‘Kicking misogyny and racism in the teeth’: Common Council historically diverse – Plattsburgh Press Republican
PLATTSBURGH — The current Plattsburgh City Common Council is the most diverse in Lake City history with three women and two persons of color seated at the table.
“That speaks volumes to the outlook of the citizens here,” Ward 1 Councilor Jaime Canales said. “It’s kicking misogyny and racism in the teeth.”
WHAT RACE?
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 89% of Plattsburgh City’s 19,500-plus residents are white. Just over 4% are Black or African American, 3.1% are Hispanic or Latino, 2.8% are Asian and less than 0.5% are American Indian or Alaskan Native.
Canales moved to Plattsburgh with his wife and three daughters about four years ago from Washington D.C. and has served on the City Council since the tail end of 2020.
“I was very naïve about race before I moved here,” he said. “Seventeen years of my life I lived outside of the United States as an army brat and then I joined the Marine Corps.
“I’ve always been immersed with different cultures, my entire life. So I’m like, ‘Race? What race? The human race?'”
When putting down roots in the North Country, Canales said he had to become more comfortable in his Afro-Latino skin and said his determination to pave the way for his daughters was what led him to join the council in the first place.
“There is hardly anything here for Afro-Latina girls,” he said. “I wanted to change that; we are changing that.”
‘DRIVING THE BUS’
Mayor Christopher Rosenquest on the other hand, who has served since January 2021 as Plattsburgh’s first Black American mayor, is no stranger to the region.
“I grew up here,” he said. “Being one of the only brown kids in my class — it was impactful. As somebody who did not look like anyone else, in terms of my skin color, that very much shaped my own personal view of myself and what I was told I could do versus what I could not do.
“For me, personally, I used that as my fuel to prove someone wrong about something and, for better or for worse, here I am as the mayor of the city that I grew up in.”
Rosenquest noted a loss in cultural diversity with the 1995 exit of the Plattsburgh Air Force Base, which brought many families, including his own, to the northern New York city.
Looking at the diversity among the SUNY Plattsburgh students who call the Lake City home year after year, the mayor thought it a shame the local community had yet to find a way to retain those perspectives, something he hoped to work towards during his term.
“The way that I look at it, from more of a philosophical standpoint, is that if this council, as diverse as we are now, if we don’t ensure that the culture of diversity is instilled, then we have failed,” Rosenquest said.
“We’re driving the bus on this one.”
THREE WOMEN
Rosenquest, with the Common Council’s full support, recently appointed Caitlin Bopp to the body’s vacant Ward 5 seat.
Bopp joined Elizabeth Gibbs (D-Ward 3) and Jennifer Tallon (D-Ward 4) as the council’s third woman, becoming the highest number of female voices to ever serve on the Common Council at one time.
“Women belong at a table wherever decisions are made,” Gibbs said. “We need to normalize women in politics. This is going to be front-page news, the fact that we have three women on the council — that’s insane.
“When there are three men on the council no one cares. We need to pave the way and normalize women in government so that more women come forward and then it doesn’t become a front-page story.”
Tallon, elected in fall 2020, felt she had many strong women to look up to in the Plattsburgh community, in politics and elsewhere.
“That gives me something to aspire to; it’s inspiration right there,” she said, adding that she was honored to be a member of this historic council and hoped to in turn inspire others.
“What is really important now is that we are showing other women, especially younger women, young girls, that they can do this, too.”
It was a difference in perspective and life experience that Bopp thought women brought to government.
“The population is roughly 50% women, 50% men, therefore, anything that is being decided, anything that is being considered should naturally be looked at from both of those perspectives.”
Even more than that, Gibbs thought they would further the network of women across all of the city’s boards, committees and its workforce.
“The natural inclination of a male-dominated governing board might not be, ‘Let’s find more women.’ As women, we’re going to have a more finely-tuned perspective on that.”
BEING TOLD NO
All three women were recruited to try for their respective council seats and when Gibbs was first asked, she admitted she had turned the opportunity down.
“It was that, ‘Oh no. I can’t do that,’ mentality. That was definitely my initial attitude.”
Gibbs harkened back to her childhood, growing up with an “old fashioned” set of parents who held strong opinions about what women could and could not do.
“I remember encountering this very young as a teenage girl,” she said. “I fell in love with science and math; it was when I was in Earth Science. I came home and told my mom, ‘I think I really want to be a scientist.’
“My mother said, ‘Oh no, no, no, Elizabeth. Women do not become scientists.'”
Now, in her role as councilor, Gibbs said she still faces the critics, but now replies with, “Watch me,” rather than backing down.
“That is something that I’ve had to grow into.”
‘UNSTOPPABLE COMBINATION’
Bopp said outsiders might make assumptions about the little City of Plattsburgh situated at the north end of New York.
“I think it’s awesome that we’re knocking those assumptions down; that we’re defying those expectations and becoming something pretty remarkable.”
City Councilor Jeff Moore (D-Ward 6) was also pleased to have “such broad representation” in the city’s leadership.
“I believe this speaks to the city’s long history of inclusion and openness to new ideas. I view this as a positive development for the city and it’s citizens.”
Ward 2 Councilor Mike Kelly, a Democrat, said he was proud to serve on a council with three women, an Afro-Latino, an African American and “two old white guys.”
“That last demographic includes me of course,” he said. “Best of all, each of these people brings his/her own special talents to the council make us a strong team. That is really the most important thing to me.
“We have diversity, intelligence and teamwork. That is an unstoppable combination.”
MORE TO DO
Though honored to hold their seats in history, several councilors regretted it taking until 2021 to get there and had their sights set on the strides still left to take in terms of representing other communities, like LGBTQIA+, persons with disabilities and more races, ethnicities and religions.
The city does hold the distinction of being the first city in the state of New York to elect an openly-gay mayor when Daniel Stewart was elected in 1999.
Stewart was re-elected in 2001 and again in 2004 before leaving the city to take a state post in 2006.
Rosenquest, the current mayor, said, “I can look at things from a person of colors’ perspective and I can also partner, and need to partner, with the women on the council.”
“Then, not only that, but I need to put both categories of people aside and ask, ‘Where else are we lacking?'”
Gibbs thought the current council dynamic should be the start of the new, and growing, normal.
“We have an opportunity right now to normalize this — persons of color and more women — but there is certainly so much more that needs to be done.”
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