Greater Lansing Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Member Mixer Featuring Mayoral Candidate Andy Schor - - Lansing Civic Events - - April 10, 2017 - - by Chuck Krafft

Greater Lansing Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Member Mixer

Featuring Mayoral Candidate Andy Schor

April 10, 2017

It is always fun to attend Hispanic Chamber Events to meet new contacts and to catch up with people who are working and leading in the Hispanic Community.  Tonight, the event will feature Andy Schor, who is running for mayor. 

Also attending the event were Elisabeth Anderson, who is running for the State House seat Andy Schor is vacating as well as Jaron Green and Guillermo Lopez, who are seeking positions on the Lansing City Council.  Mr. Lopez is also a member of the City of Lansing School Board. 

Jose Yanez started off the meeting by having every attendee introduce his or herself and then introducing Andy Schor.  While he did not grow up in Lansing, he went to the University of Michigan.  He and his wife decided to live here when they graduated from college.  They are raising their family here.

Currently, Andy Schor is a state representative, but he has decided to run for mayor.  Many people in the business community are starting to back him and he is a frontrunner to win the position.  He is a Democrat, but has worked with Republicans to pass several important pieces of legislation.  There are 650,000 people in Michigan who have health insurance because of Andy Schor’s work in the legislature. 

Andy Schor started out in politics as a County Commissioner and moved on to the State Legislature.  He is an enthusiastic advocate of the City of Lansing Schools.  His daughter has learned Chinese in her school and his son is enrolled in the New Tech program at Everett High School.  He cites the diversity of the Lansing School District as a huge asset.

He intends to run a positive campaign based on the issues.  He believes that his leadership style, which encourages collaboration in solving problems and attempts to reach a consensus, is a strength.  If consensus cannot be built, he would do what he believes is best for the city. 

His campaign is based on four issues.  These issues, which are prominently featured on his campaign website, www.AndySchor.com , are

1. Neighborhoods
2. City Government, Infrastructure and Services
3. City and Schools
4. Economic and Community Devleopment

   

He has already been working with advisory committees to develop strategies to make improvements in regard to these issues.  Two specific plays are to promote better development on the Riverfront and help provide attention to the positive things the Lansing Schools are doing to reduce the enrollment decline.  He also is concerned by the number of cannabis shops that are clustering in parts of our city.

Another improvement he will make is to designate a City Employee as the Citizen Advocate to help business people as well as other citizens when they are having difficulties dealing with the city bureaucracy. 

Several people at the conference had suggestions about using technology to make our city more efficient and for finding ways to make sure that city employment and leadership more accurately reflects the ethnic makeup of the city.  Mr. Schor did not want to make an irresponsible promise of quick results, but is concerned about these matters and has pledged to try to find ways to improve on these issues.   

He has a positive message.  When asked what qualifications he has, he pointed out that he has experience, ideas and a collaborative leadership style.  Because he has not worked for the city in the past, he can bring fresh ideas and consider them in an unbiased manner. 

He pledged to keep the lines of communication open.

I was impressed with Mr. Schor’s confidence that never expanded into arrogance during the presentation.  I can see why a lot of people are backing his campaign!!

On May 1, “A Day Without Immigrants and their Friends” will be conducted at the Capitol.  This promotes diversity and the positive things that Immigrants bring to our society.

On May 10, there is a special graduation ceremony where Hispanic students are cited for their scholastic achievements and awarded scholarships.