Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo's Independent candidate for Mayor, Michael Gainer, joined WBEN on Friday to share his vision on current issues facing the city.
Crime
"What has been happening for the last 20 years is not working," Gainer said, "Yes non-violent crimes such as burglaries and car thefts are troublesome and problematic. But violent crime, across the board, is significantly lower in almost every category. It's less a crime crisis and more an economic crisis and shines a light on one of the pillars of my platform. We have to significantly invest in our communities."
Republican James Gardener calls crime the No. 1 issue on the ballot. Sean Ryan says quality of life crimes remain stubbornly high and a renewed effort is needed toward prevention and and solving these crimes.
Gainer is an educator, community organizer, and a small business owner. He says living on the East Side for 20 years, he sees a dramatic need for young adult training programs.
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Bond battle
Gainer says he's not exactly sure how it got to the point where the Comptroller and the Mayor ended up in court over the bonding of capital improvement projects.
"This was an opportunity to get reimbursable money into the pipeline to get some infrastructure projects done that are necessary and needed at very little cost to the taxpayer," he said.
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Kensington Expressway
What should happen? Or will anything happen?
"Something will absolutely happen," said Gainer. "You can guarantee it if I'm elected the next Mayor. It's going to be transformative."
The State Department of Transportation recently announced a complete reset on a project to tunnel a portion of the expressway.
Gainer says he's been studying the 33 project for two and a half years as well as traffic data.
"We need to figure out how to take cars off of a highway and put them on commercial streets where they can support economic opportunity for the East Side community," he said.
He added that commercial corridors such as Genesee Street, Seneca, Broadway, Fillmore and Kensington Avenues need significant investments.
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