That agenda’s well-placed priorities include safe, affordable housing; help, not punishment, for those in crisis; and the inclusion of community benefit agreements in large development projects, among other worthy aims.

For the greater part, PPG’s 2025 agenda targets goals that any municipality should always value and work toward. These initiatives should be supported with action from the Western New York community and its leaders.

Every year, PPG, led by Executive Director Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, brings community voices to policymaking by inviting more than 370 community groups to propose and vote on initiatives intended to improve the lives of those in the greater Buffalo region.

The organization is known for compiling a wide range of well-researched reports, policy briefs, fact sheets, and other resources on policy issues affecting Western New York. This important compendium can be found on its website.
 
But PPG is much more than papers. In recent years, the group has been active on major areas of concern. It has been a fierce advocate for the implementation of Buffalo’s 2020 Proactive Rental Inspection law, which was approved unanimously by the Buffalo Common Council and celebrated by Mayor Byron Brown in a National League of Cities article titled “Why Buffalo Pushed Safe and Affordable Housing in the Middle of a Pandemic.”
 
The program is intended to address health and safety problems with nonowner-occupied rental units, including lead paint, including foundation and roof problems, inactive smoke detectors, window deterioration, unsafe stairs, buckling ceilings, leaky plumbing and electrical hazards.

Brown was justified in bragging about this essential strategy to ensure safe housing, but the talk did not lead to significant action. Since 2021, Buffalo has completed about 5,000 inspections out of the 36,000 units covered under the legislation, according to a report from Commissioner of Permits and Inspections Catherine Amdur. PPG and others, including the Center for Elder Law and PUSH Buffalo, filed a lawsuit last summer to compel the city to fully implement its Proactive Rental Inspections Law. It was dismissed, and an appeal is planned, but the city should not have to be compelled to make sure children are not being poisoned by lead paint or living in dangerously unstable structures.
 
Another important initiative that’s part of this year’s agenda addresses nonviolent 911 calls that need not immediately involve the police, including calls involving people having mental health crises or substance abuse concerns, as well as calls involving unhoused people. A demonstration program, covering portions of the Cold Spring, Hamlin Park and Martin Luther King Jr. Park neighborhoods, is in the works.

A direct phone line to the program’s offices would deploy a team of three to four workers comprising a mix of emergency medical technicians, social workers and mental health professionals who would have the skills to de-escalate the situation without unnecessary harm.

A third example of PPG’s leadership is its advocacy for a substantial Community Benefits Agreement as part of the new Bills stadium contract. The resulting CBA did not include everything PPG advocated for, but the overall concept can and should be applied to other largescale projects that use public money, moving beyond the stadium to become common policy. 

These and other priorities PPG has vowed to continue or initiate during 2025 are data-driven, with successful examples in existence across the U.S.

They can work for Buffalo."

Read "The Editorial Board: Partnership for Public Good's 2025 agenda addresses urgent needs and deserves support" on The Buffalo News' website here.