The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/ithaca-tenants-union/)
The Ithaca Tenants Union is joining the Solidarity Slate on the Right to Renew campaign, which urges the Ithaca Common Council to require that landlords have justified reasons for not renewing a tenant’s lease.
Facing the challenges of paying rent and affording legal representation, Ithaca renters have been especially susceptible to displacement this past year.
Local anti-racist activists gathered at the Bernie Milton Pavilion Nov. 4 for an informational rally called “Beyond the Ballot Box.”
The Tompkins County Democratic Socialists of America chapter is one of the oldest DSA chapters in the nation, and its work ranges from racial justice advocacy to working with the Ithaca Tenants Union.
In June, Ithaca’s Common Council passed a resolution that promised to do what no other city in the nation had before: Request authorization to cancel three months’ rent for its citizens. The measure, which was approved on a 6-4 vote with the support of Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick ’09, asked the city government to seek approval from the New York State Department of Health to grant the mayor power to forgive three months of rental payments. As unemployment skyrocketed amid one of the sharpest economic downturns in American history, the Cornell undergraduate-led Ithaca Tenants’ Union first began its campaign to fight for rent forgiveness over March, April and May. After weeks of sustained advocacy — most notably through “phone zaps” to local politicians — the union was able to count on the support of the mayor and several council members. But despite its much-publicized rollout, Albany hasn’t approved the resolution, and it is unclear how seriously it was ever considered.
With the COVID-19 outbreak requiring most New York State residents to stay home and stripping thousands of workers of their jobs, activists are calling for a rent freeze to protect Ithacans who have lost income.
Three students in the school of Industrial and Labor Relations have created the Ithaca Tenants’ Union to combat imbalanced power dynamics among tenants and landlords.
Picture this — a panoramic shot of a quad glimmering under the early fall-semester sun. You could be at any college campus in America or, more likely, suspended in a place that doesn’t actually exist except as an amalgamation of the essence of college campuses nationwide. You see people: walking, frisbeeing, speaking different languages, laughing, lounging and lugging kegs. You continue to snake through the bubbling crowd and you start to get bombarded. You hear calls from table-ers, flyers are pushed into your abdomen, you are entangled in a flock of demonstrators; you’ve been caught in the ever-present and unignorable politics that has long been a token of collegiate life.