[{"_1":2,"_100":-5,"_101":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,76,88],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},"mediaId",6060315,"mediaKeyId","3292272-0c9ccfb2b1c10d46e45efaa26811d22f","parentId",3292272,"title","Climate-justice survey delayed until late fall; $50,000 earmarked for implementation assistance","audioSeconds",406,"startMs",4114000,"endMs",4520000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=3292272-0c9ccfb2b1c10d46e45efaa26811d22f&start=4114&end=4520","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/3292272-0c9ccfb2b1c10d46e45efaa26811d22f/thumbnail_4114000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6060315/New-York/Climate-justice-survey-delayed-until-late-fall-50000-earmarked-for-implementation-assistance","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6060315-6739aba5d3bf677c8110c4c0a15dc90c/orig.mp4?Expires=1771014108&Signature=AeJ7M-s5VnVJWUkSfat2oE5assY~utrec4eBIVpUvKxDZe5ADVIhxWH3yIvZLodJbKAuUF7jg6t9QPWa-zSfyYmE3cDtXJTQAgVjgmFZbIMYfcgLRor5HhrY~ex~F7mPU-6bYAUUdKuT-jiQ3Ru4nLd0yzMovlNVcFfRWn4KE9HjdnxZrXPtnxWyo8nTEKVHUaDKGl1-Nriqar-0SOuvru9h~dWGJPBcaJM-CJQdBFzai-ZqsKZg5G7~aqrMaA3-SMwclrs1S2kqf-z0YDE5AiTL-ee6BNHF7MjjVJumtOBHhSOcOTvuf0K6XSIHqaCKxp0pWg-wWFQlB1-PORqxpg__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","Ithaca City","date","2025-05-14T07:24:59.93Z","article","Members of the survey working group reported that the climate-justice community survey timeline has shifted: funding for door-to-door canvassing was paused earlier this year, which delayed the planned launch, and the staff member who would coordinate implementation is currently on leave.

The working group presented a revised schedule: launch a digital survey in late fall (around November), ideally after the Climate Action Plan goes to Common Council, and follow with a fuller launch in spring that would include door-to-door canvassing, in-person events, and additional outreach. The group told the commission that the project has roughly $50,000 available to use for implementation assistance.

The group and commission discussed trade-offs. Working-group presenters said a summer launch would miss many students who are away for the break and would not align with the city’s budget cycle; launching in the fall would put results too late for the immediate upcoming capital budget season but could produce usable inputs for future budgeting cycles. One working-group presenter noted that the survey’s audience question and mapping approach will focus on population-based measures rather than relying solely on small-area census blocks.

The working group said it preferred to avoid hiring an outside consultant unfamiliar with the Ithaca Green New Deal’s history; instead members proposed relying on an intern, student canvassers when available, and targeted assistance paid from the allocated $50,000. The working group also plans a phased rollout and has built an online option for residents who prefer digital participation.

No formal funding approvals or contractor hires were made during the commission meeting; the discussion set the working-group recommendation to begin a digital launch in late fall and a fuller, in-person phase next spring when staffing and students return.

Next steps: the working group will return with more detailed operational plans for the late-fall digital launch and the spring canvass, including how the commission’s allocated funds will be used for staffing and outreach support.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","Sustainability and Climate Justice May '25","oneSentenceSummary","The commission’s climate-justice community survey will start as a digital launch in late fall, with a fuller door-to-door and in-person canvass planned for spring; commission members said $50,000 is available to support implementation but staffing and Savannah’s leave shifted the timing.","taxTitle","Ithaca City, Tompkins County, New York","taxId",52738,"location","New York","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":77,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":78,"_41":79,"_43":80,"_45":81,"_47":82,"_49":83,"_51":84,"_53":85,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":86,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":87,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6060319,"Draft Ithaca climate action plan shifts to sector approach, commissioners press for implementation structure",2797,928000,3725000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=3292272-0c9ccfb2b1c10d46e45efaa26811d22f&start=928&end=3725","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/3292272-0c9ccfb2b1c10d46e45efaa26811d22f/thumbnail_928000.jpg","/articles/6060319/New-York/Draft-Ithaca-climate-action-plan-shifts-to-sector-approach-commissioners-press-for-implementation-structure","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6060319-c612200e97c86173d58bf3483fd284a0/orig.mp4?Expires=1771014108&Signature=QoNOcIVGnFpkEiWh1DG4SYZ~oRnAn-9xFpOI6XE0CDnehG3uWh~DusIEN47vxO4kj1Mqb-tbQACl7I9v1uPMKp4H4A-V4ZHdP-hOeuSz~eL0F9C42OTSq9wsFyXrH2Zx6Ed0wnykDT5YqDKTafi52B672uKeOMGqqvcslT325io3SvXA4ljfwaEIMaS-UpaLXG0W~co4xyafghcEbjm4dwWEk5cyt9x4VNLBuJTCUBCXsd1lH3qdWcEoPb-2mDnE3oxCsxLyanAidTj5g~TNqxm9LcvqAYD8ZIFkC~FY1172XxaTR5Un9ydI48Wp5VihV0CfVHMLEJj7gjECZIdMRw__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Commission staff presented a draft Climate Action Plan that organizes recommendations by social and functional sectors — housing, labor, public health, emergency response and electric reliability — rather than by emission source, and outlined how the plan will be structured for public release.

Rebecca, staff member, described the document’s organization and stated the commission’s near-term schedule: a full draft will be presented to the commission in July, it must be introduced to Common Council in October and the council vote is expected in November. She said the plan will include a baseline assessment that uses the 2019 greenhouse-gas inventory as the primary apples-to-apples comparison.

Key stated goals cited in the meeting are: a communitywide commitment to carbon neutrality by 2030; meeting government operations electricity needs with 100% renewable electricity by 2025; and reducing emissions from the city vehicle fleet by 50% by 2025. Commission discussion repeatedly returned to how the plan will present recommendations, how to represent costs and urgency, and how implementation responsibilities would be assigned.

The draft uses a visual icon system the staff showed to communicate which sectors a recommendation affects and how strongly a recommendation impacts emissions or resilience. Several commissioners warned the iconography can be confusing at a glance and recommended simplifications such as labeling emissions impacts as “emissions reduction” and including cost or urgency indicators.

Commission members raised recurring implementation questions: whether the plan should identify department leads for specific actions, whether an implementation committee or working group should be created, and how to secure buy-in from department heads, the city manager and Common Council. Rebecca explained the legal and procedural limits of the commission’s authority: Common Council can direct the city manager, and the city manager assigns work to departments. She suggested the commission could recommend an implementation structure to Common Council that the council could adopt and forward to the manager.

Commissioners who spoke in favor of clearer implementation steps urged a resolution that would ask council to create an accountable structure and named points of contact so items do not “sit on the shelf.” One commissioner recommended phased priorities and an implementation matrix that visualizes urgency versus cost to help decision-makers sequence actions.

Separately, Rebecca reported that Common Council “voted to reaffirm the ethic of Green New Deal” at its last meeting; she and others said that vote was unanimous. The reaffirmation was discussed as context for the Climate Action Plan and does not alter the plan’s recommendations.

No formal council resolutions regarding implementation details were passed at this commission meeting; the commission agreed to continue refining the draft and to return the full document in July for final commission review prior to the October council introduction.","Commissioners reviewed the draft Climate Action Plan’s sector-based structure (housing, labor, public health, etc.), debated visual metrics and timelines, and discussed establishing an implementation body to ensure city departments and the city manager follow through. Common Council also unanimously reaffirmed the Ithaca Green New Deal.",{"_33":89,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":90,"_41":91,"_43":92,"_45":93,"_47":94,"_49":95,"_51":96,"_53":97,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":98,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":99,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6060323,"Ithaca participatory-budget pilot at Earth Day favors guaranteed income; City Hall courtyard slated for redesign",177,211000,388000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=3292272-0c9ccfb2b1c10d46e45efaa26811d22f&start=211&end=388","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/3292272-0c9ccfb2b1c10d46e45efaa26811d22f/thumbnail_211000.jpg","/articles/6060323/New-York/Ithaca-participatory-budget-pilot-at-Earth-Day-favors-guaranteed-income-City-Hall-courtyard-slated-for-redesign","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6060323-940c577c20afc2166ffe3bbd957bb0f4/orig.mp4?Expires=1771014108&Signature=EATJJoScr02Gnn8ZpePO6UIfj56o8gTivkLZ8r2BKcRoxqPSfzcScE41CXYCAqcc1gcJYKZbSwe48Wi1Y6bV72vNuRpkzFYFSicNnCt6f4Z-z0balshjWzwMGH~wivWKskA9DHiayZkwr8lSDY-0QooM-GHBOdnxYzhCl9004TzelpX-V2Urr5ueofyPttFgprjjhKSWfV7-Ibs4dilGno9dUGXYEKOqhxl9pWTXXeJ4q2vO8wemyQKz2RN9dkZCB-6kovALRj5Zd2Hf9gUpz-jeqRmeFpLH5FtR4Tki~ddUE~KeRaUe7SXxcE~aVFYlZxeRKpxuC3W81OeEcluGew__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Commission members reported that a participatory-budgeting pilot presented at Ithaca’s Earth Day festival drew strong public engagement and that the top vote-getter in the paper ballot exercise was a guaranteed-income proposal.

Rebecca, staff member, said the festival table “showcased a lot of the new branding of the Ithaca Green New Deal, and introduced participatory budgeting as a concept and the voting platform to the public,” and that the physical paper vote resulted in a clear winner: “the project that won won by a long shot by more than double any other project. And that was guaranteed income.”

Why this matters: the pilot is intended both to test public outreach and to introduce residents to the participatory-budgeting platform before a broader rollout. The commission is pairing the pilot with a limited City Hall courtyard redesign pilot that was funded during the 2024 capital budget process, discussed in the meeting as approximately $50,000.

Commission members who staffed the Earth Day table — including Iris, Nick, Alex, David, Fernando and Scott — reported that the public activity used paper “dollars” to let attendees allocate five “dots” across proposal options. The commission also launched a digital version of the platform for a City Plaza pilot project; the digital ballot was open to all and asked respondents to self-report residency or enter an address.

Commissioners and members flagged confusion among some residents about what “pilot” means for future participatory budgeting choices. One commissioner said participants were uncertain whether the pilot was intended to generate design options or only to introduce the voting platform. Rebecca told the commission that the digital landing page includes more detailed explanatory content and that additional outreach and education will be needed because “probably very few people are actually clicking on it.”

The City Hall courtyard project was described as a 2024 capital-budget allocation to redesign the small plaza between City Hall and the conference center/library. The commission said the courtyard pilot was intentionally chosen as a lower-stakes, visible place to introduce participatory budgeting mechanics to residents and to test community interest in specific small capital improvements.

Several commissioners who staffed the event reflected that the in-person exercise provoked useful conversations about costs and trade-offs: “some items cost more to do than other items was actually a really good thing to have on those examples,” Alex, commission member, said, noting that cost differences made some voters split their allocations rather than spend all dots on a single item.

Discussion-only items recorded at the meeting include how to clarify language on outreach materials, whether and how project cost estimates should be shown on voting materials, and how the pilot’s results should inform a future, larger participatory-budgeting process. No formal vote or change to city code was taken at the meeting on the City Hall courtyard or the participatory-budgeting process.

Looking ahead: the commission plans further outreach, additional education about the platform, and to combine lessons from both the paper exercise and the digital pilot before proposing any formal program changes or recommendations to Common Council.","Commission members reported high public interest in a participatory-budgeting pilot at the Earth Day festival, where a paper-and-digital vote favored a guaranteed-income pilot. The commission is using a $50,000 capital allocation to pilot a City Hall courtyard redesign and to introduce participatory budgeting tools to the public.","actionData","errors"]

Article not found

Climate-justice survey delayed until late fall; $50,000 earmarked for implementation assistance

Draft Ithaca climate action plan shifts to sector approach, commissioners press for implementation structure

Ithaca participatory-budget pilot at Earth Day favors guaranteed income; City Hall courtyard slated for redesign