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
- Neighborhoods
- City Government, Infrastructure and Services
- City and Schools
- 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.
