The Sun asked eleven Ithaca residents what local issues they care most about in light of the Nov. 4 New York state municipal election. Ranging from longtime constituents to recent residents, the Ithacans expressed concern regarding a variety of issues, including divisive rhetoric in politics, the proposed artificial intelligence data center in Lansing, housing affordability and the impact of national issues at a local level.
All five wards are holding elections for Ithaca Common Council alderpersons, and 13 districts are holding Tompkins County Legislature elections this year.
The main issue brought up for four residents was the climate. Taylor Cole ’26, an intern at New Roots Charter School, said moving to Ithaca for school from Brooklyn, which has higher levels of air pollution, opened her eyes to the prevalence of the climate crisis. Cole teaches at New Roots, whose vision statement includes providing students with the skills to “redesign our communities for social, economic and ecological sustainability.”
“The school that I work at, [their] foundation is sustainability, and so just being there and being exposed to that sort of education that's embedded within the curriculum has really opened my eyes to how important it is and how little we actually know about,” Cole said.
While also being concerned about the environment, locals Jennifer Livesay and Victoria Armstrong said they are specifically worried about the TeraWulf Inc. high-performance data center planned to be constructed at the former Cayuga Power Plant at Milliken Station along Cayuga Lake.
TeraWulf Inc. announced an 80-year lease on a 183-acre portion of the site in early August. Data centers are used for AI and cloud computing, and their increasing role in the economy comes with greater energy usage, with companies developing them stating that individual facilities can use more electricity than some cities and entire U.S. states. While TeraWulf Inc. claims to primarily use zero-carbon energy sources, a data center in Lansing could end up consuming as much electricity as around 500,000 homes in New York.
Armstrong, who got her American citizenship last May, said she is most concerned about the data center. She hopes voting for a Tompkins County legislator will help impact the decision-making process in regards to the facility.
“Nationally, there's a million problems,” Armstrong said. “But locally, the thing that I'm most concerned about I don't get to vote on specifically, [and] it's the Lansing possible AI plant that uses a ridiculous amount of energy. So even though it brings jobs in, [they are] the wrong jobs — I would say that's the top of the list for me right now. ”
Both Aiden Grace, a senior at New Roots Charter School, and local nurse Karen Trible M.S. ’95 mentioned political integrity as a main concern for the upcoming election. Trible said she wants local voices to be heard, especially amid a federal government she referred to as a “dictatorship,” while Grace underscored the importance of politicians holding themselves accountable rather than “pushing hate onto other people.”
“I think that I want to see more people in the community working together rather than shifting the blame on [a politician] specifically and looking for solutions rather than pointing at problems,” Grace said.
Five residents voiced concerns regarding homelessness, the city’s financial budget, traffic, road quality, housing affordability, the city’s response to the looming pause to federal food aid and the climate crisis.
Ithacan Mary Clapp, voiced concerns around the new definition of “small landlords” by the common council. In July, the Common Council passed “good-cause” eviction protections, which allow renters to renew their lease as long as they are in compliance with their housing contract. “Small landlords,” which the council defined as landlords operating leases for only their primary residence, are exempt from the “good-cause” policy.
Clapp said this unfairly hurts small-scale landlords, who would be considered a small landlord if they rented 10 or fewer units in places like New York City. She also said traffic in Ithaca is a problem.
“Traffic is just crazy, and these ridiculous new [rules] they're putting on small landlords, that's just crazy,” Clapp said. “New York City had multiple units to consider you small, and now they tell people if they don't live in the house with the unit, [for example] if they have one extra house, that they have to follow all these new rules. So that makes me nuts.”
Early voting for all voters registered in Tompkins County began Oct. 25 and runs until Nov. 2 at Ithaca Town Hall or the Crash Fire Rescue station. On Election Day, county residents can check their voting place via the state Board of Election’s website. Cornell students can vote at the Robert Purcell Community Center on North Campus.
Shubha Gautam is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at sgautam@cornellsun.com.
