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Primary Election Preview

Residents To Cast Three Votes In One Day On August 23

Overlapping CD Elections And Heated Senate Primary Coming Down To Wire

By Matt Dougherty

August 23 is set to be a busy and potentially confusing political day in the Ithaca area as residents will be tasked with voting in three di erent elections for candidates that many residents know little about.

As a result of the Special Master redrawing New York State congressional maps, there have been some big changes that have shaken up elections in the Empire State. Ithaca is currently located in the 23rd Congressional District, but when the redrawn district lines go into e ect in January it will be located in the new 19th Congressional District which will stretch from Columbia County in the east to Tompkins in the west.

In addition, Congressmen Antonio Delgado, who represented the old 19th district, resigned from his position when Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed him to serve as Lieutenant Governor. Congressman Tom Reed, who represented the old 23rd district, also resigned to take a job at a lobbying rm. ese resignations have triggered special elections in the old 19th and old 23rd Congressional Districts, which Governor Hochul has scheduled for August 23, 2022.

As a result, Ithaca residents will vote in a special general election for the old 23rd District, which will cease to exist at the end of this congressional session, and a primary election for the new 19th District, which shares some overlap with the old 23rd District, simultaneously on August 23rd. Additionally, a primary election for State Senate District 52 will also be held on the same day.

Josh Riley is a lawyer that has experience in federal courts and has worked as a partner at numerous law firms and served as General Council to former Senator Al Franken. (Photo: Provided)

Leslie Danks Burke is a lawyer, public advocate in rural education and healthcare, and the founder and president of Trailblazers PAC. (Photo: Dede Hatch)

Jamie Cheney is a founding partner of Prokanga, an employee search firm and has worked as a consultant for private equity firms, hedge funds, and other investment firms. (Photo: Provided) Lea Webb is a former Binghamton City Councilmember, an educator at Binghamton University, and a national trainer with Vote Run Lead. (Photo: Provided)

Continued on Page 5

T A K E N O T E

 NY AG Sets Up Election Protection Hotline — New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced that the O ce of the Attorney General (OAG) will make its Election Protection Hotline available for the upcoming August 23, 2022, election and during New York’s early voting period, which runs from Saturday, August 13 through Sunday, August 21. The hotline will be available to troubleshoot and resolve a range of issues encountered by voters, including voting by absentee ballot or in person at their polling place. Voters that experience problems can report issues to OAG by calling the hotline at (866) 390-2992, submitting complaints online at https://ag.ny.gov/election-hotline, or emailing election.hotline@ag.ny.gov. The OAG has also created a guide addressing frequently asked questions to assist voters which is available at https://ag.ny.gov/ election-protection.  Median Home Price In Ithaca Metro Is $294,880 — According to a report by the real estate and construction website Construction Coverage, the current median home price in the Ithaca metro area is $294,880. Compared to its pre-2008 mark of $232,351 (in 2022 dollars), the Ithaca metro area has experienced an in ation-adjusted increase of 26.9% since its pre-Great Recession peak. The rapid rise in prices over the last two years and the current slowing of the market has invoked memories of the housing crash of the mid-2000s for many homebuyers and homeowners. A survey earlier this year found that more than three in four buyers and sellers believed that the U.S. was in the midst of a housing bubble.

VOL. XLII / NO. 52 / August 17, 2022 Serving 47,125 readers weekly

ON THE COVER:

Cornell Move-In day. (Cover photo: Cornell Sun; Supplement cover photo: Cornell University)

NEWSLINE ....................................3 SPORTS ..........................................6 CLOSING CREDITS ......................8

Fessenden looks back at CU Cinema career

STUDENT SURVIVAL GUIDE ...11 STAGE ..........................................19 FILM ............................................20 DINING .......................................21 TIMES TABLE .............................24 CLASSIFIEDS ..............................26

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G AZETTE : TOM N EWTON

IN UIRING PHOTOGR PHERQ A

By Josh Baldo

IF YOU COULD BE ANYTHING WHAT WOULD YOU BE?

“A Christmas Tree” – Molly F.

“Getting peaches at my CSA with my grandchildren” – Debbie S.

“A snail because I always have my house with me” – Philippe N.

“A unicorn” – Julia T.

“Me” – Thomas R. Breaking Stereotypes

CU’s Jameson Wang Signs NIL Deal

Sophomore QB Signs With Degree And Joins #BreakingLimits Team

By Andrew Sullivan

Cornell University quarterback Jameson Wang is the latest member Degree Deodorant’s #BreakingLimits Team a er the rising sophomore signed a NIL (name, image, and likeness) agreement with the company, which was o cially announced in a press release on Aug. 2.

New NIL rules that were adopted in 2021 allow college and high school athletes to sign contracts to not only pro t from, but also market their name, image, and likeness. Wang is joining Degree’s #BreakingLimits Team, which features 28 other Division I athletes, both male and female, from several sports. e initiative’s goal is to “amplify incredible stories of overcoming adversity to help inspire others to break their own limits and set a precedent for how to work with student athletes in an impactful way,” according to Degree.

“I was contacted by Opendorse, which is a third-party NIL company, and they told me that Degree was looking for me to join the Breaking Limits Team,” Wang said. “Coming from an Asian American background, playing football…it's gonna help me share my story to a lot of people that don't know my story. And I'm really thankful for that; really blessed that Degree has given me the opportunity to do this.”

Wang played in seven games last season for the Big Red and led the squad in rushing with 349 yards (5.5 yards per carry) and four touchdowns, becoming the second freshman in program history to do so. e level of Asian American representation in major United States sports is quite low. According to the 2021 Racial and Gender Report Card from e Institute for Diversity and Equity in Sports (TIDES), only 1.5 percent of male Division I athletes identi ed as Asian. For female Division I athletes, the percentage isn’t much higher (2.3 percent). Only two percent of Division I football players identi ed as either Asian or Native Hawaiian/ Paci c Islander. e trend holds true at the professional level as well. Asian athletes made up 0.4 percent of NBA players, 0.1 percent of NFL players, 1.9 percent of MLB players, 1.3 percent of MLS players, and 1.4 percent (only two identi ed as Asian American) of WNBA players, according to TIDES’s 2021 reports on each league. ere are multiple factors that have contributed to the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in U.S. sports. e Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited many Asian individuals from participating in sport and resulted in the cultivation of stereotypes. e feminization of Asian men, for instance, led to a societal view of them as “weak” and “too short.” When Asian people were allowed to participate in sports, they endured racism and xenophobia.

Asian Americans are also stereotyped as the “model minority” in that they are high achievers. is stereotype has led Asian American families to believe that the only way they can succeed is through academics, thus athletics are looked at with little importance.

For Wang, though, athletics were not considered an a erthought. His father played football as a high schooler in Rochester a er his family emigrated to Rochester from Taiwan when he was ve years old. (His parents ed China during the Communist Revolution to Taiwan where he was born.)

“At the time, my grandparents—his parents—they had a Chinese restaurant in Rochester, and they were working there all the time,” Wang said. “So no one really supported him playing football because they wanted him to work in the restaurant. But luckily, making good friends in Rochester, my dad was able to get rides and have teammates really care about him and really push [him] to play high school football.”

He said his father encouraged him to play football as a kid.

“He was trying to give me the opportunities that he never really had as a child,” Wang said. “So he was my coach all the way up to eighth grade. He really pushed me to be the player that I am today.”

Wang attended his rst three years of high school at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, CA before transferring to Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village for his senior year. rough four years of high school football, Wang accrued 10,305 yards of total o ense and 114 total touchdowns as quarterback. He also played basketball and ran track and eld. e quarterback position, despite the growth in the number of black athletes starting at the position professionally, has been predominantly held by white athletes. Non-white quarterbacks are subjected to much higher standards and are sometimes even encouraged to switch to a di erent position.

Luckily for Wang, he received support from those around him to compete at the position.

“I’m very fortunate to have gone to schools that the coaching sta s, they didn't care what color skin you were, what background you came from, whoever was the best player was going to play, and I really respect that from my high school coaches,” he said. [His coaches] “never really gave

Wang has inked an NIL deal with Degree Deodorant. (Photo: Provided) Soph QB Jameson Wang led CU in rushing last season. (Photo: Twitter)

Reimagining Special Committee Defines Itself And Explores IPD Dashboard

At its initial meeting on August 10 the Ithaca Common Council’s Reimagining Public Safety Special Committee focused on de ning its own role and schedule and examining the Ithaca Police Department’s (IPD) movement toward greater transparency via an online dashboard. e Special Committee consists of Alderpersons Cynthia Brock, Phoebe Brown, Robert Cantelmo, George McGonigal, and Ducson Nguyen. Acting Mayor Laura Lewis and Mar’Quon Frederick, a Cornell student who was part of the Reimagining Public Safety Working Group, both attended in a non-voting capacity. e ve committee members unanimously chose McGonigal to lead the group. Tasked to give a report to the full Council at its December meeting, the committee decided to meet monthly on the second Wednesday of each month.

Noting that having just four meeting would require a “full throttle” approach, McGonigal suggested the committee quickly reach out to District Attorney Matt Van Houten, assemble a citizen feedback group, and get in touch with the unarmed response units being created by Rochester as part of that city’s Reimagining Public Safety e orts. e meeting swi ly segued into a presentation by IPD Sergeant Mary Orsaio of that department’s online dashboard, available at https://www.cityo thaca. org/752/Community-Dashboard. e data visualization system, based on the popular Microso Power BI platform, provides information on types and numbers of calls and locations of incidents. Conceding the system has limitations, Orsaio characterized it as “something to make improvements o of.”

McGonigal pointed out that the dashboard doesn’t provide demographic data related to those involved in tra c stops, an area speci cally cited as a goal of the Reimagining plan. Orsaio explained the di culties involved in gathering that speci c data since it isn’t listed on driver’s licenses and isn’t part of the normal questioning process in a tra c stop. McGonigal acknowledged the problem, saying “I think some people could be o ended if they were asked that question.” Orsaio said the IPD knows this is important data and wants to obtain it and requested suggestions and input from the community about how it could be gathered.

PRIMARY ELECTION PREVIEW

continued from page 3

Let’s look at each of the three races to try to bring some clarity to the upcoming elections.

23rd Congressional District Special Election

e special election to ll the seat le vacant in old District 23 by former Congressman Tom Reed—who resigned from his position to take a position with a lobbying rm—will have Democrat Max Della Pia running against Republican Joe Sempolinski. e special election is not a primary and both nominees have been appointed by the chairs of their respective parties. Max Della Pia is an Air Force veteran who has served as Chair of the Tioga County Democratic Committee since 2018. He is also a member of the Democratic Rural Conference (DRC) Board. According to Della Pia, his top priorities are economic resilience, job creation, equity and fairness and the environment. His platform calls for ending discrimination in public policy by passing the Equality Act, protecting rights to healthcare — including reproductive rights — decriminalizing poverty, common sense gun policy, and protecting regulations that ensure access to clean air and water. Della Pia recently told e Ithaca Times, “I feel that our democracy is at a vulnerable point here. And I feel like I need to do what I can to make it better.” He continued saying, “We don't have to agree on everything. But if we can just agree on a couple things and work together in good conscience we can do something good to move the country forward, and also to move our constituents’ best interests forward.”

Della Pia is also running for election in the new 23rd District on November 8th after redistricting goes into e ect. However, the Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index gives the redrawn district a partisan ranking of R+12, so odds are the seat will remain under Republican Control.

Joe Sempolinski is the chairman of the Republican Party of Steuben County and formerly served as the head of the New York State based Congressional sta for the 23rd District, where he worked for former Congressman Tom Reed. He calls himself “…a strong Constitutional Conservative…” that “…will stand up to the Biden agenda and never quit….”

Voters, whatever their registration, who reside in what was the 23rd Congressional District, the seat formerly held by Tom Reed, will receive this ballot. (Photo: Tompkins County) Voters who are registered as Democrats will receive this ballot for the Primary Elections for the new 19th Congressional District and the 52nd New York State Senate seat. (Photo: Tompkins County)

UPS DOWNS &

Ups

There’s no need to wait until next week to vote. Early voting in the August 23 Special Election and two primaries is being held now at the Crash Fire Rescue building at 72 Brown Road, near the airport, or downtown at Ithaca Town Hall at 215 North Tioga Street.

Ups

In anticipation of their move to Press Bay Court, our Cayuga Street Neighbors at SewGreen are giving away cotton fabric, craft felt, knitting needles, thread, and lots of other stu to not-for-pro ts, schools, and charitable organizations. Reach out by email to ithacasews@gmail.com.

HEARD SEEN &

Heard

There’s a proposal from a CU researcher asking for landmark status for the Andrus Block/Home Dairy building on the Commons due in part to its being the home of Firebrand Brooks, a nationally-recognized lesbian and feminist press, from 1984 to 2000.

Seen

The IC Esports team has a GoFundMe page raising money so they can attend their rst ever in-person competition this fall in Sacramento. Check out https://gf.me/v/c/gfm/help-ic-esportsand-gaming-compete-in-sacramento. This would be a great networking and educational opportunity for the team members.

IF YOU CARE TO RESPOND to something in this column, or suggest your own praise or blame, write news@ithacatimes. com, with a subject head “U&D.”

QUESTION OF THE WEEK Should Ithaca shift to City Manager government?

29.8% Yes. we need a professional administering the City. 48.9% No. I don’t want someone who’s not elected in charge. 21.3% It doesen’t matter. Nothing will change.

NEXT WEEK’S QUESTION: Are you planning to vote in the August 23 election?

Visit ithaca.com to submit your response.