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City Hall Insider Latest to Join Mayoral Race

maxwell.syr.edu

Working on civic problems and city development projects has given Andrew Maxwell a vision of what Syracuse might become...and one he’d like to pursue as Mayor.  The current Director of the City Hall Innovation Office joined he race for Mayor Thursday. 

Maxwell lists quality of life, schools, public safety and creating opportunity as the thing she believes residents want most.  He acknowledges poverty is one of the biggest challenges, but says there is some progress through the New Hope Initiative that could be expanded upon.

“This is about bringing people and organizations together that have often worked in siloes in the past.  We need more focused efforts that are about collaborating and create more pathways to economic opportunities to the people that live here.  These are not things that can turn around quickly.  We’ve gotten to this point after decades of decline in the city.  It’s taken us years to get here; it’s going to take us years to get to a better place.”

In his innovation post, Maxwell works on one of the other pressing problems: Infrastructure.  He says creativity, data and new technologies will be needed, because government can no longer throw money at problems.  He believes some of the energy in development in Syracuse’s downtown can be harnessed to help other parts of the city.

“Now we need to be thinking about how we can scale that and see that success permeate throughout our neighborhoods.  We’ve begun to see some progress in that regard but we need to step that up.  That means having creativity in terms of how we as a city work through the business approval process.  That needs to be streamlined.  We need to focus on how we work with people in the private  sector.  Government can’t do everything.”

He says he finds many people who are working for a better city and who are committed to Syracuse’s growth.  Maxwell draws energy and motivation from that…and hopes perceptions of the city can turn around.

“People are concerned that their kids of their grandkids won’t stay that they won’t have the opportunities to stay.  We need to leverage our recent success to be a city that has more opportunity for people to do the things they want to do.  That’s the sort of city we need to be in terms of our creativity, where whatever it is that your passionate about, whatever it is that you want to do, you have an opportunity to grow it here and try it here.  That’s my vision for the city.”

Maxwell will be seeking Democratic Party backing.  He enters a field that includes Marty Masterpol, Laura LaVine, Alfonso Davis and Ben Walsh.

Chris Bolt, Ed.D. has proudly been covering the Central New York community and mentoring students for more than 30 years. His career in public media started as a student volunteer, then as a reporter/producer. He has been the news director for WAER since 1995. Dedicated to keeping local news coverage alive, Chris also has a passion for education, having trained, mentored and provided a platform for growth to more than a thousand students. Career highlights include having work appear on NPR, CBS, ABC and other news networks, winning numerous local and state journalism awards.