Ever since his high school days, Joe Nicoletti has had his sights set on occupying the mayor’s office in City Hall. A 1969 graduate of Syracuse University, where he earned a Master’s Degree from the Maxwell School, he logged time as both majority and minority leader during his tenure on the Common Council from 1978 to 1991. In 1985 he thought his time had come, but he lost a Democratic mayoral primary to Tom Young. Eight years later he was ahead in pre-election polls, but lost to Republican Roy Bernardi.
From 1991 to 1994 Nicoletti served in the state Assembly, and in 1997 Bernardi brought him into City Hall as director of operations, putting him in the point position for the renovation of Clinton Square. In 2001 Nicoletti did not openly contend for the Democratic nomination, but two weeks before Republicans met to designate a candidate he switched his registration to the GOP. Bernardi had released a poll indicating that running as a Republican, Nicoletti could beat any Democrat on the ballot. When state Senator John DeFrancisco announced his support for Bernie Mahoney, however, the party followed suite.
After almost a decade in the private sector, Nicoletti is back in the public eye. Back in the Democratic Party. Back in pursuit of his lifelong ambition to guide the city’s future.
“Everyone else is running for mayor,” he says calmly surveying the field. “I’m running for Syracuse. This is not a campaign. This is a movement.”
Some of your critics say your time has past. Is this your time?
The ultimate judge of that will be the voters. They’ll make that decision. But I feel compelled. I need to enter this race.
Eight years ago approaching an open race, the word was the Democrats can’t afford a primary, but the Democrats can’t avoid a primary. Is that the case now?
We may be, but I hope that everybody has learned from that primary. When I first started to consider entering this race, I spoke with most of the major contenders. They, in turn, told me what their thoughts were. I made it clear to them that I thought that this community deserved better than a race filled with charges and counter-charges, that there were challenges in front of us that make it necessary for us to have a debate that is on the issues and on the potential solutions.
When you considered running then, you talked about focusing on the return of greatness to Syracuse, something few are talking about now. Can we get back to that discussion?
This campaign is going to offer a stark difference in all the potential candidates. It took a lot of discussion for me to make the decision to commit to it. It’s not something you do on a whim. It’s not something you do part-time. The campaign itself will be a full-time commitment. If you win, you’re making a 24/7 commitment to this community. I don’t think there’s any secret about my unbridled passion for this city. I love Syracuse. I chose to stay here, raise my family here and make my career here.
There are many things I look to and see a glass half full, where others would see a glass half empty. We have challenges, on the issue of economic development, challenges to take those who have been left out of the system, particularly the minority communities, and bring them into the economic growth. That has been a theme that has never changed from my days on the Council and in the Assembly. We have challenges to make our education system relevant. We need to embrace the Say Yes to Education program. We have challenges in our neighborhoods.
But the most important challenge that I hear from people is that we need to get along. I think that’s a strength I bring to the table, bringing people together. I have a great sense of where we are. We’re not city versus county, black versus white, not Republican or Democrat, we’re not a gay community or a straight community. We’re one community, and we need to start addressing our issues as a community.
We need to put aside the rhetoric, the politics of self-interest and polarization. We have to stop trying to play off neighborhoods and business, class against class, color against color. I know the people of this community want that. I tell people others will say they’re running for mayor. Joe Nicoletti is running for Syracuse. This is not a campaign. This is a movement. I know this can be a great city.
In 1993 you said that losing to Roy Bernardi was the best thing that ever happened to you. What did it teach you?
That was a humbling loss, but it taught me a lot. It taught me humility. It taught me how to work with people. It taught me that life is not always what you expect to go down the path and see. But more importantly it taught me how to make a contribution to this community not in that office. When we worked on settling the Hotel Syracuse strike, it was an amazing experience to bring people together. It was rewarding because many of the people who were out on that picket line were the people who are less fortunate in this community. We will not succeed in this community until we open up economic, educational and living opportunities for all people, regardless of their orientation, regardless of the color of their skin.
With an announced dropout rate of 50 percent, are there specifics you would suggest to make the school system relevant?
The acrimony I have observed over the school construction program, over school policies, is not helping anyone. It makes some people in the political system feel that it is helpful to their career. That isn’t what this is about. At this point in my life, I’m not looking to use this as a stepping stone. This isn’t a consolation prize for me. This is my love. I know that when we bring developers, organized labor, minorities and women to the table, we can come up with programs that can create jobs and economic opportunity for everyone. That’s what it’s all about.
You were successful in the past creating programs and developing projects in better economic times. How can you do it in a time of financial crisis?
It’s very exciting that Barrack Obama is our president. During this movement, rather than a campaign, we’re going to unveil ideas that will show how creating economic development can also put local people to work, but take our young people who are standing on the street corners and provide them with job training and on the job experience. Apprentice programs and schooling is good, but a lot of these young people who need the training, need a paycheck also. The creative way is to get the players around the table and explain that when we have something over 30 percent minority population in this community that we need to include that population and provide for economic growth. It’s about bringing our young people into the system at all levels.
It’s about getting a technical school on board that will provide. Not everybody wants to go to college. When Anna Mae Williams was alive we went to Dave Michel and said, “No more high rises.” We need to do that. I want to get rid of the brick buildings that do nothing to entice a family. You can put a kid on a bus and send him to the best school in the county, but if he goes home at night, and he doesn’t have a decent home, a decent neighborhood, and safe streets and grocery stores, we’re not succeeding.
Would you also tear down Route 81?
I think that’s a very exciting project. I know Van Robinson, who I have a lot of respect for, is proposing it. I would be hopeful that we can get our teeth into that project and come up with an alternative. I think Route 81 divides our community in the worst area of the city. It’s the worst place for it to be. It sets up a racial and economic barrier, and I’d like to see that be removed.
The housing talk you hear these days is “condos, condos, condos.” Is gentrification the future of downtown development?
I don’t believe in “condos, condos, condos.” We are lucky because we have many neighborhoods with tremendous potential. But right now a lot of them are under assault with crime and drug trafficking. I intend on working with local, federal, state law enforcement, and working with the people in the neighborhoods to solve that problem. We’re going to have zero tolerance for that. We will offer out the olive branch, but we will also have a firm hand to resolve those issues.
We need to entice developers to build green housing in the neighborhoods that are in bad shape.
We need an era, not of confrontation, not polarization. We need to find common ground.
What have you learned from being out of the public eye politically?
A lot! I left city government years ago, and one of the reasons was I was an only child and I was the primary caretaker for my parents. They have both passed away now, but you learn that your family comes first. I remember standing at the meat counter in Wegman’s and someone came up and said, “How are you doing?”
I said, “Good,” and he said, “Boy those politicians, they are all nuts.”
You get out of it and you get a real feel for what’s going on. Working in the private sector, taking care of my parents, raising a daughter, has given me a whole different perspective. It’s kind of interesting this time. Even though I have the experience and the knowledge, I’m the outsider.
If you won, could you see making your job obsolete through consolidation of city and county government?
I could see that the job of mayor in many ways could be reshaped. We have to make changes. We are going to be forced into it by the economic situation. People say to me, “Why do you want to do this? You don’t need to do this. You’ve left a legacy of change. You’ve done a lot of good things.”
But I tell them that I don’t believe I have any choice. I have to do this. These are the times when public servants shine. These are the challenging times when those of us committed to a lifetime of public service come forward. These are the times that can make a difference.
