With the Democratic primary only weeks away, there were some harsh words exchanged Wednesday night during a Buffalo mayoral debate at The Buffalo News.
The crowd packed The News auditorium and flowed out into the lobby to watch on giant TV screens in an event sponsored by the Buffalo Association of Black Journalists and moderated by Al Vaughters of WIVB TV. All three candidate are men of color, something which has never happened here before.
The debate centered on troubled city schools, crime and violence, and issues of development. Republican candidate Sergio Rodriguez says he wants to see the mayor take over city schools in a system with a 47 percent graduation rate.
"It's unacceptable and it's not only African American males. One in four that graduate from the system. But also Hispanic males are also graduating one in four. So minorities, essentially what we are doing is creating a direct to jail pipeline when we are not graduating three out of four kids that are of color in the system. So we've got to stop that," Rodriguez said.
Mayor Brown says Albany would have to approve that kind of takeover, which it allowed New York City. Democratic challenger Bernie Tolbert wants more accountability, but chooses a different path to a mayoral voice.
"We have nine school board members, six of which are elected in the districts and three whom are elected at-large across the city. I'd say at a very minimum, the office of the mayor should have some input into that process. I would push for, at the very least, the mayor able to appoint three members, the three at-large members," Tolbert said.
There were clashes over crime statistics with Mayor Brown saying numbers used by Rodriguez and Tolbert were inaccurate. Rodriguez says Buffalo is listed by the FBI as the 11th most-dangerous city in the country, which makes life hard on kids.
"Homicides went up 40 percent last year. The year prior, shooting went up 70 percent," Rodriguez said.
"Mr Rodriguez's statistics on crime are just absolutely false. Violent crime with shootings has gone down by almost 40 percent from last year to the same period of time this year. Crime, overall, is down 7.5 percent from last year to the same period of time this year. And there are less homicides this year than the same period of time last year," Brown countered.
Rodriguez says he favors foot patrols by cops as one of the ways to deal with the crime problem, officers who get to know the people and the communities they patrol.
Tolbert says police don't report all crimes because the paperwork is so difficult. Mayor Brown also refuted that claim.
It was a different kind of mayoral debate, with active participation from the crowd in the auditorium commenting, cheering, and jeering much of what was said.
