The Knights Inn Fire put our homelessness crisis front and center. While there are many drivers of homelessness, this is a crisis rooted in systemic poverty and a rental market boom that has priced out too many financially insecure individuals and families. Like all challenges rooted in injustice, this crisis demands two governmental actions: (1) […]

Biden’s American Rescue Recovery Act, the administration’s signature policy response to the COVID pandemic, included $350 billion to be distributed among every governmental unit, territory, and tribal nation in the country. The awards were announced in the spring of 2021, with deadlines of allocating all funds by December 31, 2024 and spending all funds by

In late March, I resigned from the Broome County Land Bank Board of Directors, after serving approximately seven years. I left because I believed an ask by County leadership was wildly irresponsible and financially reckless—and risked the integrity of the land bank. I have shared some details in a Facebook post (April 2), in a

DON’T FALL FOR IT: KRAHAM’S DEAL WITH ANZAROOT WAS COSTLY, DUMB, AND RECKLESS When asked about his record on slumlords, Mayor Jared Kraham suddenly stands taller as he marches through his talking points on how he took down the city’s most notorious slumlord, Isaac Anzaroot: “I promised to hold bad landlords accountable” “We won’t tolerate

Part 4: Polished Public Relations Manager, but Poor Public Sector Manager: Kraham’s Executive Team in Shambles —- Everybody knows former Police Chief Joe Ziksuki. And many are familiar with the City’s Economic Development Director, Sarah Glose—hardworking, competent, and highly visible. But aside from those two, can you name another department head in Jared Kraham’s administration

Part 3: Administration of the Vacant Property Registration Program under Kraham has been a Tragic Disaster This is an article about how the Kraham administration has failed to effectively administer the Vacant Property Registration Program, which was passed 17 years ago with support from then Binghamton Fire Marshall Dan Eggleston, a great public servant and

PART 2: KRAHAM HAS BEEN SITTING ON NEARLY $2 MILLION OF FEDERAL RECOVERY FUNDS TO HELP THE HOMELESS If you haven’t noticed, Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Binghamton (across from Lost Dog Café) has been providing its grounds for homeless folks to pitch tents and its facilities for hygenic needs and to eat meals together.

A public budget can be an honest effort to balance financial reality with an administration’s values, or a magician’s hat that entertains the audience with theater and deception. Election year budgets are mostly the latter, and Kraham’s proposed budget uses the most common budget tricks and gimmicks to project a curated image that helps his

Part 1: Kraham Manufactures a Public Safety Crisis to Hide his Own Financial Mismanagement Crisis Every year, Binghamton is one of more than a thousand local governments that automatically receive multiple grants from US Housing and Urban Development to invest in low-income households and poor neighborhoods to support livable communities and housing justice. Binghamton receives