Elizabeth Whitehouse

I suppose so. But small errors like that annoy me. It shows that the person posting has not bothered to read what they written. I doubt that autocorrect would spell hassle with a capital.

Just to be a little snarky here- why should I take you seriously when you read a post about Jim HASSELL, and then respond, 20 minutes later with a comment about Mr. Hassle? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that it was auto-correct, the bane of my life.

Couple of typos there, but I can't see how to edit.

Jim has a vision for Elmira summed up in three words on his cards, which has so far been given to nearly 3000 people. Those words are Community, Vitality, Pride. Thee are many routes to that ideal; some will work others may not. The same card lists some f the things that he stands for: public involvement; revitalization of the downtown and other communities; affordable housing (and making the existing housing projects by adding amenities like transportation, landscaping, gardens, more playgrounds for children, basketball courts (or at least hoops); sheltering the homeless; community policing toreduce crime; better mental health services; recreation and tourism; historic preservation (he will NOT tear down Brand Park pool but work to preserve the shell, and re-purpose the interior, the $600,000 the city has budgeted for removal could go a long way to creating something of interest while preserving an iconic structure. Brand Park already has a splash pad which, it seems, does not work); local entrepreneurship; fiscal responsibility (as you say, the Relief money could be used in ways that benefit those who suffered the most); open and accountable government at all levels; and term limits. All of this is on his website for anyone who is interested. Mandell knows the City programs; Jim only knows of a few. Part of that open government thing. There is little point in going to Council meetings, unless you want to talk. oou certainly don't learn anything. I repeat, Jim has a vision. Mandell does not - beyond serving four terms.

There is not much COVID money left. Mandell has spent it all on useful things like an underground sprinkler system for the Mark Twain golf course. So far,the current City management has not done an awful lot about homelessness, except to clear encampments. Jim has already met several homeless and formerly homeless people. I imagine that he will establish a commission to study the reasons and look for answers. A candidate can have lofty ideas, but it takes co-operation to make things happen.

This reply is to Ann's comment " He just seemed unprepared with no definitive plan to remedy the City’s problems." How many people running for office have a definitive plan? Come to that, how many people in office have a definitive plan? Elmira has a City Manager/Council form of government. The Mayor actually has very little power. He sets the agenda for meetings; he can form committees and Commissions. As such he sets the tone for the City. He has to work with the rest of the Council and the City administration. But he can use his position to work with the many wonderful organizations that exist in the city. He has a huge agenda to transform the City from - to use his phrase - a drive through to a drive to. He will go after slumlords, and organizations like Arnot who buy up properties, let them detiorate until they need to be torn down for another parking lot. Revitalize the city center, build communities, house the homeless, encourage community policing, diverse small businesses, and bring back pride in the city. He is also very strong on historic preservation to maintain our heritage, and the character of the city.

If you have yet to hear any of those ideas, you have not been listening. Mandell and Jim have now debated twice. He has a comprehensive website, and is on Facebook and Nextdoor where he has had lengthy discussions about issues that matter to his followers. If you have these questions, why don't you ask him?

Enjoy your coffee. Has Mandell elaborated on his plans for the city? I'm not sure that there is much left of the covid money. Not after spending $1million on an underground sprinkler system for the Mark Twain golf course. Homelessness needs to be addressed on many levels. How, obviously, to get people off the streets, but also how to avoid the problem in the first place. This is not something that a candidate can address, but the Mayor can. What has Mandell done? Negotiating with unions? Why not? Jim talks to everyone, from every walk of life. Does Mayor Mandell?

Did you watch the debate last Wednesday? Has Mandell answered your questions?

not the best way to fill positions!!!!!

What do they hope to get out of appointing him? Must be something.

I have to agree with you. Not sure where his "experience and knowledge" come from.

My guy Hassell has more to offer than the incumbent Mayor. He has ideas, enthusiasm, empathy. What does Mandell have to offer?

Really? Is that the best you can do?

Who is "he"?

I know that if I was shot in the arm, I would drop my weapon; f I were shot in the leg I would drop to the ground. The bigger point is that police are very quick to assume that the person they are confronting is trying to kill them.

I can't believe you just said that. If the police were in fact good shots, they would shoot to disable, not to kill. But the torso is a much easier target than an arm or a leg.

I do seriously believe it. I heard a lot while campaigning, and I learned a lot during the very thorough public input period concerning police reform. The police are increasingly militarized, and they are trained to use force if they feel threatened. (The Washington post tracked 8,727 fatal police shootings since 2015). It's easy to say, well, yes, but that doesn't apply to our police. Perhaps not. But they hunt in packs (Three officers, each a a separate car to respond to a day time call in a respectable neighborhood), and they target the poor and the POCs. At the end of the day I wonder whether we are getting our money's worth. The police cost the City almost one-third of its budget. Are we getting a good return on investment?

Are SROs armed? Silly question. There is no need for any cop interacting directly with the public to be armed (and primed to shoot first and ask questions later.) Few members of the public will want to approach an officer who might shoot them before hearing what they have to say.

The Mall is basically dead. They had some very good ideas for revamping it, but those seem to have gone nowhere. One was to turn the place outwards. That is, make the retail spaces accessible from the outside.Like the Brand Park pool, it needs to be repurposed into a multi-use facility with some retail, lots of living space. Keep the cinemas. Dig up the parking lots and landscape them.

I have to say again, that I am managing a campaign; I am not a candidate. What I think should not matter. There are several issues on which our opinions vary widely. Policing is one of them. Jim is strongly in favor of supporting the police, though he would like to see more on the ground, community-based activity. That is, more foot patrols; more face-to-face interaction. Less confrontation.

This is a "we'll have to agree to disagree" situation. My encounters with police over the almost 40 years I have lived here have been rare, but overwhelmingly negative, starting with handcuffing my then 16 year-old daughter for breaking curfew - and then patting her down.

Governor Cuomo had the very good idea of trying to reform the police. However, he asked police departments to reform themselves. Yeah. That's going to happen. Well, it did in Ithaca and Binghamton to an extent. I do not know what Chemung County did. Steuben County, underwritten by Corning Incorporated, held a series of listening sessions to form the basis of the reform plan. A huge amount of information was collected, analyzed and disseminated. The Corning police offered to be more open and accountable. I wonder how? If one has a grievance against the police, you write to the Chief of Police!!! But don't expect an answer. Ii have knocked on a lot of doors over the past 6 years, and my take-away is that people do not like the police. There is also a strong feeling tat there are too many. That is in part because the police do not like people. Much of their training is in firearms use. An officer driving by the other day did wave at me, but that is so rare. People who trust the police have probably never had an encounter. The impression I get is that police are trained to be suspicious of everyone to the extent that they feel everyone is guilty of something and it's just a question of time before they are found out. I would love to hear about really positive interactions with our law enforcement officials.

You have probably realized that I am a very outspoken person. You do need to realize that unless I specifically say "Jim thinks", these are my thoughts and opinions. Often, I am acting as a gadfly getting people to think about their responses. Too often, people go along with the perceived wisdom of a situation - it's the law so it must be right. We have to obey laws and the regulations that enforce them, but do we stop to question the rationality or practicality of those regulations. without introducing a new topic, I want to illustrate this last point with a story. I am as liberal as it is possible to be, but I was thrown off an extreme left-wing site because I had the temerity to agree with the rather disagreeable senator from North Carolina. In true Republican fashion he complained about government overreach in requiring restaurants to post signs in restroom requiring employees to wash their hands before returning to work. I agreed with him. The response was hysterical - of course employees must wash their hands, etc etc. I don't entirely agree with that (another post coming soon), but it is an issue for the restaurant owner, not the government.

Well good for them. That is certainly not the case everywhere. There are two public pools in Corning, where I used to take my kids. Children are not allowed in without an adult. Same goes for the pool in West Elmira.