ITHACA, NY (WENY) -- This afternoon, Ithaca Mayor, Svante Myrick gave a seminar and discussed the challenges and opportunities of Ithaca's Green New Deal. Numerous Cornell students and faculty were in attendance for the seminar to talk about the deal and the questions they have about it. The deal has many goals including, a carbon neutrality community by 2030, meet the electricity needs of the city with 100% renewable energy by 2025, and to reduce emissions from the city vehicle fleet by 50 percent by 2025.

We spoke with Myrick after the seminar to talk about what opportunities will come with the Green New Deal.

"It's impossible to imagine all the possibilities. It could come a more environmentally just and economically successful community. It could come from new bike lanes and better buses and better public transportation to job guarantees for everybody including the homeless. I think we can truly imagine a better healthier more successful city and then we can create it," said Myrick.

We also spoke with Myrick about where the city stands with the current Green New Deal.

Myrick said, "So, here's where we are. We set our goal and we want to create new jobs and better economic equity across the community. We've created a budget, last year, we set aside some $250,000 total to get started. We are hiring somebody who's going to lead this, a city employer who's going to lead this and then we are going to continue to invest our resources but also our time."

To learn more about the Ithaca Green New Deal click here.