Ratified by the Democratic Committee at its meeting on July 19, 2017.

COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION
 
Efforts to revitalize and move the City of Poughkeepsie forward need to be based on input from all stakeholders, planning and development professionals, discussion among City officials, and a sense of the future impact of any decisions or commitments. To this end, we recommend that the Mayor and the Common Council work together to:

• Establish an Office of Revitalization, Planning and Development and resurrect the former position of Director of Development to work with the present Planner and in conjunction with all executive and legislative offices in the City government.

• Support and monitor appropriate waterfront development as State and Federal funds become available. Ensure that any development, on City or privately owned property, ensures public access to the riverside parks and trail, recreational facilities, and connections to Main Street and the center City.

• Develop a Community Master Plan in a coordinated fashion, utilizing draft revisions undertaken in the past. Plans, studies and code revision drafts in this effort could include, but not be limited to the City Center Revitalization Plan, Waterfront Redevelopment Strategy, Fallkill Plan, College Hill Connector, Main Street Economic Development, City-Wide Zoning Code Update, Downtown Revitalization Initiative, Commerce Square Plan and Market Street as a complete street.

• Bring abandoned properties back onto the City tax rolls by creating a land bank.  Currently there are several hundred abandoned properties, many held by groups with little incentive to sell until the market improves.  A not-for-profit land bank could buy these and sell to developers committed to developing and maintaining such properties as much-needed owner-occupied affordable housing.

• Realistic transportation goals, now that the decision has been made to merge the City buses with the County system, are to ensure a well-functioning and economically stable bus transportation system that serves all the residents, including the establishment of a Main Street bus route.

 
PUBLIC  SAFETY
 

• Poughkeepsie’s crime rate has declined steadily this decade but it remains almost one-and-a-half times the national average.  This does not seem a result of police understaffing, since the ratio of 2.4 officers per 1000 residents is almost a third higher than the US average.  Some serious aspect of the City’s crime is attributable to drug and gang activity since there is a high rate of poverty and school dropouts
  
• Although legislative bodies have limited control over police operations, they can exert influence through negotiation, persuasion and judicious allocation of resources.  Making the City safer is not, however, solely the responsibility of the police.  Serious anti-crime efforts would enlist all residents in such activities as neighborhood-watch programs.  The major burden of prevention lies in diverting young men - the cohort most responsible for crime - from illegal activities by providing productive and rewarding alternatives.  These could include both recreational opportunities - sports and fellowship - and job training and vocational education. The Police Athletic League once served this purpose.  Much harder to affect are the deep pathologies of poverty which serve as wellsprings of crime - inadequate housing, scarcity of rewarding jobs, neglected neighborhoods.

     
  
• However, the hard daily work of combatting crime is inevitably a police responsibility.  The Poughkeepsie police force can be encouraged to adopt, mostly without additional cost, one of the many community policing models of demonstrated effectiveness.  These widely used models include foot patrols, regular beats, developing expertise in dealing with domestic disputes and mental health challenges, avoiding racial profiling, and community outreach - to schools, churches, recreation centers, sports teams.  Their object is for the police to know and respect the public they serve and to be known by them as fellow citizens dedicated to their safety.  This may require a separate civil service program for the City.  It is the responsibility of the Common Council to aid the police in seeking community policing grants and training and in coordinating with them through regular discussions and reports.  Police officers should be seen as guardians, not warriors.

   
  
• Finally, it has been maintained that the presence in Poughkeepsie of County services for special-needs and deviant populations presents an additional challenge to community safety.  The City government could well negotiate with the County to assure adequate care and vigilance, and ideally a reduction in size and emphasis on rehabilitation at the proposed County jail.

 
HUMAN RIGHTS
 
With new priorities in the Federal government, goals and practices inherent in our democracy are potentially threatened at the local level—in the City of Poughkeepsie.

Public discourse indicates a growing distrust and intolerance for new strangers in our midst.  In a time of persistent poverty and joblessness in the City, immigrants are looked upon suspiciously for the jobs they might take. Peaceful and hard-working undocumented immigrants live in fear that their homes and families will be violated. Local institutions have failed many of our youth in their quest to learn and hold a job.  Too many City residents cannot afford a family doctor.  Too many children suffer the abuse of hunger.  The crime rate goes down, but never enough.  Against this background the City’s taxes are increased and services are diminished—a vicious circle that demands fixing.

• The Common Council is commended in its adoption of Safe City legislation where the City police will not assist Federal immigration agents in profiling law-abiding undocumented immigrants in deportation efforts. However, most County departments maintain headquarters in the City of Poughkeepsie, including the Sheriff and the County jail, and these are yet unrestrained by the Safe City stipulations outlined by the State Attorney General.
• Helping people out of poverty requires jobs with a salary sufficient to provide for a family’s basic needs, and opportunities for job training and advancement.  We fully support a City-wide minimum wage of $15/hour. All departments in the City government could give preference in hiring to City residents, with a goal of 100%, with the County  working toward a 50% level of City hiring for its jobs in the City, including in the Sheriff’s Department and the County jail. A level should be established for the two hospitals within City limits particularly with the expansion expected at Vassar Brothers.
• The City of Poughkeepsie School’s Feeding Program is commendable in providing a free breakfast and lunch to all children residing in the City year-round. With over 80% of schoolchildren living in poverty, this fills a basic need. However, the central City lacks enough affordable food markets to feed its population.
• While the housing stock in Poughkeepsie is adequate for middle and higher income level families there is too little for the less affluent.  Fair and affordable housing can be developed by requiring builders to set aside a percentage of their developments for lower income families, and/or by restoring and maintaining abandoned properties to rent or sell to low income families at a subsidized rate.
• Access to affordable health care is a basic human need currently under attack in the Federal government. City officials could pressure County, State and Federal representatives to protect the Medicaid and CHIP benefits currently providing a safety net for the working poor, children, elderly and disabled in the City.  The vision of Federally supported single-payer health insurance for all, modeled on the successful Medicare program should not be lost.  The presence of Planned Parenthood is vital for accessibility of preventive health services it offers City residents.
• The City must do its part to end the current school-to-prison pipeline and demonstrate that the City’s youth are its most precious product.   The City Council might cooperatively work with the Board of Education to de-emphasize tracking systems that divide students into supposed ability, economic and behavioral groups by middle school, but they could at the same time address the special needs that many bring to the schoolplace. The City should resurrect a recreation department that could schedule out-of-school City-based sports and arts and media programs open to all, supported by the business community, not-for-profits and developer set-asides and assessed fees.  A City intern program for high school youth could enlist the business community in an effort to provide part-time jobs for youth. The Community College could be encouraged to provide a bridge program for City youth in both advanced academic ands vocational classes that lead to job opportunities. 
  
• Finally, City government should remain vigilant always to see that justice is applied equally under the law for all while respecting the multicultural and diverse nature of the City. 

 
GOOD GOVERNMENT
 
Good government is open and transparent among its stakeholders.  It sustains a free dialogue with citizens on their ideas, needs and concerns.  Good government provides its citizens with a safe and healthy environment and works to provide services that maintain that safety and good health. Systems of trash removal, pest control, clean water and air, reliable transportation, policing and fire prevention and control, maintained roads, waterways, recreation facilities and education institutions are part and parcel of what a City government offers in return for property taxes.  Good government works cooperatively with its neighboring municipalities in their shared interests. It plans for the future, seeks grants, private and governmental, to support its goals and to lessen tax burdens.  It budgets wisely.  Good government works best when all stakeholders work together to achieve common goals rather than individually to achieve power.  Goals toward good government in the City of Poughkeepsie are to:

• Work with County government to establish a lower sales tax sharing with the County.   The City of Poughkeepsie, as the County seat, has a disproportionate number of properties that are tax exempt.  This exacerbates the City’s already precarious fiscal situation, including the underfunded and struggling school system. The City should estimate the full value of taxes on County buildings and advocate for lower sales tax sharing with the County to offset these lost revenues.
  
• Change the recent City Charter revisions to maintain a balance between the executive and legislative governing bodies in the City.  As the democratic body closest to the electorate, the Common Council best reflects the people who elect them. The legislative body’s administrative functioning should be strengthened to support its important work.
  
• Poughkeepsie’s diminishing population has eroded the tax base and caused divestment from the City. Yet the City government offers many good employment opportunities. City hiring should prioritize City residents to strengthen these job opportunities and also to encourage residency in the City.

 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION
 
When municipal leaders work with schools to turn them into centers of community life, it helps engage parents, gives surrounding neighborhoods a stake in public education, engages business leaders, and keeps school improvement at the top of the community’s agenda. There are many ways in which the City government can partner with the School District:

• Develop and sustain high-quality after-school programs at all levels.  Working together in a coordinated fashion, the City has a unique opportunity to design an after school-program that reinforces children’s learning, supplements the Academic curriculum, provides mentoring programs, and offers healthy, age-appropriate recreational opportunities. The City and the School District can allocate and/or apply for funding to open programs and they can convene other City providers in an effort to enhance the quality of current programs. 

• Shared service agreements can be an economical and efficient remedy when Poughkeepsie School District and City leaders look for creative ways to pool their resources and together seek outside funding.   Joint purchases and use of maintenance vehicles, equipment, and playgrounds or sports fields, and using schools as community recreation centers offer opportunities to reduce costs.

• The risk of accidents and threats of violence near and in schools can be reduced through close partnerships among the municipal leaders, police department, and schools. In addition to posting crossing guards at key intersections and increasing police foot patrols near schools, a program that has specially trained police officers as school resource officers in middle and high schools can translate into greater peace of mind and break down barriers of mistrust between police and youth.

• Strong advocacy for the equitable distribution of education funding is needed.  The Mayor, Councilmenbers and School District can together push for funding formulas that provide extra financial help to City schools They can narrow the State’s funding disparities with wealthy districts that disadvantage Poughkeepsie. Finally, municipal leaders can urge the approval of school budgets that are tied to well-conceived school improvement strategies.
  
• Children’s ability to learn and achieve their full potential is inevitably diminished when medical, personal, or family problems take center stage in their lives. Health and social service needs must be addressed. Accessibility to health, nutrition, and other child and family services can be improved by the City’s locating these services in or near schools. Thus service providers can more easily reach disadvantaged families, and school administrators would have a valuable and accessible resource when dealing with nonacademic concerns. 
  
• Zoning and land use decisions by municipal agencies often have a direct impact on local schools. Issues range from alternative uses for school buildings that are no longer needed for education to population shifts and building enrollment problems.