New data points out that children in SW Rochester including the 19th ward are unduly hindered by poverty.  If a child grows up poor in SW Rochester they will earn on average less than <$20,000, that same child growing up in a suburb will earn on average >$50,000.  The data are striking, scary, and telling.  How children do in SW Rochester vary considerably in the same streets by whether they are white, black, Asian, or Hispanic.  But regardless of race they are all doing worse than their suburban peers.  That should not be.

So while that is bad enough, the question I ask, is where the hell is our political representation?  Where are the people fighting for us, to fix this.  Well currently those of us in SW Rochester are getting screwed.  We are getting screwed because our State Assembly person, David Gantt, is sick. Due to that fact in 2017 he only attended sessions in Albany for 36.5 percent of the time “He was present for 23 of the Assembly’s 63 session days, according to the house’s records.” In 2018 he only attended four days.  There is no way Assembly person Gantt can fight for his constituents in SW  Rochester with that record. As  he was reelected in the primary in September that state will not change.

Sadly we also lost, US Representative, Louise Slaughter this year.  however, because Governor Cuomo, decided not to appoint someone to her seat, we have had no representation in the US House of Representatives since her death.

What we are left with, therefore, are two of our most important political seats being essentially vacant in one case, and literally vacant in the other.  We are in a state of “taxation without representation.”  This is unacceptable!  So the question is, where is the outcry?

© Daniel DeMarle 2018

© photo by Daniel DeMarle 2018