When I took office as Buffalo’s mayor in 2006, I promised to work to revitalize our city, build a safer, smarter, stronger Buffalo and ensure that every community shares in our opportunity and success. And we’ve made incredible progress.
I love our city, and I believe all we’ve accomplished is at stake in this election. Please examine the difference between my experience and record, as we work for Buffalo’s continuing revival, versus an inexperienced radical socialist, who wants to undo many of the programs and initiatives we have successfully put in place to the benefit of all of our city’s residents.
We have grown our city for the first time in 70 years, with a population of more than 278,000. This will direct hundreds of millions of dollars to Buffalo more than the next 10 years. One of the reasons for this growth is that we kept Buffalo affordable. My administration reduced residential property tax rates in Buffalo by 16%, making it much easier for families to own homes. My opponent has pledged that she will raise taxes.
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Public safety has been a top priority for me, which is why my administration has worked hard to make Buffalo a safer city. We took more than 15,000 illegal guns off the streets. We hired 200 new police officers. We tore down more than 7,000 blighted vacant structures and installed hundreds of surveillance cameras. And by 2019, crime had decreased by more than 30%. We’ve created and deployed a specially trained behavioral health team to respond to mental health calls with mental health professionals alongside police officers.
All of our police officers are, and will continue to be, trained community police officers. We’ve worked to build the relationship between community and police because we know that when we work together, our neighborhoods are safer. My opponent has suggested cutting the police budget by $7.5 million, which would result in laying off 100 police officers. And she offers no detailed public safety plan whatsoever, just buzzwords and rhetoric.
Our city’s finances have stabilized, and we’ve enjoyed historic growth, with more than $8 billion of investment. We have allocated more than $200 million for infrastructure capital improvements since 2006, including paving and curb and sidewalk upgrades. We have returned cars to Main Street and rehabilitated commercial corridors in every neighborhood across the City of Buffalo.
We are spending the most money in Buffalo’s history on educating and providing employment opportunities for our youth. More than 24,000 children have completed our Summer Reading Program. We have provided millions for free college tuition for high school graduates, created 22,000 job opportunities through our Summer Youth Internship and Employment Program, funded an earn-while-you-learn program, and provided more than a billion dollars in direct funding to the Buffalo Public Schools.
Throughout the pandemic, the City of Buffalo facilitated direct aid for our local businesses through grants and programs, and we stood up a 100% virtual employment center with counseling, referrals and job placements.
The Beverly Gray Business Exchange Center serves as the region’s only dedicated business assistance center focused on minority-owned businesses. We’ve completed the first two phases of the Northland Workforce Training Center, a massive mixed-use development under construction on Northland Avenue, which is training residents for high-paying manufacturing jobs, while transforming an entire neighborhood on the East Side of Buffalo.
By investing in our community centers and cultural institutions, and by reimagining our parks and open spaces, we’ve enabled so much of this progress. The City of Buffalo has invested more than $77 million in parks and parks facilities since 2006, including courts, pools, rinks and splash pads, and we have built more than 100 miles of bicycle lanes.
My administration will continue to ensure that Buffalo is a world-class city for arts, culture, parks and recreation.
Buffalo has earned the designation of a Climate Smart city. The Buffalo Sewer Authority has issued a $50 million green bond to support sewer and water facility upgrades to improve the quality of our water treatment systems and increase our capacity to build green infrastructure.
Our award-winning Raincheck 2.0 program helps guide future city infrastructure investments that manages rainwater and takes on other environmental challenges in a more sustainable manner. We have invested in replacing old lead lines and increased the availability of healthy, affordable housing that Buffalo will need to serve our growing population in the future.
It would be my honor to continue to serve as your mayor in this next phase of recovery and revival. Together, we can build on our progress and continue to improve and strengthen every neighborhood in Buffalo. I am humbly asking for your vote on Tuesday, Nov. 2. Please write down Byron Brown!
