Interview with Christian by Claire Wasserman

What brought you to the Town of Rochester?

I started coming to the Catskills in the very early 2000s. I came here for an escape, for nature, for hiking, swimming in streams and lakes, and I just fell in love with the area.  I thought,  what if I could become a part of this? And then I was looking for land, and when I found my place here in the foothills of the mountains at the far end of Kerhonkson,  I realized I wanted this to be my home. I built a house here, and this has become my home. I love it here. It's beautiful.

What made you decide to run for town board?

I want to see the best things happen for the town.  I've been here for almost 20 years now. I've heard people's concerns about overdevelopment, about how the area has changed over the decades, and a lot of that change obviously is normal, but there's some change that concerns folks, and I think I can help us manage those challenges and address community members' concerns when it comes to unsuitable development or overdevelopment or housing issues. 

What experience do you have and what's your background?

I've been spending the last 30 years in financial services, dealing with corporate financing. I've dealt with audit and technology throughout my career, and those are of direct importance and pertinence to what the town deals with and what a town board deals with. That's financial planning, and it is already on the agenda and the horizon of the Town Board to develop a new 10-year financial plan, for instance. To look at the inventory of town infrastructure. There's a lot of maintenance backup and town buildings that have to be addressed. And the way to address bigger investments like that is to come up with a longer-term financial plan. Not just fix what is broken today and wait for the next item to break and then pour more money at it and never end up with something that the town needs, which is better infrastructure. So that's certainly a strength. I deal with numbers day in and day out. 

I've spent a good part of my career in audit, finding issues and finding fixes to issues. Not saying that I'm aware of any real issues right now, but I go in with a new set of eyes, and I may have ideas of how we can run things differently or or more efficiently, and that's part of what I really want to bring.  For an effective government for the community, we're always constrained from a budgetary perspective, and if we can do one task more efficiently, then we'll have more time to cater towards other needs of the community. And I think that's becoming more and more important as we are facing more and more structurally imposed financial challenges as a result of the fiscal laws that the federal government has passed in recent years.

What does your campaign look like?

It's really an extension of the canvassing that I've been doing with the Town of Rochester Democrats since 2024 when I first connected with them. I really enjoy going from door to door and listening to people. I want to hear from people what their concerns are, what bugs them, what are the issues that they're seeing? Because we all have different perspectives, and we look at the world from different angles. I'm showing up and I'm listening. I have, of course, read up on the town's needs and town history and developed a good understanding. But the best piece of information is what I hear from people directly.

Have you learned anything surprising?

It's an issue that we all face, but it was surprising to me how high up on people's lists of priorities road maintenance is.  The town is very good, I think, with general upkeep. But it is something that has been mentioned quite a few times, and at the very top of the list, and a lot of complaints about 209. Obviously, that is a county road and not maintained by the Town of Rochester. But this is an area where we all need cars to get around. So cars are on people's minds and having the infrastructure to support that. 

What do you want to share that's special about you, or that you want others to know, or what you do for fun?

I love to cook. We're big chefs at our home. We do meal prep for the entire week, so that we don't have to spend time cooking during the week. We like cooking big batches of chili or a pot pie filling, and it ends up in the freezer, and then we'll enjoy that over the next couple months.  I like that cooking takes my mind off of other things. Another thing I enjoy that helps me clear my mind is I try to start at least every other day with a half hour of yoga here on my porch. So that's helping me relax and get ready for the day too.

What's your favorite song?

I love "Big Yellow Taxi," covered by the Counting Crows. I've always loved that song, and never really paid too much attention to its lyrics. But as I've started thinking more about my engagement with the town and the challenges the town faces, the lyrics about they paved over paradise to build a parking lot strike me as exactly the concern that the community and I myself have as to what a potential future of the town could be. We want to maintain the paradise here. My dad, when my parents would still come to visit–they're they're elderly now, can't make the trip--would always say, "Oh, this is your little slice of paradise that you've built yourself here.” I want to work to maintain that slice of paradise for everybody. That's what I love about the song.

Is there anything else that you want to share?

I've set up social media for community members to follow me on my journey to, hopefully, joining the Town Board, so you can follow me at Christian for TOR on Instagram and Facebook, and there's my website christianwulf.com, for more details and updates.

What’s the best way to reach you? 

There's a contact button on my website, or direct messages through Instagram or Facebook. They all make it to the notifications on my phone, and then I'll be able to respond.