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City in New York, United States
Ithaca
City
From top left: Ithaca during winter, Ithaca during autumn, Cornell University, Ithaca Commons (downtown), Hemlock Gorge in Ithaca, Ithaca Falls
Ithaca is home to Cornell University, an Ivy League school of over 20,000 students, most of whom study on Cornell’s Ithaca campus.[2]Ithaca College is located just south of the city in the town of Ithaca, adding to Ithaca’s "college town" focus and atmosphere. Nearby is Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3).[3] These three colleges influence Ithaca's seasonal population. In 2010, the city's population was 30,014, and the metropolitan area had a population of 101,564.
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 were part of the Iroquois confederation. These tribes settled 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. Jesuits from New France are said to have had a mission at Cayuga as early as 1657.[5]
During the Revolutionary War, most of the Iroquois were allied with the British. The Cayugas were driven from the area by the 1779 Sullivan Expedition[6] 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 within the current boundaries of the City of Ithaca was limited to a temporary hunting camp at the base of Cascadilla Gorge. In 1788 eleven men from Kingston, New York came to the area with two Delaware guides, to explore the then wilderness. The following year Jacob Yaple, Isaac Dumond, and Peter Hinepaw returned with their families and constructed log cabins.[5] That same year Abraham Bloodgood of Albany obtained a patent from the state for 1400 acres, including all of the present downtown west of Tioga Street.[7] 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.
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, Bloodgood's son-in-law. DeWitt's clerk Robert Harpur had a fondness for ancient Greek and Roman history as well as English authors and philosophers. 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 was named the Town of Ulysses. A few years later DeWitt moved to Ithaca, then called variously "The Flats," "The City," or "Sodom",[8] and named it for the Greek island home of Ulysses.[6] Around 1791 DeWitt surveyed was is now the present downtown area into lots and sold them at modest prices. That same year John Yaple built a grist mill on Cascadilla Creek. The first frame house was erected in 1800 by Abram Markle.[5]
Growth
State Street in Ithaca, ca. 1901
According to Daniel R. Snodderly, when the War of 1812 cut off access to Nova Scotia gypsum, used for fertilizer, Ithaca became the center of trade in Cayuga gypsum.[7] The Cayuga Steamboat Company was organized in 1819 and
launched the first steamboat on Cayuga Lake, the Enterprise, in 1820.[7] In 1821, the village was incorporated at the same time the Town of Ithaca parted with the parent town of Ulysses. In 1834, the Ithaca and Owego Railroad's first horse-drawn train began service,[6] connecting traffic on the Erie Canal with the Susquehanna River to the south.
With the depression of 1837, 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 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. 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 Gun Co. - Annie Oakley gun, 1916
In 1883 William Henry Baker and his partners started the Ithaca Gun Company, making shotguns. The original factory was located in the Fall Creek neighborhood of the city, on a slope later known as Gun Hill, where the nearby waterfall supplied the main source of energy for the plant. The company became an icon in the hunting and shooting world, its shotguns famous for their fine decorative work. Wooden gunstocks with knots or other imperfections were donated to the high school woodworking shop to be made into lamps.[9]John Philip Sousa and trick-shooter Annie Oakley favored Ithaca guns. In 1937 the company began producing the Ithaca 37, based on a 1915 patent by famous firearms designer John Browning. Its 12-gauge shotguns were the standard used by the Los Angeles Police Department and New York Police Department.[10]
In 1885, Ithaca Children's Home was established West State Street. The orphanage had two programs at the time: a residential home for both orphaned and destitute children, and a day nursery.[11] The village its first trolley operating in 1887. Ithaca developed into a small manufacturing and retail center and became a city in 1888. The largest industrial company 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.
Ithaca claims the honor of being the place where the first ice cream sundae was invented in 1891 by local fountain shop owner Chester Platt and Unitarian reverend John Scott on April 3, 1892.[8][12] The local Unitarian church, where Rev. Scott preached, has an annual "Sundae Sunday" every September in commemoration.
In 1903 a typhoid epidemic devastates the city effecting 1 out of 10 citizens.
In 1900 Cornell anatomy professor G.S. Moler made an early movie using frame-by-frame technology. For The Skeleton Dance he took single-frame photos of a human skeleton in varying positions giving the illusion of a dancing skeleton. During the early 20th century, Ithaca was an important center in the silent film industry. 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.[8] The Star Theatre on East Seneca Street was built in 1911 and became the most popular vaudeville venue in the area. Wharton movies were filmed and shown there.[13] After the film industry centralized in Hollywood, production in Ithaca effectively ceased. Few of the silent films made in Ithaca are preserved today.
After World War II, the Langmuir Research Labs of General Electric was a major employers.
Recent history
A view of the shops and businesses on the Ithaca Commons.
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 lead clean-up effort sponsored by the United States Superfund took place from 2002 to 2004.[14] The old Ithaca Gun building has been 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.[15] 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.
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. Winters are long, cold, and snowy, with temperatures reaching 0 °F (−18 °C) or lower on an average 9.9 nights annually and an average of 67 in (170 cm) of snow per season. The largest snowfall in one day was 26.0 in (66 cm) on February 14, 1914. Summers are warm and humid, with usually comfortable temperatures. Readings of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher occur on an average of just 5.2 days per year, and 100 °F (38 °C)+ temperatures have only occurred ten times since record-keeping began in 1893. The average date of the first freeze is October 5, and the average date of the last freeze is May 15, giving Ithaca a growing season of 141 days. The average date of the first and last snowfalls are November 12 and April 7, respectively. Extreme temperatures range from −25 °F (−32 °C) as recently as February 2, 1961 up to 103 °F (39 °C) on July 9, 1936.[16]
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.[17]
Due to the microclimates created by the impact of the lakes, the region surrounding Ithaca (Finger LakesAmerican Viticultural Area) experiences a short but adequate growing season for winemaking similar to the Rhine Valley wine district of Germany. As such the region is home to many wineries.
The late 19th century gave birth to the two major postsecondary educational institutions Ithaca has today. In 1865, Ezra Cornell founded Cornell University, which overlooks the town from East Hill. It was opened as a coeducational institution. 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. Ithaca College was originally located in the downtown area, but relocated to South Hill in the 1960s.
Hemlock Gorge along Fall Creek before emptying into Beebe Lake on Cornell's campus.
Ithaca is a major educational center in Central New York. In 2011 there were about 21,000 students enrolled at Cornell and about 6,400 at Ithaca College.[19]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. There are also several private elementary and secondary schools in the Ithaca area, including Immaculate Conception School, the Cascadilla School, the New Roots Charter School, the Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School, and the Ithaca Waldorf School. Ithaca has two networks for supporting its home-schooling families: Loving Education At Home (LEAH) and the Northern Light Learning Center (NLLC).
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 New York State outside 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.
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. 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: bookstores, art house cinemas, craft stores, and vegetarian-friendly restaurants. The collective Moosewood Restaurant, founded in 1973, was the wellspring for a number of vegetarian cookbooks.[8]Bon Appetit magazine ranked it among the thirteen most influential restaurants of the 20th century.[citation needed] Ithaca has many local restaurants and chains both in the city and town with a range of ethnic foods.
The Ithaca Farmers Market, a cooperative with 150 vendors who live within 30 miles of Ithaca, New York, first opened for business on Saturdays in 1973. It is located at Steamboat Landing, where steamboats from Cayuga Lake used to dock.[20]
The South Hills Business Campus originally opened in 1957 as the regional headquarters of the National Cash Register Company. Running three full factory shifts, NCR was a major employer. Although sold in 1991 to American Telephone and Telegraph and later acquired by Cognitive TPG, TPG remains a major tenant of the South Hill Business Campus, which is now owned by a group of private investors.[21]
Culture
File:Cayuga Steet, Ithaca, NY.jpgCayuga Street at Green Street in downtown Ithaca.
Founded in 1983, the Sciencenter, is a non-profit hands-on science museum, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and is a member of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and Association of Children’s Museums (ACM). [22]
The Cayuga Nature Center occupies the site of the 1914 the Cayuga Preventorium, facility for children who had been exposed to tuberculosis. In 1981, the Cayuga Nature Center was incorporated as an independent, private, non-profit educational organization, offering environmental education to local school districts.[23]
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is located in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity. The Lab's Visitors' Center and observation areas are open to the public. Displays include a surround sound theater, object-theater presentation, sound studio, and informational kiosks featuring bird sounds and information.[24]
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art houses one of the finest collections of art in upstate New York. There are new special exhibitions every year, plus selections from a global permanent collection, displayed on six public floors. The collection includes art from throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, graphic arts, medallic art, and Tiffany glass, ranging from the ancient to the contemporary.[25]
The Center for the Arts at Ithaca, Inc., operates the "Hangar Theatre". Opened in 1975 in a renovated municipal airport hangar the "Hangar Theatre" brings a range of theatre experiences to students across New York State, with its School Tour and Artists-in-the-Schools programs.[26]
Ithaca is noted for its annual community celebration, The Ithaca Festival. 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 include The Apple Festival in the fall, the Chili Fest in February, the Finger Lakes International Dragon Boat Festival in July; Porchfest in late September, and the Ithaca Brew Fest in Stewart Park in September.
The School of Music at Ithaca College was originally founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music. Among the degree programs offered are those in Performance, Theory, and Composition. Since 1941, the School of Music has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.[27]
Ithaca's Suzuki school, Ithaca Talent Education, provides musical training for children of all ages and also teacher training for undergraduate and graduate-level students. The Community School of Music and Art uses an extensive scholarship system to offer classes and lessons to any student, regardless of age, background, economic status or artistic ability.[28]
The Clinton House, a 19th-century building in downtown Ithaca
The Ithaca Journal, founded 1815 is a morning daily newspaper owned by Gannett. The alternative weekly newspaper Ithaca Times is distributed free of charge. Other area publications include Tompkins Weekly, the Ithaca Community News, 14850 Magazine, the Cornell Daily Sun, the Ithacan, and the Tattler, one of the oldest student newspapers in the United States.
Ithaca is also home to several radio stations.
WVBR 93.5 FM is an independent, commercial station staffed by an association Cornell students. It plays 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.
WPIE 1160 AM/107.1 FM "ESPN Ithaca" is a sports talk station locally owned by Taughannock Media.
The Cayuga Radio Group, a subsidiary of Saga Communications, Inc., owns country WQNY "Q-Country" 103.7 FM,
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 toward liberalism and the Democratic Party. A November 2004 study by ePodunk lists it as New York's most liberal town.[29] 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,[30] and 11% county-wide.[31] 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.[32] 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.
The Town of Ithaca is one of the nine towns comprising 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. In March 2015, the Common Council unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing freedom from domestic violence as a fundamental human right.[33]
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 Cayuga Heights called consolidation discussion a "waste of time."[34]
Gallery
human peace sign in Stewart Park, June, 2008
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:
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Municipalities
As of the census[40] 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 per square mile (759.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 73.97% White, 13.65% Asian, 6.71% Black or African American, 0.39% Native American, 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.
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. However, Route 79 between the I-81 access at Whitney Point and Ithaca receives a significant amount of Ithaca-bound congestion right before Ithaca's colleges reopen after breaks.
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[41] 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. Cornell University runs a premium Campus to Campus bus between its Ithaca campus and its medical school in New York City which is open to the public.
Ithaca is the center of an extensive bus public transportation network. TCAT, Inc (Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, Inc.) is a not-for-profit corporation that provides public transportation for Tompkins County New York. 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's ridership increased from 2.7 million in 2004 to 4.4 million in 2013. http://www.tcatbus.com/files/all/tcat_2013_yearbook_-_final.pdf TCAT operates 33 routes, many running seven days a week. It has frequent service to downtown, Cornell, Ithaca College, and the Shops at Ithaca Mall in the neighboring Town of Lansing, but less frequent service to many residential and rural areas, including Trumansburg and Newfield. Chemung County Transit (C-TRAN) runs weekday commuter service from Chemung County to Ithaca. Cortland Transit runs commuter service to Cornell University. Tioga County Public Transit operates three routes to Ithaca and Cornell, but will cease operating on November 30, 2014.
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 vehicles shared by over 1500 members as of July 2015 and has become a popular service among both city residents and the college communities. Vehicles are located throughout Ithaca downtown and the two major institutions. With Ithaca Carshare as the first locally run carsharing organization in New York State, others have since launched in Buffalo, Albany, NY, and Syracuse. Independent studies have shown that for each Ithaca Carshare vehicle in the fleet, 15 fewer personally owner cars are owned.[citation needed]
Rideshare services to promote carpooling and vanpooling are operated by ZIMRIDE and VRIDE. A community mobility education program, Way2Go is operated by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County. Way2Go's website provides consumer information and videos. Way2Go works collaboratively to help people save money, stress less, go green and improve mobility options.[42] The 2-1-1 Tompkins/Cortland Help line connects people with services, including transportation, in the community, by telephone and web on a 24/7 basis. The information and referral service is operated by the Human Services Coalition of Tompkins County, Inc. Together, 2-1-1 Information and Referral and Way2Go are a one-call, one-click resource designed to mobility services information for Ithaca and throughout Tompkins County.
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, many 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.
Norfolk Southern freight trains reach Ithaca from Sayre, Pennsylvania, mainly to deliver coal to AES Cayuga, a coal power plant (known as Milliken Station during NYSEG ownership) 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.[43][44] 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.[45][46]
Reputation
In addition to its 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.[47] According to ePodunk's Gay Index, Ithaca has a score of 231, versus a national average score of 100.[48]
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.[49] 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."[50]
In 2012, the city was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the U.S. by U.S. News.[51]
In its earliest years during frontier days, what is now Ithaca was briefly known by the names "The Flats" and "Sodom,"[2][54][55] the name of the Biblical city of sin, due to its reputation as a town of "notorious immorality",[56] 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 19th century, though nearby Robert H. Treman State Park still contains Lucifer Falls.
Points of interest
The falls of Buttermilk Falls State ParkF.R. Newman Arboretum, Cornell University
My Education by Susan Choi (Though the college town setting is never named, readers familiar with Ithaca will note its extensive and obvious similarities)
This Beautiful Life by Helen Shulman (Main character and her family moved from Ithaca to NYC)
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (Carlisle and Esme Cullen studied at Cornell University during the period of time that the Cullens moved away from Forks, Washington and during Edward's and Bella's breakup)
^Lee, Hardy Campbell (2008) (2nd ed.; first ed. 1977) A History of Railroads in Tompkins County. Revised and enlarged by Winton Rossiter, maps by David Rossiter. Ithaca, NY: The History Center in Tompkins County
^Relocate-America.com, "Relocate-America.com's 2006 list of America's TOP 100 Places to Live." Available online [5][dead link]. Retrieved 4 April 2006.
^See, e.g., 1811 article in local paper, at [8] or Town of Ithaca History project, available online (click on "History Project", then "Historical maps..." and finally "famous for its notorious immorality").
