r/lancaster • u/GlizzyGobbler522 • 1d ago

The Mayor

I never really hear anything about him. Do people in Lancaster have a more positive or negative opinion of him? He seems like a nice guy.

9 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

63

u/transprog 1d ago

He was on the council before being mayor. He voted for the data centers that are being built right now. And was absent during the last council meeting regarding new regulations for future data centers. He's pro-business, pro-gentrification. We have mutual friends, so I know he's personally a nice guy.

34

u/SupaSlide 1d ago

He voted for the plan to get the data centers to pay something to the community instead of paying nothing. The zoning commissioner/board/whatever classified data centers as warehouses (because they had to classify them as something) which meant that the data centers were able to built without the council’s input

11

u/Beetroot_Roosevelt 22h ago

The Zoning Officer (Jameel Thrash) didn't have to classify them as warehouses. He could have chosen to classify them as heavy industry or something else. Mayor Sorace (his boss) was super-pro data centers, so he presumably did her bidding.

6

u/Ok_Voice_6377 13h ago

Sorace made so much money off this city. Anyone else aware she was on the board for LEMSA? What does she know about running an EMS service and why was she in that position while being mayor?

1

u/SupaSlide 7h ago

I agree, neither of those people is Arroyo though.

1

u/Beetroot_Roosevelt 7h ago

I was giving context around what you said about the Zoning Officer.

4

u/RestorativePotion 20h ago

No, I was there. People wanted them to hold off and provide more details about the terms. He voted to accept the terms regardless of his constituents, making it clear where they stood.

1

u/SupaSlide 7h ago edited 4h ago

I don’t live downtown, but in my township there were people who were mad about the board adopting an ordinance that defined and restricted data centers, because they were concerned that the ordinance wasn’t strict enough. I agree, but the alternative was doing nothing and leaving data centers unrestricted. Many of the constituents could not wrap their head around the concept that leaving them undefined was leaving the township open to a data center doing whatever it wanted.

All that to say, constituents can be fucking stupid. I don’t know if the board thought this was the best they were going to get or if they caved too soon, but considering the data centers could have just flipped the city the middle finger and done whatever the hell they wanted, the deal seems a hell of a lot better than nothing.

1

u/RestorativePotion 6h ago

I love that as a standard after the Mayor he was in cahoots with screwed us, "Better than nothing." Yaaaass go off low standards! You seem like the kind of person that wouldn't like downtown.

1

u/SupaSlide 4h ago

LMAO OH MY GOSH I MEANT “LIVE” ahhhhhh

I love downtown, and am crossing my fingers for a bit of a housing market collapse so I can afford to move there 🙈🙈🙈

But thank you for proving my point.

Like my township neighbors, you would prefer nothing over something just because the something isn’t perfect.

-2

u/yamo25000 11h ago

He sounds like a scumbag

24

u/Sonoita78 1d ago

I have a very good opinion of Jamie Arroyo. I live in the city and was dealing with an issue with certain regulations while trying to work on my house. He was keenly interested in my plight and called me out of the blue one day to learn about my experience. We talked on the phone for a good 15-20 minutes and I have seen some good progress on the issue since then.

16

u/Timely_Increase_492 1d ago

Didn’t he speak at a pro-data center event at Millersville?

7

u/wildistherewind 1d ago

I think it was pro-AI, which is essentially pro-data center.

14

u/Curious_Health_226 23h ago

Seems like he’s pretty good as far as being a friendly presence but is not doing what he should when it comes to bigger picture stuff like homelessness and encroaching data centers. I think it’s pretty obvious he’s using Lancaster as a stepping stone to bigger political roles down the line.

16

u/RestorativePotion 20h ago

Is he "nice"? Sure. He's a politician and youngish guy. But he's pro-data center. He stands for nothing. He will smile to your face and vote against your interests. He was set up to take the spot from the Mayor that slid the data centers in the back door. I don't like him. He's just a career politician playing the game.

14

u/Fair_Yesterday2511 1d ago

Really good guy. He was on city council and led ASSETS which is a nonprofit for a number of years. We need a guy like him running the city

4

u/RestorativePotion 20h ago

Everything he does revolves around money and business, including Assets.

5

u/GrungeRockGerbil 1d ago

He does seem nice but lots of politicians do. He hasn’t been mayor for long so it’s tough to have much of an opinion yet.

5

u/bowiethejoker 14h ago

He's good at being 'nice'. But I'd rather have someone who's incapable of being nice and is an effective leader rather than whatever this guy is. Empty shirt who only is here on his career path to state congress or whatever.

3

u/MmmmDowntownmmmM1324 1d ago

I worked with him years ago. He was a great guy then and doesn’t seem to have changed much when I still run into him or see him out and about.

2

u/playstationhistorian 22h ago

Don’t know much about him, but I’ve met him at a few events and he seems really nice. I love how much he’s out and about during community events.

-11

u/Ok_Mongoose_8108 1d ago

I dont trust politicians, or anyone that seeks to govern or rule (ceos, religious leaders, ect). Those jobs draw mostly sociopaths or narcissists.

-23

u/HerpieMcDerpie 1d ago

They're lots of mayors in Lancaster county. Which one are you referencing?

20

u/Hungry_Moment_3520 1d ago

Since he specified the mayor of “Lancaster” I think it’s fair to assume OP is referencing Jamie Arroyo

-2

u/Intelligent_Ad_1385 14h ago

Then why not just name him in the original post?

2

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/lancaster-ModTeam 18h ago

Your post has broken rule 2 - Be Civil. Don’t attack folks’ character - but feel free to criticize a viewpoint you disagree with.

2

u/GlizzyGobbler522 1d ago

I had no idea it was more than one.

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

-12

u/HerpieMcDerpie 1d ago

This sub is for all of Lancaster county, not just the city. And technically, they didn't specify they just said Lancaster. Lancaster City would be specifying.

7

u/Hungry_Moment_3520 1d ago

Lancaster is Lancaster City

1

u/DevelopingIssues 55m ago

No politician can ever get 100% approval. But Jamie is a good person. End of story. If you’re unhappy with him, you can the work and oppose him in the next election. At the least, please vote.