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The City of Ithaca (named for the Greek island of Ithaca in Homer's Odyssey) sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York State.

The City of Ithaca is the center of the Ithaca metropolitan area (which also contains the legally distinct Town of Ithaca and other towns and villages in Tompkins County) and county seat of Tompkins County, New York. As of 2000, the city had a population of 29,287, and the metropolitan area had a population of 100,135. 2004 estimates puts the city population at 29,952, an increase of 2.3%. It is the North American seat of his Holiness the Dalai Lama.

History

The inhabitants of the Ithaca area at the time of European expansion were the Sapony and Tutelo Indians, dependent tribes of the Cayuga Indians who formed part of the Iroquois confederation. These tribes had been allowed to settle on Cayuga-controlled hunting lands at the south end of Cayuga Lake as well as in Pony (originally Sapony) Hollow of Newfield, New York, after being forced from North Carolina by European expansion. They were driven from the area by the Sullivan Expedition which destroyed the Tutelo village of Coregonal, located near the junction of state routes 13 and 13A just south of the Ithaca city limits. Indian presence in the current City of Ithaca was limited to a temporary hunting camp at the base of Cascadilla Gorge. The destruction of Iroquois confederation power opened the region to settlement by people of European origin, a process which began in 1789. In 1790, an official program began for distributing land in the area as a reward for service to the American soldiers of the Revolutionary War; most local land titles trace back to the Revolutionary war grants. Lots were drawn in 1791; informal settlement had already started.

As part of this process, the Central New York Military Tract, which included northern Tompkins County, was surveyed by Simeon DeWitt. His clerk Robert Harpur apparently had a fondness for ancient Greek and Roman history as well as English authors and philosophers (as evidenced by the nearby townships of Dryden and Locke). The Commissioners of Lands of NY State (chairman Gov. George Clinton) followed Harpur's recommendations at a meeting in 1790. The Military Tract township in which proto-Ithaca was located he named Ulysses, the Latin form of the Greek Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey. A few years later DeWitt moved to Ithaca and named it for the Greek island home of Ulysses (still the surrounding township at the time -- nowadays Ulysses is just a town in Tompkins County). Contrary to popular myth, DeWitt did not name many of the classical references found in upstate NY such as Syracuse and Troy; these were from the general classical fervor of the times. Perhaps because of the name, The Odyssey is routinely taught to elementary school students in the Ithaca area.

In the 1820s and 1830, Ithacans held high hopes of becoming a major city when the primitive Ithaca and Owego Railway was completed in 1832 to connect the Erie Canal navigation with the Susquehanna River to the south. These hopes survived the depression of 1837 when the railroad was re-organized as the Cayuga & Susquehanna and re-engineered with switchbacks in the late 1840's; much of this route is now used by the South Hill Recreation Way. However, easier routes soon became available, such as the Syracuse, Binghamton & New York (1854). In the decade following the Civil War railroads were built from Ithaca to all surrounding points (Geneva, Cayuga, Cortland, Elmira, Athens PA) mainly with financing from Ezra Cornell; however the geography of the city has always prevented it from lying on a major transportation artery. When the Lehigh Valley Railroad built its main line from Pennsylvania to Buffalo in 1890 it bypassed Ithaca (running via eastern Schuyler County on easier grades), as the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad had done in the 1850's. Ithaca became a city in 1888 and remained a small manufacturing and retail center until the recent education boom.

Ithaca was nationally known for the Ithaca Gun Company, makers of highly-valued shotguns, and Ithaca Calendar Clocks. The largest industry was the Morse Chain company, still active in Lansing as BorgWarner Morse. In the post-war decades National Cash Register and the Langmuir research labs of General Electric were also major employers.

Cornell University was founded by Ezra Cornell in 1865. It was coeducational from its inception, which was extremely unusual at the time. Ezra Cornell also established a public library for the city. Ithaca College was founded as the Ithaca Conservatory of Music in 1892.

During the early 20th century, Ithaca was an important center in the silent film industry. The most common type of film produced was the cliffhanger serial, and the films often featured the local natural scenery. Many of these films were the work of Leopold Wharton and his brother Theodore Wharton in their studio on the site of what is now Stewart Park. Eventually the film industry centralized in Hollywood, which offered the possibility of year-round filming, and film production in Ithaca effectively ceased. Few of the silent films made in Ithaca are preserved today.

Geography and climate

The valley in which Cayuga Lake is located is a long and narrow glacial valley, with a north-south orientation, with the lake originally forming due to damming of glacial moraine. The rock is predominantly Devonian and is relatively fossil rich. Glacial erratics can be found in the area. The world renowned fossils found in this area are one reason the Museum of the Earth is located here.

Ithaca was founded on flat land just south of the lake — land that formed in fairly recent geological times when silt filled the southern end of the lake. The city ultimately spread to the adjacent hillsides, which rise several hundred feet above the central flats: East Hill, West Hill, and South Hill. Its sides are fairly steep, and a number of the streams that flow into the valley from east or west have cut deep gorges, usually with several waterfalls.

Ithaca experiences a moderate continental climate, with cold, snowy winters and sometimes hot and humid summers. The valley flatland has slightly milder weather in winter, and occasionally Ithacans experience simultaneous snow on the hills and rain in the valley.

The natural vegetation of the Ithaca area, seen in areas unbuilt and unfarmed, is northern temperate broadleaf forest, dominated by deciduous trees. Among these, maples are particularly common. Steep hillsides seen from a distance resemble a curtain of green from late May through September, show bright fall colors in October, and are a display of gray trunks and branches, often with a white snowy background, from November through early May.

The region surrounding Ithaca is dotted with numerous wineries, many of which specialize in the native Labrusca grape varietals, although more and more vintners have started to focus upon the classic Vinifera styles such as Riesling and Cabernet Franc. Despite the relatively short growing season in the Finger Lakes American Viticultural Area, vineyards can flourish due to the microclimates created by the impact of the lakes.

The life of the city

The economy of Ithaca is based on education and manufacturing with high tech and tourism in strong supporting roles. As of 2006, Ithaca remains one of the few expanding economies in economically troubled New York State outside of New York City, and draws commuters from the neighboring rural counties of Cortland, Tioga, and Schuyler, as well as from the more urbanized Chemung County. The city is home to Cornell University, which overlooks the town from East Hill, and Ithaca College, similarly situated on South Hill. The student population is very high, as almost 20,000 students are enrolled at Cornell, with an additional 6,300 students at Ithaca College. The Ithaca City School District, which encompasses Ithaca and the surrounding area, enrolls about 5,500 K-12 students in eight elementary schools, two middle schools, Ithaca High School, and the Lehman Alternative Community School, which provides its students wide-ranging freedom to choose their own curriculum, occasionally resulting in controversy over political content in academic events. Along with the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, Ithaca is one of two major educational centers in Central New York.

Tourists come largely for the natural scenery, including three gorges within the city limits and three in nearby state parks. Visitors also enjoy Cayuga Lake, numerous hiking, skiing, and bicycling trails, and visits to wineries in lakeside vineyards found north and west of the city.

With some level of success, Ithaca has tried to maintain a traditional downtown shopping area that includes the Ithaca Commons pedestrian mall and Center Ithaca, a small mixed-use complex built at the end of the urban renewal era. Therefore, some in the community regret that downtown has lost vitality to two expanding commercial zones to the northeast and southwest of the old city. These areas contain an increasing number of large retail stores and restaurants run by national chains. Others say the chain stores boost local shopping options for residents considerably, many of whom would have previously shopped elsewhere, while increasing sales tax revenue for the city and county. The tradeoff between sprawl and economic development continues to be debated throughout the city and the surrounding area. (Another commercial center, Collegetown, is located next to the Cornell campus. It features a number of restaurants, shops, and bars, and an increasing number of high rise apartments and is primarily frequented by Cornell University students.)

Ithacans support a popular farmer's marketprofessional theaters*,*," target="_blank" >a civic orchestra, much parkland, a paleontological museum. Ithaca is noted for its annual artistic celebration of community: The Ithaca Festival*." target="_blank" >(The Ithaca Festival Parade*" target="_blank" >are legendary!) Another gem is the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts [http://www.saltonstall.org which provides grants and Summer Fellowships at the Saltonstall Arts Colony for NYS artists and writers. Ithaca also hosts what is described as the third-largest used-book sale in the United States.

Politically, the city's population has a significant liberal Democrat political tilt, in contrast to the more conservative leanings of the region of Upstate New York that surrounds it.

Ithaca has many of the businesses characteristic of small American university towns: used bookstores, art house cinemas, craft stores, and vegetarian restaurants. The collective Moosewood Restaurant, founded in 1973, was the wellspring for a number of vegetarian cookbooks; Bon Appetit magazine ranked it among the thirteen most influential restaurants of the twentieth century.

The dominant local newspaper in Ithaca is a morning daily, the Ithaca Journal, founded 1815. The paper is owned by Gannett, Inc., publishers of USA Today. Other local print publications include the Ithaca Times, the Cornell Daily Sun, the Ithacan, and the Tattler. (The latter three are run by student staffs at Cornell University, Ithaca College, and Ithaca High School, respectively.) Local residents often subscribe to out-of-town papers as well. The Post-Standard of Syracuse and the New York Times are popular among many community members. Ithaca Community News is emailed to 8,000 residents twice monthly.

Ithaca has also pioneered the Ithaca Health Fund, a popular cooperative health insurance. Ithaca is also home to one of the United States' first local currency systems, Ithaca Hours, developed by Paul Glover (building on the pioneering work of Ralph Borsodi and Robert Swann).

Local government

The name "Ithaca" actually designates two governmental entities in the area. The Town of Ithaca is one of the nine towns comprised by Tompkins County. ("Towns" in New York are something like townships in other states; every county outside New York City is subdivided into towns.) The City of Ithaca is surrounded by, but legally independent of, the Town of Ithaca.

As of December, 2005, the city and town governments have begun discussing opportunities for increased government consolidation, including the possibility of joining the two into a single town or city. This topic was last discussed in 1963 and 1969.

The possibility of consolidation is controversial for Town residents who could be forced to pay higher taxes as they help shoulder the higher debt burden that the City has taken on. Some Town residents also worry that consolidation could lead to increased sprawl and traffic congestion. However, most of the Town's population is already concentrated in hamlets in proximity to the City's borders and Town residents take advantage of City amenities.

Other non-municipal areas within the Town of Ithaca identified by the US Census Bureau as census-designated places are:

In addition, the Town of Ithaca contains the Village of Cayuga Heights, a small incorporated upper-middle class suburb located to the northeast of the City of Ithaca.

The Town of Ithaca is bordered by other towns of Tompkins County as follows:

The majority of local property taxes are actually assessed by an entirely independent agency with entirely different borders, the Ithaca City School District.

Population and income figures

For census and income data on the two municipalities called "Ithaca" see Ithaca (city), New York and Ithaca (town), New York.

Transportation

Ithaca is in the rural Finger Lakes region about 250 miles to the northwest of New York City; the nearest larger cities, Binghamton and Syracuse, are an hour's drive away by car.

Ithaca is served by Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport, located about three miles to the northeast of the city center. US Airways Express offers flights to New York LaGuardia and Philadelphia using a mixture of small jets and propeller craft. Northwest Airlink provides twice-daily service to Detroit Metro airport. Many residents travel to Syracuse Hancock International Airport, Greater Binghamton Airport, Elmira-Corning Regional Airport or Greater Rochester International Airport for more service options.

Ithaca lies at over a half hour's drive from any interstate highway, and all car trips to Ithaca involve at least some driving on two-lane state rural highways. The city is at the convergence of many regional two-lane state highways: Routes 13, 13A, 34, 79, 89, 96, 96B, and 366. These are usually not congested except in Ithaca proper. There is frequent intercity bus service by Greyhound Lines, New York Trailways, and Shortline (Coach USA), particularly to Binghamton and New York City, with limited service to Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse, and (via connections in Binghamton) to Utica and Albany.

Ithaca is the center of an extensive bus public transportation system — Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) — which carried 3.1 million passengers in 2005. "3 Million Bus Passengers and Counting as TCAT Sets Record in 2005", Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT), December 19, 2005. Last Accessed on March 24, 2006. TCAT was reorganized as a non-profit corporation in 2004 and is primarily supported locally by Cornell University, the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County. TCAT operates thirty nine routes, many running seven days a week. It has frequent service to downtown, Cornell, Ithaca College, and the Pyramid Mall in the neighboring Town of Lansing, but less frequent service to many residential and rural areas, including Trumansburg and Newfield. Chemung County Transit runs weekday commuter routes into Schuyler and Chemung counties, and Tioga County Public Transit runs weekday routes into neighboring Tioga, primarily to serve Cornell employees who prefer to live in these rural counties, or are forced to because of the high house prices near Ithaca.

GADABOUT Transportation Services, Inc. provides demand -response paratransit service for seniors over 60 and people with disabilities. Ithaca Dispatch and Finger Lakes Taxi provide local and regional taxi service. Ithaca Airline Limousine connects to the airport.

Regional short haul freight trains reach Ithaca from Sayre, PA, mainly to deliver coal to the Milliken Power Station halfway up Cayuga Lake. There is no passenger rail service, although from the 1870's through the 1930's there was service to Buffalo via Geneva, New York City via Wilkes-Barre (Lehigh Valley Railroad) and Scranton (DL&W), Auburn, and the northeast via Cortland; service to Buffalo and New York lasted until 1961.

Local transportation issues: growing pains

As a growing urban area, Ithaca is facing steady increases in levels of vehicular traffic on the city grid and on the state highways. Outlying areas have limited bus service, and many people consider a car essential.

However, Ithaca is a walkable and bikeable community for others. One positive trend for the health of downtown Ithaca is the new wave of increasing urban density in and around the Ithaca Commons. Because the downtown area is the region's central business district, dense mixed-use development that includes housing may increase the proportion of people who can walk to work and recreation, and mitigate the likely increased pressure on already busy roads as Ithaca grows. The downtown area is also the area best served by frequent public transportation. Still, traffic congestion around the Commons is likely to progressively increase.

Unlike most urbanized areas in the United States, Ithaca does not have direct access to the Interstate highway system. In 1968, it was proposed to convert Route 13 from Horseheads to Cortland through Ithaca into a limited access highway (it is currently such for three miles heading north from Ithaca), but the plan lost local and State support.

The City's current emphasis is on traffic management and better using the existing road capacity rather than building new roads. New road-building in any of the congested areas would require substantial condemnation of private property. Some pro-highway critics have argued that this is an ineffective means of dealing with increasing traffic congestion, especially in the City's West end. The Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council is the coordinating body for federal and state funded transportation projects covering Ithaca.

Retail development trends in the city have created traffic pressure in neighborhoods. In the late 1990's, the City decided to encourage "big box" retail development in an area known as the Southwest. The replacement of local grocery stores with mega-supermarkets in the commercial strip, a transition that has taken place across the country, has made it harder for Ithacans without cars to shop for food.

To influence traffic traveling through neighborhoods, the City Government adopted traffic plans to introduce traffic calming elements on City roads including, traffic tables at intersections, mini traffic circles, traffic humps, and a traffic rotary. The City also rebuilt a long-absent road bridge over Six Mile Creek at South Plain Street and widened West Spencer Street.

In 2005, Mayor Peterson emphasized pedestrian and bicycle circulation, safety education and traffic enforcement. As part of this plan, the city put increased emphasis on completing a county-wide system of commuter bicycle and walking trails. Highly publicized pedestrian-vehicle and bicycle-vehicle accidents have focused attention on these traffic conflicts. Underfunding of sidewalk construction and maintenance are basic pedestrian infrastructure issues facing the City.

Critics argue that Ithaca's recent traffic projects and policies, and its emphasis on alternative transportation, have funneled money away from badly needed repairs, resurfacing, and winter maintenance for existing roads. The recently constructed “traffic calming devices” are unpopular among many drivers from Ithaca and the surrounding areas, and are a local subject of criticism and satire. Some also assert that recent changes and policies have actually worsened, rather than improved, the traffic congestion situation, and fear that future proposals will do the same.

Other recent changes and trends

For decades, the Ithaca Gun Company tested their shotguns behind the plant on Lake St.; the shot fell into Fall Creek (a tributary of Cayuga Lake) right at the base of Ithaca Falls. A major clean-up effort sponsored by the United States Superfund took place from 2002 to 2004. "EPA Finishes $4.8 Million Cleanup at Ithaca Gun", United States Environmental Protection Agency, October 29, 2004. Last Accessed on March 25, 2006.

There have been recent significant increases in property values in the City. House shopping is very competitive.

The former Morse Chain company factory on South Hill, now owned by Emerson Power Transmission, was the site of extensive groundwater and soil contamination."Public Meeting - Emerson Power Transmission Environmental Investigation", New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. June 22, 2005. Emerson Power Transmission has been working with the state and South Hill residents to determine the extent and danger of the contamination and aid in cleanup.

"Most Enlightened Town in America"

Ithaca is commonly listed among the most culturally liberal (or, to the like-minded, "enlightened") of American small cities. The Utne Reader named Ithaca "America's most enlightened town" in 1997. Jay Walljasper, Jon Spayde, Ithaca, New York: A Gritty upstate City Where the Grassroots are Green, "America's 10 Most Enlightened Towns (and we don't mean Santa Fe)", May/June 1997 Issue, UTNE Reader

Like many small college towns, Ithaca has also received accolades for having a high overall quality of life. In 2004, Cities Ranked and Rated named Ithaca the best "emerging city" to live in the United States. In 2006, the Internet realty website "Relocate America" named Ithaca the fourth best city in the country to relocate to. Relocate-America.com, "Relocate-America.com's 2006 list of America's TOP 100 Places to Live!." Available online *. Last accessed 4 April 2006.

These designations have at times polarized some local residents: some note the recognition with pride, some see it as an indication of decadence, and others feel that it is a narrow view of the community. Some, particularly conservatives, note that the positive press often appears in left-leaning publications, or have more general questions about the methodologies used in determining the designations.

"City of Evil"

In its earliest years during frontier days, what is now Ithaca was briefly known by the names "The Flats" and "Sodom," Dr. James Sullivan, "The History of New York State", Book VII: "The Finger Lakes Region", Chapter VII: Tompkins County. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. (1927) Last Accessed on March 25, 2006. Carol Kammen, "History of Ithaca and Tompkins County", City of Ithaca. Last Accessed on March 25, 2006. , the name of the Biblical city of sin, due to its reputation as a town of "notorious immorality"See, e.g., 1811 article in local paper, at or Town of Ithaca History project, available [http://www.town.ithaca.ny.us/|online (click on "History Project", then "Historical maps..." and finally "famous for its notorious immorality")., because of its reputation as a place of horse racing, gambling, profanity, Sabbath breaking, and readily available liquor. These names did not last long; Simeon Dewitt renamed the town Ithaca in the early 1800s. A dead-end road at the top of Snyder Hill a few miles east of Ithaca is named "Sodom Road", "Sodom Road, Ithaca, NY", Google Maps. Last Accessed on March 25, 2006. "Sodom Road, Ithaca, NY", Yahoo! Maps. Last Accessed on March 25, 2006. although this road was actually named for a family with the surname "Sodom" sometime in the 1930s.See "Place Names in Tompkins County," Office of the Tompkins County Historian, 2004. Ithaca, NY. Nearby, Robert H. Treman State Park contains Lucifer Falls.

The loose association of these facts, together with Ithaca's reputation as having a left-leaning population, has made Ithaca mildly infamous as the "City of Evil," due to a satirical campaign by members of a politically conservative online discussion board. To this day, the label is sometimes invoked by the local media, including the Ithaca JournalSee, e.g. 26, 2006, editorial., as illustrative of the perception, earned or not, of Ithaca having a far-left population. In addition, some Ithacans have embraced the label, for example, see the Ithaca-based acoustic music group, Evil City Trio."Evil City Trio," [http://www.evilcitytrio.com/. Last Accessed 2 April 2006.

Books set (at least partially) in Ithaca

Notable residents and natives

Points of interest

Nearby Parks, Major Trails, and Outdoor Recreation

The Ithaca area is home to beautiful outdoor recreation, including an extensive system of pedestrian, hiking, skiing, snowmobile, and bicycling trails. See Trails in Ithaca, New York.

References

External links

See also

Ithaca, New York

ইথাকা, নিউইয়র্ক | Итака (Ню Йорк) | Ithaca | Ithaca (Nov-Jorkio) | Ithaca (New York) | イサカ (ニューヨーク州) | Ithaca | 伊萨卡 (纽约州)

 

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