“I just wish people were less concerned about what the president is doing, instead of us as a country are doing. I feel like they’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t like Obama,’ for this and this. I don’t like what’s happening in the country.”
(Sara Button, 22, of Syracuse, graduate student at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Democrat)
“I know we have to pay for things. I believe in balancing this budget. I am appalled at the fiscal irresponsibility that has been going on. I know we were at war, but we had to spend money to go to war. I’ve paid attention in social studies. I know how that works. But now that we are trying to balance it, people are going insane. The economy is so much more complex than the average ‘Joe’ or me fully understands. And there aren’t quick, easy one-syllable answers and we need to calm down, listen and just…If we want a future in this country with an economy that is healthy, we need to just settle down and not expect a fix that’s going to happen in the next six months.”
(Ellen Bomis, 44, of Auburn, tarot card reader, unaffiliated with a party)
“One of my biggest complaints is a lot of people give soldiers -both former and current- a lot of grief when the real issue is that they are trying to follow orders. They are not trained to do anything else. Get the job done, go home.”
(Shane Phipps, 34, of Camillus, unaffiliated with a party, recently discharged from the military)
“More funding to encourage people to buy real estate. So we can help with these boarded-up houses. Not just lower income, but more like the middle-class incentives to not only purchase, but you know, restore houses. I think a lot of what happens to upstate New York is that I think we lose a lot of power to the city. A lot of people focus on the population of the city. Because we are so ruled by that big city, we don’t necessarily get the same attention because you know we don’t make the incomes that they do.”
(Kyle Marion, 38, of Dewitt, Yankee Candle Co. employee at Carousel Mall, Green Party)
“I really wish they would clean up all the boarded houses, because it causes problems and I’m always calling the cops. I just think it’s a shame that they let all the houses go down. All I know is that I have the city police on speed dial on my cell phone, because I am always calling and the problems are the house next door to the one I own. A lot of kids, a lot of kids get into the house, young ones like thirteen and fourteen years old. They really need to do something about that.”
(Betty Manzano, 40, of Camillus, Yankee Candle Co. employee at Carousel Mall, unaffiliated with any party)
(Yasmine Temraz is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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