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Therefore as mayor I intend to stimulate City Hall to innovate and experiment with new programs and technologies that reduce costs and meet needs better. All of us-- Mayor, City Council, City staff and city residents will need to explore changes so we can make an orderly transition to an abundant, secure and healthy future. This process can create new jobs, benefit future generations, and be fun, but requires new thinking and new ways of living.

The three candidates seeking the Democratic ballot line are each capable, dedicated public servants whose company I have enjoyed for years. They have not however made clear enough that they will use City Hall's power to gradually build practical regional economic development systems that satisfactorily replace Ithaca's dependence on automobiles, megamalls, wider highways, oil spills and oil wars, stripmining, monopoly utilities, absentee landlords, deforestation, HMOs, and the general use of Cayuga Lake as a toilet. They have not spoken decisively against chain stores and the drain of wealth they'd cause, nor presented plans for funding the City without them.

As mayor, I would seek to convert City Hall into a community organizing center where citizens adapt the nation's best urban solutions for implementation here. City planners would promote grassroots economic development, which meets economic needs while respecting nature and labor. The Department of Public Works would likewise learn new tricks, as we shift reliance to decentralized technologies maintained increasingly by nonprofit organizations and mutual aid co-operatives.

City Hall's budget will be met three ways. First, we will reduce the need for City Hall services as much as possible, enabling us to expand the community base faster than the tax base. Secondly, we will become a rich community by reducing and then ending the loss of our great local wealth to utilities; HMOs; automobiles, absentee bankers, contractors, retailers, hoteliers and landlords. All money that enters Ithaca can be transformed into engines of community-controlled job creation and export income.

The era of road widening in our narrow valley will end. The era of trollies, buses, bicycles, pedicabs, cargo bikes and pedestrian amenity will accelerate. Center city will become home for thousands of humans rather than cars, to the benefit of local businesses. The era of poisoning our children with automobile exhaust will end. The era of worrying about paying for health care will be replaced by free and at-cost care through mutual aid clinics. The era of pooping into clean water will yield to clean, safe composting toilets. The era of energy waste will be replaced by energy efficiency. The era of throwing America into landfills will end, as Ithaca becomes the nation's first 100% precycling and recycling city. The era of consumerism will transform into an unprecedented celebration of creativity. The era of discarding the young, particularly kids of color, will be replaced by skills and work that give them pride and power. Likewise senior citizens will find here lifelong appreciation for their capabilities. The era of police respect for civil liberties will expand respect for police. The development of creative work for all will reduce crime.

We will become a rich community, thirdly, by becoming different than every other city. We will prove that beauty, ecology and fun are economically beneficial. Thousands will visit Ithaca to become inspired. Our innovations will make Ithaca a model for the rebuilding of America.

Great cultural challenges face Ithaca's liberals and conservatives alike, as environmental and financial realities force us to create a new American Way of Life. It's become utopian nonsense to believe that America will progress by continuing to expand population, pollution, suburbs and landfills. We cannot succeed personally while the nation fails. Therefore we'll need to rebuild Ithaca as an intentional community, meeting needs through community-based businesses, nonprofit organizations and co-ops. Ithacans need both livable wages and a livable community where abundance is secured more by mutual aid than by dollars.

If you're ready to explore these directions, please vote Green this November 4.

GLOVER'S EXPERIENCE

A resident of Ithaca during most years since 1953, Glover was an independent candidate for City Council in 1973 (endorsed by a visit from Dr. Spock). He was declared "Ithaca's Hero" by the Ithaca Times Readers' Polls of 1995 and 2000. He received an award from the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission in 1996 and received a Cornell Civic Leaders Fellowship in 2001. He is 56 years old.

He holds degrees in Marketing and in City Management. Here is his FULL RESUME.

ITHACA POLICY PAPERS BY PAUL GLOVER

PRINCIPLES FOR NEW CITY MANAGEMENT

COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMIC INITIATIVES

--- TROLLEY connecting Cornell & Commons. More than transportation, rail cars would be handcrafted w/inlay wood, stained glass, neon waterfalls, musicians on board. Big boost to tourism & transit, could expand to Cortland.
--- SUPERINSULATION countywide would cut our heating/cooling bills by over 80%, giving us discretionary income to support local businesses & farms, thus creating new jobs & strengthening local culture. The foundation of economic development.
---ITHACA HEALTH FUND allows us to self-insure, keeping $50 million/year insurance payments in this county instead of wasting it on HMOs.
--- DENTAL CLINIC to provide free/at-cost care for low-income residents.
--- HOMEOWNER REVOLVING LOAN FUND to transfer rental homes at low prices to co-op owners. Removes housing from the speculative market by attaching limited equity riders. These co-ops would provide child/elder care & other neighborhood services.
---YOUTH/ELDER CO-HOUSING brings young families and seniors together to meet the needs of both, for child care, wisdom, and eldercare respectively.
--- FOOD PROCESSING CENTER to convert local organic farm/garden harvests into pasta, canned goods & dehydrated stock. Expands local agriculture by enabling farmers to grow for more than the seasonal market.
--- BULK FOOD CENTER to sell the above below commercial rates.
--- URBAN ORCHARDS invite free harvest in edible parks.
--- NEW ITHACA SOLAR ELECTRIC GROUP (NISEG) to generate rooftop electricity w/out global warming.
--- ITHACA HOURS could donate community currency at-cost to local government & nonprofits, enabling millions of dollars of services to be provided without raising taxes & without paying interest on bonds. HOURS would be welcome everywhere when government agrees to accept them for tax payment.
--- SANITATION REFORM to replace toxic sewage sludge w/clean, sweet smelling fertilizer via aerated waterless toilets. No more pooping into clean water.
--- BIKEWAYS would allow us to move safely without traffic jams & pollution. They permit emergency vehicles to move freely, make the Commons more accessible to the 20,000 who live within ten blocks of downtown.
--- IMPORT REPLACEMENT CENTER to connect regional skills & tools to create flexible manufacturing networks that capture contracts.
--- DREAM-COME-TRUE JOB CENTER to connect people to the regional resources that make our wildest hopes real.
--- MOSAIC SIDEWALKS would spread wonder & color underfoot (local waterfalls, plants, animals, fantasies) employing dozens of local artists and bringing tourists. Here are examples: Blois & Los Angeles & San Francisco & Lisbon & Rio
--- MUSICIANS EVERYWHERE would provide accompaniment to the Commons, parks, aboard trollies, at bus stops.
--- ACTIVIST UNIVERSITY would teach how to enact & sustain the above.

Taken together, these will allow us to relax in a beautiful, exciting community, raising the standard of living while lowering the cost of living & setting examples for the whole country.

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GLOVER FOR MAYOR: 

VOTE NOVEMBER 4, 2003.

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