Brian Lear on WNYC with us now. The Mayor of Patterson, New Jersey, Andre Saya. He's been

mayor since 2018. Patterson and Mayor Saya have been in the news for several reasons recently, including a guaranteed income

experiment serving hundreds of low-income residents seen as a possible model for fighting

poverty elsewhere.

Also the fight against floodwaters from the Passaic River, Patterson being one of the areas

affected by many of the heavy rain events of 2023 and wondering what climate change holds

for its future.

Mayor Sea has been controversial for the way he has supported police in his city after several

shootings of civilians and the state last year actually took control of the city's police

department away from the city. The mayor was on TV this week talking about

the asylum seeker crisis though I haven't seen reports yet of buses from

Texas dropping people off at the Patterson train station, only some stations

further south, a little closer to Texas. Patterson is about 15 miles west of the George Washington Bridge along I-80.

For those of you don't know precisely where, population around 150,000.

And Patterson has been in the news

for its concentration of Palestinian Americans.

A New York Times article last month

was headlined in a place called Little Palestine,

People Feel Af afraid and forgotten.

Mayor Saya himself, if I've got his bio right, is an Arab American of Lebanese and Syrian

dissent, has lived in Patterson his whole life about to turn 50 this year

went to Catholic school as a kid followed by Seton Hall undergrad and a master's

...