There's some reality here and a nice quality of li
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3/30/2006
Ithaca can be all of the things described by Jamie in the previous post. It can be annoying and it's not perfect. If you are a youngish person (but not a college student) looking for night life and career opportunities, Ithaca is probably not the place for you.
However, if you're looking for a good place to raise kids (or maybe retire or just slow down), Ithaca has great public schools, beautiful parks with waterfalls, Cayuga Lake for boating and swimming, wine trails, a nice farmer's market, and several annual festivals. It's very progressive and socially conscious. There are many transplants from urban areas (esp. NYC) as well as a diverse local population. It is very gay friendly. If you are a Republican, you will be outnumbered in Ithaca.
Cornell has a lot to do with the intellectual feeling of the place. They are the employment mainstain in the county with about 9,000 workers. It makes for a stable economy in a rather depressed upstate NY. House prices have gone up a lot in the past few years. You do have to head to a bigger city for real shopping. For lots of people here, stuff and the acquistion of it is not that important. That can be refreshing.
If you want to read a fairly accurate dissenting opinion on Ithaca, the 1997 Utne Reader cover story about most enlightened towns in America (of which Ithaca was ranked #1) included a sidebar piece by a local resident (maybe a demographer?) that pretty accurately sums it up. It's about the division of the classes here, among other things. It's not a side of Ithaca you would see on a casual visit, but it is part of the social landscape.
The weather is not great - winters are long and gray. But people really come out of their shells in the warm weather. The population is somewhat transient but you can find the core. And finally, it really is the middle of nowhere. It's a haul to the nearest interstate. For some that's not such a big deal, for others it's a drag. It's all a matter of perspective, choices, and what's important to you, like most things in life
I moved here from Boston about five years ago and I like it. A couple of years ago, I heard Ithaca described in the NY Times as a "liberal outpost" in upstate NY. That about sums it up.
Lisa | Ithaca, NY