ALBANY -- Bill Magnarelli has represented Syracuse in the state Assembly for nearly 30 years, most recently as the chairman of the powerful Transportation Committee, but now he's facing a primary challenge from a county lawmaker who says Magnarelli hasn't done enough for transportation in his hometown.
Onondaga County Legislator Maurice Brown says he's primarying the eight-year Assembly Transportation Chair, in part, because of his failure to use his power to make Syracuse a poster child for upstate transportation and transit.
"If you have the strongest voice on transportation [in the legislature], and the state has a disproportionately large say of the transportation conversation, our transportation could be doing a lot better, and I'm going fight to make sure it does," said Brown, who has the backing of the Working Families Party and the Syracuse chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Brown criticized Magnarelli's lack of conviction for Syracuse's planned community grid, the system that will absorb traffic after the state removes the I-81 highway viaduct, and he claimed Magnarelli has been absent from discussions on bike lane development, Vision Zero and public transit in the city.
"It's not necessarily that his ideas are bad. It's just that he's not been the leader," Brown said. "He's just seen himself as the judge, as somebody that should be calling balls and strikes like the umpire, when it's like, 'No, you got to get in the game.'"
For his part, Magnarelli said he has every intention of making it to year 28 in office, but is well aware of the political threat posed by the progressive groups, which so recently carried an obscure state Assembly member to Gracie Mansion in New York City.
"I understand what they can and can't do, so we're not going to take them lightly at all," Magnarelli said.
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Magnarelli shrugged off the notion that he's just some lunk behind the diamond on a Little League field, arguing for instance, that his support for street safety is clear from his legislation to keep drugged drivers off the roads or bills such as S131/A324 and S915/A1077 that would require state DOT projects to use Complete Streets language and methodology. Magnarelli is also fighting an uphill battle to create a $25 state Department of Motor Vehicles registration surcharge that would fund upstate transit.
"Mo likes to say a lot of things that have no real basis in fact," Magnarelli said. "The facts are that in my committee, those bills pass, those bills had my support. What has he done? It's easy to talk. It's tougher to get things done."
But Magnarelli's record is mixed: He views e-bikes as dangerous and has pushed regulation. And last year, the Stop Super Speeders Bill (S4045/A2299) to require speed governors inside the cars of recidivist scofflaws, failed to make it out of his committee after pushback from Assembly leadership. It now has the support of Gov. Hochul and is inevitable to pass.
One Democratic strategist agreed with the wisdom of Brown's strategy to link Magnarelli's record to Syracuse's transportation shortcomings.
"If people are unhappy with the status quo, then the bike infrastructure is an example of the status quo (and) then you're going to push for change," the strategist, Jack O'Donnell, told Streetsblog. "And I think that's some of what Mo's running on, and that energy is valid."
It's certain that Magnarelli's transportation record will be questioned by voters. But being an incumbent comes with advantages, too — such as a long list of supporters that Magnarelli has amassed over decades in office.
"That's what happens in primaries," O'Donnell said. "He's done very well for the community. I think maybe it's not always splashy, because I don't think that's the energy that Bill Magnarelli brings to it. But I think he knows how the budget works and knows how the Assembly works, and I suspect, throughout the campaign, you'll hear from a lot of groups in Syracuse and Onondaga County, who he's delivered for."
Brown's transportation platform is focused on stabilizing funding for Centro, the region's bus service, seeking investments in safer bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and exploring more shared micro mobility systems like Veo, which provides scooters in Syracuse.
He is also an avid e-bike rider and was the transportation committee chair of Uplift Syracuse, the progressive advocacy group. He argues that Magnarelli's shortcomings are simply a symptom of his car-centric life.
"It's not that he recognizes that there are people that need efficient public transportation but is purposely trying to take it away from them," Brown said. "I think he just doesn't recognize that many of us, and there are people even who have cars, would rather not drive."
But Magnarelli believes that his years in office and a belief in all forms of transportation will speak for itself in the June 23 primary.
"Making sure that people on our roads, whether they're walking, bicycling, riding in a car, riding in a bus, are safe," he said, "that's my top priority."
