Ithaca, New York

Ithaca
—  City  —
Location in New York
Coordinates:
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Tompkins
Founded	1790
Incorporated	1888
Government
- Mayor	Carolyn K. Peterson (D)
- Common Council	Members' List Ward 1: • Maria Coles (D) • Jennifer Dotson (D) Ward 2: • J.R. Clairborne (D) • Eric Rosario (D) Ward 3: • Ellen McCollister (D) • Joel Zumoff (D) Ward 4: • Svante Myrick (D) • Eddie Rooker (D) Ward 5: • Deborah Mohlenhoff (D) • Daniel Cogan (D)
Area
- City	6.1 sq mi (15.7 km2)
- Land	5.5 sq mi (14.1 km2)
- Water	0.6 sq mi (1.6 km2)
Population (2000)
- City	29,287 (city proper)
- Density	5,363.9/sq mi (2,071.0/km2)
- Metro	100,018
- Demonym	Ithacan
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Area code(s)	607
Website	www.cityofithaca.org

The city of Ithaca, named for the Greek island of Ithaca,^[1] sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York, USA. It is best known for being home to Cornell University, an Ivy League school with almost 20,000 students (most of them studying on Cornell’s Ithaca campus).^[2][3] Ithaca College is located just south of the city in the town of Ithaca, adding to Ithaca’s “college town” focus and atmosphere.

The city of Ithaca is the center of the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area (which also contains the separate municipalities of the town of Ithaca, the village of Cayuga Heights, the village of Lansing and other towns and villages in Tompkins County). The city is the county seat of Tompkins County. In 2000, the city's population was 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%.

Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca is the North American seat of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.^[4]

History

Early history

The inhabitants of the Ithaca area at the time Europeans began arriving were the Saponi 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 invasion. 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.

Partition of the Military Tract

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 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 New York 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 the Town of Ulysses, the Latin form of the Greek Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey. A few years later DeWitt moved to Ithaca, then called variously "The Flats," "The City," or "Sodom," 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 New York such as Syracuse and Troy; these were from the general classical fervor of the times.

The growth of Ithaca, village and city

State Street in Ithaca, ca. 1901

A view of the shops and businesses on the Ithaca Commons.

In the 1820s and 1830, Ithaca 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. In 1821, the village set itself off by incorporation at the same time the Town of Ithaca parted with the parent town of Ulysses. 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 1840s; 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, New York; Cayuga, New York; Cortland, New York; Elmira, New York; Athens, Pennsylvania) mainly with financing from Ezra Cornell; however, the geography of the city has always prevented it from lying on a major transportation artery. Nevertheless, the village of Ithaca became a chartered city in 1887. 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 1850s. Ithaca became a city in 1888 and remained a small manufacturing and retail center until the recent education boom. In 1891, the Rev. John M. Scott and a local druggist, Chester Platt, invented the ice cream sundae in Ithaca,^[5][6] though other cities, such as Two Rivers, Wisconsin, make the same claim.^[7]

Local industry

Ithaca was nationally known for the Ithaca Gun Company, makers of highly-valued shotguns, and the Ithaca Calendar Clock Company^[8]. The largest industrial company (and associated building) in the area was Morse Chain, elements of which were absorbed into Emerson Power Transmission on South Hill and Borg Warner Automotive in Lansing, New York. In the post-World War II decades, National Cash Register and the Langmuir Research Labs of General Electric were also major employers.

Higher education

Cornell University was founded by Ezra Cornell in 1865. It was opened as a coeducational institution, which was extremely unusual at the time; women first enrolled in 1870. Ezra Cornell also established a public library for the city. Ithaca College was founded as the Ithaca Conservatory of Music in 1892.

The film industry

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. These 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

Hemlock Gorge along Fall Creek before emptying into Beebe Lake on Cornell's Campus.

The valley in which Cayuga Lake is located is long and narrow with a north-south orientation. Ithaca is at the southern end (the "head") of the lake, but the valley continues to the southwest behind the city. Originally a river valley, it was deepened and widened by the action of Pleistocene ice sheets over the last several hundred thousand years. The lake, which drains to the north, formed behind a dam of glacial moraine. The rock is predominantly Devonian and, north of Ithaca, is relatively fossil rich. Glacial erratics can be found in the area. The world renowned fossils found in this area can be examined at the Museum of the Earth.

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 canyons, 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 phenomenon of mixed precipitation (rain, wind, and snow), common in the late fall and early spring, is known tongue-in-cheek as ithacation to many of the local residents.[7]

The natural vegetation of the Ithaca area, seen in areas unbuilt and unfarmed, is northern temperate broadleaf forest, dominated by deciduous trees.

Due to the microclimates created by the impact of the lakes, the region surrounding Ithaca (Finger Lakes American Viticultural Area) experiences a short but adequate growing season for winemaking. As such the region is home to many wineries.

Education

Ithaca is a major educational center in Central New York. The city is home to Ithaca College, situated on South Hill, and Cornell University which overlooks the town from East 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. Tompkins Cortland Community College is located in the neighboring town of Dryden, New York, and has an extension center in downtown Ithaca. Empire State College offers non-traditional college courses to adults in downtown Ithaca.

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. There are also several private elementary and secondary schools in the Ithaca area, including Immaculate Conception School and the Cascadilla School.

Economy

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.

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. 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. Still others note that the stores, restaurants, and businesses that remain in downtown are not necessarily in direct competition with the larger chain stores. 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.)

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.

An aerial view of Stewart Park as 6,000 Ithaca residents set the unofficial world record for the largest human peace sign in June, 2008.

Culture

Ithacans support the Ithaca Farmers Market, professional theaters (Kitchen Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Icarus Theatre), a civic orchestra, much parkland, the Sciencenter, a hands-on science museum for people of all ages, and the Museum of the Earth. Ithaca is noted for its annual artistic celebration of community: The Ithaca Festival (and its parade), the Circus Eccentrithaca. The Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts provides grants and Summer Fellowships at the Saltonstall Arts Colony for New York State artists and writers. Ithaca also hosts what is described as the third-largest used-book sale in the United States. Other festivals occur annually, with music and food. These include The Apple Festival in the fall, with many different varieties of apples and apple products; Chili Fest in February, a local contest involving many local restaurants who compete to make the best chili in several different categories.

In June 2008, local peace activist Trevor Dougherty led almost 6,000 members of the Ithaca community in forming a giant human peace sign. This event took part during the Ithaca Festival, making Ithaca the unofficial home of the world's largest human peace sign.^[10]

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).

Music and musicians

Ithaca is known for its resident musicians and their performances. Traditional music, modern influences and experimental qualities combine to create a unique musical experience that has become known as "The Ithaca Sound". It can be heard at the root of any of the dozens of performers or groups that have emerged from Ithaca and the surrounding communities. These musicians have come from many backgrounds to pursue their careers in Ithaca. The School of Music at Ithaca College attracts talented musicians, some of whom retain their residence in Ithaca after graduating and take up work as performing musicians or in the sound engineering field. Several notable musicians have relocated from other countries to Ithaca in order to begin their careers, most notably Samite of Uganda, Mamadou Diabaté of Mali and Malang Jobateh of Senegal. In the nearby village of Trumansburg, the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance is held every third week in July. Initiated as a benefit for Aids research at the State Theater in Ithaca by the band Donna the Buffalo, it has successfully occurred every year for the past 18 years. The Grassroots Festival has brought thousands of bands through the region, further enriching the local musical palate with every new introduction of musical style and culture. Several local bands call it home as either a figurative birthplace or a nurturing environment within which to develop new forms of music. Other notable local music festivals include the Ithaca Festival, Musefest, the Summertime Block Party, the Juneteenth Celebration and Rock the Arts. Other regionally, nationally and internationally known performers and musical groups that call Ithaca home include: Johnny Dowd, John Brown's Body, Ayurveda, The Sim Redmond Band, Donna the Buffalo, Bone Jar, Who You Are, The Burns Sisters, Willie B, and Kevin Kinsella. Traditional folk music has become a city staple and is featured weekly on WVBR 93.5 FM's long-run folk special, Bound for Glory.

Media

The Clinton House, a 19th century building in downtown Ithaca

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. The alternative weekly newspaper Ithaca Times is distributed free of charge. Other area publications include Tompkins Weekly, the Ithaca Community News, 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.)

Ithaca is also home to several radio stations. WVBR 93.5 FM is associated with Cornell University in the sense that it is owned and predominantly staffed by an association composed of enrolled Cornell students; but it is an independent, financially self-supporting commercial station in the rock format playing a mix of modern and classic rock during the week and specialty shows on the weekend. WICB 91.7 FM is an award-winning, non-commercial, student-run station owned by Ithaca College. The Cayuga Radio Group, a subsidiary of Saga Communications, Inc., owns country WQNY "Q-Country" 103.7 FM, WYXL "Lite Rock" 97.3 FM, news/talk WHCU 870 AM, progressive talk WNYY 1470 AM, as well as classic rock "I-100" WIII 99.9 FM, with its main transmitter in Cortland and a repeating station at 100.3 FM in Ithaca. Saga also has lower-powered "translator" stations "Hits 103.3" and "98.7 The Vine" on the FM dial. WFIZ "Z95.5" is also in the area, broadcasting a top-40, CHR format. Classic rock "The Wall" WLLW 99.3 and 96.3, based in Seneca Falls, has a transmitter in Ithaca. There is also NPR and classical programming available on WSQG 90.9 FM, NPR/college programming on WEOS repeater 88.1 FM, and Christian music and talk Family Life Network on 88.9 FM.

Politics

Politically, the city's population has a significant tilt towards liberalism and the Democratic Party. A November, 2004 study by ePodunk lists it as New York's most liberal town.^[11] This contrasts with the more conservative leanings of the surrounding Upstate New York region, and is also somewhat more liberal than the rest of Tompkins County. In 1988 Jesse Jackson received the most votes in Ithaca in the Democratic Presidential primary. In 2000 Ralph Nader received more votes for President than George W. Bush in the City of Ithaca,^[12] and 11% county-wide.^[13] In 2008, Barack Obama, running against New York State's Senator Hillary Clinton, won Tompkins County in the Democratic Presidential Primary, the only county that he won in New York State.^[14] Obama went on to win Tompkins County (including Ithaca) by a wide margin of 41% over his opponent John McCain in the November 2008 election.

Local government

The name Ithaca designates two governmental entities in the area, the Town of Ithaca and the City of Ithaca.

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. 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 City of Ithaca has a mayor-council government. The charter of the City of Ithaca provides for a full-time mayor and city judge, each independent and elected at large. Since 1995, the mayor has been elected to a four-year term, and since 1989, the city judge has been elected to a six-year term. Since 1983, the city has been divided into five wards, each electing two members to the city council, known as the Common Council, for staggered four-year terms.

The Town government consists of an executive, the Town Supervisor, elected to a four-year term, and a Town Council of five members also elected for terms of four years.

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

City-Town consolidation

In December 2005, the City and Town governments began discussing opportunities for increased government consolidation, including the possibility of joining the two into a single entity. This topic had been previously 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. Mayor Walter Lynn of the Village of Cayuga Heights (a wealthy Ithaca suburb located in the Town) called consolidation discussion a "waste of time."^[15]

Gallery

Greater Ithaca

The term "Greater Ithaca" encompasses both the City and Town of Ithaca, as well as several smaller settled places within or adjacent to the Town:

The East Hill area of the city: Cornell University campus and Collegetown as seen from South Hill

Demographics

Location of the Ithaca-Cortland CSA and its components:      Ithaca Metropolitan Statistical Area      Cortland Micropolitan Statistical Area

Ithaca is the larger principal city of the Ithaca-Cortland CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Ithaca metropolitan area (Tompkins County) and the Cortland micropolitan area (Cortland County),^[16][17][18] which had a combined population of 145,100 at the 2000 census.^[19]

As of the census^[19] of 2000, there were 29,287 people, 10,287 households, and 2,962 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,360.9 people per square mile (2,071.0/km²). There were 10,736 housing units at an average density of 1,965.2/sq mi (759.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 73.97% White, 6.71% Black or African American, 0.39% Native American, 13.65% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 1.86% from other races, and 3.36% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.31% of the population.

There were 10,287 households out of which 14.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 19.0% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 71.2% were non-families. 43.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.81.

In the city the population was spread out with 9.2% under the age of 18, 53.8% from 18 to 24, 20.1% from 25 to 44, 10.6% from 45 to 64, and 6.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 22 years. For every 100 females there were 102.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $21,441, and the median income for a family was $42,304. Males had a median income of $29,562 versus $27,828 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,408. About 13.2% of individuals and 4.2% of families were below the poverty line.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Ithaca is in the rural Finger Lakes region about 225 miles to the northwest of New York City; the nearest larger cities, Binghamton and Syracuse, are an hour's drive away by car, Rochester and Scranton are two hours, Buffalo is three.

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 its hub at Philadelphia using a mixture of small jets and propeller craft. Delta Airlines provides thrice-daily jet service to its hub at Detroit Metro airport and Continental Connection offers three daily turboprop flights to Newark Liberty International Airport. Some residents choose to travel to Syracuse Hancock International Airport, Greater Binghamton Airport, Elmira-Corning Regional Airport or Greater Rochester International Airport for more airline service options.

Ithaca lies at over a half hour's drive from any interstate highway, and all car trips to Ithaca involve 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. The bus station serving all these companies^[20] is the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railway station on Meadow St. between W State and W Seneca streets, a little over half a mile west of downtown Ithaca.

Ithaca is the center of an extensive bus public transportation system — Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) — which carried 3.1 million passengers in 2005.^[21] 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 39 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 provides local and regional taxi service. In addition, Ithaca Airline Limousine and IthaCar Service connect to the local airports.

In July 2008, a non-profit called Ithaca Carshare began a carsharing service in Ithaca. Ithaca Carshare has a fleet of 13 vehicles shared by over 850 members as of May 2010 and has become a popular service among both city residents and the college communities. Vehicles are located throughout Ithaca both downtown and at Cornell University and Ithaca College. With Ithaca Carshare as the first locally run carsharing organization in New York State, others have since launched in Buffalo and Syracuse.

Norfolk Southern freight trains reach Ithaca from Sayre, Pennsylvania, mainly to deliver coal to the Milliken Power Station and haul out salt from the Cargill salt mine, both on the east shore of Cayuga Lake. There is no passenger rail service, although from the 1870s through the 1950s there were trains to Buffalo via Geneva, New York; to New York City via Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (Lehigh Valley Railroad) and Scranton, Pennsylvania (DL&W); to Auburn, New York; and to the US northeast via Cortland, New York; service to Buffalo and New York City lasted until 1961.^[22][23] The Lehigh Valley's top New York City-Ithaca-Buffalo passenger train, "The Black Diamond", was optimistically publicized as 'The Handsomest Train in the World', perhaps to compensate for its roundabout route to Buffalo. It was named after the railroad's largest commodity, anthracite coal.

Ithaca was the fourth community in New York state with a street railway; streetcars ran from 1887 to summer 1935.^[24][25]

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, others consider Ithaca a walkable and bikeable community. 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.

Other recent changes and trends

Cascadilla Creek gorge, just south of the Cornell campus.

For decades, the Ithaca Gun Company tested their shotguns behind the plant on Lake Street; 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.^[26] After many years of debate and environmental concerns, the old Ithaca Gun building is currently being dismantled and is scheduled to be replaced by an apartment complex.

The former Morse Chain company factory on South Hill, now owned by Emerson Power Transmission, was the site of extensive groundwater and soil contamination.^[27] 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.

Reputation

In addition to its above-mentioned liberal politics, Ithaca is commonly listed among the most culturally liberal of American small cities. The Utne Reader named Ithaca "America's most enlightened town" in 1997.^[28] According to ePodunk's Gay Index, Ithaca has a score of 231, versus a national average score of 100.^[29]

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.^[30] In July 2006, Ithaca was listed as one of the "12 Hippest Hometowns for Vegetarians" by VegNews Magazine and chosen by Mother Earth News as one of the "12 Great Places You've Never Heard Of."^[31]

In its earliest years during frontier days, what is now Ithaca was briefly known by the names "The Flats" and "Sodom,"^[3][32] the name of the Biblical city of sin, due to its reputation as a town of "notorious immorality",^[33] 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, though nearby Robert H. Treman State Park still contains Lucifer Falls.

That early reputation for immorality, together with its more recent reputation as having a left-leaning population, has once again made Ithaca mildly infamous in some circles as the "City of Evil," due to a satirical campaign by members of a politically conservative online discussion board. Some Ithacans, and those from surrounding areas, have embraced the label, although it's not certain how many.^[34] According to religious conservatives, this idea is further buoyed by Cornell University's early nickname, "the godless university" which came about due to their lack of affiliation with any organized religion.^[35]

Points of interest

The falls of Buttermilk Falls State Park

• Cayuga Nature Center
• Collegetown
• Cornell University

• Cornell Plantations
• Cornell Dairy Bar
• Llenroc House
• F.R. Newman Arboretum
• Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

• Ithaca College
• Ithaca Commons
• Moosewood Restaurant
• Sciencenter
• Paleontological Research Institution's Museum of the Earth
• Stewart Park
• Buttermilk Falls State Park
• Robert H. Treman State Park
• Finger Lakes Trail

For additional information about recreational trails see: Trails in Ithaca, New York.

Books set (at least partially) in Ithaca

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (schoolgirl dialog captured on Ithaca city buses)
• Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov ('Waindell University' a portrait of Cornell)
• The War Between the Tates by Alison Lurie ('Corinth University', a thinly-disguised portrait of Cornell)
• Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me by Richard Fariña ('Mentor University', same as above)
• The Widening Stain by Morris Bishop
• The Names of the Dead by Stewart O'Nan
• Enchantment by Orson Scott Card (partially set in Ithaca and fictional nearby towns)
• Various Kurt Vonnegut books have Ithaca references, most notably Player Piano, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Cat's Cradle
• Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff
• The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
• The Alex Bernier Mysteries by Beth Saulnier takes place in a fictionalized Ithaca known as Gabriel
• We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
• Triphammer by Dan McCall
• Mailman by J. Robert Lennon takes place in a fictionalized Ithaca known as Nestor
• Z For Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
• Between Two Fires by Nicholas Nicastro describes scenes in and around the site of Ithaca during the Revolutionary War
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (the main character, Jacob, was a Cornell University veterinary student)

Movies set or filmed (at least partially) in Ithaca

• Green Lights (2002) — dir. Robert H. Lieberman
• The Manhattan Project — dir. Marshall Brickman
• Road Trip (2000) — dir. Todd Phillips
• The Sure Thing (1985) — dir. Rob Reiner
• Waiting on Alphie (2005) — dir. Kevin Hicks
• Love Story (1970) — dir. Arthur Hiller
• The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962) - dir. Edward Bernds

See also The Whartons Studio for films shot in Ithaca prior to 1920.

Notable residents and natives

This list is abridged from

• Hans Bethe, resident, physicist, Nobel Prize winner, Cornell Professor, head of theoretical division of the Manhattan Project
• Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Prize winner, American theoretical chemist
• Alex Haley, native, author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the Autobiography of Malcolm X
• Mary McDonnell, native, actor in Dances with Wolves, Independence Day, Battlestar Galactica, and others
• Vladimir Nabokov, resident, Cornell Professor, author (most famously of Lolita)
• Roy H. Park, resident, media executive, founder of Park Communications and the Park Foundation
• Carl Sagan, resident, astronomer, Cornell Professor, popularizer of science, and author and host of Cosmos
• Rod Serling, resident (of nearby Interlaken, NY), Ithaca College Professor, screenwriter, creator and host of The Twilight Zone
• Steve Squyres, resident, astronomer, Cornell Professor, Principal Investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission
• William H. Thomas (physician), Geriatrician, Novelist, Ashoka Fellow, Heinz Award winner, author of "What are Old People For?"
• E. B. White, resident, novelist, author of Charlotte's Web and co-author of The Elements of Style
• Paul Wolfowitz, native, academic, Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001–2005), former President of the World Bank (2005–2007)
• Dustin Brown, NHL player for the Los Angeles Kings
• Josh Bard. MLB baseball catcher for the Washington Nationals
• Greg Graffin, resident, lead singer of the seminal punk band Bad Religion and holds a Ph.D from Cornell University in Zoology. Graffin is currently a professor at UCLA.
• David Foster Wallace, native, novelist
• Johnny Dowd, resident, musician, poet, and co-founder of Zolar Trucking
• Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo, guitarist for band Gym Class Heroes
• Richard Feynman, resident, Nobel Prize winner, professor of physics

See also

• List of Registered Historic Places in New York

References

External links

• Official City Website
• Ithaca (New York) travel guide from Wikitravel
• Ithaca Business and Website Directory
• Ithaca Wiki @ Wikispot
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Cayuga Lake level
• Tompkins County Weather Forecast

• History of Ithaca railways
• History and Remnants of the Ithaca trolley system

Municipalities and communities of Tompkins County, New York County seat: Ithaca City Ithaca Towns Caroline | Danby | Dryden | Enfield | Groton | Ithaca | Lansing | Newfield | Ulysses Villages Cayuga Heights | Dryden | Freeville | Groton | Lansing | Trumansburg CDPs Forest Home | Newfield Hamlet | South Hill Other hamlets Podunk | Varna

State of New York The Empire State Albany (capital) Topics Administrative divisions · Bibliography · Congressional districts · Constitution · Demographics · Economy · Education · Elections · Geography · Government (Governor, Legislature, Court System) · History · Symbols · People · Politics · Transportation · Visitor Attractions Regions Adirondack Mountains · Allegheny Plateau · Capital District · Catskill Mountains · Central Region (formerly Central-Leatherstocking) · Central New York · Champlain Valley · City of New York · Finger Lakes · Holland Purchase · Hudson Highlands · Hudson Valley · Long Island · Mohawk Valley · New York Metro · Niagara Frontier · North Country · Ridge and Valley · Saint Lawrence Seaway · Shawangunks · Ski country · Southern Tier · Southtowns · Tech Valley · Thousand Islands · Upstate · Western Metro areas Albany / Schenectady / Troy · Binghamton · Buffalo / Niagara Falls · Elmira / Corning · Glens Falls · Ithaca · Jamestown · Newburgh / Middletown · New York City · Poughkeepsie · Rochester · Syracuse · Utica / Rome Counties Albany · Allegany · Bronx · Broome · Cattaraugus · Cayuga · Chautauqua · Chemung · Chenango · Clinton · Columbia · Cortland · Delaware · Dutchess · Erie · Essex · Franklin · Fulton · Genesee · Greene · Hamilton · Herkimer · Jefferson · Kings · Lewis · Livingston · Madison · Monroe · Montgomery · Nassau · New York · Niagara · Oneida · Onondaga · Ontario · Orange · Orleans · Oswego · Otsego · Putnam · Queens · Rensselaer · Richmond · Rockland · Saint Lawrence · Saratoga · Schenectady · Schoharie · Schuyler · Seneca · Steuben · Suffolk · Sullivan · Tioga · Tompkins · Ulster · Warren · Washington · Wayne · Westchester · Wyoming · Yates