About Ithaca DSA
Ithaca
is consistently rated among the most beautiful and pleasant small cities in the country – as well as registering a cost of living that makes it one of the least affordable. Prohibitively high rents and stark income disparities are as much a part of our identity as our local foods, social consciousness, and amazing scenery.
Like anywhere else, our economy
and political structures only work for the wealthy. Our chapter organizes and agitates for affordable housing, an end to unjust policing and incarceration, a better healthcare system for all, fair wages, and environmental justice. We work with community groups and activists to create a better world, in opposition to the comfortable, complacent neoliberal status quo.
Our chapter
is one of the oldest in the country, formerly functioning as part of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee before it merged with the New American Movement to form DSA in 1982. Ithaca’s mayor from 1989 to 1995 was Ben Nichols, a member of DSA and one of only a few open socialists to hold elected office at the end of the 20th century. As mayor, he persuaded Cornell to make a much larger financial contribution to the city in lieu of taxes, and passed a domestic partnership ordinance granting equal benefits to LGBTQIA+ couples.