Beverly Abplanalp, nonprofit leader: “I see health care and education, civil rights, justice, and, shall I say, a kind and considerate approach to environmental matters as being very important for me and our community.”

Lena Debang, Ithaca College sophomore: “I would be interested to know what some of the solutions towards affordable housing and homelessness issues are in the community, because I feel like, especially in the commons walking around, a lot of the time, there’s a lot of unhoused people.”

Peter Silberman, associate professor and chair of the Department of Composition and Music Studies at Ithaca College: “Most of the candidates talk about housing costs, so maybe there’s something we can do about that. Maybe getting more of a payment from Cornell [University] as well. … I’m not a renter, but people have trouble. Your rent is so high. I don’t think there’s anything to do about it.”

Julia Oplinger, Ithaca College sophomore: “I feel like I am not really educated on any issues locally, and I would like to be more educated on them.” 

Kris Hodges, market researcher: “There’s always the ever-present infrastructure issues. The roads are really bad around here. [They’re] accentuated by when they finally fix ones.”