“There are two issues here,” commented Green Party Co-Chair, Dave Sutliff-Atias. “First is the lack of transparency. The Neighborhood and Business Development Committee put this legislation on the meeting agenda with about 24 hours’ notice to the public. That’s working for developers not for the citizens they are supposed to represent. The second issue is about the plan itself. This plan tears down 60 affordable units of housing to replace them with a similar 60 apartments with an additional 40 market rate units. If the City is so bent on creating more housing and has the resources to do so they should renovate Cobbs Hill Apartments as the current tenants want and build another 100 units of actual affordable housing somewhere else.”

Dozens of citizens, most of who live in or around the current complex, have voiced opposition to this project as it is and have called for renovation over demolition. The Green Party of Monroe County supports the group Save Cobbs Hill in its effort to stop any gentrification that involved displacement of people.

Former Green Mayoral Candidate, Alex White, who has been working with the Save Cobbs Hill said, “This is the way our city government operates. Our elected representatives have never met a handout to rich developers that they didn’t like. And as there has only been one party in control of our City for decades, this is a partisan issue. The Democrats in power believe in corporate welfare and Greens do not.”

“We’re looking forward to holding some of these City Council members accountable in next year’s election,” added Sutliff-Atias. “We definitely need some new perspectives and fresh ideas on City Council.”

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Details are coming, but the August Monthly meeting of the Green Party of Monroe County is on Thursday, August 9th, from 7 - 9pm at the Flying Squirrel.  This month, our speaker will be Andrew Lunetta from A Tiny Home for Good in Syracuse.  They have a successful Tiny Home program going and Andrew will tell us all about it.  Stay tuned for more details.