Dan is running for Common Council in Ithaca's 5th Ward, which encompasses the Fall Creek neighborhood as well as the Cornell Heights neighborhood north of Cornell. Dan is running on the Green, Democratic, and Working Families lines.
I was on the Board of Directors of Ithaca HOURS for two years, serving as Teasurer and, most recently, as President. I'm still involved as chairperson of the circulation committee. I've been working with the Citizens' Planning Alliance for the past 4 years, for which I am currently the Treasurer. I am a past member of the GreenStar Council and currently sit on the GreenStar Finance Committee. I am a member of the Ithaca League of Stiltwalkers, a group that performs political theater and makes people smile.
Within the ward, there are concerns about increasing traffic, lack of bike lanes, dilapidated properties, and poor communication between the Department of Public Works and city residents. In the city as a whole, there are concerns about the large expenditures for lawsuits and cost overruns on projects and the focus on development in the Southwest at the expense of downtown. People want to maintain the livability and quality of life in Ithaca while preventing high property tax rates from going higher.
I work as an engineer for Taitem Engineering, a small engineering firm downtown that does work in energy conservation, indoor air quality, and HVAC design. I have a masters degree in environmental engineering from Cornell and a bachelors in civil engineering from UC Berkeley. I have worked as a computer programmer and a waste management specialist.
I would like to foster more communication between residents and City Hall. We need to do a better job of managing our limited resources and we need to pay more attention to the downtown. The livability and pedestrian-friendly nature of our city is one of our greatest assets, and
is one that we need to emphasize and build on. It's long past time that the bike plan was implemented. We need to focus on encouraging the development of more high-tech businesses downtown, businesses that will bring more people downtown and will provide good jobs and will bring dollars flowing into the local economy rather than out.
