This past Wednesday, I attended John Schroeder’s talk on a variety of topics related to the development of Collegetown. It was really interesting to learn about the history of Collegetown, and how those events led to today’s housing problems. There are apparently numerous reasons that housing is so expensive in the area. For instance, housing costs in Collegetown are not governed by a free market, but rather by an oligarchy. Most of the apartments in Collegetown are only owned by a few people, so even if new housing is added, there is not enough competition to lower prices. However, Schroeder said that he has seen signs that the housing situation in Collegetown is beginning to improve, so it is possible that the new apartments that are being built now may help to lower prices.

Cornell itself also plays a role in the current housing situation. Since Cornell is a not-for-profit university, they do not have to pay the same taxes that everyone else has to pay. While I understand the reason behind this–Cornell is providing a service to the community by educating people–the city of Ithaca should not be forced to bear the burden of paying for all of the public utilities that Cornell utilizes. It is not Ithaca itself that is benefiting from Cornell, after all. It is all of New York State. Yet the rest of the state just gets the benefit without having to pay for it. Since all of that cost is concentrated in one small area, it causes property taxes in Ithaca to be extremely high. Every homeowner in Ithaca is not only paying for their use of public utilities, but also is paying a for a portion of Cornell’s use of public utilities. There just simply is not enough people in Ithaca to cause that portion of Cornell’s cost to be small.

Cornell has been trying to tackle the housing problems by building new on-campus housing. Theoretically this could help lower costs by reducing the number of students who want to live in Collegetown. However, this probably will not be the case. Although Cornell intends to construct new dorms, they also intend to increase enrollment–thereby negating most of the benefits of the new housing. In addition, much of the new housing will be used as “swing space” for the dorms that need to be temporarily shut down for renovation. So Cornell is adding new beds at the same time that it is taking old beds away. So although Cornell’s recent housing master plan is being marketed as a way to help the housing situation, it will probably do little good.