From WXXI news this is connections I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made in 1970.

And from our research, I think that's the last Republican to win a mayoralty in the city of Rochester.

Steven May in 1970, serve through 1973.

I bring that up at the start of this conversation, because you heard last hour a conversation with Democrats who are running for county legislature and supervisor positions in rural Monroe County, where Democrats are really struggling to win.

Well, in American cities, it's very hard for Republicans and conservatives, but it's a very important for voters to have choices.

And we really believe strongly in bringing every candidate on the ballot to you before the election.

So you've got a chance to hear them at length, no matter their party, no matter your party.

And you can evaluate their positions.

You can evaluate whether you'd like to vote for them or not.

Now, yesterday we had the mayor of Rochester, Malik Evans, who is the Democrat running for reelection.

And the conservative in this race is Louis Sabo, who is with us in studio now.

Alexei Baucom is the website.

Louis, welcome.

Nice to have you on connection.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for hosting us.

Well, I want to start with a little bit here.

You're on the Conservative Party line, not the Republican Party line.

Right.

To be clear.

Yeah.

Are you a Republican?

Yeah.

I've been a Republican most of my life.

When you go to get on the ballot, you.

New York is party politics.

So you're associated with a party.

You have to go and get signatures from people that are registered in that party to get on the ballot.

And, obviously Conservative Party, we ask them to also pass, our names as well.

And they have less numbers to hit that threshold.

And the Republican threshold was a little harder to acquire.

And so that's how that ended up happening.

All right.

Well, and I don't know if I'm exactly right or wrong here Stephen.

May 19th.

So do you know of any other Republicans since 1973 have won this?

None that have won.

Okay.

Only one that I know of that ran in 2017, I think, which is Tony Mitchell C Tony Mitch K yep, yep.

So, so yeah, it's not easy, right?

Why did you decide that you wanted to give this a shot?

Well, it's been home for 34 years.

I own two businesses and they're in the city as well.

And I it's a great opportunity to engage with the process of representing what's best for what I see is best for our city.

And the biggest concern is we're not making decisions that give people the opportunity to grow and to thrive.

And, we're we're kind of still just helping people along and marginally making it through things where post corporate.

So we need to generate business.

We need to show that we're capable of handling, doing work.

So the businesses are attracted to Rochester.

I want to push those things.

I want to see families grow and thrive in the city because they can gainfully be gainfully employed or have good employment opportunities here in the city or just outside the city, but be able to make it a home.

So I want to return in a moment to the idea of being in a kind of a post corporate era of business, and talk about your own experience in business.

Before we do that a little bit more on your background.

You and I are both Ohioans by birth.

You're from Cincinnati.

And, talk to people a little bit about the route that you took that brought you to Rochester, and then a little bit about your career before this run here.

Yeah.

So, I came as an art student, fresh out of high school, looking at the photo program.

It's known as one of the best schools in the country for photo.

What was the deciding factor?

Snow.

I like snow.

I like to ski in.

Most people in Rochester don't like snow.

I came to find out as I got up here, but, I soon realized I'm kind of tired of the cold Rochester weather.

By my senior year of, college.

Because I'd leave college at the end of, the school year.

Memorial day weekend.

The trees are bare.

No leaves.

I cross out of New York state into Pennsylvania.

Ohio.

It's like summer's been on full go since April.

And, that was kind of dreary, but Rochester came through my senior year.

I didn't know anything about lilacs.

Lilacs in Cincinnati or, like, one blossom here and there, because most of the time they get frozen out.

Rochester was in full bloom.

It was an amazing city.

And and that started my deep appreciation for what Rochester has.

And I'm an outdoors kind of guy.

So the more I've engaged with Rochester and its surroundings, in the city itself, we have a lot of, neat natural landscapes that we can enjoy and participate in.

And, that's another area I want to see grow and improve, continue to improve.

And you mentioned owning two businesses in the city.

What are those businesses?

So I, a photographer by trade, that's what I went to school for.

Worked in that what?

Ran one of the largest production studios in the 90s for a, locally owned catalog company.

And, that was a good run.

I was right in the center of the mix from film to digital.

So Kodak, of course, was the center of all that.

But I was the, you know, the, the end point where I'm the photographer trying to get pictures done and digital disrupted my world.

No, we don't want to put that in in-house.

And I would agree, computer technology in the mid 90s was horrible.

I already got enough work to do in the day time rather than mess with tech, but they, decided to keep me around for doing it.

Support for, the Mac platform so that engage me into it.

And that ran through the.com did.com stuff with the company, and then they laid me off after we won the.com race.

That's where I had to take that opportunity.

And you know, with the young family and wife at home homeschooling, figure out a way forward in Rochester because it was rather full of turmoil.

So I took the two skill sets that I had and embarked in those businesses, both IT and photography, as, sole proprietorships.

And that's been my role for the last 20, 24 years.

Okay.

So and when you talk about being in a post corporate Rochester.

Tell me a little bit more about what you mean by that.

Well you know the Rochester 90s and previous, you had large corporations and it was the center of a lot of commerce that went on.

And that brings business and activity downtown.

Those businesses are gone.

So you don't have that big draw to bring business downtown and centered around doing activity there.

So greater Monroe County came downtown to Rochester to do business.

Now, Rochester doesn't have that draw anymore.

And those businesses are disappearing or have disappeared in the city of Rochester.

So what do we do to fill those places now?

There's still some good small businesses.

And when we say small businesses, they can be very large corporations still, but they're considered small businesses.

They give good job opportunities, but they're technically I need people technically competent and reliable to keep that business thriving.

And and so, in talking with a voter just the other day, as we were walking, one of the neighborhoods, she mentioned how, at Kodak, they would send tutors into the city schools to help with tutor programs.

And, you know, a corporation draws that quality of person that they have motivation and goals and purposes, and they came in and helped and backfill and assist.

You don't have that structure as much anymore that, as many people available to help out in those ways.

And it just shed light on more of how that corporate environment impacted the success of Rochester and having those kinds of inputs.

We need to grow business that that has to aim at goals and targets and purposes, and hopefully they can be engaged and involved in, bringing up the next generation and seeing that those are important targets to aim for.

Yeah.

You know, probably around the time that you came to Rochester, well, Kodak was probably at its peak in the 80s, employing around 65,000.

Yet Bausch and Lomb, you had Xerox, you had the big three.

But even in the last decade, when Rochester, like many American cities, was was bidding for the Amazon headquarters, you know, and it felt I mean, I guess I understood why Rochester gave it a shot, but it felt a little silly.

It felt a little debased, and it felt like a long shot anyway, as opposed to the idea of saying, okay, the future looks different.

We're not just going to have a a massive one single magnet employer.

So what is the future of employment look like?

What do you think Rochester should be planning for?

So obviously the sole proprietor an entrepreneur should those are a lot of the businesses that are downtown right now encouraging that, making it as affordable.

I guess successful for them as possible.

Do we have safe streets?

Do we have a good reputation, allows people to come down?

I point out the other thing again, those big companies drew people downtown.

So things centered around that.

Now you don't have that draw.

Then if you have a bad reputation, you get even less draw, because what?

Who lives in Rochester?

I myself, I don't know if you do, but I do.

We do not bring enough economy to thrive and make businesses grow or thrive in the city.

We need to have the greater Monroe community come down, Monroe County community to come down into the city and do business.

Do you go to the public market on Saturday mornings?

Not every Saturday morning.

I've been there.

Yeah, I go once a month.

I, I lead a cycling group on Saturday mornings.

Coffee ride.

We come from Pittsford and ride downtown and either go to a coffee shop downtown or go to the public market.

But Public Market on Saturday morning, as I interface and talk with different people, there's a lot of people from the suburbs that come down there and sit at the shops along the edge.

They bring in business to the city.

They feel comfortable coming there.

Redwings, when they do a game.

It's not just for folks in the city of Rochester.

It's for the greater community of Rochester.

And they have to rely on the greater community of Rochester.

Coming down to those games.

Sure.

And they make it feel comfortable and safe and a good experience, but they come down to the game a good a good meal.

My wife and I went the summer.

It was fantastic.

I grew up with the big Red machine, so I watched real baseball played as a kid, with some amazing baseball stars.

But I was actually surprisingly entertained by watching the game this summer.

You know, they stole bases, they worked at the game, and it was enjoyable.

And saw fireworks at the end, headed home by 10:00.

And everybody leaves.

Leaves the city.

Would they feel comfortable to go, you know, to other spaces in the city?

We need to make that bubble expand.

So the way they run it, the, Red wings, you feel very comfortable coming in and very comfortable leaving.

Do we feel comfortable going throughout the rest of the city to patronize some businesses that are open later after the game and so on.

So you're applying, you don't feel comfortable?

I do as a man, I feel fine.

All right.

With a woman with a young family or they, you know, feel comfortable.

Hey, let's go to the High Falls and walk across the bridge.

Do we want to go find a, space?

There's really a couple of restaurants downtown, but there's not an abundance of things that are going on.

So it's families you probably want.

You're done by 10:00 anyways, and you want to leave.

But is there that ability to comfortably say, I want to come downtown and do something?

Or am I thinking in the back of the head or my window is going to get smashed, is my car going to get stolen?

And these are comments that I hear back as I try and do different things, in responsibilities that I have in the city.

Yeah.

I don't want to come down because, I drive a Hyundai and it might get stolen.

Was like, I don't think about that in my mind.

In maybe most Rochester areas, don't think about that.

But outside of a city, we have a reputation, and that reputation is not going, you know, it's not well received.

So in a moment, I want to talk more about what you want to do as mayor.

Right.

Regarding public safety.

But part of what you're describing is also perception, right?

Because of the perception that the suburbs or the rural areas have about what Rochester is.

Right, right.

And I live in the city of Rochester.

There are not a whole lot of places that I would feel like I can't walk the street.

I am comfortable in the city.

I understand there are zip codes within the city that have higher rates of crime, and in some places we should be offended that the levels of crime are what they are because those families deserve better.

The people who live in those neighborhoods deserve better.

Right.

You know, I, I'm not in the safest part of the city, but I'm not in the highest crime zip code either, right?

Right.

So, but what I'm asking you is, is the fear that you're describing warranted, or do you think part of it is based on a misperception of what all American cities are like among people who now grew up in the suburbs and don't spend a lot of time in cities.

Right?

Yeah.

In a city is I think there's two different natures.

People like the city, and there's other people that like the country.

And yeah, sure.

In what, when we're started from this, from the post corporate, when it was corporate world, you came down and you worked in the city, so you were comfortable with it because that was where you worked and you spent time there.

Yeah, yeah.

You have less of that interaction happening.

So now you at comfort level is maybe we'll visit on a Saturday once a month or this or that.

And then if you get some, a reputation, it isn't good.

That just makes it that much more reticent to go make a trip.

And plus, businesses expand it out.

There's small businesses out in, you know, throughout the county.

We can go this coffee shop here or we can.

Yeah, yeah.

Run over to I mean, we don't have any retail businesses downtown, of any size.

So you got to run out to the suburbs to go to Target or Walmart or something like that.

So the city is no longer the center of interaction.

You know, I take that point.

I guess what I want to know is when someone in the suburb says to you, when someone in that Pittsford riding group who goes down to the public market when they say, you know, I would go to the city of Rochester on a Saturday, but I don't want to have my window smashed.

Do you tell them, you know, most of that concern is overblown.

Most of the places you would go and hang out, that's not going to happen.

Or do you tell them, yeah, that's happening and that's a problem.

Well, they'll come and do it with me.

You know, if there's a group going, they'll go, but, I have another we do another ride on Monday nights.

It starts out in the city.

And how often does it have to happen?

Well, last year some went through and smashed people's windows.

Their cars that were parked in the lot behind that business that was in the city.

How comfortable are they going to feel about coming back down and joining us on that ride?

So, how many times does it have to happen to somebody before it's been it sends out a bad reputation, but you're saying the reputation is deserved.

It's it's deserved and promoted.

I talked to another media person.

I said, you know, we tend to focus on the murder that happened here, that this happened here.

And we we miss what else is going on in Rochester that tends and that's in the news media.

You know, it's something to grab on to.

So we're going to garner it whether we like it or not.

You and I know the city of Rochester has wonderful places.

And as I've campaigned, there's a lot more places that I'm finding is like, wow, this is nice neighborhood, even off Little Avenue.

And you go up in some of the north sections of the city.

It's like, these are some nice neighborhood, nicer than you expected.

Yeah, nicer than from what I hear.

Sure.

And, and so it made me get out and get in these neighborhoods and walk and interact like, wow, this is really nice.

These are some nice people working through an additional load of challenges because crime's not abated in their areas and it tarnishes what they have.

But there's a lot of neat sections of the city of Rochester.

No, I appreciate that point.

And and so when it comes to safety, then, if you're the mayor of the city of Rochester, what has to change?

What would you what I call it is menacing crime.

We can't dismiss it.

And the way I describe it this way is, the car got stolen.

We just sent the kid back home to his parents.

Anybody that has a thinking brain is you.

The car got stolen.

We didn't prosecute the person.

So that guy can go out and steal my car again.

Somebody was murdered.

They didn't catch the murderer.

We have lower murder rate, but we're not catching the murderers.

So that murderer is still wandering around the streets of Rochester.

So those are some things to keep in mind about how that affects, reputation.

The car thing and the murder thing are very different.

The murder thing?

I don't know that police are not trying to catch every murderer already.

Right.

The last week, there are three murders.

And, you know, a couple of them were like, well, there were no witnesses, and they're working, and I'm sure.

But.

But what's the mayor have to do with that?

What would you do different?

The mayor would say, get on top of it.

Let's let's get this solved.

Let's chase down these crimes.

Now the state wants to be soft on crime about these things, but I don't think that we can afford to carry that bad reputation.

And we need to treat even the menacing, crime busting, the windows busting, stealing cars.

Seriously?

We're asking people to visit our city to carry the burden of those menacing crimes.

I myself almost got run down by a choirboy, a stolen car as we were riding back from our, an evening ride.

And it was intentional.

Or it wasn't, like I was in the wrong place in the street.

I was on a side road.

The car came from a main road and turned and swerved and stopped within inches of running me over and and then proceeded drive on by and turn left in front of two police cruisers parked on the street.

And, and they were engaged in some other thing.

I couldn't interface with the policeman at that time.

So do you think the mayor of Rochester is not serious about it?

Yeah, I, I would make that statement.

Yes.

I don't think I think he's soft on it.

And the it also bears on the, you know, I've talked to one, property owner in the city and it's like, yeah, it cost me a bunch of money.

The busted window with the kid has a hard life going on, and so I didn't press charges.

So it also comes on the nature of the city.

Do you want this to continue, or do you want to make sure that there's a consequence for these menacing crimes and that it's deterred, it's reduced, it's minimized in in its activity?

So yes, the press can talk about some things, but the there's enough personal it's affected lives personally that people think about it.

The mayor on this program yesterday said that he is very dedicated to being very serious about crime.

The that you're describing.

And he pointed to the non-homicide clearance rate, which, according to this administration, prior to his arrival in the office, was in the teens.

The national average is around 19% in the city of Rochester.

In his administration, he says it's 40%.

He says that they are very, very dedicated to getting police to go after every crime, whether it's homicide or not.

And the clearance rate is much higher that they have shown huge strides in taking it seriously.

You're saying as someone who is running for mayor.

You don't buy it.

I don't buy it.

I mean that's great if they're having a 40% clearance rate and let's see that get even better to give us, an even show that we mean business in the city.

But I personally know people that came in the city, their car was attempted to be stolen.

And the answer from the police, after calling in the theft, which caused $3,000 worth of damage to their car, which couldn't be stolen, and their kids had hopped in the car while the perp was in the front seat trying to steal a car at an early evening, and the wife came out and saw that, confronted the perpetrator.

The police said, oh, we just take him back home.

Does that make a family feel comfortable coming into the city?

But what you're describing about police, if what you're describing is accurate, I think the chief and the police would say we're not the ones setting that policy.

The rules here.

Who is setting the policy?

Well, why don't you tell me?

Because I think the mayor is setting the policy in the eyes of even a couple days ago, a post put up by, radio commentator in the city said that, there was the police, the Greece police were chasing someone in a car who was fleeing into the city, and they called for assistance from the RPD.

And they're told we can't help you.

And, that leads to a whole nother level of, discussion.

You know, when there is no cooperation with trying to apprehend, these kind of menacing crime situations, it says that we have a policy in the city that we want to support or be soft on crime.

So, so tell me a little bit about what you would do if you're the mayor regarding what ISIS doing.

So we've seen some pretty high profile incidents to the point where the Trump administration is suing the city of Rochester and have named the mayor, for, in the Trump administration's view, inhibiting Ice agents from detaining and deporting.

Now, the mayor has said that as a sanctuary city, that doesn't mean that they are inhibiting Ice agents, just as he doesn't inhibit a federal tax collector.

He says, I'm just not going to do your job for you.

Our people are going to do our job.

You are going to do your job, and you're not going to ask us to do your job for you.

There's a difference in the mayor says, what would you say?

I would say the mayor is, not doing anything.

When you see a couple of Ice vehicles having their tires punctured, punctured in a crowd, milling around, trying to prevent them from doing their job, the city police did not come out and keep our streets under control.

That's the job of the mayor to make sure that our streets are in order and the business can be done, whether that's federal business, private business, and apprehending illegals is the responsibility of the federal government.

So you say no more sanctuary city.

In that category.

Yes.

So no more sanctuary city for illegal immigrants.

You would direct Rochester police to work with Ice.

I would say keep our streets in order.

You don't I don't they don't need to go and apprehend the illegal immigrant.

Only Ice has that.

The federal government has that responsibility.

And that was determined by the Supreme Court under the Obama administration, in Arizona versus the United States, that it was solely the responsibility of the United States to determine someone's immigration status.

So it is their job to do.

They should be able to do it unhindered by hecklers, protesters, people vandalizing their equipment as they're going and doing the job that they've been told to do.

The the high profile case in the last month was, I think it was on Westminster, the two roofers.

Yes.

Are you familiar with this?

Yes.

So this is a case where you had two people doing work that they do regularly.

They are employed as roofers, lived in this community probably for, you know, a while and are just trying to work in the middle of an afternoon and ice shows up to detain them.

That's when the crowd that you're describing, which included some lawmakers gathered to try to prevent Ice from detaining those two gentlemen.

Now, in the days since we've seen, I've even seen a split in some political circles on the right, including someone like Joe Rogan who has said that he supported the Trump administration with Ice because the promise was they're going after the gang members, the murderers, the people who have committed crimes, the people who are violent to get them out of here.

And Rogan says, I did not think they'd be going after people who've lived here and are gainfully employed and have children and are just trying to, you know, raise a family and be good people.

I know where are where are you on that?

I know a lot of immigrants who've done the right, done it the right way.

They applied for immigration.

They got accepted.

They went through the steps and then and they have families and they've worked hard, raising and supporting their family.

They're all legally here.

I don't understand how someone can break the law.

Come in and be.

Oh, well, I'm.

I'm doing the right thing.

How are you doing the right thing?

You're you're employed by a hopefully you're working for an American company that's hired an illegal to do your job, do a job that maybe somebody, some American could have, someone who's legally here and you're employing somebody outside of that circle that certainly you can understand how someone would do that if they're fleeing something desperate.

Right?

I mean, you you may not think that they're doing it exactly the right way, but you can understand the human impulse to maybe escape a worse life, look for a better life.

And then the question becomes, if they've been doing it for ten years and they're just working on the roof and they're, you know, trying to be a law abiding person, and they're contributing to communities and maybe they're waiting tables or they're helping people's families that to you, the rises to the same level as someone who was a gang member or criminal, because they've come across the southern border the same way you're saying the way they entered the country is where the deal breaker is for you?

Yeah, I think it's a deal breaker.

For the people who have done it the legitimate way for the law abiding American, it's a deal breaker who have, you know, done the right thing, paid their taxes, supported their community and the ways they can, volunteering or giving.

And then to be told that, you're bad for thinking that it's wrong.

You know, you're you're wrong.

And thinking that an illegal someone who legally entered the country, some of us have had the opportunity to travel out of our country.

I've gone to Mexico, on a, you know, little vacation trip with my wife.

I had to pay I it was 175 or $250 in, visa taxes to go to that country.

Yeah.

And I had to have it a legitimate I ID to enter that country and then also to return into my country.

You know, I've gone to other countries throughout this world, and I have to prove that I have income to cover my time there.

When I go visit that country, I have to write a letter to get a written permission to enter that country.

We all have to legally, and there's no other country in this world that let you just walk across the border and go in and work or do business, even Canada.

You can't go across the border and do business in Canada.

You have to have their permission to do that.

So, there's that there's a disconnect in my mind with this attitude that you, you know, oh, it's okay.

They're they're, you know, working, a job and they're providing for their family.

A lot of them come over and work, the migrant migrant situation, which I think is legitimate, come over and work the farms or whatever, they go back home, you know, to Mexico after migrant, you know, the picking seasons are done.

They know it's a good job opportunity and we've allowed that to go on.

And that's that's part of our legitimate way of doing business.

But they go back home and they they've been sending their money back home.

There are Mexicans that I've talked with down in Mexico.

wow, is that the resort?

The one person that I was talking with, it's like, oh, it's my dream to go to and watch a bills game in the in the snow in the winter.

What happened in, you know, with last year's playoff is iconic in people's minds throughout the world, seeing that it's their dream and they can do that because they apply for a visa and can come into us.

They'll do that tourism and go back home.

So those give legitimate ways to do business.

It's it's good and productive when we have those borders and honor those.

We're talking to Luis Sabio who is the conservative.

He's a Republican.

He's running on the Conservative Party line in the Rochester mayoral election.

And if you're elected, I think the the president and the white House are going to rescind this lawsuit against the city of Rochester.

That would be a real money saving for Rochester, wouldn't it?

I think that's a guarantee that they would do that.

Are you a fan of the president?

I am I am a fan of the president in that he, campaigned on what he's going to do, and he pursues what he's going to do.

It doesn't there's not a bait and switch kind of scenario, that has gone on with other leadership, presidents in the past.

And, you know, we may not all agree with everything that Donald Trump, how he, his demeanor or things like that.

But do we agree on the policies and pursuits, that he is doing in office as president to better our nation and give America the first, the best place in doing business to and throughout the world, or even just in our decisions in how we do policymaking within our own country.

He ran on tariffs.

He did.

And and the tariffs are there.

You're a small business owner.

You support the tariffs.

The tariffs, are impacting in some ways some of the cost of doing business.

It's not the level compared to, cost of living increases that have been in, you know, put upon us in other areas of things, whether it be, minimum wage increases, which is what I tell people is actually a wage reduction for people that have gotten their degree, their education, and then all of a sudden, I use my kids as an example, who are, went to college, got their degrees, go out in the workforce, and then all of a sudden minimum wage went from $10 an hour to $15 an hour.

Their wage did not increase.

So then their cost of acquiring what they need, the daily living costs have just gone up.

So those kind of fiat decisions of, oh, we've decided you need to be paid more rather than actual market economy forcing those wage increases.

So you're against the minimum wage, the minimum wage jobs, being prepared to just government policy.

We're going to make you pay more if you want the market to decide.

Yeah, I want the market to decide.

And and as an example, that was to help get towards a living wage.

Well, that, that went into effect a couple of years ago, the jump to 15.

And now we're being told that $30 an hour is a living wage, and we should be aiming for that minimum.

How do you reconcile that with your own budget?

Your, you know, you're working a job that pay increases based on what kind of, money and income you can do.

Okay, so but my question was about tariffs, though.

How where are you on tariffs if it's going to lead to more business opportunity in the United States.

For it how can you so in my past business life, I worked for a company that, would market and sell pet supplies.

Okay.

So one of their things that I'd like to do is they find a vendor, come in with a neat toy or item, and then they go and take that same item that the vendor introduced to them and go to their Chinese producers that they could find, say, hey, can you make this for us cheaper?

And they get it for, you know, pennies on the dollar.

So that vendor that brought in the idea loses out the Chinese man factor, makes that item, chips it over unreliable.

In the retail world, you can put that on a shelf when you're in a in the catalog world, you can't.

It needs to be a reliable available to you.

So you are undercutting business growth within the United States.

When you leave that door open, it's most free for nation status, zero tariff back and forth.

You are undercutting the growth of industry in our own country.

And so I think about the soybeans, though, a lot of soybean farmers in a lot of different states, including new York State, and a quarter of their market was China.

And because of the tariffs, they had zero.

The soybean farmers of America.

A lot of Trump voters raised the alarm in the last six weeks and said, we are in deep trouble here.

We got no market.

We're going to we're growing a product that's got nowhere to go.

And so Trump came out in the last couple of weeks and said we're going to take some of the money we've raised from tariffs.

We're just going to give it to the soybean farmers.

So we'll make you whole.

So you grow your soybeans, throw them on the ground but we'll give you money.

Well we've been doing that for at least 50 to 70 years already with ag policy.

Yeah I certainly there's questions about ag policy.

I'm just saying when you look at what the soybean farmers are doing, the white House saying we're going to institute tariffs, which are people pay, we're going to raise that money, and we're going to just give it in a bailout to farmers who used to have a market, but now don't because of the tariffs.

And you're saying that's an efficient way of doing an American economy.

It's not an efficient way of doing an American economy.

I'd say that's a one off incident.

I don't know how China can all of a sudden cut its supply chain by, what was it, 25%, 30% of their supply chain?

No business can cut 30% of their supply chain and not suffer.

And so I think that's, a one off ploy that we'll probably go away once they sort out their, but you do think tariffs over the long term will bring more jobs back to the United States?

It it's the beginning of getting jobs back.

What as one person I one one neighbor that I converse with a, talks about and highlights how you go to China and you need an engineer to work on something you could have two football stadiums full of engineers.

This is, Tim Cook at Apple talking about this.

He was highlighting this commentary, and he goes, I come to the U.S., we need to engineer something.

I might get a conference room full of engineers.

We have undercut our incentive to grow homegrown engineering, the people that can solve those challenges.

So we've got a big challenge in rebuilding, the infrastructure or the knowledge base.

The skills to support industry.

And so there's there's a lot, you know, it's going to be a bit of a longer payback to support that kind of industry.

Lewis Sabo, running for Rochester Mayor elect Sabo.

Sabo.

Com is his website.

And after we take our one very brief break of the hour, we'll talk more about what's on the platform.

If Louis Sabo is elected he would be the first Republican.

He's running as a conservative Republican.

He'd be the first Republican elected and something like five plus decades.

And he knows the uphill battle, but he wants to do it.

And we're going to come back, talk more about his platform on connections.

I'm Evan Dawson Friday on the next connections and our first hour, the candidates for town supervisor in Pittsford join us.

The Republican and the Democrat talking about the issues facing the town of Pittsford in our second hour, a conversation about the new designs for High Falls State Park.

Have you seen the designs we've got and posted on our side platforms?

They're generating a lot of buzz and we'll talk about it Friday.

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This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Last hour I asked the Democratic candidate to a running in rural areas why their party has stopped winning, mostly in rural America.

And it wasn't always that way.

Democrats did very well in rural America up through the 1990s.

And then it changed.

Republicans won plenty of mayoral elections in big cities and city council spots over the years, and that has largely gone away, too.

So, Louis, why do you think Republicans are not winning in American cities anymore?

I think they've shunned the the city.

There's big opportunities out in the suburbs.

They built their world out there, and there's a lot of, like, mindset, motivated, employed.

Pursuits that they can enjoy.

They built a world out there, they've moved out.

And there is not a resonating, community, community within the city that would say, oh, yeah, I agree with your principles or policies.

Accountability.

You know, your earn your way, mindset of gotta work hard and, and the variations of that work hard, you build, you invest the people and the cities are saying, don't have this mindset.

They don't agree with that mindset necessarily.

I would say, that there are people in the city that do work hard and they build their efforts.

Yeah.

And put it into things.

But if it's, abused or if it's not safe or your property gets stolen and compromised, how many times are you going to put up with that before you say, you know what, there's greener pastures elsewhere, out in the suburbs or there's connections or my, you know, friends have moved out there and they found excellent.

They, they enjoy the company out there.

And you start doing, business out that way.

We already talked about in order to go to a major retailer, you have to leave the city.

How often do you.

You're going to have to get in your car to leave the city to go do stuff before you going to say, you know what, why don't I move out this way then I don't have to transport as much or as far to go get something done.

Now.

Instacart, Uber ING some other things that, allow you to order stuff from faraway places and have it delivered into your home at City may alleviate a bit of that distance.

But as a major back when Wegmans was wanting to expand at the end of East Avenue, and said, no, we're not going to let you expand, that would be the last, grocery retailer that would have been on the east side of the city of Rochester.

And that is more of an affluent side of the community.

How long would they make trips out to Wegmans in Pittsford before they say, you know what, I'm getting tired of having to leave the city to go do something.

I'm just going to move out here.

So it's a natural progression.

You yeah, I so I think so some things have Republicans made any mistakes in American cities that have hindered their ability to win elections?

That's a that's a deep that's a long winded conversation.

I think the biggest difference is, you know, do we push for welfare and hand out, assistance structure a lot is is a Republican, platform.

Is that a high priority item, or is that something that we put at the top of the list we want to make sure you get all the handouts you need is as much, rent assistance and so on.

We want to see we've been more inclined towards supporting business and having business succeed.

So those are I think that's the biggest dichotomy that I've seen from Republican versus Democrat.

It sounds like you think people in cities are it's kind of a big handout culture and that Republicans don't like that.

And they move away from that.

I, I am saying that the policy making, the policy pursuit, policy making that that the candidate that will get elected is the one that says, I'm going to get you more handouts.

What's going on right now with the shutdown?

The Democrats want 1.5 trillion added back in or not back in, I don't I don't know where they're getting it from.

It was a it was a democratically, elected by our voted in budget last December that Joe Biden signed.

And yet we they're wanting to add in a whole bunch more money to give you don't know what the shutdown is about.

The health care claims, the concerns about closing rural hospitals, things like that, closing rural hospitals.

This is a budget that was voted on in an operation since December of last year.

How did it all of a sudden become a big issue when that budget supposedly encapsulated all those items of supporting our economy in the way that Congress votes?

You're not running for Congress.

We're getting too far, you know.

And so let's come back to the city.

Let's come back to the city.

I want to talk to you about a couple of things that are, I think, central to your life and to your platform.

One, as you mentioned on this program, that you've homeschooled your children, right.

Instead of sending them to public schools.

Right.

Why?

Why did you do that?

We, at the time when our kids were young.

By the way, I'm not I'm not asking as that is an allegation or condemning.

Yeah, I want to make that clear to everybody.

Yeah.

The the rate of homeschooling kids has gone up in this country.

Right.

I understand so but but go ahead give some.

We saw that the we could we had the opportunity to raise and teach our kids in homeschooling.

Is that a wonderful opportunity to be focused on, the education that they need and what's, what's best?

We thought for our kids to do great was out of concern.

Know what the quality of public schools.

Yeah.

Quality of public schools.

Rochester.

You know, it it wasn't a low, ranked schooling in 1996 when we endeavored on this excursion, but it was headed down that way.

They were making decisions, their priorities in the Rochester City School District, which is going to be where our kids would go to school, decided that they wanted to pursue, things that we didn't agree with in education.

We said, hey, homeschooling is an opportunity.

A family in the city was home schooling, and we, my wife went over and joined in with them and learned it.

And so.

Okay, yeah, I think we can do this and, and engage with our kids and able to tailor their education to their interests and grow with that and take a collective approach, engage with our library system.

We did a lot of original source, education, which means instead of a textbook summary of a topic, you got the original source material and you went through it and you read it and you went and studied it with your kids, in a unit study structure.

So those are just some examples of how you can engage and teach better.

Okay.

And, and so if you're mayor, what what would you view your responsibility as regarding city schools.

So I state that with like my number one priority of thriving families making it affordable for a one income household, if that's possible, you could be engaged if you so chose to homeschool.

It's not something I'd say everybody should pursue or do, but if they have that opportunity to do, that's great.

Charter schools, are focused on accomplishing education in their unique ways.

And that's that's a great opportunity.

I want to see as many good education opportunities be available to our kids.

In the city of Rochester.

I just back to our homeschooling journey as we homeschool our kids.

You're always nervous about oh, I hope I educate them adequately, you know, is is it going to be, enough and proper?

It's proven out through just districts that homeschooling kids, homeschooled kids hit the top of the charts.

Our kids, I wouldn't say our stellar top of the charts, but they had all the tools they needed to go out, go on to college, or pursue their careers.

And that that's a great accomplishment.

That can't be said about the statistics are coming out of Rochester City School District.

And I know that's a whole other hour to talk about and that we're running short of you, but can you give me like a minute of like, if you're the mayor, what would you try to do anything differently?

There's been talk about mayoral control that different ideas.

What what do you think.

So my what I put on, survey on the 411, vote for one, one talk.

I identified that we need this show measures regularly.

The city school district needs to put those measures out, not just attendance and graduation rate, but, pursuits and interests.

What fields are what?

Learning venues?

How how good is, the attendance rate throughout the year?

What are graduates of the RCS doing?

Are they going on to college or are they going on to jobs, finding out what that is and showing that that that can be, relied on statistically, not statistically, but to say, hey, this is what we pursued.

If you're a prospective business, you say, hey, they have, 50, they have a 60% graduation rate.

We have a good you have a better standing for business.

It's interested in locating in the city because you got to look at it from the side of.

Is there a enough well-educated or literate base that I can have come in and work in my company to be able to get work, so you can use metrics, you think, to bring more business.

That's the mayor doesn't have control of the school district.

That's that's a problem.

So this is one way of trying to get that evaluation out there and demonstrate that we do we want to do work.

We we do want to and be engaged in doing business.

Last couple of minutes, strengthening relationship that the city has with its churches is central to you.

Yes.

Tell us about that.

So we have seen a lot of push of nonprofits to going to help out with this and that.

But what what opened just last week was, mercy House to, so to speak, with Open Door Mission.

They're the ones are expanding beds for the needs of the homeless.

Another Rochester family mission opened the Gladys house, to help for, the needy women in that area, of their area of ministry in the city.

Those are faith communities.

They're taking steps to meet the need.

And they have an organized and successful approach at doing it.

We have not seen as much support or success come through other measures in being there for the opening of the mercy House, learning, from the open door mission director, that most other places want to know that a person in need of help is on a DHS assistance already has that money coming in before the let them in to their services.

Open door mission opens the door.

You at least have a place to stay overnight.

They're not asking.

You could say it's a lower threshold.

They're not asking whether you have money or not to come in and stay.

That requires the support of people that, other faith community to come out and be engaged in assisting and supporting those types of activities.

So we have Pooh poohed or dismissed the churches.

Involvement is bad in helping the needs of Rochester, and the church has kind of walked away from that, also saying, yeah, okay, well, we don't have to be involved in that capacity.

So reigniting and reengaging in that way of this is your mission, faith community.

And we welcome your participation in the capacity that you want to participate.

Rochester can't do it all on its own.

The city of Rochester can't provide the services at the scale that that Rochester showing the need.

So we need other institutions that are in our community to be welcome and comfortable doing that kind of ministry.

We're going to need that to support that effectively.

We hope to have the executive director of the Open Door Mission on this program next week.

Talk about some of those.

Yeah, would be great to hear from her.

Let me close with this, because you're going to hear the music.

Where's the best place to get a meal in the city of Rochester?

Well, in my neck of the woods, I go to Winfield Grill or.

Good luck.

And, there's some I like fish fry at, the Winfield Grill.

Can you go to good luck without getting good luck burger?

I have gotten other, no, you have to get the burger as well.

I think it's the rule.

All right, well, I'll go chase that down next time.

Louis Sabo is the conservative is.

He's on the Conservative Party line.

A Republican running for mayor of the city of Rochester.

Learn more about his campaign and about him at Sabo sabo.com.

We talked about the importance of hearing from all candidates and for every voter, everywhere to have choice.

Thank you for making time for the program today to come back some time.

Yeah.

Thank you.

It was enjoyable.

That's Louis Sabo and we've got one more day of conversations before early voting starts on Saturday from all of us at connections.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks for listening.

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