register it, you have to have safety training and we have to be able to track those guns. And that is what we need people like Congressman Zeldin to be doing in Washington, and it is very frustrating for local elected officials who have been sounding the alarm on this for years to continue to have a lack of action in Washington to address these issues.
Do you think crime and bail reform are political liabilities for Democrats next month?
Look, I think that Democrats want our communities to be safe and I don't know of a single mayor, that is not focused on creating a safe community. And we also want for our communities to be able to respond to the needs that our residents have and the concerns that they have. And you know, to continue to focus on simply law enforcement, we know that that that is not going to address all of the issues that we are seeing in our community. So, we have to look at the stressors and the challenges that our families are facing every day. And that is, you know, access to affordable housing, access to good jobs, access to health care, you know, these are the challenges that are causing stress and anxiety in our families at this very moment. And so yes, we need to focus on getting guns off the street, which we are doing. We need to focus on arresting people who are engaging in violent behavior, which we are doing. But we also need to address the other issues that impact our neighborhoods and the lack of action in Washington is incredibly frustrating. And so, that is the broader conversation that we need to have. We want to talk about, how do we prevent violence? We need to look at our schools, we need to look at workforce training, we need to look at childcare, which is right now in a crisis situation, we need to look at the lack of access to mental health services, which is a crisis in this country. Public Safety alone and simply funding police departments will not get us where we need to be and that is the conversation that Democrats want to have because I don't want to give people some false hope that by simply having more police on the streets, we can solve all of these problems. You know, that is not the case. We have to fix our healthcare system. We have to fix our childcare system and we can do it. I'm very optimistic about our ability to do it. And that is got to be part of the conversation, because when we talk about safe communities, that's a really important part of keeping a community safe.
