About Cynthia
Councilperson Cynthia Brock is the longest serving member on the Ithaca City Council. She has gained a reputation as a tenacious and hard-working legislator who fearlessly strives for transparency and accountability, progressive government with a commitment to fiscal prudence, and maintaining and enhancing the City’s core services.
Brock has represented the First Ward on Ithaca’s Common Council for four terms since 2011. The First Ward — the largest district in the City — includes Ithaca’s West Hill, West End, and Waterfront districts, Nate’s Floral Estates, the Spencer Road neighborhood, South Hill and the Route 13 commercial corridor. Starting in 2024, the First Ward will also include the Northside, Southside, and South Titus neighborhoods, while South Hill will become part of Ward Three.
Cynthia made history as the first Asian-American elected to Council and the first Asian-American Woman. Raised in Hawaii, Brock has a lifelong passion for the water and natural resources. An avid long distance outrigger canoe paddler, Brock was a founding member of the Cayuga Outrigger Canoe Club and continued to serve on its Board for a decade. Cynthia and her husband Ray, her mother, and three now-adult kids have lived on West Hill for over 20 years, three generations under one roof.
Legislative and Government Leadership
Cynthia Brock has been on the cutting edge of governance, tackling difficult and often controversial issues throughout her 12 years of service on City Council. She has leveraged her strong financial, legal, and visionary acumen to implement meaningful, tangible, and positive change for the community.
Infrastructure
Prior to her election to City Council in 2011, Councilperson Brock served on the City of Ithaca Board of Public Works, seeing through the decade-long decision to rebuild the City’s Water Treatment Facility. A committed environmentalist, Brock recognizes the unique and essential responsibility the City has to provide clean water to its residents and to preserve Ithaca’s natural areas and beauty. Cynthia Brock chairs both the inter-municipal Special Joint Committee for the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility as well as the Tompkins County Water Resources Council, and most recently worked to facilitate the City of Ithaca’s 2022 adoption of the Drinking Water Source Protection Plan to ensure a safe and reliable source of drinking water for our community. She has been an outspoken advocate for preserving and enhancing free public access to the City’s parks and natural areas.
Councilperson Brock was inspired to public service with the vision toward implementing needed sidewalk connections on Route 79/Hector Street. Starting in 2009 when she was appointed to the BPW, and over the years Councilperson Brock has worked to enable and implement an expanded network of essential pedestrian and cycling options in underserved locations. In 2020 the Hector Street sidewalk and bike lane were completed, with retaining walls, street realignment, and updated water and sewer infrastructure. The Sidewalk Improvement District initiated in 2014 transferred responsibility for sidewalk creation from adjacent property owners to the City, leveraging State and Federal funding to facilitate new sidewalks on Giles Street, South Aurora Street, and Hector Street. Over the past decade the City saw a dramatic expansion of its pedestrian and bicycle network with the Waterfront and Black Diamond Trails connecting Cass Park, Stewart Park, the Farmer’s Market and Floral Avenue, expanded sidewalks on the Route 13 Commercial Corridor, and Columbia Street Pedestrian Bridge, with the next phase being a pedestrian bridge across the inlet to Cherry Street.
Development
The City engaged in a multi-year process that culminated in the 2015 adoption of the City’s Comprehensive Plan. In the years following, several neighborhood plans and PUDs (Planned Unit Developments) were adopted for the First Ward including the Waterfront Plan, Chain Works Redevelopment District, Southside Neighborhood Plan, and the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. Throughout this process Councilperson Brock has worked to preserve housing opportunities for all price points, preserve access to homeownership, while working to increase density and services in our downtown core. The South Hill neighborhood is an area of intense development pressure. Councilperson Brock was instrumental in establishing a South Hill Overlay District until a neighborhood plan is implemented, halting the trend of single family properties from being turned into backyard student-focused apartment complexes – resulting in unplanned density and loss of opportunities for family housing and homeownership in one of the few remaining neighborhoods in the City with an elementary school.
Greenhouse Gas Reduction
In 2021, Councilperson Brock successfully led and implemented ground-breaking innovations in energy conservation through a public-private partnership between the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility and the City Harbor/Guthrie development. This fossil-fuel avoidance project allows City Harbor and Guthrie Medical to recover thermal energy from the effluent discharge of the wastewater treatment plant. When fully built, the project is expected to use 1,360 megawatt hours less per year than the energy it would use per year for air-source heat pumps.
Contamination
Councilperson Brock’s unwavering commitment to ensuring access to safe and healthy housing is evident in her decade-long participation with the City’s Community Advisory Group to ensure the Morse Chain Industrial Complex was fully investigated and remediated before being sold for development as the SouthWorks Complex. Brock’s unwavering dedication to addressing the City’s industrial past served to bring much-needed State attention and funding to investigate Nate’s Floral Estates, the South Hill neighborhoods, and Ithaca Falls/Ithaca Gun sites.
Government Experience
City of Ithaca Common Council – 2012-present, City Administration Committee 2012-2013; Planning and Economic Development Committee 2014 – present.
Special Joint Committee of the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility – 2014-present, Chairperson since 2017
Tompkins County Water Resources Council – 2016-present, Chairperson since 2019
Cayuga Lake Watershed Intermunicipal Organization – 2016-2022
City of Ithaca Board of Public Works – Commissioner 2009-2011
Common Council Liaison to
- Tompkins County Council of Governments (2022-present)
- Town of Ithaca (2022-present)
- Workforce Diversity Advisory Committee (2012-2022)
- Parks, Recreation, Natural Areas Commission (2018-2022)
- Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Council (former)
- Cable Access Oversight Committee (former)
- Community Advisory Group (former)
- Disability Advisory Council (former)
- Parks Commission (former)
- Shade Tree Advisory Committee (former)
Community Service
Cayuga Lake Watershed Network – 2019-2021
Greater Ithaca Activities Center, Inc. – Board of Directors and Executive Boardmember,2010-2014
Cayuga Outrigger Canoe Club – Co-founder and Executive Boardmember, 2008-2019
Beverly J. Martin Elementary School, PTA – Executive Boardmember, 2005-2011
University Cooperative Nursery School – Treasurer 2003-2005
MOMs Club of Ithaca – Co-founder and Executive Boardmember, 2002-2005
Education
Masters of International Management – 1994, Thunderbird. The American Graduate School of International Management, Glendale, Arizona
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science – 1990, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California