One On One With Mayor Masiello
Patricia Abbatoy
Riverside Review
Photos by Samantha Siock
March 2000"You don't mind if I play catch with my ball, do you?" Mayor Anthony Masiello asked during a recent interview. Throughout our time together, he tossed a small red ball from hand to hand. I guess if the Police Commissioner can twirl a nightstick during an interview, the mayor can play with a ball . . .
I looked forward to my interview with the mayor because we're both from the same west side neighborhood. There's a saying: if you're Italian and grew up on the West Side, chances are you're only a name or two away from someone you know in any conversation.
I tested the validity of this anecdote with the mayor.
He lived at 1336 West Avenue. I was born and raised at 1218 West. My family was very close and remains close to the Delmont family, who lived nearby.
"Do you know the Delmont family?" I asked."The Delmonts were across the street from us," he answered. "The Delmonts grew up with us, the Masiello's. I'm the oldest of seven in our family and Danny was the oldest of their seven, but we all had brothers and sisters, so we've known each other all our lives. In fact, my brother Dan still hangs out with them a lot, and my sister keeps in touch with Liz and Phyllis all the time."
Although the mayor is older than me, our memories of the West Side are similar. It was a close knit, middle class, thriving Italian-American community.
Sadly, over the past few years, crime and other problems have plagued my old neighborhood. I asked the mayor if he thought the West Side could go back to the way it used to be.
"When people say 'used to be,' they think we're going back to an era where you had steel, and you had manufacturing, and you had heavy industry, and that provided a very different and a very strong and powerful economic base. We didn't have poverty and we didn't have ghettos, we didn't have a lot of the things we see today because we had a strong economic base," he told me.
He further explained that years ago, many Buffalo residents "...went right into manufacturing and industry after high school" instead of going to college. That, he says, "provided many families middle class incomes and a middle class life style and that isn't going to happen to that extent anymore, because that kind of industry and business is gone."
According to Masiello, the demise of industry and manufacturing and a strong middle class in the City of Buffalo has lead to a host of social problems, including crime. "If you look at paralleled tracks of the decline of industry and manufacturing and a strong middle class, you will see a decline (that) will correspond to an increase in domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, drug use...all these crimes that we have experienced over the last 25-30 years," he explained.
The mayor does, however, see hope for the future.
"I think the pendulum has swung and it's going back up. All of the statistics show that we have reduced crime in this city, in every category, and we're proud of that. There's a lot of reasons for that, not only just great police work but also community involvement, a better understanding and appreciation of drug use and getting people off drugs and getting people incarcerated" as well as an improvement in the city's economy.
"When the economy gets better, the crime rate goes down. But the fact of the matter is, I'm an optimist. I think what we've put in place is positioning Buffalo for a transition that will be positive and meaningful. A transition into information technology . . . you're seeing a real blossoming of that in Buffalo," Masiello asserted.
He describes the Rigas family's plans to build a telecommunication center downtown (Adelphia Project) as the "crème de la crème" and "coup de grace" of Buffalo's economic future.
"This company can spin off so many new, state-of-the-art jobs and technology . . . their presence and prominence and their strength in cable and information technology is going to change Buffalo's image and workforce for many decades to come," he said. And the jobs the Adelphia Project would bring to the area are high quality jobs.
"You're talking about initially 1,000 jobs that pay anywhere from $28,000 to $45,000 and then there's the spin off jobs, (the) companies feed off of Adelphia.
They have to buy things. Vendors prosper, other kinds of businesses prosper . . . Once you get a company like this to headquarter here in Buffalo, it's going to create significant momentum for others and confidence by others to come here and grow in Buffalo," the mayor said, clearly enthusiastic about the prospect.
"So with information technologies, we're concentrating on the small companies through our 'Byte Belt' initiative and we're concentrating on the big companies like Adelphia, that will create the kinds of good paying jobs for people who want to get out of college, stay here in Buffalo and grow our tax base," he added.
Next, we discussed the December 11, 1999 Mayor's Walk through Black Rock organized by VOICE-Buffalo. During the walk, residents conveyed their frustration with police services in the area. In particular, harsh criticisms were lodged against D-District officers.
When VOICE-Buffalo asked the mayor if he would commit to placing a chief at D-District, he replied, "That is something I have to discuss with the commissioner based on union and other regulations. Once I know what we can legally do and not do, I will let you know."
He promised to give a definitive answer on this by the beginning of the new year. As of now, no decision has been made, according to Masiello. "I have a lot of faith and confidence in our police department from top to bottom. And sometimes there's going to be adjustments that are needed, sometimes we may have to shift things and people, sometimes we have to do things that people don't like, to make the delivery of services better and make it more accountable, and I take my lead from my police commissioner. I'm confident that his decision will be in the best interests of the people who live in D-District," he told me.
"If a chief will make it better, then we have to consider it." He did, however, acknowledge that there may be other options which can "improve the situation" but didn't give any specifics. Also, things are getting better at D-District, according to Masiello. The REVIEW recently published a report which indicated the number of arrests and traffic summonses issued in D-District in January, 2000 were higher compared to the same time last year.
The mayor's response to this report was, "Listen, I'm very proud of our police department... It's very difficult to deal with crime in our city. Police officers are under a lot of stress and (work under) very difficult circumstances . . . What I'm more proud of than anything else we're doing is the fact that our police department is better managed, there's better personnel, better training and better equipment and overall the good statistics are up."
He added, "But also, all the crime categories are down, and that's a credit to everybody, from the commissioner, to the precinct leadership, to the patrol officers in the district. Everybody's got to work together and be on the same page, and that's what's happening now."
I asked the mayor if he had ever been on a Ride-Along, as many citizens have, to see what police officers do on a first hand basis. "Yes, years ago," he answered.
And what did you think? "It's a hard job," he said flatly. "Our police officers responded to 240,000 calls for service last year in the city and quite frankly, with very few problems."Other cities our size have horrendous police problems with personnel, with relationships with the public, with doing a lot of things that they shouldn't be doing. But I think under very difficult circumstances, our police department has handled a majority of the things they've responded to well. Yes, there's room for improvement and that's where the mayor and commissioner have to constantly work on making things better."
During the walk with VOICE-Buffalo, Masiello also made a commitment to bring safe and supervised enrichment programs to the young people of Black Rock. North District Councilman Joe Golombek wants the Buffalo Police Athletic League to open a center at School #51.
Masiello said, "Joe and I are working together (on this)." He also said that his administration resurrected the PAL when he took office in 1994. "We have a terrific staff and they're providing activities to thousands of Buffalonians and we want to have a significant PAL presence in Riverside/Black Rock."
Police Commissioner Rocco Diina has been under a lot of fire from the PBA, Common Council and the media but Masiello defended his long-time friend. "I think Rocco is a great street cop who understands the people, understands community, understands family, and the role the police play in all of that and (I'm) quite proud of what he's doing," Masiello commented.
"Yeah, there's some differences with the union and there's always going to be. If there wasn't, we wouldn't be doing our job. So we're going to do what we think is best for the taxpayers and citizens of Buffalo in making their neighborhoods safe - and sometimes that contradicts what the union thinks we should do."
I was reluctant to bring up the contentious issue of the Peace Bridge, and was honest about my feelings with the mayor. "Pat, don't get defensive. You've got a job to do," he responded.
Yeah, but I didn't want to get yelled at, referring to the mayor's press secretary, Peter Cutler's vehemently voiced objections to an exclusive story we ran about the Peace Bridge consultants recommendation.
Masiello admitted, "He (Cutler) got carried away, but he does a good job. I don't know where that story came from. I didn't think it was a very good story on the facts."
Last week, the team of consultants confirmed what we reported a month ago. In any event, I asked the mayor for his opinion, and he dodged a direct answer as to whether he supports the twin span or signature span design."I think we have to build the best bridge and the best gateway plaza that we can," he explained. "You have to have a signature gateway. I've said this all along. It doesn't do us any good to have a functional bridge and a bad plaza and a bad gateway. I'm going to be insistent that we make sure we have a gateway that's functional, that's attractive and it produces the community and economic development that we need to have, because we're not going to build another."
He added, "I've seen the engineers' preliminary presentations that they made in (Fort Erie). We're going to have some more discussions, but there's nothing official yet. I'm going to let the process play out and I'll have more to say as we move forward."
But is he leaning towards a Twin Span or Signature Span? "I've made it very clear that I want a signature gateway and a bridge and plaza that are compatible, that are timely and very efficient, and one we can be proud of," he finally replied.And one we can afford?
"And one we can afford," the mayor answered.
Clearly, the signature span design is more elaborate and costly than the modified version of the twin span. If a signature span bridge is built, who is going to finance it?
"That's a good question," Masiello said. "Well, they claim they have a bonding cap based on anticipated revenues and other expenses. They can only spend so much. So we need to find out for sure how much they can spend, and what they can get for that kind of money, what the time issues are (and) what the environmental issues are."
When Masiello refers to a signature gateway, he means "signature" in the sense of being spectacular; something people coming into the city or the United States for the first time will identify Buffalo with. {Masiello spoke at the recent public hearing regarding the Peace Bridge design and spoke in favor of the consultant's recommendations of the northern plaza and signature gateway.}
Towards the end of the interview I asked the mayor a few hypotheticals. Are you going to run for reelection next year? "Absolutely," he responded.
And what about the rumors of Assemblyman Sam Hoyt and Council President James Pitts running for mayor? "Well, I hear a lot of rumors, but I don't deal with rumors, I deal with facts. I know both of them and that's their prerogative." After a brief pause, "I thought (Pitts) said he wasn't going to run?"
Finally, I asked the mayor to describe his best and worst moments while seated in the city's highest elected office. For his best, he had difficulty finding just one, but pointed to the restoration and re-opening of Shea's, among others.
As for his worst moments, the mayor had no difficulty at all identifying them. It was when "we lost a police officer and firefighter in the line of duty. That was the most gut wrenching, emotional and difficult part of being the mayor of our city," he concluded in a soft, barely audible voice.
