Zach Winn announces candidacy for City of Ithaca Common Council

Longtime local resident and citizen journalist Zach Winn has officially announced his candidacy for Ithaca’s First Ward Common Council. Best known for his reporting on IthacaCrime.com, Winn has chronicled what he describes as the city’s “sharp decline” over the past four years and now seeks to bring change from inside City Hall.

“Ithaca is dying,” said Winn. “Skyrocketing taxes, failed policies, and political groupthink have driven long-time residents and businesses out. I can no longer stand by and watch it happen. I’m running to give voters a real choice.”

Winn also stands in firm opposition to what he describes as a Marxist takeover of the Democratic Party, which he believes is in the process of seizing control of Common Council and imposing an extreme ideological agenda on the city.

Winn’s campaign centers on restoring accountability, confronting Ithaca’s worsening drug crisis, and challenging the long-standing dominance of one political party in city government. His key platform issues include:

-Ending the Cornell MOU: Winn is calling for the City to terminate and renegotiate its 15-year Memorandum of Understanding with Cornell University, which he says vastly undervalues the university’s obligations to the city.

– New Revenue Without Higher Taxes: Proposing innovative alternatives such as leasing naming rights to roads on Cornell’s campus, Winn aims to raise revenue while reducing the tax burden on residents.

– Confronting the Drug Crisis: Citing a surge in methamphetamine and fentanyl abuse, Winn supports establishing a secure psychiatric and rehabilitation facility and improving coordination between City and County governments.

– Fixing Failed “Sanctioned Camping”: Calling the City-sanctioned homeless encampment behind Walmart a “hotbed of crime and addiction,” Winn advocates for either meaningful regulation or a new approach entirely.

-Election Reform: To increase civic participation, Winn supports implementing open primaries to ensure that unaffiliated and non-Democratic voters can have a voice in who represents them.

– Resisting Government Overreach: Winn opposes recent local efforts to control short-term rentals, impose a $25 minimum wage, and eliminate at-will employment, calling them “economically illiterate” and outside the city’s proper scope.

“I want to represent the people who feel shut out of the process-who’ve given up because they think it’s all decided in a primary they can’t vote in,” Winn said. “This campaign is about giving them their voice back.”