From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made during the last week of January, when reports first surfaced of federal agents from Ice knocking on doors in Rochester and in surrounding suburbs.

Ice stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

There's been a lot of talk about President Trump's stated goals of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants this year, although so far, the federal government's daily reports of detainment and deportation doesn't look much different than what we saw during the Obama administration.

Nevertheless, the buzz is making some people afraid.

You heard last week with the new president and vice president of the Rochester City School Board, that some families are keeping kids out of schools.

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans recently said it is important for everyone to know their rights to be well informed.

He added that he didn't have direct information on possible Ice raids because the city of Rochester is not tipped off about such activity.

Not now and not when President Biden was in office either.

That's not a typical course of business.

The executive orders from President Trump have put occasional stress on cities.

And this hour.

We welcome Rochester Mayor Malik Evans to explain what we all should know about it.

We'll also talk about whether other executive orders are having any impact on city business yet.

And we will talk this hour about a separate issue that has been central in countless American cities, gun violence.

And there is encouraging news to share.

I'm going to quote now from Everytown for Gun Safety, quote, American cities are becoming safer each year.

For the past two and a half years, violent crime has been trending downward, according to nearly every major data source.

This holds true for overall violent crimes, homicides, aggravated assaults, and incidents, especially especially involving guns.

For example, FBI data reveal that annual homicides were down 7% in 2020 to 13% in 2023, 26% in the first half of last year.

The United States is likely experiencing the sharpest single year homicide decrease in recorded history.

End quote.

Now, as it turns out, that trend holds true in Rochester.

We are going to talk about that.

And more with Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, who is back with us.

Mr. mayor, it's great to have you.

Thank you for me.

Good to be here, Evan.

Happy Valentine's Day week.

I hope you got your wife a gift.

Well, every day is Valentine's Day in my world.

Yeah, well, that's that's not an easy answer.

That sounds like somebody that hasn't gotten a gift.

Okay, that sounds about it.

Mr. Mayor, let me start with what we are seeing with this new federal administration.

And I want to give you some time to just talk about, some of the buzz we're hearing about ice, some of the fear of deportation and what you want people to understand from the city governance perspective.

Well, this let me tell you, from the city governance standpoint, this is an important area for all cities.

and this is going to remind people as to why the cities are the vanguards and the front and on the front line of trying to respond to the uncertainty that is coming, out of the federal government.

Okay.

There has been lots of uncertainty.

I have never seen anything like this.

And, and in my time in public life, for example, I just want to give you over the last two weeks, I've met with over 200, not, both assemblymen, Congressman Morelli and, Adam Bello and I met with over close to 200 community based organizations that were affected to this.

I've spoken to the, Council of Churches.

I've spoken to our state delegation, I've spoken with, I've had 200 mayors on a call as it relates to all of the things that we have seen that have come out of the, out of, Washington that have caused a lot of chaos in cities.

And people are looking to mayors to not only push back, but also to give informed information.

let me start with, immigration.

as you know, and I've said this to people, Rochester is not informed when there is a quote unquote ice raid.

We have not seen widespread Ice raids here in Rochester.

But we have made clear is, is that it is important for us to, number one, remind people that Rochester remains a welcoming city.

Number one.

And number two, it is important for people to know that they have rights and for people to understand their rights.

They had rights in 2008.

They had rights in 2012.

They had those rights in 2016.

And they have those rights again in 2024 and 25.

So I think that that is that that is absolutely critical as we talk about this, what what has been very concerning for us is the amount of fear that has been sold throughout communities across this country and including in Rochester.

we are very concerned about refugee resettlement.

For example, we have individuals that have worked their entire lives to be able to come to America, live here.

They pay taxes, they follow the rules.

And yet, you know, there was part of an executive order that pulled away refugee resettlement, as a, as a means to resettling people, in the city.

So that has been, a challenge for us.

So we have made sure that our employees are informed.

I have spoken to, to numerous groups to mention as you, as I just outlined earlier, talking about how you handle the immigration stuff.

So that's that's on the immigration side.

But let me also add, a point on this federal free side, that's something that has also been extremely concerning to folks.

We think that it is illegal, as I have said in many, numerous news reports, this is not about politics, but about people and, money that is appropriated by Congress.

Those dollars belong to the cities.

And then the other point I'll make is this isn't, the federal government's money.

This is my money.

This is your money.

This is your grandmother's money.

This is your your sister.

And brothers money.

These are tax dollars that are that are that are sent from residents to Washington, DC, allocated by Congress, and on programs that were passed by Congress and this should never, ever be any doubt where those dollars belong.

They belong to the organizations and the people that went through the legislative process and which they were.

They went through the appropriation process.

And that has caused untold angst and unnecessary drama, in this city and across cities in America.

Okay.

So a lot there.

Let me just take piece by piece, just on the funding part that you mentioned, and forgive me, I'm trying to keep up with what feels like new waves of news every day.

It's on the way.

It's hard to keep.

It's the 19 year, you know, four weeks have spent.

Might have sent like spent like four years for me so far.

Yeah, I take that point.

Are you aware of any direct.

I know threat is the right word order from the federal government that the city of Rochester will lose Xyzzy funding.

If you are still called a sanctuary city, if you are not complying with this order or that have you been told you're about to lose a bunch of federal?

So far we have not seen anything above the pause that we saw.

Now, when the pause happened, we got lots of information from the federal government saying, hey, this pause is happening.

Nothing is going to happen right now.

So it sent everyone into a tizzy.

Then once the injunction was placed, we got a note saying everything is going to continue as course, just a distraction.

We can't have that.

We can't have it.

But even if that was to happen, I will tell you that we would fight back because you can't have the rule of law only when it benefits you.

And the rule of law says that if money is appropriated by Congress and promised to entities, we have an obligation to receive those dollars.

So you saw that pause, but the threat is still there.

The threat is still looming.

But we feel as though the threat, is illegal.

We feel as though the threat is not correct because we have an obligation to run our city the way we want to run it.

You can't say that you want to have states rights and states control and local control only when it benefits you.

Well, and and so it sounds like you and a lot of your colleagues in leading cities across the country could take the federal government to court.

If you get to that point.

Well, I would just remind people that I sued, manufactured gun manufacturers.

I've sued opioid manufacturers, I sued Hyundai, I've sued Kia.

so I think that you can, look at our record in terms of pushing back on things that we feel as though are unfair and unjust, and you can draw your own conclusions on.

What we will do here is I know we're moving into the hypothetical, but we're moving into this pretty quickly.

And so what I want to understand from your perspective is what happens if you use the federal government, decide we're going to ignore the courts next hour?

We've got a couple of retired judges joining us, and they're going to talk about the fear of what a constitutional crisis looks like.

If if they're ignoring the courts.

Here's what Vice President JD Vance said when he was a senator back in 2021 about the idea of the federal government and specifically the white House, just ignoring court orders they don't like.

Here's what he said, quote, we should fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our own people.

And when the courts, because you will get taken to court.

And when the courts try to stop you from what you are trying to do, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say, well, the chief justice has made his ruling.

Now let him try to enforce it.

Okay.

Well, what what do you mean?

Well, I remember hearing that in AP European history, by the way, I got a five on that exam.

and that that was one of the famous quotes from Andrew Jackson.

The bottom line is, is that either we have a democracy or we don't.

So if that happens, we no longer have a democracy and we're and we'll cross that bridge when we get it.

I mean, I don't know what would happen, but you're assuming the courts will be a bulwark against just total concentrated power.

They better be.

If not, they're not doing their jobs, as should Congress be a bulwark against.

Because you imagine if City Council passed a law that I didn't like.

I have two options.

When City council passes a law, I could veto it, or I could sign it.

If it's passed and I don't like it.

And let's say I try to veto it and then it's over.

Over overwritten.

There's no way that Malik Evans and I'm held to a different standard.

Some of it has to do with we won't go into details.

I just some people can get away with different things.

Okay.

But I think Barack Obama wouldn't be able to get away with any of the stuff that's happening right now, but that's another show.

Could you imagine if I said, you know what I don't like?

What with the with with, city council came with, up with or with city court.

There's lots of stuff that the courts do in New York State that I don't like.

I just lost a case, on something that I didn't like.

that was related to records that I thought was wrong.

But guess what?

We have to comply with the law.

I have to comply with the law.

So are we saying that certain administrations are above the law and others are not?

Barack Obama?

Even George W Bush would not be able to get away with, with with that type of rhetoric.

And if we're going to have a country and if we believe in the rule of law, let's follow the rule of law.

If we lose in the courts, well, that's a different, different story.

You take it with, with with the court of public opinion, but who also has an important role to play here is Congress.

Congress has an important role to play here.

I mean, if I was if I was if I was in the majority in Congress and a president told me, I don't care that you appropriated, trillions of dollars for these programs, I don't I'm not going to spend I'm gonna spend it or I'm going to spend it in a way that I can.

You can't do that.

You also cannot tell the city of Rochester I don't like the way in which you talk about pick a pick a topic.

So I'm going to tell you I'm going to hold your money up.

Are you kidding me?

That's extortion.

We don't give in to extortionists.

The United States of America doesn't give any to extortionists.

And I can tell you right now, the city of Rochester and probably about 400 mayors, we have decided we are not going to give in to extortionists because we believe in following the law.

Someone asked me the other day, they said, mayor, what's the what's the one way that you would you would, push back?

I said, well, they said, would you ever break the law?

And you know what I said?

Absolutely not.

You know why I wouldn't break the law?

Because I put my hand on a Bible and I swore to a oath, if I'm going to break the law, then I should not be in government.

We should not be in government.

So?

So if we follow the Andrew Jackson adage, who, by the way, that is not a president, you want to marry yourself after Andrew Jackson, the Trail of Tears, he destroyed the bank.

He was all about revenge.

The National Bank gave poor Nicholas Biddle a heart attack because.

Because he got rid of the National Bank without congressional approval.

That is not somebody we want to model democracy.

about that's.

You can have any historian on the show will tell you that.

So God help us if we fight, if we follow that way of following the law, if there's something that I don't agree with, guess what I do?

I go to court or I veto something, or where I or I get the public involved.

I just don't say I'm going to do whatever the hell I want.

I am here for the mayor.

Evans.

sidetracked dissertation on President Andrew Jackson.

Oh, I oh, I can so we we can do a whole show on Andrew Jackson.

We can do an entire show on Andrew Jackson.

you're.

It sounds like.

Tell me if I'm wrong.

It sounds like your understanding is so far, we have not seen an elevated number of arrests from Ice or deportations in Rochester.

We have not seen that yet.

We have not seen that yet.

And again, I always say yet because this has been, the first time in three weeks where I felt like it's been 30 years because the amount of, I think they were calling it flooding the zone.

the zone has been flooded so much that it's hard for us to even keep track on the various things.

I literally have somebody right now, in our, in one of our departments that is keeping track of every single federal action that we are hearing that might impact the city of Rochester.

I'm talking to the Democratic Mayors Association, the US Conference of Mayors, the New York Conference of Mayors, etc., etc., etc.

and all this stuff that is happening.

I mean, this has intruded upon the mayor's calendar, where I am dealing with things that I did not have to deal with my first three years in office.

It has been dizzying, it has been dizzying.

And then the sad thing is, is that civics is no longer taught.

So we have people in the media who don't even understand this stuff.

So they're calling, you know, my poor communications department because they don't understand it.

And so we have to give them a lesson about, well, there's the branches of power.

And no, you can't take a judge to jail if they if they make a ruling you like.

And no, you can't silence the media and no, you can't go like Evan up if he's saying something that you disagree with or because he's reporting facts.

I mean, this is what people are afraid of.

There are people who are from Puerto Rico who are citizens of the United States, who serve in our military and carry US passports that are afraid because they think that they may be rounded up.

I mean, so a lot of this is fear.

I mean, fear is very powerful.

And, it works for some people.

And unfortunately, this is what we're seeing right now.

And this is why it's more important than ever that cities are clear, articulate and collaborative to make sure that we push back on a lot of the, items that we're seeing coming, coming, the discord and just confusion that we're seeing coming out of Washington, D.C.. Mayor, you said that Rochester is a welcoming city.

Rochester is a sanctuary city.

Is that right?

Rochester is considered a city of sanctuary that has a different definition in other places.

It means that we follow the law and that is what we do.

we never have coordinated with Ice.

the federal government does not require localities to, to, to, to, coordinate with Ice.

And also we don't have the resources, to do that.

That is a federal function.

in Rochester cannot be asked to do a federal function.

That's not this like we don't ask them.

They didn't come and do the, the big arrest that I had last week when we took, you know, when we executed seven search warrants and seized 4 pounds of cocaine, we didn't call the federal government and said, hey, we're getting ready to go do a drug raid.

You want to come?

We didn't do that.

We we did what we needed to do.

So they have their job.

Go do your job, but don't expect us and coerce us to do your work that you're supposed to do yourself.

I think sometimes people hear Sanctuary City and they the difference is they hear defy as opposed to, hey, we don't coordinate with ice.

That's one thing we found.

Do you defy ice?

Defy?

Do you seek to to undermine what I you heard what I said.

I swear oath and I follow the law.

Gotcha.

Unlike, unlike some folks in this country, the hypocrite see that we are seeing not only just in.

And this is why people hate politics, you know, and I always remind, you know, these people.

I'm not a politician.

Yes you are.

You know, you were a politician in a different job.

You just get tired of it's good for good for good for the but not for me.

And you see that regularly.

You see it regularly.

And the left does it, the right does it.

The Democrats do it.

Republicans do it.

It's just ridiculous.

The law has to be followed.

If you swear oath to a constitution, you got to follow the dog on law.

If not, then you're.

Then you leave and you go.

You go do other things.

But if you if you get elected to office, you swear an oath without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.

I will protect the defend the Constitution of the State of New York, the Constitution of the United States, according to the best of my ability.

So help me God.

That is the oath.

Operatic.

Now, if you have any ideas of elective office that wants to deviate away from that, they should not be in elected office because they are saying that they want to violate the laws of this country.

And that's what we're seeing.

That's what we're seeing.

It's you feel like you're on Bizarro World.

I mean, it's just so weird because it's like, okay, you got to do this, but we're going to violate the law.

It's it's it's interesting.

It's interesting.

And, I just hope that we don't have a constitutional crisis.

Talking to Mayor Malik Evans of the city of Rochester, it's 844295 talk.

If you want to join the conversation, it's 8442958255263 WXXI if you're in Rochester.

26399994, you can email the program connections at six 9.org.

We're going to talk about a big, big change in gun violence numbers in just a moment here.

again it's connections at excite org August the email address.

And you can join the chat on the Sky news YouTube page if you are watching along there.

Before we turn the page on this, anything you want people to know about knowing their rights, is there anything else that they should understand?

Yeah, I think that the New York Immigration Coalition, you know, we're not an expert in this at the City of Rochester, nor do we do, nor do we try to be.

We have really worked a lot with, community organizations.

And I want to say the New York Immigration Coalition is really what people should be going to get the information, because one of the things that happened, you know, I was coming back from my sister's wedding and I started getting all these calls, and I couldn't I couldn't talk to them because the flight attendant told me, sir, turn your phone off.

We're going to kick you off this plane.

We're being raided.

We're being rated so information that is correct is absolutely critical.

We got to make sure that we give people correct information.

We have to make sure people understand their rights.

In the New York immigration Coalition, really has worked very hard to make sure people understand that they've been great.

I want to point people to them and then other community based organizations that that have the information because you have rights, for example, no one can just walk into your house.

You cannot I can't walk into here without a warrant and say, Evan, give me all your information.

And there's a difference between a judicial warrant, administrative warrant, you know, so people really have to make sure they know their rights and they're connecting with organizations.

And sometimes a lot of people want to help, but you can actually hurt if you don't have the right information and if you don't have the right knowledge.

So please connect with experts.

Legal Aid Society is another great organization.

Please connect with Legal Aid, law New York, there's all these organizations that are out there that can actually help with this.

Some people want to help and they don't know what the hell they're talking about.

And that actually does more damage than good.

Mr. Mayor, there will be more time later this year for this.

If, if we get to that, God help us.

But, I do want to briefly ask you, because a number of listeners, the best they are aware that a different member of city council has declared for this year's mayoral race.

Reelection in your future is that something that you want?

Reelection is in my future.

As you know, I was I was honored to be, I was honored to be selected by the Monroe County District Committee this past weekend with over, 67% of the vote.

I think politics will take care of itself, but I will tell you that I have very little time for politics right now.

I understand it, but I have a city to run.

And regardless of what happens in the mayoral election, I'll be running the city until December 31st at 11:59 p.m., and we need to make sure that we work.

we'll talk politics another day and another day, I think we I know you love politics.

You love campaigns.

Right?

Well, we'll talk about then when I call it silly season as we get it.

Mr. Mayor, I'm looking at data, Rochester data the city has released on the following when it comes to shootings, shootings from 2001 2021 to, roughly the present 2021.

Going forward, they're down 53%, shooting victims down 51%, fatal shootings, 55%, 63 fatal shootings in 2022 to a number of 28.

So again, more than than half has been eliminated here.

And I want to start by asking you what you think has contributed to that change.

First off, let me say it is it is what's contributed to it is a lot of work around prevention, intervention and suppression.

Someone told me, you know, I don't pay attention to a lot of social media stuff and someone say it.

Well, you know, it's because the national trend, well guess what?

The national trend is down.

But there are also some cities, because I talked to a lot of mayors where shootings and killings are still up.

So I think that, you know, we haven't arrived.

We're not dancing, we're not doing the Tootsie Roll or the Cupid Shuffle or the, Electric Slide, but we are.

We should.

I am gratified but not satisfied.

I mean, and, you know, there are still haters out there that don't even want to recognize the progress of the shootings that have happened here.

I mean, you had and and you said the number 419 shooting victims in 2021.

Think about that.

That's a lot of people being shot.

And that number would drop to 205 last year.

you know, so this is a it's the combination of a lot of work prevention, intervention and suppression.

The gun involved violence elimination program has been absolutely critical for us to bring down the number of shootings.

That is where we as oh, in on targets of people that are, actually perpetrators in terms of carrying guns.

But a lot of our prevention efforts, we have ramped up the number of people with jobs.

We have ramped up the number of people in our, advance peace program.

We have ramped up the number of people in our workforce development programs, because if you're involved in positive activities, you don't have time to get into nonsense.

We've tried to get our Pathways to Peace program.

We've ramped that up to make sure that they are able to see where a lot of these arguments are happening, and then stopping them before they end up, they end up, ending up in a homicide or someone getting shot.

So that is, absolutely critical.

The but I will tell you, my one frustration is, I understand politics and I understand haters, but but for people to say, you know what?

Yeah that happened.

But so what?

Well, we're back down to pre-pandemic levels.

We're almost back to where we were in 20 1516, which is where we want to get to.

We still have a long way to go, but I think it's pretty a pretty big deal for fatal shootings to fall 55% from 2021 to 2024.

And by the way, I've only been in office.

People say four years, it's only been three years and two months.

So we've been able to do that in that short period of time.

And we still got a long way to go.

But it's a pretty, pretty big deal because there's still are places in this country.

And I won't name them because I love the mayors.

They're where they're seeing increases in shootings last year they saw increases in homicides.

Last year.

We didn't see that in Rochester.

We can't take it for granted, and we have to keep our foot on the gas to make sure that we continue to drive down these numbers.

Okay.

And looking at those, as you mentioned, those national numbers, it is true that a, a really across the board crime is down.

It's not true.

That's the case in every city.

That is not the case uniformly, but generally speaking, it's it's down in a pretty big way.

Best I can tell, Rochester is a little ahead of that curve.

That's correct.

you know, but, overall, that's a very positive trend.

Why some people will look at this and I think, understandably say the reason nationwide gun violence is down from 2021 is the pandemic was so detrimental to disconnecting people, shutting down services, making people not only feel depressed, disconnected, not going to school, not having feeling of purpose.

Do you agree with some of that?

I absolutely agree with that.

And I think the pandemic, we're still feeling the effects of it.

The mental health.

First off, we have we have always had mental health issues in this country.

And gun violence is probably in the top three.

Right?

I if I put mental health is number one and you see it right here in the city.

Oh, I see it among elected officials.

The mental health crisis that we have in this community was exacerbated by the pandemic, and we have still not recovered from that.

That's why I have mental health professionals in our libraries.

I have mental health professionals in our centers, which I never thought I would be able to do the pandemic.

All it really did was just expose this.

But not only did it expose, it exacerbated it.

So it made people want to go off the trigger much faster.

And I got the cases.

I mean, we had we we had cases where, someone took someone else's seat on the couch and they came back and pistol whipped or shot the person.

This true story.

This is a true story.

This is not this is not something made up, someone being stabbed through the forehead because they had an argument, that that was taking place, the escalation that the pandemic caused.

We we definitely see this in pedestrians.

I don't in fact, I'm giving a not not and I know another media outlet.

I'm sure you exercise you know mine.

I'm speaking at the beacon on our Vision Zero program that's coming up.

Oh yeah.

Because we're going to have them on the program soon, right?

Yeah.

So so so tomorrow at 1:00.

So I'm speaking at that.

But that was that that's an exact result of, pandemic shutdowns and people driving 120mph down down streets now that we're trying to trying to push back from.

So yes, the pandemic played a major role in violence.

It exacerbated a lot of the stuff that we already knew.

and it definitely was a contributing factor to to what we saw.

But we still got a long way to go.

But the pandemic was just one of many things that were happening.

All right.

Let me grab David from Rochester on the phone for Mayor Evans.

Hello, David.

Go ahead.

Hi, Chris.

And thank you, Baker Evans, for all you're doing for the city.

as you're obviously well aware, the NIH is under attack under the current administration.

it's getting much worse.

And now we have a new leadership of DHHS coming in, which is very questionable.

I used to serve on the HIV Planning Council in New York City before I moved up to Monroe County.

And the Aids crisis in Monroe County is getting worse, and Covid 19 exacerbated that because of the diversion of funds.

You have people living in Monroe County who are experiencing significant food insecurity.

they they are not seeing a increase in food stamps while we're seeing food prices skyrocket.

We have people with Aids in Monroe County were going hungry.

And that undermines the antiretroviral therapy that we're giving them to control the virus.

Absolutely.

And I want to figure out what can be done with your administration so that people with Aids have some degree of relief and protection while they're coming under attack from multiple sources of this new administration that's leading towards disease related malnutrition.

Yeah.

David, let me just jump in.

Is this is this a city issue?

And you're it's not a city issue, but it is something.

But this question is right on the mark because we work very closely.

For example, with Trillium, we, worked with them on the expansion of their, of their food pantry in our hopper dollars hop was something that a lot of people don't know, know, or pay attention to.

It comes to us from the federal government in the form of a black grant that we use for specifically individuals with Aids to make sure that they have housing.

So any changes that the federal government freezes or cuts there would have a detrimental effect on individuals that, that currently, that are currently suffering from HIV Aids and is very important.

And I'll just tell you something that was, extremely important over the weekend as it relates to NIH.

And, and I'll just read this last year, $9 billion of the 35 billion that the National Institutes of Health grant for research was used for administrative overhead, what is known as indirect cost today, today.

And this was on Saturday, I believe NIH lowered the maximum indirect cost.

Research institutions can charge the government to 15% above what many major foundations allow, which is much lower than the 60% that some institutions charge the government today.

This change, will save 4 billion immediately.

So the government says.

But that means that research research is going to be down by about 69% at Harvard.

The indirect costs, 67.5% at Yale, 63.7% at Johns Hopkins.

And I don't know what it's going to be at the University of Rochester.

So listen, elections have consequences.

And, I think people need to understand that the progress that we've made in bringing down the HIV Aids rate, I hope that we won't backslide.

But to the caller's point, there is a chance that that could happen, particularly if you attack organizations like, Trillium and other community health organizations across the country that, cater towards individuals who have lived in the shadows and have been marginalized.

They are very concerned, individuals that that run those organizations.

And I've heard from people across the country as it relates to this.

So although it's not something that is within the city's control, is something that affects the city.

When when the dog, when the dog wags its tail, unfortunately, cities always get affected.

And, this issue around HIV and Aids is no different.

David.

Thank you.

Let me get back to the question of violence.

Jason.

Watching on the Sky news YouTube channel says, is the city still declaring a gun violence state of emergency?

And if so, what does the mayor need to see to allow the state of emergency to end?

right now, the answer is, under ten shootings a year.

That's what you need to see.

That's what I need to see.

I am not because we need to dramatize this.

We have become desensitized these to to people getting shot.

It should be rare.

It should be as rare as a plane crash.

it should be rare.

And and until we see the rarity of of gun violence, I will continue to have that state of emergency.

And what that does is that gives me tools to be able to do what I need to do.

And that gun violence, state of emergency is the reason why we also seen in decline here.

You know, you mentioned some of the national trends that we've seen.

Because you know what?

I've been able to prevent a lot of stuff before it happens.

I can't prevent everything.

But there's some stuff that I've been able to prevent, without going into a lot of detail.

And I think that that, that that's why it's important.

But but why should anyone get shot?

It's it's barbaric.

It is.

It is inhumane.

It makes no sense.

It should not be part of something that we take regularly.

When I talk to one of my favorite mayors of Glasgow, Scotland, Susan Aitken, I love her.

We were in a group at a, at a, at a mayors summit, and, and we all had to go around the room.

This was 20, 22.

And I said, they said, what's the number one problem?

And I said, gun violence.

And she she couldn't believe it.

She said, wow.

She goes, we haven't had someone shot in Glasgow, Scotland in 15 years.

So and Glasgow's bigger than the city of Rochester by the way.

So that's why I had this.

And I think the next day I declared the gun violence a state of emergency.

So because we have to say that one person getting shot is too many.

But if we can get down to ten, ten a year, ten people being shot a year, then maybe I'll lift the emergency.

One other point on that, and then what we'll do is we'll take our only break of the hour.

We've got more phone calls, more feedback, and I want to stay on some of these themes, in particular, how some of the city initiatives regarding poverty and opportunity might affect violence as well.

But just briefly, when the mayor said it's a shooting in the city should be as rare as a plane crash, a lot of us immediately thought of what the recent plane crash, and a lot of people were reminded that the the last commercial airliner jet crash in this country before last month was 2009, near Buffalo.

And I remember like it was just 16 years ago.

So so when you said as where as a plane crash, I meant my mind was like, I mean, I don't think that's realistic.

And then you hear about other countries like Glasgow, it's happened if they if it's every 15 years.

Yeah.

And and you know, I always say if it's a different culture.

Exactly.

Now I always say I wish I had time to do a podcast.

I just don't have time.

Maybe I'll do one.

Maybe we can.

We can come here whenever you want.

Maybe just do one when I'm serious.

I think I talked to I talked to the team about this all the time, but I would have Susan on because they have many of the same challenges that we have.

I mean, they may have a stabbing every now and then.

They have poverty, they have housing, but they don't have guns in the numbers.

They don't have guns in the numbers that we do.

That's that's such a cultural change, a cultural change.

But you know what?

There's still our cities that because I still think that if we change hearts and minds of individuals to make them think that.

Yes.

and I'm and I'm a Second Amendment guy.

So let me just put that out there.

I don't I'm not looking to take anybody's guns away.

But remember, most of the people who are perpetrating gun crimes, they're not, permanent anywhere.

They're not carrying they're not carrying permit.

So.

Yeah.

So so that's a separate issue.

So how do we change hearts and minds so people can realize that if you're having an argument with a family member, you probably don't want to pull out your nine millimeter and blast them.

Right?

We saw what we saw this weekend.

Someone shot guess what it was?

It was over an argument.

They had an argument at a bar.

They had an argument in a bar.

Come on.

And and these weren't kids.

These were these were middle age individuals.

Our age, our age even.

I mean, I'm talking we're talking 50, 50 years old over an argument, over a dumb argument in a bar.

A bar fight turns into a dumb argument that that should be rare.

And we should say that we won't tolerate that in our community.

And that's why this kind of a violence emergency is there to dramatize it.

And I wouldn't have done the emergency if I thought it wouldn't made a difference.

But when I can show through empirical evidence that fatal shootings are down 55%, that's why we have the gun violence state of emergency.

And we'll continue.

And it stays here.

only break of the hour.

We're right back with Rochester Mayor Malik Evans on connections.

Coming up in our second hour, a pair of retired judges sit down with us to talk about two very separate issues.

The first is what happens if the white House decides they don't have to abide by judicial orders anymore?

What then?

Is it a constitutional crisis and what do you do about it?

We'll also talk about the new centralized arraignment plan for Multnomah County, what that means for people who are arrested and charged with a crime, what that means for protecting the community, that's next.

Our.

There may be little that President Trump and his former national security advisor agree on these days, but one thing could be expanding into Greenland.

And there's a lot of distraction in the atmosphere about Greenland and how to deal with it.

But these are national security issues of critical importance.

I'm Juana Summers, my talk with John Bolton on Greenland's future on All Things Considered, from NPR news.

This afternoon at four.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

We're going to get as much of your feedback in as we can here.

and so let me just keep working through with Mayor Malik Evans.

Sam in Rochester, next on the phone.

Hi, Sam.

Go ahead.

Hey, so I this is kind of a broad question, but, you know, I think that I noticed that the current administration and the Republicans sort of, in a general sense, at the federal level, seem really sort of, you know, states rights.

Right?

So at the federal level, we're going to say all these things and it's the states get to decide.

And so I'm seeing, a trend in politics in general that like local is mattering more and more.

And I'm curious, like I, I've missed a decent amount of the program, which I, I'm sorry about, but I want to know, I guess from the mayor's perspective in broad terms, what does he see?

What do you see, mayor, as the role of a local government, given the current sort of climate, politically and legislatively, at the federal level, like what can we do and what can you do?

I guess more specifically as a local elected official, to try to support and protect Rochester.

And given what's happening federally?

Great question, but let me tell you something.

So I got to put my political science hat on.

And I've been I bang this drum every year.

It's not that local matters more and more now.

Local has always mattered more and more.

Now it was tip O'Neill that said that all politics are local.

Politics have always been local, but we've always paid attention to what happens on the national level, and I'm hoping that people now realize why the why, local, politics is so very, very, very important.

There's a lot of things that we can do.

we can make sure and I mentioned this, this before.

We can make sure that we collaborate with organizations that are making a difference on the ground and that they are working with City Hall hand in hand to push back on a lot of this lunacy.

It's why when we saw pharmacies closed, we didn't wait to the federal government to come in and rescue us.

Like Superman, we work with the hospital system and help start the Rochester Pharmacy Coalition and opened up within two months, a brand new pharmacy in the 19th ward.

It's why when we saw food insecurity, we took dollars to make sure that we work with organizations like Trillium Health and identified 5050, 50 bodegas within the city of Rochester to make sure that they expanded healthy food.

It's why we said in the city of Rochester that we are going to plant 6000 new trees by the end of the year to make sure that we push for our environmental justice.

It's why we made sure that we sued Exxon Mobil and said, you know what?

You know what with, with, with, along that along the rivers of the Genesee River, with our vacuum oil project that we're going to make that a priority and that we are we are going to make sure that we still pursue environmental justice, even though the federal government doesn't see environment as important.

And it's why we said we're going to build new homes and why we're going to continue to invest in affordable housing, even though we know that there is uncertainty at the federal level, politics has always been local.

This is not anything new, and it's important for people to understand why who you elected your city council, why, who you have, it's your mayor.

That is why it's important.

So your question is right on the money.

It is also important because guess what?

I'm a network of thousands of other mayors, Democrats and Republicans across this country that don't care about who controls Congress or who is in the white House, because every day we have to answer to constituents to make sure that their garbage is picked up, that their water is clean, and that they have the ability to live their best lives and thrive not just economically, but also socially and politically.

So politics has always been local and that, and there's a lot we can do.

There's a lot we can do.

We are not.

We are not, we are not going to be held hostage.

We are not going to be bullied.

We are not going to be pushed aside or cast out.

We're going to do all we can at a local level to make sure that we push back, and we will use the courts.

We will use the the court of public opinion, and we will make sure that we have a thriving Rochester, regardless of who it is that occupies, the white House.

Sam, thank you for that.

pegging around to quit next.

Hey, Peg, go ahead.

Do well.

Hello, Evan and Mayor Adams.

I really appreciate everything that you said in the first.

I don't know, 5 or 6 minutes of, this hour about the rule of law and the impact on democracy when we don't have the rule of law.

And I'm wondering what your suggestions would be for what we as individuals can do or should do to impact that.

And I'll take your response off the air.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peg.

And and that is the question because people, sometimes feel so helpless.

First off, I think people need to understand that they have the power and that they need to work to ensure that they have the Constitution on their side, but connect with groups that are getting together and working on these issues.

I was at a meeting at the Urban League, on Friday.

It was probably 40 different organizations that were there that were collaborating on what they can do.

the Greater Council of Churches has been working on, on different items that, that, that they're working on.

If you go to a church, a synagogue, a mosque, a nonprofit organization, your neighborhood association, in Rochester, we're launching, in Iowa, near Neighbors in Action, where we are going to be giving dollars to neighborhood organizations to work on some of these challenges that are there.

And they're going to be applying for dollars.

We're going to announce the winners at the end of March.

There is so much that people can do.

The thing that I think that is very important is that we don't, sit in the house by ourselves with the news on, because if you do that, you're going to get depressed and you're going to feel helpless.

You need to get with like minded people that are working on these issues and volunteer with them.

Work with them.

Call Catholic Family Center Car refugees helping refugees who had to take down their website because they were being harassed, which is just crazy.

They're legal.

This is a legal organization.

These are individuals that came here legally that are working to build a better life.

Work with them to see how you can help them connect with Catholic Family Center, to see how you can, how you can help them in that space.

call a school and help to, to tutor young people with the threat of title one dollars being under effect.

By the way, did you know that if you shuttered the Department of Education and they cut title one dollars, I think New York State would be affected by $9 billion, which by the way, I don't think that they would do that because, red states benefit from title one just as much as blue states, because title one dollars go to poor districts in a lot of rural districts are poor.

So a lot of these things that are being bandied about, the proof will be in the pity pudding, because you could actually be hurting the people who you profess that you really want to help.

But I think her question is so important, because I've had so many people tell me that they don't listen to the news anymore.

You know what?

I up my newspaper subscriptions, even though I think the press has really leave something to be desired because of all the cuts that's happened.

But the press is more important than ever.

It's more important than ever.

Get your get buy more subscriptions.

I hate to say it, I'm not trying to listen.

You got you have to listen to the news more and listen to multiple outlets, international outlets, not not just locally here in the U.S..

I listen, tell them all I'm on BBC, I'm analogies here.

I listen to all of these things.

Listen to what?

right wing, left wing.

You have to listen.

And we have to be informed.

The minute we stop being informed is the minute that we lose facts, in the minute that people will be able to do things to you that they are not able to do based upon the rule of law, because you won't know better and you won't hear what's going on.

So we can't have people saying, I'm not going to watch the news anymore.

I'm not going to pay attention.

We got to make sure that we stay connected and that we stay plugged in.

Kathy and Child says, did Mayor Evans has Mayor Evans comment on New York City Mayor Eric Adams directives to his police force to comply with Ice detentions?

Is the mayor aware of any pushback from Governor Hochul or others about that?

I'm not aware of any pushback.

I don't I can't comment on New York City.

I don't I don't know what goes on.

I got enough worrying about it.

I think that's Rochester.

Fair enough.

let me get Robert in Fairport next.

back to the subject of violence.

Hello, Robert.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

Thanks for taking my call.

the, RPD has an open data portal that has a lot of data on crime and shootings and all this kind of stuff, and it's kind of interesting.

Even though shootings are down, if you go through the data and you go as far back as 2015, 81% of the victims of shootings in Rochester in New York were black.

Yeah.

If you do that for 2024, it's 81%.

If you do it for 2025 to 100%, the black population in the city of Rochester's about 37%.

Why are blacks twice as likely to be victims of shootings?

Well, I think that the you look at the availability of firearms, and I think that if you look at, the, the historical challenges that we, that we have in our communities, and I think the other question is, is that the the other question is, is why is it that, blacks disproportionately have a high level of guns that are trafficked in our community?

That's really the question that should be asked.

Why?

Why is the access to illegal firearms so easy to have those trafficked in, in communities of color?

I think that that is, a challenge that we have.

And one of the things that why we did a gun trace data report, because we wanted to track to see where some of these firearms, come from.

That's that's the challenge.

What did you find out there?

Well, we found out that a lot of them, come from a lot of them are stolen, and a lot of them come locally.

But guess what?

There's not a single.

You know what?

Also, we figured out there's not a single gunman you factor or a single gunshot within the city of Rochester.

But yet you have these guns, illegal guns that are trafficked here.

A lot of them come from Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania is where the, along the iron pipeline, where a lot of them come from.

So, you know, it's a complex.

It's a it's a complex, strategy, that you have to continue to an unfilled.

But but the disproportionate numbers of people and not only just African-Americans, but African-American males, which is which is why we have this gun violence emergency, because we're losing too many people are losing their lives and losing, the chance to live, live for their families and provide for their families in our community.

So it's it's a it's something that has been going on in this country and in cities for decades.

And it's something that, as I said earlier, we should it should be rare.

It should not be regular.

And, I'm glad you mentioned the open data portal.

We were very transparent.

I talked about trust and transparency.

I urge everyone to check out the open data portal that the caller mentioned, because it has all of these, that the data that we mentioned, if you don't believe me saying it, you can go back and look and you can also look at FBI data as well.

Robert.

Thank you.

one of the one of the components of your very busy first three years and two months, as you say, was a UBI program.

And when we talk about poverty, I, I don't want to, imply that only people in poverty are committing violence.

We know that is not exclusively the case.

we certainly know that high poverty communities, tend to struggle with violence as well.

And UBI was a chance for the city to see how this would work if we offered 500 a month.

What was A65, 600 month, 500 a month, 500 a month?

for 300 some households, how they would do, how that would affect them, could there be more?

Does it have to come from federal dollars?

Can the city get more involved in the future?

what do you see?

I'm part of what I'm kind of curious about is was there any violence in cities that had UBI?

I mean, I don't know if you have that offhand, but I would I would kind of assume there wasn't, but I don't know.

Yeah.

I mean, I mean, we don't have that data yet in terms of back until you from our perspective, we haven't seen any violence for anyone that was involved.

The GBI, and we're going to say, do you buy GBI?

Thank you, mayor GBI thank you.

guaranteed basic income.

But we're going to continue to look to see how we can.

In fact, I'm meeting with some folks next week or two, Courtney, to have a conversation about GBI continuing in the city, how it could work and all that and all that good stuff.

But, you know, I'm a big believer in the program.

I think that it was very, successful, you know, and, you know, I've been on this show at nauseum talking about knocking down all of the crazy stereotypes about people they don't want to work.

That wasn't true.

Almost all of them worked.

Almost all of them saved.

Almost all of them put down down payments for cars and houses, pay down debt.

And we know, by the way, the federal government has a version of this.

It's called the Earned income Tax Credit, which, by the way, only there's, there's there's probably about 10% of the people that are eligible for that that don't take advantage of it.

So programs like that are absolutely critical, to, to to, to decreasing poverty along with other things.

We believe that our, our positive reporting that we just rolled out, a couple of weeks ago is also so important that that's why we have the Office of Financial Empowerment, our Our Future Fund, which launches in September, which is every child entering kindergarten will have a savings account in the city of Rochester is important.

Economic opportunity is extremely important to driving down violence.

And that question that you can you can do a dotted line to it.

You give people economic opportunity.

You will see violence decrease, period.

Because if you have a job, it's why my, my, my, my youth opportunity agenda that I did, I came into office with where I said, any kid that wants a job should be able to get a job.

Those kids that are involved in those jobs, programs, they don't get in trouble.

They don't get involved in violence.

Economic opportunity is one of the best violence prevention tools we could have in this country.

And it's in, it's in it's cheaper than incarcerating somebody for 50 or $60,000 a year.

All right.

Briefly, because I gotta move quickly.

our future fund is, What does that look like?

What does that seed look like?

So that seat looks like, every child will get a.

And we'll roll this out.

I'm getting ahead of I'm getting ahead of the announcement, but I'm not trying to make you make me breaking news, but go ahead.

Yeah, yeah, we're not breaking news, but but, as you know, we talked about our children's savings account.

It's actually going to be called our Future Fund.

is what is going to be called.

And any child entering kindergarten right now, the plan is in the city school district starting in the fall.

we'll get a, we'll get an account that will follow them for all 12 years of schooling, and they will get an initial investment, and then there will be investments that will be deposited throughout their 12 years of school, their families will also be able to put those dollars in, and then they will be able to use that for, for for school, for, jobs.

Can't touch it until graduation or, well, the goal is, is that they're not supposed to touch it before graduation, but there may be provisions for if things come up, they may be able to use it.

I mean, this is your specialty, the work that you've done.

Oh, yeah.

It's I mean, it's critical.

Yeah.

I mean, the mayor's career has focused on this, just like we should.

We should talk about that with your team on a separate the whole separate show.

And I would love to have Angela Rollins from the Office of Great Empowerment to come in.

It's a great idea.

and briefly, city council had some debates about what kind of good cause if they're going to do good cause eviction legislation.

Are you comfortable with what was decided there?

Well, I think I think I think the proof will be in the pudding.

We'll see.

I mean, what I, what I noticed about, what happens sometimes with politicians is people think that there are silver bullets.

There is no silver bullet to the housing, to the housing crisis in the city of Rochester.

And, you know, you're not going to have a million, you're not going to have a million, new units built because you had that.

And then the other thing is, most people who get evicted is because of nonpayment of rent, right?

So that's not going to it's not going to change everything.

And they would still get evicted.

You're right.

So but but it's important why we continue to focus on this.

I mean, we we are we are close to fourth.

I know already in three years, 4000 affordable and market rate housing that we've been able to do in three years.

You know, how we've been able to do that with partnership, with partnership.

and we're leading the state, they look to Rochester as an example that we want to continue to accelerate and push that.

And we're pushing homeownership, as a way, as a means of that as well.

But housing is the number one issue across the country.

you know, I'm, I'm a member of the US Conference of Mayors.

It is always number one, even before a lot of the other things.

I mean, opioids, gun violence, those are big topics.

But housing always comes in at number one on all the survey.

You're going to hear the music in one minute.

So what's going on with water?

What's happening tomorrow night?

Tomorrow night we're going to have a webinar about Rochester and it's water.

A lot of people don't know that Rochester is ranked, in the best as it relates to water.

As you know, we want to be lead free by 2030.

And we're on and on.

I'm path on the path to make sure that we replace every single lead pipe in the city of Rochester is not sexy, is not something everybody pays attention to.

But it is extremely important that people know why water is important, and why we have to continue to make investments in critical infrastructure.

Because sometimes you have people say, why are you invested in infrastructure?

Well, because.

Because if you don't invest in infrastructure, you will hurt people down the line.

And we don't want to end up like Flint in some of the other cities that had have had water crises.

So we're talking about the investments that we're making to make sure that we can be proactive in terms of making sure that our water is top notch, and we want to make sure that we continue to do that webinar tomorrow night, webinar tomorrow night.

You can sign up.

You can sign up on the city's website.

I urge everyone to attend, and I promise you that will only be an hour.

You promise?

Yes.

We're left, as you said, is not the sexiest topic.

It is very important.

Right.

and I want to say we'll put a link if you want to sign up in our show notes for this program.

So we'll add that as well.

Mayor Malik Evans, I, I want to say there are times where you are tough on journalists and there are times where you're frustrated with the press, but you're also someone who always says yes.

And you answer every question we ask.

And I want to thank you for that.

That's right.

The Third Estate is very important.

Well, thank you for making time for us.

Thank you for having me.

And that's Mayor Rochester Mayor Malik Evans.

we, of course, will have city council members and others talking about a lot of these issues that we kind of just got into.

We'll spend a lot more time with the Our Future fund and a lot more here in the weeks to come.

More connections coming up in a moment.

oh.

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