Ben Walsh’s Re-election

Image by @aaroneous11235 via Unsplash

For those of you who live under a rock (or the bubble that is SU), Syracuse is one of the most impoverished cities in America. Beyond that, it has one of the highest poverty rates concentrated among Black and Hispanic people. We go to this incredibly nice school, and then you cross the highway and people are struggling to eat. The city needs help, badly. The people of Syracuse voted the independent Mayor Ben Walsh back into office. He has committed to decreasing unemployment and fixing some of the inequalities in Syracuse. 

The issue of poverty in Syracuse is something that we all have to care about. Not just because we have to be decent fucking human beings- but because WE LIVE HERE. We affect the daily lives of those who actually live in Syracuse more than we think. WE support local businesses, WE attend protests, WE get to live our lives with a meal plan and a place to live while many people in Syracuse struggle to get those things. So at the very least, we need to care. 

Thankfully, though, Walsh cares about a lot of human issues. He is a big supporter of the Black Lives Matter Movement. He actually joined marchers during the movement in the summer of 2020. Yes, that is the bare minimum, but it is still nice to see. This is something most SU students feel very confident about. With the height of the Not Again SU movement only being a couple years ago, it is important the city we live in has a mayor that would be on the right side (the non-racist one). 

When the city received $123 million in federal relief aid as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, Walsh got to work. He is putting the money towards the support of children, families, and neighborhoods, bettering infrastructure and public spaces, investing in jobs and the economy, and strengthening government resilience and response. All great things!!!!! All things we need!!!

Walsh has stated many times that he wants the Columbus statue in the middle of Syracuse taken down, yet nothing has happened. He wants to replace it with something that celebrates the multiculturalism of Syracuse, being sure to highlight Italian-Americans (who are pretty much the only people that want the Columbus statue to stay). There is a big legal battle going on, but we know we would rather not have a man who caused thousands of Native Americans to be killed displayed in the center of our city. 

Mayor Ben Walsh will (hopefully) continue to be good for Syracuse and its people. He is an independent, which means he doesn’t have to make decisions based on party values. This could be good or bad. But it does mean that he will do things based on what he truly thinks is best for Syracuse. And those of us at SU must hold him accountable.