Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: It beats listening to nothing.
Speaker 3: My goodness, it's Frank being Frank fright, where the only
Speaker 3: way to be is Frank. Hello everyone, and welcome to
Speaker 3: being Frank. We're the only way to be is Frank.
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Franklborn, and i'd like to thank you
Speaker 3: for joining us on what we like to call the
Speaker 3: Intelligent Conversation Podcast, where no conversation is out of bounds
Speaker 3: and all points of view are welcome. Those familiar with
Speaker 3: the program know the routine. I give you the dates
Speaker 3: so you have some context and relevance. It is the
Speaker 3: seventeenth of December, well on the way into the holiday season.
Speaker 3: The Happy Hanuka to everyone, and sooner Merry Christmas, whatever
Speaker 3: holiday you choose to celebrate. Former Speaker of the House
Speaker 3: Tip O'Neil is most famously associated with the phrase all
Speaker 3: politics is local. Of course, by that he meant that
Speaker 3: no matter how high the office is, it all boils
Speaker 3: down to the people and if their basic needs are
Speaker 3: being met or not by a candidate. Perhaps that's why
Speaker 3: local elections are the most important of all. It is
Speaker 3: these people that we elect that will ultimately have the
Speaker 3: most effect on our daily lives. It's also become cliche
Speaker 3: to say this is the most important election of our lives.
Speaker 3: But I find that to be trite because every election
Speaker 3: is important, and more than fifty years of voting, I've
Speaker 3: never missed it's that important, and certainly, considering the sea
Speaker 3: change we are witnessing on the federal level, every election
Speaker 3: does take on additional importance. One of those key local
Speaker 3: elections is the New York State thirty eighth Senatorial District
Speaker 3: that consists of most of Rockland County, the exception being
Speaker 3: Stony Point. It pits GOP incumbent Bill Weber versus his
Speaker 3: Democratic challenger, the current mayor of Nyak, New York, Joe Rand.
Speaker 3: We have invited mister Rand to join us for some
Speaker 3: intelligent conversation on the most important issues in this race.
Speaker 3: Let me introduce you to Joe Rand. He is the
Speaker 3: mayor of the village of Niak, New York, also serving
Speaker 3: as both a trustee and deputy mayor since twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: As mayor, he was responsible for securing the highly competitive
Speaker 3: four point five million New York Forward Downtown Revitalization Grant,
Speaker 3: as well as millions in other federal, state and County
Speaker 3: grants to build sidewalks, upgrades the village fleet, and remake
Speaker 3: Memorial Park. He also has an extensive professional background as
Speaker 3: the chief creative officer of the RAND Realty Brokerage, which
Speaker 3: last year helped consumers sell six thousand homes worth over
Speaker 3: three billion dollars in value throughout the Tri state area.
Speaker 3: He is also a civic leader, educator, and author whose
Speaker 3: career SPAN's municipal government, real estate, higher education, and non
Speaker 3: profit service. A resident of Rockland County for more than
Speaker 3: thirty five years, Rand has built a reputation for pragmatic leadership,
Speaker 3: innovative problem solving in a deep commitment to strengthening the
Speaker 3: communities he serves. Mister Mayer, Joe Ryan, thank you so
Speaker 3: much for joining us here on being front.
Speaker 1: Hi. It's my pleasure, Frank to be here. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. It's good to be back. Joe.
Speaker 3: Let's look talk a little bit again. You have very
Speaker 3: very background, as we mentioned, How did you first go
Speaker 3: from real estate to basically business to politics. How did
Speaker 3: you make that transition?
Speaker 1: Well, you know how they say timing is everything right,
Speaker 1: And what happened with me was that in September of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty right is the COVID restrictions were winding down,
Speaker 1: we did a deal. I've been in the real estate business.
Speaker 1: I was in the business for twenty years, but when
Speaker 1: I got out of college, I got a law degree.
Speaker 1: I then was a law clerk. I worked as a
Speaker 1: law professor, and then got in two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: I got pulled into my real estate company, my family's
Speaker 1: real estate company, to work with them. I did marketing,
Speaker 1: I did legal, I did training and education and compliance
Speaker 1: and things like that, and we built a company. We
Speaker 1: had a wonderful run, turned it to like ten times
Speaker 1: the size it was when I got there, my brothers
Speaker 1: and I and my mother who had founded the company.
Speaker 1: And then twenty twenty, I decided to get out. I'd
Speaker 1: been doing it enough on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1: I've been living or dying with every house sale, and
Speaker 1: it just got so stressful. So we sold part of
Speaker 1: the company. I sold most of my interests out. I
Speaker 1: kept some, so I still have an interest in the
Speaker 1: family company, and I still rooting for them, and I'm
Speaker 1: doing some work with them periodically. But I got out
Speaker 1: of the day to day which was really grinding me,
Speaker 1: and I was going to do a lot of speaking.
Speaker 1: I had written two books in real estate. I was
Speaker 1: getting invited to speak at associations and brokers across the country.
Speaker 1: I was making good money doing that. In the midst
Speaker 1: of that, Elijah Wright with the Milly got elected to
Speaker 1: the state Senate and he was a trustee in Nayak,
Speaker 1: and it left a spot open on the board of trustees.
Speaker 1: And right around that same time, the board of Trustees
Speaker 1: of South Nayak had put themselves in a position where
Speaker 1: they had to dissolve the entire village. A village with
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty year history got dissolved in the
Speaker 1: span of about six months because of mismanagement by the
Speaker 1: administration there, and it was really sad. And I saw
Speaker 1: what had happened in South Nike, and I didn't want
Speaker 1: to see what happened tonight. So I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I really should get involved, because I think I'm good
Speaker 1: at what I do, and I think i'd be good
Speaker 1: at it and I could make sure that where I
Speaker 1: live is well taken care of. So I went to
Speaker 1: Don Hammond, it was the mayor, and I volunteered for
Speaker 1: the position. And there were a bunch of very good
Speaker 1: people who volunteered, but he chose me. I then finished
Speaker 1: out that term. I got elected that fall in twenty one,
Speaker 1: got elected again in twenty three, and then when he
Speaker 1: stepped down he retired, I decided to run from mayor.
Speaker 1: I got elected two years and got reelected last month.
Speaker 1: And I really that was why I got involved. It
Speaker 1: was really about the fact that I want to protect
Speaker 1: where I live.
Speaker 3: I really, did you know, Joe, considering the state of
Speaker 3: local politics and my old TKR days, I had some
Speaker 3: involvement with it and realized it's tougher that most people realize.
Speaker 3: So some might say you went from the stress of
Speaker 3: of the frying pan and jumped into the fire.
Speaker 1: Yes, there's a lot of that. Well, I'll give you
Speaker 1: an example. I'll give you an example that you know.
Speaker 1: We ran the real estate company. It was actually like
Speaker 1: four or five companies. It was real estate, mortgage, title insurance,
Speaker 1: and they're all Every month we have the P and L,
Speaker 1: and every month we have a big monthly nut to
Speaker 1: hit to pay all the employees, to pay for all
Speaker 1: the facilities, and to pay all the marketing, and to
Speaker 1: pay the agents and for their share of the commissions
Speaker 1: and things like that. So every month you get those
Speaker 1: numbers and it's like you live or die by those numbers.
Speaker 1: And that was what really was causing me to stress.
Speaker 1: So I said, you know what, at least you know
Speaker 1: you run a village. Yeah, it taxes, It's not like
Speaker 1: it kind of runs. The taxes don't go up and
Speaker 1: down the way that profits do in a real estate company.
Speaker 1: Taxes are pretty steady. So that's okay. But little did
Speaker 1: I realize that one of the things that I was
Speaker 1: going to take leadership of when I got when I
Speaker 1: became mayor was I really did want to help revitalize
Speaker 1: the downtown and particularly post COVID. I wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure that our downtown was going to survive the downturn,
Speaker 1: which it did very well. I'm not saying as because
Speaker 1: of me, but I did try to help. Yes, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and now it's back to I think it's it's back
Speaker 1: to nearly full you know, like full employment is three
Speaker 1: percent employment because there's always some people move around. We're
Speaker 1: pretty close to full occupancy either places are coming or
Speaker 1: they're already here. So that's been fine. But the thing is, man,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, all those years I worried about the
Speaker 1: p and L from my company. Now I worry about
Speaker 1: the P and F. Like two hundred businesses. I worry
Speaker 1: about every one of them, and when one of them
Speaker 1: goes out of business, it breaks my heart. It does
Speaker 1: when when some of these business that have gone out
Speaker 1: in the last few years, I just it's a heartbreak
Speaker 1: because I really want the mine.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I live in town. I walk regularly,
Speaker 3: see you walking, et cetera. And there are you know,
Speaker 3: there are less still vacant storefronts and people interpreted a
Speaker 3: certain way the town is. But you see it, you
Speaker 3: see it online all the time. People out of the
Speaker 3: town is fading. I've lived for thirty years. It's never
Speaker 3: been worse. You and I've lived here over forty years,
Speaker 3: and it's dying every other year. We know that, but
Speaker 3: not to make light of it. It is concerning when
Speaker 3: you see there are many empty stories.
Speaker 1: I love every storefront to be finished. And now I
Speaker 1: will tell you this, I know the story in virtually
Speaker 1: every storefront. I know what's going on with each one
Speaker 1: of them. Some of them are rented and the landlord,
Speaker 1: the tenant just hasn't gotten their act together to get
Speaker 1: it opened. Some of them are being rent are are
Speaker 1: unoccupied and unrented and the landlord just has an unrealistic
Speaker 1: expectation of what the rent should be. There's very little.
Speaker 1: Put it this way, there's very little in naiak where
Speaker 1: not being rented because there's no demand. There is a
Speaker 1: lot of demand for businesses to come here. I mean
Speaker 1: it's weird because, like running a small businesses one of
Speaker 1: the hardest things in the world. But people do want
Speaker 1: to work here. It's a good environment to work. It's
Speaker 1: a tough environment, but it's probably the most robust downtown
Speaker 1: in rock and County. And I mean there's a lot
Speaker 1: of good downtowns rock County, but like nik is is,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the most it's the biggest. I mean,
Speaker 1: we have a we have an actual linear mile of
Speaker 1: retail stores. We have two hundred businesses in our downtown,
Speaker 1: two hundred business Our village consists of seventy five hundred
Speaker 1: people and we have two hundred businesses, which means we
Speaker 1: got to do a good job of attracting the rest
Speaker 1: of Rocking County and Bergen County and the whole region
Speaker 1: to come to ni to shop and to dine. And
Speaker 1: it's a real challenge. And like I say, I live
Speaker 1: and die, and when I'm centered, I'm gonna live and
Speaker 1: die with every business in Rock and County. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: the same thing. I'm gonna I'm gonna feel responsible for
Speaker 1: you know, how everybody does and how can we make
Speaker 1: it better? And that's that's you take it on a
Speaker 1: lot and I and I didn't necessarily anticipate that I
Speaker 1: would feel that kind of responsibility, but I do.
Speaker 3: Interesting, you know, Joe, we read just part of your bio,
Speaker 3: as with most of my guests. All of you guys
Speaker 3: are so accomplished. If I just read all of it,
Speaker 3: we spend the first half of the show to streaking bios.
Speaker 3: But you've got a good idea that you have a
Speaker 3: very diverse background, lots of experience in both education, business,
Speaker 3: et cetera. What do you feel that you bring from
Speaker 3: those life experiences that serves you best as a politician,
Speaker 3: as a mayor.
Speaker 1: I would say that the biggest thing that I've developed
Speaker 1: over the talent that I developed over the course of
Speaker 1: a long period of time, both as a teacher and
Speaker 1: then you know, teaching law school and then as a
Speaker 1: lawyer and then working at the real estate coument for
Speaker 1: twenty years, both as a lawyer and then teaching agents.
Speaker 1: How to be successful is communication, Like I really am
Speaker 1: really good at communication. I'm good at talking to people.
Speaker 1: I'm good at explaining things. I'm good at going online
Speaker 1: and trying to diffuse situations. It's one of my strengths,
Speaker 1: both written communication and speaking. And that was you know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't always that way. It really developed, and you know,
Speaker 1: the more you do it. The ten thousand hours thing
Speaker 1: like I did a lot of speaking. I spoke in
Speaker 1: front of a lot of audience. I've done a lot
Speaker 1: of teaching in my life, you know, and I'm very
Speaker 1: comfortable in front of the big audience. And it does
Speaker 1: help because there's a lot of what you have to
Speaker 1: do as mayor and a lot of what I'll have
Speaker 1: to do as a senator is communicate to people and
Speaker 1: sometimes explaining them a difficult situation, sometimes explaining them what
Speaker 1: needs to be done to solve a problem. And that's
Speaker 1: a big one. Communication is a big one, I would say.
Speaker 1: The other big one is the ability to identify, understand
Speaker 1: and then solve problems. Like That's another strength that I
Speaker 1: like to feel like I've developed over time, is the
Speaker 1: ability to look at a problem from multiple perspectives, see
Speaker 1: them from different perspectives to be able to see all
Speaker 1: around the problems, so I don't just look at it
Speaker 1: from a like a rigid point. Like in business, you
Speaker 1: really should not have a fixed point of view on
Speaker 1: any problem because new problems come up. You know, if
Speaker 1: your fixed way of looking at things is built on well,
Speaker 1: I really wanted it's the most important thing we do
Speaker 1: is search engine optimization. Okay, Well, then AI comes along,
Speaker 1: and if it's like well, no, I see always where
Speaker 1: it's at and you're missing AI, your business is going
Speaker 1: is gonna is gonna have a difficulty. You got to
Speaker 1: look at every problem from every perspective, and that helps me.
Speaker 1: That has helped me be solved, problem solving, problem solving,
Speaker 1: and it also helps me be persuasive and to work
Speaker 1: with people, because you cannot persuade somebody on an issue.
Speaker 1: You can argue with them and just butt heads until
Speaker 1: you both give up, but you can never persuade somebody
Speaker 1: until you understand their perspective on the issue and figure
Speaker 1: out the right way to talk to them. You have
Speaker 1: to kind of puzzle it out and say, Okay, how
Speaker 1: do they see this problem? And how can I talk
Speaker 1: to them in a way that would would address their
Speaker 1: concerns rather than just saying the same thing over and
Speaker 1: over again and why I'm right and there wrong, because
Speaker 1: that doesn't work. That never convinces anybody.
Speaker 3: It's a good segue into my next question, Joseph, can
Speaker 3: you give us a sense of what's a day like
Speaker 3: in the life of a mayor of a small New
Speaker 3: York village. Is there such thing as a typical Day's
Speaker 3: typical day? Maybe that's maybe that's the challenge.
Speaker 1: The day is there's no typical day. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: in I'm an early riser, so I'm in the office
Speaker 1: sometimes four thirty five o'clock. Most days i'm here by
Speaker 1: six thirty. And uh. In fact, I got a ticket
Speaker 1: the other day because I was up at three and
Speaker 1: my car was in the was in the driveway, and
Speaker 1: I moved in front of my house and I put
Speaker 1: it on the side of the road where I was
Speaker 1: supposed to be for that night, but it was still
Speaker 1: the previous night, and so I got a ticket at
Speaker 1: five point thirty because it was until six I had
Speaker 1: to move the car. So right, I still do get tickets.
Speaker 1: Everybody in America everyone there, but that usually I forget
Speaker 1: some movement. I deliberately moved to the side of the
Speaker 1: road that it was supposed to be on for that night,
Speaker 1: but it was not that night yet, it was still
Speaker 1: the previous night. It was just too damn early. So
Speaker 1: I'm up early. I'm in the office early. I you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of my day is there's a lot of
Speaker 1: paper to push around. There's a lot of emails to address,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of phone calls to make. There there
Speaker 1: are a lot of events. I go to a lot
Speaker 1: of events. I do a lot of I do you know,
Speaker 1: Like today, I was at something I'll be at UH
Speaker 1: later on Today I'm going to a mural unveiling at
Speaker 1: UH that the Art Collective is doing at at at
Speaker 1: Burgloft Tomorrow, I think Friday there's something at there's an
Speaker 1: art display at Rock Rock Shop. So it's all things
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, the Minora lighting on Sunday. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's always something going on and as mayor, you want
Speaker 1: to be there for it. But the typical day also,
Speaker 1: you know, there's things that you're there's big projects that
Speaker 1: on any given day you're trying to push forward, like rocks.
Speaker 1: You're trying to you're trying to get them a little
Speaker 1: further along the path. And you know, I'm always working
Speaker 1: on four or five major projects that have to get advanced.
Speaker 1: Almost every day I got to work on them to
Speaker 1: some extent, you know, Like it was the New York
Speaker 1: Forward Grant, there was a lot of work with the
Speaker 1: New York Forward Grant. Every day there was something, Yeah,
Speaker 1: every day there was something for me to do on that.
Speaker 1: You know, I might be working on the new event
Speaker 1: guide that we have out, the new seasonal event guides
Speaker 1: that give you a list of all the events going
Speaker 1: on in the village for the next three months. I'm
Speaker 1: working recently, I have a new thing coming out. It's
Speaker 1: going to be a downtown shopping map, a map with
Speaker 1: all the shopping districts and all the businesses that are
Speaker 1: in the shopping districts. That's going to be coming out soon.
Speaker 1: It's almost done. I've been working on for months. I
Speaker 1: might be working on the holiday programming that we're doing
Speaker 1: with the There's always something going on that's going to
Speaker 1: take my time. And then there's the big but there's
Speaker 1: the legislature. You know, we have we laws, we pass laws,
Speaker 1: and I got to read them and I got to
Speaker 1: figure out whether they makes sense. So it's just it's
Speaker 1: it's what's interesting about the job is it's never the
Speaker 1: same every day. The problems are often complicated, and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of satisfaction in solving the problems and a
Speaker 1: lot of these times some problems you can't solve. Some
Speaker 1: problems you just you make them a little better, you
Speaker 1: put a band aid on them. But sometimes you actually
Speaker 1: solve the problem. And that's a really good feeling when
Speaker 1: you fix somebody. Somebody comes to you with something and
Speaker 1: then you fix it for them. That's great.
Speaker 3: Another great segue into my next question. It's a two parter.
Speaker 3: What would you consider your greatest achievements? And then, of
Speaker 3: course you know part B of that is no boy
Speaker 3: with the biggest challenge is what you see where you failed?
Speaker 3: Of course that never happened, no one ever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, you learn.
Speaker 3: Let's let's talk with stuff. Let's start with the good
Speaker 3: stuff first. What would you say is among your greatest
Speaker 3: achievements while.
Speaker 1: Making I would say a couple of things that I
Speaker 1: would highlight as being what I've been, what I've been
Speaker 1: able to accomplish. One of them was was securing the
Speaker 1: four point five million dollar forward grant. That's a significant
Speaker 1: amount of money. That's you know, our entire budget is
Speaker 1: six point five million dollars, so getting a four point
Speaker 1: five million dollar injection of cash into our downtown is significant.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's that's twenty years worth of investment
Speaker 1: that would take us to make a four point five
Speaker 1: million dollar investment into our lights and in downtown restaurant.
Speaker 1: So we're going to get a downtown restaurant or sorry,
Speaker 1: marina restaurant. It's gonna be really a nice, little fast
Speaker 1: casual place where you go, you have a drink, you
Speaker 1: have a bite, right looking at the boats and looking
Speaker 1: at the water. To replace the it's not going to
Speaker 1: fully replace the this thing that you ever be there,
Speaker 1: the River Club, because it's not gonna be it's not
Speaker 1: gonna be a full service restaurant. But because we couldn't
Speaker 1: afford build quite honestly, you couldn't afford to do it.
Speaker 1: We're gonna put all new light lamp posts along Broadway
Speaker 1: to make them like the lamp posts on Maine. That's
Speaker 1: a big deal. We're doing tons of renovations to a
Speaker 1: lot of the nonprofits. That John Greenhouse is getting four
Speaker 1: walls for the first time, the UH, the Hopper House,
Speaker 1: the Angels getting an HVAC system, the UH. We're doing
Speaker 1: stuff for NIAX Center as well as for Elmwood Theater
Speaker 1: Elmwood Playhouse. So we're getting a lot done. And that
Speaker 1: was a big deal because that's a competitive grant, like
Speaker 1: they give out about one They give out one grant
Speaker 1: or two grants to every region, and we got one
Speaker 1: of them, and we had tried for five years to
Speaker 1: get it. And I feel like two things made a
Speaker 1: difference with me doing it. One of them was that
Speaker 1: I made it. I made made a decision or I
Speaker 1: made a recommendation that we followed. Wasn't my decision, it
Speaker 1: was a committee decision, but it was to There was
Speaker 1: a ten million dollar grant and a four point five
Speaker 1: million dollar grant, and we'd always gone for the ten
Speaker 1: million and we'd always lost. And I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: we're a small village. Those ten million dollar grants are
Speaker 1: going to like Syracuse and like Peak Skill in yon
Speaker 1: Cooaty City. Yeah, you know, we're small, Like ten million
Speaker 1: dollars is too much money for us. Let's go for
Speaker 1: the four point five, we'll be more competitive. And the
Speaker 1: first time we went for the four point five, we
Speaker 1: got it. And the second thing I think I brought
Speaker 1: to the table on that is I've been working on
Speaker 1: economic development in the Hudson Valley for twenty five years.
Speaker 1: You know, we my company and my brother and I
Speaker 1: had been on the board of the HVDC, the Hudson
Speaker 1: Valley Economic Development Corporation run by my friend Mike Oates,
Speaker 1: wonderful guy. I does a great job. We've worked with him,
Speaker 1: We've worked with the Rockland County Economic Development, We've worked
Speaker 1: with statewide Economic Development of initials. Those people knew me
Speaker 1: who made that decision, and they knew that I would
Speaker 1: be a good, good steward of their money. And so
Speaker 1: I think that really did help us get it, and
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of that. I think it's been a
Speaker 1: very good problem was fun this year. It was tough work,
Speaker 1: but it was fun to uh, really flesh through the
Speaker 1: projects and forge all we wanted to do. And I
Speaker 1: would say the second thing that I'm happy about is
Speaker 1: that it's it's more fixing a problem than it is
Speaker 1: doing something new. Like the Forward was kind of getting
Speaker 1: something new. This is more. You know, you're here, you
Speaker 1: live here, you walk the streets. We've had issues with
Speaker 1: the downtown. We've had quality of life issues relating to panhandling,
Speaker 1: related to people square, sleeping in the sleeping in the
Speaker 1: in the park. Uh and uh, you know generally, you know,
Speaker 1: congregating in ways that make people uncomfortable, menacing, stuff like that. Now,
Speaker 1: a lot of it's free speech, so like we respect
Speaker 1: that and we're sensitive to and a lot of those
Speaker 1: issues are related to people who've got difficult situations, you know,
Speaker 1: they you know, we know it relates to mental illness
Speaker 1: and dependency, it might relate to povery all these things,
Speaker 1: and you know, we're we're we're we want to be
Speaker 1: sensitive to that. But at the same time, as it
Speaker 1: started to become a very acute issue, like two years ago,
Speaker 1: it was like first the panhandling became a very cute
Speaker 1: issue and then the people sleeping in the square became
Speaker 1: a much bigger issue in the last year. So what
Speaker 1: did we do. Well, we tried to get creative. We
Speaker 1: knew we didn't want to do anything. We wanted to
Speaker 1: treat the root causes, so we did bring in Catholic charities.
Speaker 1: We brought in other organizations, including the social services from
Speaker 1: the county, to intercede with these people to make sure
Speaker 1: that they didn't need help and if they needed help,
Speaker 1: that they were getting the help. So we tried to
Speaker 1: attack it from the supply side of panhandlers, but we
Speaker 1: also tried to attack the demand side and try to
Speaker 1: dry up the incentive for people to panhandle, because people
Speaker 1: shouldn't be giving on the street. It just creates more
Speaker 1: of an incentive for people to Panhanal. People were literally
Speaker 1: commuting to Nayakapan. These weren't locals. These are people coming
Speaker 1: from other parts of the county that were taking the
Speaker 1: bus down to Panhanal a nike because we were considered
Speaker 1: a very very giving community, which.
Speaker 3: We are the progressive, aggressive place and so generally speaking,
Speaker 3: that's that's the attitude you find here.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I get it and I feel the same way.
Speaker 1: But what we needed to do is we if you
Speaker 1: give on the street, you're just attracting more people to
Speaker 1: do it. So we wanted to give people an alternate
Speaker 1: way to give. To address these things. That we create
Speaker 1: what we call Niacares nyacaars dot org, which is an organization.
Speaker 1: It's a nonprofit. We didn't create. It was created. I
Speaker 1: created personally with some other people. It's got an independent
Speaker 1: board of people like Phyllis frank On it other really
Speaker 1: well known people who are involved in nonprofits throughout the
Speaker 1: county that I put to make it independent. And what
Speaker 1: they're supposed to do is money comes in. Now, we
Speaker 1: haven't gotten that much money in, we haven't gotten the
Speaker 1: many donations. But what's coming is supposed to help address
Speaker 1: the root causes of poverty, of dependency, of mental illness.
Speaker 1: But the idea is that give people an alternative to
Speaker 1: giving on the street. Let them take out their phones
Speaker 1: and go tap tap tap using a QR code that's
Speaker 1: on you know, brochures and is on posters throughout the village.
Speaker 1: And I have to make a donation that makes a difference,
Speaker 1: that actually is going to address those cads. So it
Speaker 1: was a permission structure for people to not feel bad
Speaker 1: if they didn't give on the street. And it was
Speaker 1: also a permission structure for the businesses to say please
Speaker 1: do not give to panhandlers, because they didn't want to
Speaker 1: put up posters saying please don't give to panhandlers because
Speaker 1: it seems harmless, and the businesses don't want see harless.
Speaker 1: They don't want to turn people off. But if you
Speaker 1: put up a poster that says, you know, please make
Speaker 1: a donation, that makes a difference. Give to this fund
Speaker 1: instead of giving on the street. It has a sensitivity
Speaker 1: to it that is more appropriate. So we really did that.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know how much. You never know
Speaker 1: cause and effect, but the paneling situation definitely has gotten
Speaker 1: better in the last couple of years. And then last
Speaker 1: year with the people sleeping in the square, we had
Speaker 1: to make some difficult decisions.
Speaker 3: You know, I did want to bring that up and
Speaker 3: asked me the question about it because it was controversial
Speaker 3: and not everybody a group of please you said, what
Speaker 3: steps you were taking? People were sleeping Eastern Square for
Speaker 3: people nut familiar if this podcast goes beyond Nike is
Speaker 3: the town piazza the square And there were issues with
Speaker 3: people using the benches overnight, causing sanitary issues, a whole
Speaker 3: host of things of people, well.
Speaker 1: We're using it overnight. They were, they were, they were
Speaker 1: camped out there. They were they were staying on those
Speaker 1: benches twenty four hours, and they were leaving their stuff
Speaker 1: when they walked away. They would leave their stuff on
Speaker 1: the benches that was like their place to camp out,
Speaker 1: and and it just it wasn't good for anybody, Okay,
Speaker 1: And I'm sensitive to the underlying causation of what what
Speaker 1: causes that. It's a larger issue than NIA can handle.
Speaker 1: It may be a larger issue than Rocklin can handle.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a it's a national problem. It's caused
Speaker 1: by housing on affordability, It's caused by mental health calls
Speaker 1: on my list. We we know what all that, we
Speaker 1: know what creates all of that, so we want to
Speaker 1: be sensitive to it. But at the same time, it
Speaker 1: is a public space. It is supposed to be used
Speaker 1: by the public. It's not supposed to be used proprietarily
Speaker 1: by any individuals. And whether those individuals are you know,
Speaker 1: people that we want to be sensitive to, whether it's
Speaker 1: just a jerk who like sets up he wants to like,
Speaker 1: you know, do something private there and take People sometimes
Speaker 1: want to use the square for private events. We generally
Speaker 1: do not allow unless they're open to the public. Because
Speaker 1: public spaces should be open to the public, they should
Speaker 1: not be used for private use. And I think that
Speaker 1: I think that's a fundamental principle of mind. So what
Speaker 1: do we do. The first thing we did, which was
Speaker 1: very controversial, was we remove the benches because I talked
Speaker 1: to the people from the from the social service agencies
Speaker 1: and they said, there are opportunities for these people to
Speaker 1: sleep inside, they won't take them if there are alternatives
Speaker 1: available to them, like sleeping in the square. So we
Speaker 1: had to remove the alternative. We had to remove the option.
Speaker 1: So we got We pulled out the benches and that
Speaker 1: was heartbreaking. I hate doing it. I hate going into
Speaker 1: the square now and I don't see better. They're still
Speaker 1: not there yet because we're afraid to put them on memorial.
Speaker 3: Benches too as well to memorialize well known people from them.
Speaker 1: Yeah some of them were. Yeah, some other bachrees have
Speaker 1: names on now. They will someday get back. We're not
Speaker 1: We didn't throw them out or any night. They'll be back,
Speaker 1: but they'll be back when we feel that we've we've
Speaker 1: kind of closed off that as a habit. We had.
Speaker 1: We had to close the habit of people using that
Speaker 1: for their for a place to camp out. We did that.
Speaker 1: We talked to the OPD. What did the OPD want?
Speaker 1: They want us to put a curfew want, So we
Speaker 1: put a curfew on at midnight, and then they wanted
Speaker 1: signs to enforce the curfew, so we did. They wanted
Speaker 1: a resolution making sure it was very clear that you're
Speaker 1: not allowed to be in the park after at midnight.
Speaker 1: And when we did that, the OPD became better about
Speaker 1: asking people to leave and finding them alternate places to
Speaker 1: live if they were staying in the square. So we
Speaker 1: worked with OPD, we worked with we work with the
Speaker 1: social service agencies, and it's gotten better. You do not
Speaker 1: see that anymore. Easter Square is a lot more accommodating,
Speaker 1: a lot more usable than it was. Uh and and
Speaker 1: that's a good thing, okay, and it and it was
Speaker 1: creating a very weird downtown vibe that we have dispelled.
Speaker 1: And then sort of the third problem was kind of
Speaker 1: this very low key petty crime stuff like that aggressive panhanling.
Speaker 1: Panhelling is a protected First Amendment right, but not if
Speaker 1: you're going to keep following people or try to get
Speaker 1: into their car and stuff like that. And there was
Speaker 1: people doing weird stuff and they're drinking openly, drinking on
Speaker 1: the street and whatnot. So we ended up hiring a
Speaker 1: service that we call the Night Safety Patrol of Professional
Speaker 1: Security guards that patrol the streets because the town we
Speaker 1: get our policing from Orangetown. They're great. I love what
Speaker 1: they do. They're very responsive to us. But their model
Speaker 1: of policing is that they're a suburban police department, so
Speaker 1: most of their time is spent responding to calls from cars.
Speaker 1: So they don't want to be on the street. They
Speaker 1: want to be in their cars because then they can
Speaker 1: be more responsive to calls. They don't want to be
Speaker 1: walking down and they don't want to be three blocks
Speaker 1: from their car. A call comes in there's someone having
Speaker 1: a you know, there's a break in, and they have
Speaker 1: to run to their car and then drive, and they're
Speaker 1: they're late to the situation, so they don't They don't
Speaker 1: walk as many patrols as we would like. We would
Speaker 1: love them to walk daily patrols, but they've got a
Speaker 1: whole county to service. There the whole town to service,
Speaker 1: so we hired the patrol and that's many difference. People see.
Speaker 1: They don't have police powers. They can't arrest anybody, they
Speaker 1: can't even get violations. They're just there to send to
Speaker 1: be eyes and ears for the police and to send
Speaker 1: a sense, to create a sense of law and order
Speaker 1: on the streets. And I think it has worked. I
Speaker 1: think it has helped that I've got a lot of
Speaker 1: feedback from people that has helped. So you ask what
Speaker 1: are my achievements, I would say, one the what we
Speaker 1: did with the forward grants to try to make NAE
Speaker 1: better and then with the issues that we'd laid into
Speaker 1: the street life, very difficult decisions, very hard decisions that
Speaker 1: I didn't like having to make, to make Niac safer
Speaker 1: and more and more appealing to be in the downtown.
Speaker 3: And makes us all about a nayak joke because obviously
Speaker 3: you got to send it race that run very shortly,
Speaker 3: and we're going to switch our focus to that, but
Speaker 3: just to finish show off our thought there as the
Speaker 3: other side, and you mentioned were those your greatest challenges,
Speaker 3: the homeless issue, the affordability issues, What do you consider currently?
Speaker 1: Those those were a very big channel. Those were big
Speaker 1: challenges because you know what, we need the downtown to
Speaker 1: be successful. We need people to come down to the downtown,
Speaker 1: and we people won't come downtown, they don't feel safe,
Speaker 1: they won't come downtown, they won't come shop here, and
Speaker 1: we need people to shop here and that's I was
Speaker 1: trying to. You know, like I said, I feel for
Speaker 1: every one of those two hundred businesses. I want them
Speaker 1: to succeed, so we need to do something about that.
Speaker 1: I'll give you. The other thing I'm very proud of
Speaker 1: is the way in which this community responded to the
Speaker 1: Nine Plaza fire. That was a wonderful thing that the
Speaker 1: community did. I had a small part in it. You know,
Speaker 1: I was there an hour, half an hour. Whenever I
Speaker 1: was there. As the fire was going on, we set
Speaker 1: up a command post at the Senior Center. We started
Speaker 1: immediately trying to identify who the families were that were affected.
Speaker 1: Because we didn't have a list or anything we had,
Speaker 1: we started were using a lot of word of mouth
Speaker 1: so we could get their names and their phone numbs.
Speaker 1: As soon as we got a phone number, we would
Speaker 1: call them and tell them to come to the Senior Center,
Speaker 1: getting the Red Cross here and whatnot. But it really
Speaker 1: what I feel like I made a difference was when
Speaker 1: the Red Cross was there and we were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: the Red Cross is here, We're all saved now. But
Speaker 1: their idea to house these thirteen families was to put
Speaker 1: them in a gymnasium on cots, and I looked at
Speaker 1: the families and they were just not at all pleased
Speaker 1: about that. They were dismayed. So I went I didn't
Speaker 1: have any authority. I went up to the Westgate Hotel
Speaker 1: and I booked like fifteen rooms on my credit card
Speaker 1: and I said, well, if if the village want to
Speaker 1: imbursed me for this, well then you know, I still
Speaker 1: feel like I'm doing the right thing. The village did
Speaker 1: eventually reimburse me. I'm not trying to play hero. The
Speaker 1: village did eventually reimburse me. The board approved it. Village,
Speaker 1: we took it out of we have money that we
Speaker 1: get from affordable housing buyouts, so it's our affordable housing fund.
Speaker 1: We felt like this was affordable housing. And then Nicki
Speaker 1: Hines from the NAACP n I branch did a wonderful
Speaker 1: job raising money at They're raised by ninety thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: so we were able to get those people out of
Speaker 1: that hotel into a nicer hotel where they stayed for
Speaker 1: several months. And then at the same time, I started
Speaker 1: working with HUD to allow them to take their vouchers
Speaker 1: that they have for Section eight housing for community housing
Speaker 1: and today those matches which are applicable to the plaza
Speaker 1: and apply them to market rate housing. And then I
Speaker 1: got a bunch of agents at my real estate company
Speaker 1: to work for free to find them market rate housing.
Speaker 1: And we eventually housed all those people in one way
Speaker 1: or another, we found them all housing, and I'm very proud.
Speaker 1: It took us too long. We didn't do it as
Speaker 1: quickly as I would have been happy doing it, but
Speaker 1: we got it done. And that was a team effort
Speaker 1: by Nicki. Eies did a great job. Bishop Stringfeld did
Speaker 1: a great job. People in the village did a great
Speaker 1: job Rosa and all the staff here in the village.
Speaker 1: And I felt like I contributed my way as well
Speaker 1: and did and that was taking care of people in
Speaker 1: our community who needed help, and so I felt very
Speaker 1: proud of the way we responded to that.
Speaker 3: Bravo to all concerned. Let's switch gears slightly, Joe, of course,
Speaker 3: this was about you, Evan down your kansasacy for the
Speaker 3: thirty eighth Senatorial district. Why did you decide to run?
Speaker 3: You're very successful, obviously enjoying your time at mayor. Why
Speaker 3: take on this additional challenge?
Speaker 1: I love being mayor. I really do love this job.
Speaker 1: And I feel like I make an impact. But quite honestly,
Speaker 1: you know, the opportunity was there. Elijah Reichlenmeelnick was not
Speaker 1: going to run again, and so the opportunity was there
Speaker 1: to take a deeper step, a bigger step, into serving
Speaker 1: a much larger population people. I mean, I have an
Speaker 1: impact in Nayak, but it's seventy five hundred people. As
Speaker 1: a state center, I cad an impact on three hundred
Speaker 1: thousand people. I can make life better for three hundred
Speaker 1: thousand people in the entire county. And I love this county.
Speaker 1: I came back to live here after living in the
Speaker 1: city for a long time. I've lived in Rockland for
Speaker 1: thirty five years, but not continuously. I lived the first
Speaker 1: twenty years of my life and I've lived the last
Speaker 1: fifteen years of my life to get to the thirty
Speaker 1: five because I was in the city, and I came
Speaker 1: back here because I loved Rocking County. I grew up
Speaker 1: in Congre's in western Nayak, and I really want to
Speaker 1: make life better. I mean, it's I know it's cheesy
Speaker 1: and tokey and politicians stays all the time. I don't
Speaker 1: need to do this, I don't I could be on
Speaker 1: a beef somewhere. I do not need to work anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm lucky. I've been lucky in my career to do
Speaker 1: what I want to do for a living, and this
Speaker 1: is what I want to do. I really do get
Speaker 1: the satisfaction out of making the community I live in
Speaker 1: a better place to live. I've loved being mayor and
Speaker 1: I'm really I really would love being a center as well.
Speaker 3: What do you see as the key issues in the race,
Speaker 3: and if you're elected, how we intend to tackle them.
Speaker 1: Well, let's let's go back to the things that I
Speaker 1: feel like I accomplished as mayor. What did I do?
Speaker 1: I brought in the largest grant in the history of Nayak,
Speaker 1: the largest state grant and that four point five million dollars,
Speaker 1: and I brought it in more. I brought another million
Speaker 1: and a half of state, federal, and county grafts which
Speaker 1: have helped redevelop the waterfront and Memorial Park and things
Speaker 1: like that, done sidewalks and all that. So I know
Speaker 1: how to bring money to a community. And that's one
Speaker 1: of the big jobs in the Center is to get
Speaker 1: money from the Senate, from the from the Albany and
Speaker 1: get it back to Rockland. We pay a lot of
Speaker 1: taxes up to Albany, and I don't think we get
Speaker 1: our fair share of back for the things that we
Speaker 1: need throughout this county. So, like my greatest accomplishment is
Speaker 1: mayor or something I think that's immediately translatable to what
Speaker 1: I accomplish I could accomplish as a senator. And then
Speaker 1: you know what were the other things we talked about?
Speaker 1: Making hard decisions, making tough decisions. You got to do
Speaker 1: that as a senator. You know, you've got to respond
Speaker 1: to crises like I did with the ni Plaza. I'll
Speaker 1: do that as a cenator. But if you've going to
Speaker 1: identify the issues, Number one is definitely you got to
Speaker 1: get money back to the district. And we haven't been
Speaker 1: getting enough back to the district, and and and I
Speaker 1: want to fix that. I think that you need to
Speaker 1: go up to Albany with a mindset that you're there
Speaker 1: to sell Rockland to them and sell Rockland's needs to them.
Speaker 1: You have to be entrepreneurial. You got to be on it.
Speaker 1: You have to be at every meeting. You have to
Speaker 1: be working and working and working to get that money
Speaker 1: back to the village, back to the county, and that's
Speaker 1: what I'm good at. Second major issue I think in
Speaker 1: this campaign is going to be affordability. And I think
Speaker 1: affordability is what drive. Affordability gets addressed to understand that
Speaker 1: we can get money from abiting, but affordability of healthcare,
Speaker 1: affordability of utilities and energy.
Speaker 3: And auto insurance is out of control.
Speaker 1: Insurance it's another one. It's another one. And well, I
Speaker 1: think of the question is you have to think about
Speaker 1: what can the what can the state do? Like about affordability,
Speaker 1: like we can't affect like I don't think we can
Speaker 1: do much to affect like the price of eggs. I
Speaker 1: think that's a national thing, that's not a local thing.
Speaker 1: But I think we can affect. I think there's things
Speaker 1: that we could do to make healthcare more efficient. I'm
Speaker 1: not prepared to issue a white paper on it, but
Speaker 1: I've heard people. People have given me some ideas of
Speaker 1: things that I want to chew on as to. But
Speaker 1: I think we got to address that. We got to
Speaker 1: address the health care costs. We have to address energy costs,
Speaker 1: and that means doing what we need to do to
Speaker 1: incentivize people to use more efficient energy. I'm getting solar
Speaker 1: panels on house. I'm doing it this month, our next
Speaker 1: month because my energy bills are out of control and
Speaker 1: I feel like if I'm at the solar panels and
Speaker 1: It'll be worth the investment for me to be more
Speaker 1: energy efficient in the long run. And then when it
Speaker 1: comes to.
Speaker 3: Housing, I mean, for twenty years we have and you're
Speaker 3: in the real estate business. Housing is a huge problem
Speaker 3: in New York. One of the reasons why we're New
Speaker 3: York is number one or number two in losing residents
Speaker 3: moving out of the state we are and they can't
Speaker 3: buy here.
Speaker 1: It is a massive problem. That is the driver I
Speaker 1: think of a lot of the affordability problems. That's why
Speaker 1: people leave because you know, energy costs are high elsewhere
Speaker 1: to and healthcare costs are high across the country, but
Speaker 1: housing costs are particularly high here, you know, and that
Speaker 1: really does make up I'll give you. I'll give an
Speaker 1: exceptcause I've studied this housing market. I've written a quarterly
Speaker 1: market report where I analyze the Rock and County market.
Speaker 1: I've done it every quarter for twenty four years, twenty
Speaker 1: five years, and I know this market better than anybody
Speaker 1: alive in terms of what's going on the housing market.
Speaker 1: And I will give you just a staff that will
Speaker 1: blow your mind. If you go back right before Covid
Speaker 1: and looked at the average sales price of Westchester County,
Speaker 1: which was about nine hundred thousand dollars, that's the average
Speaker 1: sales price in Rockland right now. Wowvince Covid, We would
Speaker 1: if you had asked us in twenty nineteen and said,
Speaker 1: you know what's hot? Westress?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Oh, Westress is like super expensive and super luxury market.
Speaker 1: The housing there is out of control. That's the price
Speaker 1: that we have right now to buy an average price
Speaker 1: to home in Rocking County. Give you another stat that
Speaker 1: will blow your mind. Four years ago, you could have
Speaker 1: bought a single family home for about four hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars. Today, for four hundred fifty thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: you can buy the average priced condo in Rockham County. Like,
Speaker 1: in just six years, the price of a house has
Speaker 1: become the price of a condo. Now what does that
Speaker 1: mean for us? Well, it's wonderful if you've bought property
Speaker 1: here before two thousand and say, before twenty ten, or
Speaker 1: since before twenty nineteen. It's great if you'll held probably
Speaker 1: thirty years even better. Property values have done wonderfully for
Speaker 1: the homeowners here. But we also have to think about
Speaker 1: the people that want to live here, that want to
Speaker 1: move here, and the kids. What do we do with
Speaker 1: our kids? My kids are fourteen and twelve. What kind
Speaker 1: of job are they gonna have to lose?
Speaker 3: All creative town because they can't stay here.
Speaker 1: They can't live here. So what do we need to do? Listen,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different solutions, Yeah, but the biggest
Speaker 1: solution is supplied. We got to create more supply. We
Speaker 1: got to build more housing. We've got to have more density.
Speaker 1: And I know that people get very scared about that idea,
Speaker 1: which means that we have to also we have to
Speaker 1: build housing, and then we also have to build housing
Speaker 1: that is affordable lower case. I think of affordable housing
Speaker 1: in two ways. The uppercase a affordable is like government
Speaker 1: restricted rent, government rent control, government provided community how whatever, subsidized.
Speaker 1: That's all. We need some of that. We always need
Speaker 1: some of that, but that's very expensive for the county
Speaker 1: or the state to provide. The other kind of affordability
Speaker 1: is the lower case, which is just we need housing
Speaker 1: that's cheap. We need smaller units. We need studios and
Speaker 1: one bedroom condos where kids who are twenty five can
Speaker 1: make their first apartment or make their first home that
Speaker 1: they buy. You know, we need that. Now, what does
Speaker 1: that mean. It means more people coming into the county,
Speaker 1: which everybody gets scared of that because they make more
Speaker 1: traffic and more wear and tear on the infrastructure. Well,
Speaker 1: then you deal with that, you deal with the problems
Speaker 1: that come from having more people here. But you have
Speaker 1: to grow. If you don't grow, you die. Communities that
Speaker 1: don't grow die. So people are you know, they're so
Speaker 1: adamant that they don't want to build anything, and I
Speaker 1: get what they're worried about. But what we have to
Speaker 1: do is we need that state money to help us
Speaker 1: deal with the impacts of increased housing. But we need
Speaker 1: the increased house because there's nowhere for your kids to live.
Speaker 1: There's nowhere for the nurses to live. There's nowhere for
Speaker 1: the for the young cops to live, there's nowhere for
Speaker 1: the uh, for the for the teachers to live. None
Speaker 1: of them can afford to live in Rocking County. And
Speaker 1: unless you want the person that's teaching your kid to
Speaker 1: have an hour and a half drive from you know,
Speaker 1: Upper Sullivan County or Ulster County. In order to teach
Speaker 1: your kid and they come in all sleepy, you need
Speaker 1: a place for them to live locally. We got to
Speaker 1: do it done. That's that is the biggest driver affordability.
Speaker 1: I think it's a big problem and it's something I
Speaker 1: know better than anybody about how to get that done.
Speaker 3: You we're can take a break in a bit, but
Speaker 3: I want to ask you one uh yeah question. First,
Speaker 3: especially lately in the news political violence, uh which we've
Speaker 3: seen and again wait, wait, way too often. What are
Speaker 3: your thoughts on that? Did that enter your mind when
Speaker 3: you when or should it emphasis people's mind when they
Speaker 3: when they enter into public office? Does it give you
Speaker 3: any concern?
Speaker 1: Not until right now, Frank, if any going to occur
Speaker 1: to me that my own, my own safety be it, No,
Speaker 1: I've I've thought about it. It was something I mean,
Speaker 1: I was considering getting into the state center race and
Speaker 1: then I think it was a state center. It was
Speaker 1: assembly woman from Minnesota got got got murdered.
Speaker 3: We know the stories.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean that's just a tropical les It's dangerous
Speaker 1: and and you know what I will say this, it's
Speaker 1: not you know pops go into danger every day sort
Speaker 1: of firefighters. I'm not putting myself on that level being
Speaker 1: a public official. You know. Yes, there's the occasional, as
Speaker 1: you say, there's this sporadic these these terrible, terrible incidents,
Speaker 1: But I don't consider myself in danger or needing any
Speaker 1: special attention and protection. But generally speaking, it's important. It's important.
Speaker 1: Any kind of violence is important, and political violence is
Speaker 1: especially derogatory to the to the to the well being
Speaker 1: of a community. You know, violence in any kind is
Speaker 1: gonna is damage as our cultural psyche. But political violence,
Speaker 1: because it's it's directed at the heart of what binds us,
Speaker 1: our democracy and our relationships with each other, it's particularly terrible.
Speaker 1: You know, I think now about you know, I think
Speaker 1: about Rob Bryan Er. I mean, he wasn't wasn't political,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was What a terrible situation, What an.
Speaker 3: Awful Australia Brown University. The level of just in general
Speaker 3: is Charlie kirklie Kirk another day violent, it's all.
Speaker 1: But I'll say I'll make this point because I think
Speaker 1: that I think we all agree that there's no place
Speaker 1: for political violence in our society. It's abhorrent if you're
Speaker 1: there's no excusing it. There's never a well but no, no, no,
Speaker 1: just stop. There's no butt, there's no nothing comes after
Speaker 1: the butt to say, well, they they murdered Charlie Kirk,
Speaker 1: but no, stop the butt. They murdered a guy, he
Speaker 1: has kids, he had a wife. It is unthinkable and atrocious.
Speaker 1: So I will just say this, back off from violence,
Speaker 1: and let's just talk about the non violent way we
Speaker 1: treat each other now politically, and that feeds the and
Speaker 1: that's the root cause of the violence, is the fact
Speaker 1: that we are dehumanizing each other with the way that
Speaker 1: we talk to each other. So I will say this,
Speaker 1: I am running against Bill Weber. I think Bill Weber
Speaker 1: is a fine man. He's a good man. He has
Speaker 1: he has done I say, incredible time. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say he's done a good job. He say, well, he's
Speaker 1: done a good job. Why do you want her against him?
Speaker 1: I think he's done a fine job. He's done what
Speaker 1: he can with the circumstances he's in as a Republican
Speaker 1: and a democratically controlled UH legislature, he has done what
Speaker 1: he could. He is he is a true blue patriot.
Speaker 1: He's a nice man. I'm not running against him. I'm
Speaker 1: running for myself. I'm running to to bring what my
Speaker 1: talents to Rockland to make Rockland a better place. But
Speaker 1: it is not it's not a knock against him. He's
Speaker 1: a good guy. So I don't want anybody and I'll
Speaker 1: say this. I told him, I called him a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago that I gave him a courtesy call
Speaker 1: weeks before I announced to tell him I was running.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to have him hear it from anybody
Speaker 1: besides me, and so I had a conversation with him
Speaker 1: and we talked about it and I said, and he agreed,
Speaker 1: and he said the same thing I said. Listen, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to run a negative campaign, even if you,
Speaker 1: even if you go after me, I'll run an issues campaign.
Speaker 1: I might criticize you on like votes that you made,
Speaker 1: but it's not going to be that you're not patriotic.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be that you're not a good person.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be that you're evil. It's not going
Speaker 1: to be a hock. I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1: But if somebody does that in my name, if you
Speaker 1: see stuff online that people are going after you and
Speaker 1: saying this or that about you, and there's my supporters.
Speaker 1: You let me know, because I want to put a
Speaker 1: stop to that kind of stuff. I don't like. I
Speaker 1: don't like seeing what I see out there in the
Speaker 1: politics right now and right now. When I got into
Speaker 1: the when I got into the race, Bill left a
Speaker 1: very gracious message. He put out a great, very gracious
Speaker 1: message which did what he what he what he should
Speaker 1: absolutely do, which has extolled his record, made his best
Speaker 1: case for his reelection. Didn't do any you know, was
Speaker 1: not to or to you let me have my moment.
Speaker 1: I thought that was very gracious of him, and I'm
Speaker 1: appreciative of it, and I think that's the way we
Speaker 1: have to conduct ourselves. We need to get back to
Speaker 1: the tip O'Neil Ronald Reagan having a drink after after work,
Speaker 1: that they could sit and they could talk to each
Speaker 1: other because they were opponents. They were not they were
Speaker 1: not they were not evil, they were not battle not
Speaker 1: it's tires. They were not, you know. And I will
Speaker 1: say this, it is one of the things that I
Speaker 1: think I'm well suited for given my background in real estate,
Speaker 1: because the thing about real estate is that you know,
Speaker 1: just to pick a random guy. My my, my friend
Speaker 1: Russ Willie who's a broker here, and I who's a
Speaker 1: great guy. And Russ and I have He's recruited my people,
Speaker 1: I've recruit his people. I've been mad at him as
Speaker 1: you wouldn't believe. I'm sure he's been mad at me
Speaker 1: beyond measure. When we got somebody his he got somebody
Speaker 1: of art. We've all we've both drawn blood from each other,
Speaker 1: and we both fought for listings. And he's gotten listenings
Speaker 1: nine Nash my teeth, and I get my agents get
Speaker 1: his listings, and I get listenings in the Nationals teeth.
Speaker 1: But if he gets a listing, the next day, I
Speaker 1: call him up and I say, or my agents call
Speaker 1: up and say, hey, we have a buyer for you.
Speaker 1: Let's do a deal like we will compete and then
Speaker 1: we will do deals. And that's the way, that's the
Speaker 1: that's the message I take to what I do here
Speaker 1: and what I take up to Aubany is let's compete
Speaker 1: and then let's do deals to let's let's work together,
Speaker 1: let's get something done for the people of Rock and County.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've worked with all the Republicans, I've worked
Speaker 1: with Teresa Kenney, my supervisor in Rangetown, part of nix
Speaker 1: In Orangetown. I have to go along with Teresa. We
Speaker 1: have a great relationship. I haven't part of Rocklands in Tarktown.
Speaker 1: George Haman, I have a great relationship with him, he said.
Speaker 1: They're both lovely people that I disagree with on certain things.
Speaker 1: But certain things, you know, there's you know we're putting
Speaker 1: in you know, we're putting in a new road or whatever, like,
Speaker 1: there's not a Republican in a democratic way of doing it.
Speaker 1: I've worked with that day. I've worked with Mike Lawler,
Speaker 1: I've worked with all of them, and they've worked with
Speaker 1: me just the same way. So I give them the
Speaker 1: same credit of working with me as I've worked with them.
Speaker 1: And that's what we really need to do here, and
Speaker 1: we need to get away from the kind of rhetoric
Speaker 1: that leads to political violence.
Speaker 3: This is being frank I'm your host, Franklin blown Away.
Speaker 3: A very special guest is Niak Mayor Joe Rand who
Speaker 3: has recently announced his candidacy candidacy for the thirty eighth
Speaker 3: Senatorial district, which includes Rockland County. I want to tease
Speaker 3: a little bit before we take the break. Joe, Rockland
Speaker 3: has a very unique voting style. I don't know whether
Speaker 3: we're to use called the block vote, and I want
Speaker 3: to talk a little bit about that because it's kind
Speaker 3: of a it's not only unique now to Rockland, we
Speaker 3: see other areas, but it has to be accounted for
Speaker 3: in a political sense, and I want to talk a
Speaker 3: little bit more about that in some detail. We've got
Speaker 3: to take a quick break first. Don't go anywhere yet.
Speaker 3: We're back with more with this really terrific show, Nyack
Speaker 3: mayor and future candidate for a New York State senator,
Speaker 3: mister Joe Rand. Don't go anywhere, be right back Hudson.
Speaker 1: River Radio dot com. This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 1: Hudson Riverradio dot com. This is Hudsonriverradio dot com.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Being Frank the Intelligent Conversation Podcast. Thanks
Speaker 3: for sticking with us. I'm your hosts Frank Gubono and
Speaker 3: as always our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Richter.
Speaker 3: We bring our audience a fresh topic every week and
Speaker 3: we stream from Hudson River Radio, located and beautiful and
Speaker 3: historic Stony Point, New York, but remember, you can catch
Speaker 3: Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio and all the others. And because every Being Frank
Speaker 3: is archived, you can listen to any of our programs
Speaker 3: anytime you like. You can find a link to Being
Speaker 3: Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or at
Speaker 3: our website Hudson River Radio dot com. Just click and
Speaker 3: you're there. We're back with our special guest, Niak Mayor
Speaker 3: Joseph Rand who is also a candidate for the thirty
Speaker 3: eighth New York State Senatorial District Joe. Before we took
Speaker 3: the break, I teased a little bit kind of a
Speaker 3: unique situation, or it had been in Rockland County, but
Speaker 3: in other areas at Lakewood and some areas of Orange County,
Speaker 3: a large populations, particularly of Orthodox Jewish people who tend
Speaker 3: to vote in an insular way, and to the fact
Speaker 3: that it's earned a name called the block vote, and
Speaker 3: it has an enormous impact both locally and in the
Speaker 3: Senate and nationally. I want you your thoughts on as
Speaker 3: a candidate, how does one deal with the situation of
Speaker 3: the block vote, which meaning on the instruction sometimes of
Speaker 3: a single religious leader, thousands of people vote the same way.
Speaker 3: So it's obviously creates enormous political power. All legal, it's
Speaker 3: all legally voted for, but it has enormous uh implications
Speaker 3: address that if you would jump.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's obviously a significant issue. It comes up a lot.
Speaker 1: It comes up a lot when I talk to people
Speaker 1: that I'm running and they'll say things like what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do about this? And they you know, they
Speaker 1: mean the block community up in Ramapo. So let me
Speaker 1: make a couple of things clear about my perspective on this.
Speaker 1: One is, and I think this people shouldn't. I think
Speaker 1: people should agree with this. One is, people have a
Speaker 1: right to live where they want to live. When people
Speaker 1: come to politicians and they say, well, what are you
Speaker 1: going to do to stop the expansion of the of
Speaker 1: the block, the answer is like, well, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: do I'm not gonna do anything like there's not People
Speaker 1: have rights to live, to buy how they can afford that,
Speaker 1: they buy the house and they live there, and they live,
Speaker 1: they live where they want to live. It's been the
Speaker 1: case everywhere. Neighborhoods are always evolving, they're always changing. Nic
Speaker 1: it is different than it was twenty five years ago.
Speaker 1: Habstro is different than it was twenty five years ago.
Speaker 1: All these communities changed as new people move in, and
Speaker 1: I understand that people there's some discomfort people sometimes people.
Speaker 1: When I say people, I mean people that are the
Speaker 1: historical residents of like areas of the county where the
Speaker 1: religious community is expanding. I understand that some of those
Speaker 1: people they're disquiet. They see their neighbors changing around them.
Speaker 1: It's a difficult feeling sometimes, but they have to realize
Speaker 1: that that would be true if anybody was moving in
Speaker 1: that wasn't the people they're used to being there. And
Speaker 1: so it's a that's the first point. And I want
Speaker 1: to make that clear because I don't want anything to
Speaker 1: do with like saying I want to put this community
Speaker 1: against another community. I want to represent all of Rock
Speaker 1: and County. I want to represent the religious communities up
Speaker 1: in Ramapo, the Acidic, the ultra Orthodox, the Orthodox. There's
Speaker 1: different there's different groups within those brand of those larger names.
Speaker 1: I want to represent all them. I want to represent
Speaker 1: the Latinos and Avastra. I want to represent the old
Speaker 1: white guys, Irish guys in Pearl River that haven't voted
Speaker 1: Democrat in twenty five years, they're still register as Democrats.
Speaker 1: I want to represent them. I want to represent niyakers.
Speaker 1: I want to represent the African American community, the LGBTQ community,
Speaker 1: I want to represent Conservatives, Republicans. I want to represent everybody.
Speaker 1: I'm going to represent them all, and I want all
Speaker 1: their votes. I'm not writing off anybody, and I'm not
Speaker 1: going to pit a community against each other, because what
Speaker 1: the Republicans have do done with this issue, which I
Speaker 1: think is really objectionable, has been that they will. They
Speaker 1: will say they're going to stop, they're going to fight,
Speaker 1: They're going to do this, They're going to they run
Speaker 1: ads that say that there's a there's a storm coming
Speaker 1: or whatever. They're trying to imply some sort of sinister
Speaker 1: malevolence to the growth of this community. And then after
Speaker 1: they've done that, they turn around and they try to
Speaker 1: get their votes, and they do. They get pret there,
Speaker 1: they will, they will, they will then try to solicit
Speaker 1: their votes. I'm gonna be very honest. I want everybody's vote.
Speaker 1: And if anyone says to me, well, if you go
Speaker 1: to their vote, I'm gonna give you my vote, Well,
Speaker 1: what am I gonna do about that I want your vote,
Speaker 1: but I also want their vote. I'm not gonna pick
Speaker 1: and choose whose votes, and I want for everybody's vote.
Speaker 1: That's an important point to make. People have rights the
Speaker 1: liver they want to live and I don't. Not only
Speaker 1: am I not gonna stop it, No politician is gonna
Speaker 1: stop it, No public visions stop it, No politicians should
Speaker 1: stop it. And that that's that second point. Everybody has
Speaker 1: to follow the law every community. And people will say
Speaker 1: that in the contexts of well, you know these people
Speaker 1: around they have to follow the law they have. We
Speaker 1: have housing violations everywhere. We have people doing things everywhere,
Speaker 1: not just in one community, in all communities. Everybody's got
Speaker 1: to follow the law equally, no special rules for it.
Speaker 1: That's that I think is another thing. Can we all
Speaker 1: agree people have writes the liver, they want to live
Speaker 1: and live how they want to live, and everybody's got
Speaker 1: to follow the law. We are we good so far
Speaker 1: on these two points, because then it gets a little
Speaker 1: bit thorn here, all right. Next point I would make
Speaker 1: is that there are forms of block b l oc.
Speaker 1: There are forms of block votes everywhere all over the country.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, unions are block votes. LGBTQ community
Speaker 1: is a block vote. African Americans form a block votes.
Speaker 1: The Latino vote is a block voter. Now a lot
Speaker 1: of those blocks are much less disciplined and much less solid.
Speaker 3: Like a good point to make.
Speaker 1: They don't. But everybody has like an interest group that
Speaker 1: they want there there. Then they look to that interest
Speaker 1: group for guidance about how to vote intellectional particular elations
Speaker 1: where they're not sure which way they want to go.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not an obvious choice. So everybody does that. Now,
Speaker 1: don't get mad when somebody that's that's the way, the
Speaker 1: the that's the rules. They're following the rules. Everybody's following
Speaker 1: the rules. Everybody's there's nothing stopping any other community from
Speaker 1: instilling more discipline and being more more rigorous and trying
Speaker 1: to get the vote they want to get. I don't
Speaker 1: know there's anything wrong with what an anything we talked about.
Speaker 1: People have rights to live where they want to live.
Speaker 1: They have right to live how they want to live,
Speaker 1: as long as they're following the law. Everybody's got fall
Speaker 1: the law. Everybody, all communities that the follow the law,
Speaker 1: and everybody has a right to organize their vote to
Speaker 1: vote the way that they want to vote as a
Speaker 1: group to affect their own interests. All these things should
Speaker 1: be unobjectionable. What happens, I think is that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of misconceptions about that community. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: things that people are unfamiliar about with that community, that
Speaker 1: ultra orthodoxysttic group. I think that there are impacts in
Speaker 1: the community that come from they're the one community that's growing.
Speaker 1: They're growing in people, They're doing construction and around the
Speaker 1: pout that's not really happening anywhere else in Rocky County
Speaker 1: besides parts of Clarkstown, and so that growth has impact.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about before, it is impact on infrastructures,
Speaker 1: impact on traffic. All those things are true. But what
Speaker 1: you need to do is address the impacts. You don't say, well,
Speaker 1: you got to stop growing. How do you tell people
Speaker 1: to stop growing. It's almost stop having kids. You got
Speaker 1: to tell them to stop moving here you want. That's
Speaker 1: not the way it works. It's a free country. People
Speaker 1: write to a move here, and they definitely have a
Speaker 1: right to have kids. So the community is going to
Speaker 1: grow as other communities have grown. Believe me what they're
Speaker 1: saying now. They said about my Irish grandfather. You know,
Speaker 1: I come from an Irish hut. They have all these
Speaker 1: kids and the kids. That's a trope that's been going
Speaker 1: on forever when a community grows and expands. All right,
Speaker 1: So my whole, my whole. What I'm leading to is
Speaker 1: this idea that we need to diffuse this this issue.
Speaker 1: It's a it's become a toxic conversation that has poisoned
Speaker 1: the well of our local politics. Okay, and there are
Speaker 1: there it gets bound up. I'm that And I haven't
Speaker 1: said one thing about anti Semitism. I haven't said one
Speaker 1: thing about sematism. There was definitely and and there is
Speaker 1: definitely an element of it that fuels this, But it's
Speaker 1: not all about that. A lot of it's just about unfamiliarity.
Speaker 1: It's about discomfort with the unfamiliar and doesn't mean to
Speaker 1: but there is some we know. The answers said, we've
Speaker 1: seen it. We just saw what happened in BONDI we
Speaker 1: know what exists in this country, in this world, and
Speaker 1: we can't put that aside either. But with all that
Speaker 1: put aside, where do we come out on this? I
Speaker 1: want to represent Rocky County. I want to represent Ramic
Speaker 1: Beell and represent have a straw. I want to represent
Speaker 1: the Clarkstown Water, represent Armshound, and represent all the villages.
Speaker 1: The only one I don't want to represent a Stony
Speaker 1: Point is it' not in the district. But I'll still
Speaker 1: look out for them anyway, you know, because what helps
Speaker 1: hero upes there? What does everybody need? We need clean water,
Speaker 1: we need clean air, we need affordable groceries, we need
Speaker 1: affordable healthcare, we need affordable housing. You know, we need
Speaker 1: more money coming from the state to help support the
Speaker 1: infrastructure needs of a growing community. Okay, that's what we need.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm going to do. And don't tell
Speaker 1: me that I can represent some people, be out of
Speaker 1: the bell and represent everybody, and I'm going to go.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be unapologetic about going after every vote in
Speaker 1: Rockey County. And if someone doesn't like the I'm going
Speaker 1: after every vote Rocky County, well then I don't know
Speaker 1: what to tell you. I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 1: Do you have a FAMA if I'm going after the
Speaker 1: LGBTQ vote, do you have a problem going after the
Speaker 1: African American books. I'm going after those votes too. Do
Speaker 1: you have a fama. I'm going after the Irish guys
Speaker 1: and proover, I'm going after their vote too. I'm a
Speaker 1: half Irish guide. I'm getting older, I'm going to be
Speaker 1: in their ranks soon. I want their votes also. And
Speaker 1: I'll just give you an example of the perniciousness of
Speaker 1: some of these and why I say that A lot
Speaker 1: of this is just is a trope, and a lot
Speaker 1: of it is misconception. There is this conception among the
Speaker 1: traditional community, the SECONDO committee, whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: the established residents that in Rocky County, not the residents
Speaker 1: coming out of around Polk, spanning the community's spanning. There's
Speaker 1: a perception that when people in the city, religious, whatever community,
Speaker 1: when they move into a neighborhood, property values go down.
Speaker 1: I know the housing market. I've studied the house and markets.
Speaker 1: So people say, well, they move in and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden the properties go down and then they
Speaker 1: snap up your home for a song and they're costing
Speaker 1: me money. That is absolutely, positively not true. And I
Speaker 1: will tell you I have looked at this. I looked
Speaker 1: at this information, I looked at this data. I ran
Speaker 1: the numbers for ten years. Okay, A couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: and do you know what the school district that the
Speaker 1: highest performing. I did it by school district. What's the
Speaker 1: change in property values over ten years by school district
Speaker 1: and then by sort of town within the school district.
Speaker 1: Do you know what the highest performing average sales price?
Speaker 1: Where the average price went up the most in Rocking County.
Speaker 1: You're gonna guess it the way I've set it up
Speaker 1: for you. But yeah, the East Rampo School district prices
Speaker 1: went up more than anywhere else. So all these people saying, oh,
Speaker 1: they stole my house, they didn't steal your house. People
Speaker 1: moved in. They created buyer demand. You know, if there's
Speaker 1: two people can meeting for your house, your house value
Speaker 1: goes up. And that's what's happened. There are people coming
Speaker 1: that want to live in Rocking County and that drives
Speaker 1: the price out even I'll give you this is the
Speaker 1: most interesting nugget because it really was by the school district. People.
Speaker 1: You know this, we're top of the school district. And
Speaker 1: a second beause there's an issue with the school. There's
Speaker 1: big issues with the school district. But in terms of
Speaker 1: within that school district, it's a desirable school district from
Speaker 1: the perspective of people that want to be there because
Speaker 1: of the services that provides to their community. If you
Speaker 1: look at I broke it tick. I said, well, let
Speaker 1: me look at these Trampo School district. There's a part
Speaker 1: of these Rampo School district that's a new city. And
Speaker 1: let's compare that to the part of these Rampa School
Speaker 1: district that's not a new city. Do you know that
Speaker 1: are a part of new city that's in Clarkstown, And said,
Speaker 1: show me twoth that starks down East Rapo, show me
Speaker 1: Clarkstown Clarkstown schools. You know what performed better, higher average
Speaker 1: sales price, more increase the East Rample School district part
Speaker 1: of the city. So if I were to pull these
Speaker 1: people aside, who are the most agitated about this issue,
Speaker 1: they would absolutely tell me that they bring proper revalues down.
Speaker 1: And I am telling you, I will give you the numbers.
Speaker 1: I will show you the graphs. They do not. They
Speaker 1: do not. They compete for property and then because they compete,
Speaker 1: property values go up. And they're building because they have
Speaker 1: a need for more construction. So they're doing that all right.
Speaker 1: So that's if I establish my kind of holistic overall
Speaker 1: perspective on this, I'm okay with this because then we
Speaker 1: have to get to these Rampo school district. We need
Speaker 1: to take care of those kids. There are black and
Speaker 1: brown kids in that school district that are not getting
Speaker 1: an education they should get. And that is on all
Speaker 1: of us. It is we say, well, it's on the
Speaker 1: people who run that school dirict. It's on all of us.
Speaker 1: We all have to do something for them. And and
Speaker 1: do I have an answer. No, And I'm not I
Speaker 1: have a People will tell you I have a big ego.
Speaker 1: I do not have a big enough ego to say
Speaker 1: that I can solve the problem with these Rampo school
Speaker 1: district on my own. It's going to take help from Albany.
Speaker 1: It's going to take help from the county. It's going
Speaker 1: to take help from the communities of Brocken County. The
Speaker 1: people of Rocken County have to work together figure out
Speaker 1: how to get these kids like the education they deserve.
Speaker 1: And that's got to be done. And that is that's
Speaker 1: absolutely you know, we say what are the things that
Speaker 1: are it's the the impacts in terms of you know, uh,
Speaker 1: traffic and traffic safety and sidewalks and and and and
Speaker 1: construction and traffic and all that stuff. And there's an
Speaker 1: impact that's happened with the resraple schools that we have
Speaker 1: that we have to address and we got to fix it.
Speaker 1: We got to take care of those kids. And that's
Speaker 1: Albany does have a role there. It's not up to us.
Speaker 1: It's too big a problem for us to fix. We
Speaker 1: need Albany to get involved. And that's what I will do. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's what I will. I will certainly make it something
Speaker 1: that as a priority of us to try to finally
Speaker 1: figure out what we can do for those kids to
Speaker 1: make that better.
Speaker 3: So it's been a wonderful hour. Just two quick points
Speaker 3: to make quickly if we can. First of all, and
Speaker 3: it all comes down to the power of the vote,
Speaker 3: would you address that how important it is to every vote,
Speaker 3: no matter how local, state, national, How important and how
Speaker 3: powerful the vote is. Would you address that quickly? For us?
Speaker 1: I always say the most patriotic thing I do, because
Speaker 1: I never served in the military, most patriot thing I
Speaker 1: ever do is pay my taxes. I pay my taxes,
Speaker 1: which pays for all the services that people in this
Speaker 1: country enjoy, including the military, including everything else that we
Speaker 1: do that's the most patrioch thing we can do. And
Speaker 1: no one ever talks about paying taxes patriotic, but like
Speaker 1: we're giving money to the countries to the country can function,
Speaker 1: that's patriotic. Second most important thing we do is vote.
Speaker 1: Second most patriarch thing we do is vote. Even if,
Speaker 1: like you don't see an election that is close, you
Speaker 1: don't perceive it to be close. Elections are closer than
Speaker 1: you thinks. Sometimes voting is an act of reinforcement of democracy.
Speaker 1: Our voting, our voting rates are abysmal. We need to
Speaker 1: make it and we need to make it almost like
Speaker 1: it's shameful if you don't vote. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: I don't think it's considered shameful. But we need to
Speaker 1: make it like you didn't vote yet, Get out there
Speaker 1: and vote. You're not registered, go register. It's easy to
Speaker 1: get registered. Soul, Tell everybody here get registered and go vote.
Speaker 1: They've made so much easier to vote. You can vote early,
Speaker 1: you can vote, You can vote no excuse absentee of
Speaker 1: the whole day. They open at six am and they
Speaker 1: close at nine pm. This all day pop in takes
Speaker 1: five minutes. In your vote, and you're making a statement
Speaker 1: about democracy, and there are elections that are closed. Andy Stewart,
Speaker 1: the village administrator, and I when he ran one of
Speaker 1: the years he ran for Orangetown supervisor, he won by
Speaker 1: two votes out of like he had like thirteen thousand
Speaker 1: votes and he won by two votes. Every vote matters,
Speaker 1: it can matter, It can make a difference.
Speaker 3: Joe quickly, and we'll wrap up. If people want to
Speaker 3: find out more about Joe Rand, about your campaign, if
Speaker 3: they want to become involved. You have websites places where
Speaker 3: people can contact you for more information. Give us that please.
Speaker 1: You just go to Joe Rand dot com www dot
Speaker 1: Joe Rand dot com and there's a there's all the
Speaker 1: information about the campaign. There's even Frank, you'd be shocked,
Speaker 1: there's a donation button where you can make a donation
Speaker 1: of the campaign. There's that as well. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: even five dollars makes a difference. Every dollar counts, and
Speaker 1: it really does matter. And I appreciate people can sign
Speaker 1: up to volunteer and all that kind of stuff, and
Speaker 1: I do appreciate it. And I look forward to a
Speaker 1: spirit of campaign with Bill and I hope that we
Speaker 1: can we can flesh out a lot of these issues
Speaker 1: and really give the people a choice that they that
Speaker 1: they feel, they feel that they deserve, they deserve to make.
Speaker 3: Nayak mayor Joe Rand candidate for the thirty eighth New
Speaker 3: York State Assembly excuse me, Senatorial District. I want to
Speaker 3: thank you for being frank in every sense of the
Speaker 3: word and your intelligent conversation. Thank you, Joe, I really
Speaker 3: appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you, Frank. Great being here.
Speaker 3: And of course we offer special thanks to our listeners
Speaker 3: who take time to give us a voice in there lives.
Speaker 3: We offer fresh topic just about every week. Catch us
Speaker 3: wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio and all the others. Check us out on the
Speaker 3: Hudson River Radio Facebook page as well. You always leave
Speaker 3: you with two last little things. Some original music which
Speaker 3: we'll get to in a second, but an appropriate slogan,
Speaker 3: and this one comes from John Lewis. Remember make Good
Speaker 3: Trouble and he said, the vote is precious is the
Speaker 3: most powerful non violent tool we have in a democratic society,
Speaker 3: and we must use it. Okay, we've got some closing
Speaker 3: music from my good friend Peter Danish. Let's have some
Speaker 3: fun with this one. He's always entertaining, to say the least. Again,
Speaker 3: as I mentioned, we're in the midst of the holiday season,
Speaker 3: and whatever one you choose to celebrate, I hope you
Speaker 3: do so for our engineer, the mailman, mister Neil rich
Speaker 3: or I'm your host, Franklebono. We hope to have you
Speaker 3: join us on the next being Frank, We're the only
Speaker 3: way to be is Frank.
Speaker 4: The air grows cold, the lights beakin to shine, and
Speaker 4: some thing stirs within me soft divine.
Speaker 2: Find myself more willing to forging, to love my neighbor,
Speaker 2: to help others live.
Speaker 5: The world West saves so much kinder at this time
Speaker 5: we share our hearts, our hopes.
Speaker 4: Of thoughts, enry.
Speaker 6: We waited with patience, giving all we get, and cheerish
Speaker 6: moments forgetting what we've not. Cry like Christmas every day only?
Speaker 6: Why can it be Hi Christmas?
Speaker 7: Every day of sneeze on makes us better, makes us.
Speaker 6: Hold a chance to heal the wounds that take patrol.
Speaker 2: Read day with grace and all bed night and see
Speaker 2: the world through.
Speaker 7: Hot day for die cryan day like Christmas every day?
Speaker 7: Why can you be.
Speaker 5: Like Christmas every day?
Speaker 6: All the.
Speaker 7: Why Christmas every day. Why can't it meaning like Christmas?
Speaker 7: Anything on.
Speaker 5: Christ Week you
Speaker 1: This is Hudson River Radio dot com.