SEAN KIRST
POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST
A white-haired woman approached Joanie Mahoney in a downtown restaurant Tuesday. The woman told Mahoney she will be elected the next mayor of Syracuse, but she also grabbed Mahoney's hands and offered some advice:
"You've got to watch that Bobby Congel," the woman said, touching the nerve at the heart of this campaign. For both Mahoney and incumbent Mayor Matt Driscoll, dealing with Congel's Destiny USA project is like handling a cactus: Whether you hug it or hold it away, you can get pricked.
Traditionally, anyone would love to be known as the candidate of destiny. Things are different in Syracuse, where the word comes with a big, volatile "D." While Mahoney, 40, the Republican challenger, rejects the label of a one-issue candidate, she said the absence of movement on Destiny illustrates why she'd be a good mayor.
"I think I'm the better person for the job because there is such an adversarial relationship between the mayor and the developer," Mahoney said. "You don't have to roll over and play dead, but you have to be able to have a conversation. If I'm mayor, I'll have those conversations with Bob Congel."
The woman in the restaurant isn't the first voter to question whether Mahoney could handle Congel. Mahoney, a lawyer and a former prosecutor, maintains there's a deeper reason for the question.
"I don't think anyone would announced plans for a big addition to the Carousel Center in Syracuse, an addition that evolved into the "destination" concept known as Destiny.
More than five years later, after tumultuous votes by county legislators and city councilors gave Destiny 30 years without taxes, after an elaborate groundbreaking that offered everything except construction, after tense negotiations with city officials that always climaxed in what supposedly would be the last great breakthrough, there is no project.
Driscoll,a Democrat, maintains he's protected the interests of city residents whenever Destiny tried to change the deal. Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for mayor, wants to dump the whole idea in favor of an Erie Canal-based alternative.
For her part, Mahoney takes the position she held on the council: After weighing benefits from even the first phase of Destiny against the taxes the mall would be forced to pay without expanding, it makes financial sense to move forward, she said.
And if she were mayor, she said, she'd talk directly with Congel and his aides until they had a deal.
Her vision for Syracuse is related less to any sweeping new agenda than to what she maintains is the need for mature civility in City Hall. She compares the Driscoll administration to a lottery commercial where money falls in front of a house, and the homeowner is reluctant to go outside and grab it until there's more.
"We have hugeopportunities right on our front lawn," said Mahoney. She said Destiny negotiations should not be at such a bitter point, and that Onondaga County's push for a convention center hotel should have been immediately greeted by Driscoll. State representatives got involved after Driscoll said the county's deal didn't compensate for 25 years of lost taxes.
"Style is huge," Mahoney said. "You have to realize the importance of getting along."
Yet even Congel's friends describe him as a relentless negotiator who zeroes in on weakness. And many issues remain unresolved with Destiny, the convention center hotel and other projects, most significantly questions of impact and design. But if a mayor predicts there will be a deal before tackling those issues, isn't there some danger that the city will be shortchanged?
"I can disagree with people on issues and still earn their respect," Mahoney replied. As an example, she said, she objects to using eminent domain to obtain private property for a private company - an approach attempted by Destiny in Salina, although Mahoney would not comment directly on that step.
Some Destiny sketches also show state arterials feeding a new convention center in what are now commercial or residential districts on the North Side. Mahoney - and Driscoll, for that matter - could reassure many voters in Syracuse by pledging to block eminent domain on the North Side, period.
For now,at least, Mahoney won't speak to that question. What she returns to is the need for a different civic mood. She said she will bring "new faces" to City Hall to reflect the city's diversity, rather than restocking key advisory positions with the same men and women who've shifted in and out, mayor by mayor, for the last 25 years.
Most city residents would agree that basic services improved after Driscoll succeeded former Mayor Roy Bernardi. In response, Mahoney points to her endorsement by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 400 - the union representing garbage collectors, snowplow operators and other workers on the street.
"The one thing people say is going well in the city is the work done by Local 400," Mahoney said, "and they want new (mayoral) leadership."
In the end, Mahoney's run for mayor hinges on a simple platform: She says opportunities to transform the city are routinely stalled by defensive and combative thinking, and that she is tough enough to make sure major projects get done right.
In the same way as the woman in the restaurant, Mahoney predicts the city's voters will agree.
Sean Kirst is a columnist with The Post-Standard. His columns appear Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Call him at 470-6015, e-mail him at skirst@syracuse.com, or visit his blog and forum at www.syracuse.com/kirst.
© 2005 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.
Posted by syracusegreens at October 26, 2005 07:38 PM