The Platform
Housing Justice for All
In partnership with leading housing advocates like the City Wide Tenant Union and the Rochester Alliance for Housing Affordability, we plan to keep our communities together by working to prevent evictions, create low barrier shelters and increase the affordable housing stock. Our neighbors deserve to be housed with dignity in homes free from dangerous code violations and slumlords. We also plan to make investments in free home repairs for homeowners to ensure their properties remain safe and up to code.
Reimagine Public Safety
The bottom line is that the system of policing in place in our city today leaves our community feeling unsafe. We need new tools for creating public safety beyond policing, by creating crisis response units staffed with mental health counselors, peers, community health workers, food access providers, and safe housing. Additionally, investments to existing programs like Advance Peace and Pathways to Peace will ensure that we’re providing violence prevention services responsive to our unique community needs.
Energy Democracy
For too long Rochester residents have paid too much for gas and electrical services. It’s time to transform RG&E into a community-owned utility, in order to reduce bills, avoid shut-offs, and invest RG&E’s $108 Million in yearly profits back to the region, while creating local union jobs and a renewable energy transition for all.
Transparent and Accountable Leadership
Over the last few years we have seen the complete collapse of trust and accountability between the citizens of our city and their elected leaders. The People’s Council will institutionalize new forms of leadership grounded in transparency, to ensure all decisions we make are in direct conversation with our constituents, and no question goes unanswered.
Refund Rochester
The public services our citizens rely on have been underfunded for far too long, while the budget for policing has skyrocketed over the last 20 years. Our city deserves a refund: to put money back into essential social services like public schools, public housing, mental health counseling, by reallocating funds from the bloated police budget.