Khalid Bey’s path into politics began in an unlikely place, his mother’s attic, as he witnessed his neighborhood crumble around its residents.
“If I don’t like my conditions, if I don’t like the cracked sidewalks, if I don’t like the lack of job opportunity,” Bey recalls of that turning point in his life, “I literally thought to myself, who better to change my circumstances than me?”
Now, for the Nov. 5 election, Bey a Democrat is the incumbent running for a second term as the Common Councilor for the city’s District 4. He faces Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins for the second time. In 2011, Bey beat Hawkins for the District 4 seat by only 97 votes.
District 4 of Syracuse includes the neighborhoods of University Hill, Brighton and Southwest. In District 4, voter enrollment strongly favors Democrats. Of the District’s 13,324 total voters, 8,674 – or 65 percent – are Democrats; 1,093 – or 8 percent – are Republicans; and 2,812 – or 21 percent – are unaffiliated with a political party. The Green Party has 99 voters, or less than 1 percent.
As he campaigns for re-election, Bey stresses his childhood growing up in the district, as well as his successes in music, publishing and politics. Friends and colleagues describe him as an achiever who overcame hardship to be a role model for youth.
Bey was born in Syracuse and grew up in housing projects in District 4 where, he says, five gangs lived. “Unemployment, dilapidated housing, people struggling from paycheck to paycheck to eat – people trying to make their lives better by taking a shorter route,” he said, were just some of the community’s struggles.
His uncle, Khaliph Bey, says Khalid has always been thorough and determined. His uncle recalled buying music equipment that he did not have time to set it up. So he gave it to Khalid. “He would read the entire manual,” his uncle, Kaliph Bey, said, “And he would master the equipment.” His uncle says these qualities of thoroughness and discipline are necessary for a leader in the community.
David Rufus was the youth director at the Syracuse Housing Authority when Khalid Bey was growing up in the projects. Rufus recalls Bey setting an example for others. “He shows people can pull themselves up by the boot straps,” said Rufus. When Khalid Bey was a student at Thomas J. Corcoran High School, said Rufus, Bey became a peer counselor and an anger-management facilitator for the housing authority.
Bey is also an author, publishing six books since 2008 through his own small book publishing company, called Deyel Publishing, on the city’s south side.
Bey summarizes his life philosophy with his personal quote: “In order to change the world, all one has to do is change their mind.”
As an example, he tells of a man who was in a community study group in the 1990s. The man stole cars for a living, Bey said. But Bey recalls encouraging the man to build on strengths such as getting along well with other people well. After he realized his abilities, Bey said, the man changed the direction of his life. Now, Bey said, he has his doctorate in psychology and is in the police academy.
Bey has been in Syracuse politics since 2005, when he made his first run for public office. He lost to Democrat Tom Seals for the District 4 seat. In 2009, he ran unsuccessfully for a Common Council at-large seat. From 2009 to 2011, Bey was a regional coordinator for the New York State Senate. In 2011, he and Green Party candidate Hawkins competed for the seat of incumbent Democrat Tom Seals, who had reached his term limit of eight years and could not seek re-election.
On the Common Council, Bey wins praise from fellow Democrat Van Robinson, the council president. “He’s a truly dedicated individual,” Robinson said. “His constituents are fortunate to have him as their representative.”
As an example, Robinson cited Bey’s work on a project to build a new parking lot and new park at Salina and Colvin Streets in Bey’s district. Bey has attended planning meetings for the project for several years, Robinson said.
In his 2013 campaign, Bey’s platform includes:
Better Training for the Unemployed
Too often, Bey says, people stay unemployed because they lack skills for the available jobs. He has called for a worker-development program through a partnership between Elder Choice, a local home healthcare agency, and Jobs Plus, a county program that helps people who get public assistance to find jobs. Elder Choice has trained at least 80 people over a two-year period from Jobs Plus with the intent to hire them, said Bey.
“The logic was to essentially reduce the need for public money by making people self-sufficient,” Bey said.
Education
To improve education in Syracuse city schools, Bey calls on teachers to revamp their teaching methods. “Teenagers are more preoccupied with social issues today than they are with what the teacher is scratching on the chalkboard,” Bey said. Students’ indifference to learn, he said, can be counteracted with more visual and interactive learning techniques. For example, he said, the I-Zone program across New York provides more attention to individual students and supports new and innovative teaching methods.
Support for small businesses
Small businesses are one of the primary sources for public money, Bey says. He calls for more “Buy Local” campaigns, such as those run by Syracuse First, a nonprofit organization that encourages Syracuse-area residents to support local independent businesses.
“We need practical efforts to foster a more vibrant business environment,” he said.
Quality of Life
The biggest quality of life issue is crime, Bey says. He calls for stricter enforcement, for example, of noise abatement ordinances. Sometimes, he said, police should be able to skip a warning to noisemakers and immediately issue a charge of public disturbance. In the next few weeks, he says, the council will be examining how to better enforce public disturbances under the nuisance abatement law.
(Elizabeth Beeson is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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