I’m very glad I attended John Schroeder’s discussion on housing in Ithaca.  His knowledge of the city’s developmental history gave me a new perspective on Ithaca.  I count this lecture as one of the many experiences showing me the differences between a big city like my hometown and a small city like Ithaca.  The most surprising to hear about was the extremely high land tax enforced throughout the area.  Professor Blalock brought up the subject; a subject that is definitely swept under the rug.  Home ownership is extremely precious in an area like Ithaca.  Not because housing is scarce like in an area like my hometown in D.C. but simply because of the New York laws I am unfamiliar with.

I was especially pleased to be able to discuss urban development after learning about natural preservation of urban areas with Tod Bittner.  The two topics have plenty of overlap as Ithacans in general are very proud of the natural features scattered throughout the town.  While development is important environmental sustainability is held at equal value.

During the Rose Cafe last week, John Schroeder didn’t hold back when it came to talking about the state of housing affordability in Ithaca (which, by the way, is a very emphatic not good). Of course, it also wasn’t unexpected. I mean, does anyone at Cornell feel good about housing? For me, applying to be a Rose Scholar and continue living on West Campus junior year was the best decision for me time-wise, money-wise, and, to be honest, food-wise; however, my housing plans for senior year are still up in the air, and I’d rather not be caught in the headlights when the next lease-signing season rolls around.

Having watched my friends camp out at a rental office earlier this year for a total of 24 hours in order to just claim a room – not even worrying yet about the price – I know firsthand how difficult everything about off-campus housing is. It’s funny, in the most ridiculous sense of the word. In the fourth grade, I was taught that food, water, and a suitable habitat are the three basic needs of all humans by my science teacher…and yet, here I am, ten years later, watching everyone around me struggle to fulfill one of those needs.

Obviously, I’m not a huge fan of the housing situation in Ithaca, but John Schroeder’s presentation brought up a lot more nuanced details than I originally considered. For one, I never considered what he called “Cornell’s complicity,” which is the idea that if Cornell decreased the cost of dorm residence, local landlords would also be forced to lower their prices – an easy concept in theory, but one made more complex by House Professor Blalock’s reminder that Cornell does not pay the same taxes the landlords are forced to pay, and such competition could be considered highly unfair. Another great point brought up was the fact that Cornell is building a Sophomore Village on North Campus, but this notion’s potential was dampened by the corollary that most of the housing would be a swing space for residents displaced from other dorms undergoing renovations. The most eye-opening thing I learned, however, was that most of Cornell’s staff (non-faculty) live outside the county because they can’t afford to live closer to Cornell. These people, who cater to the needs of Ivy League students at one of the country’s richest, most exclusive universities, can’t afford to even live where they want – why is no one else talking more about that?

All in all, I left not feeling significantly better about the affordability, access, and safety of housing in Ithaca, for both students and local residents – but John Schroeder’s reassurance of progress was, at the very least, more comforting than what I’d heard from other, less qualified sources.

I’m not an economics major, nor am I studying urban planning or government; I am an average, anxious student who just wants to have a nice bed, a clean bathroom, and a functioning kitchen to go home to at the end of a grueling day at Cornell. Going to this Rose Cafe expanded my narrow perception of the housing situation, and filled in some of the gaps in my understanding of development in Ithaca. Previously, I’d come up with a slew of “solutions” to the housing issues, and wondered why none of them had ever been implemented – as you can probably guess, those “solutions” weren’t as good at solving problems as I believed in my tunnel vision state. John Schroeder didn’t hold back, but I’m glad he was honest and willing to engage with us.

Plus, my roommate and I managed to snag a cool poster with a sketch of Ithaca in the 19th century before we left, which is now covering up various unsightly blemishes on the wall of our dorm (fun fact: apparently, just the exterior upkeep of our dorm costs upwards of several hundred thousands to one million US dollars, which explains why no one has bothered to remove the old adhesives left on our wall by previous residents).

At the Rose Cafe talk last Wednesday I learned a lot about the housing market in Ithaca. There is a kind of monopoly on new construction which allows builders to set their own prices, and as a result, make it more and more expensive to live in the area. New construction made to capitalize on the demand for more off-campus student housing is, essentially, pushing people who live in Ithaca full-time out of their homes. I think that this phenomenon is similar to (or might even be?) gentrification. Gentrification has been a big issue in my home city because tech companies are developing in neighborhoods where the cost is cheaper and the demand for housing for people who work at these companies is driving locals out of their homes. I noticed a lot of parallels between the Ithaca housing market and the housing market at home… I wonder what the solution could be?

Last week I went to a Rose cafe where we talked about development in Ithaca. I found it really interesting that Cornell doesn’t pay property taxes. I guess that makes sense since Cornell is an educational institution and it benefits all of NYS. I do think that because we don’t pay property taxes, Cornell could stand to lower housing prices a little bit. This year I was lucky enough to get a single in Rose Main, but last year I lived in Founders. It was terrible: we had to keep the windows open all year long because there was no way to turn down the heat, the bathrooms were just awful, and there were bugs everywhere. One of my professors actually lived in Founders when he was an undergrad and he told me that we have the same problems that they did 50 years ago! I understand that Cornell can’t renovate every dorm because that would get really expensive, but I don’t think that those who live in the gothic should have to pay the same price as someone living in Rose Main! This year I am lucky enough to live in a dorm that has AC (in the hallways), no bugs, nicer bathrooms, a dining hall, tv lounge, piano room, elevator, etc. Obviously the main houses are way better than the gothics, and so this is a potential solution to the problems on West Campus.

Last Wednesday I attended a talk with John Schroeder. The talk documented how Cornell’s housing came to be, from the construction of the first dorms to the construction of apartments in Collegetown. I was not very familiar with the topic before going in; I knew that prices for housing in Ithaca were high and that the student influx had an affect on the greater Ithaca community, but John made it evident that prices were getting out of hand. People who have lived in the area cannot afford to pay their rent, many people who work in Ithaca have to commute from farther places, and prices are still rising.

But John said there was a plan. Realtors are now looking to build more housing to accommodate for the large demand from Cornell students. If the supply goes up, hopefully the prices will go down. But John expressed that though this should happen theoretically, there is no way to ensure that this actually happens. A lot of the land in Ithaca is owned by a few people who have a monopoly, so it is ultimately their decision on whether or not to lower the prices.

A small debate got going on whether or not it was best to build more housing that did not fit Ithaca’s aesthetic to lower prices; some say that giving access to housing is more essential than preserving the authenticity of Ithaca while others say that Ithaca’s small-town feel is what people come for. I personally agree with the latter. Ithaca is Ithaca because of the environment. It would not be fit for skyscrapers and apartment duplexes to line the streets of downtown. Ithaca has a history, and it is important to maintain that history regardless of what may be economically lucrative.

Also, John gave me a cool map of early Ithaca to put on my wall 🙂 Thanks, John!

During the Wednesday Café, John Schroeder came in to talk to us about the construction going on around Cornell. He brought in large maps of what Cornell looked like in 1882 for everyone to look at while he discussed housing at Cornell. He talked about how Cornell students at that time did not live in dorms. I learned that the reason the Cornell campus gates are located at the end of Eddy Street is because students used to walk behind Cascadilla to get to classes. He also talked about why the apartments in college town are so expensive. He also touched on when approving the construction of new buildings in college town, they would like the new buildings to match the look of some of the older ones. It was interesting to learn about Cornell’s history and how the apartment prices in college town got to the point at which they are now. Whenever I go to college town, I see the new buildings, which are beautiful and seem like very nice places to live. After attending this Rose Café, I have a better understanding of the construction that is happening in college town and the process behind these new constructions.

The Rose Cafe chat with John Schroeder on Housing/Buildings in Ithaca was extremely interesting. To begin, John handed out a large drawing of Cornell and the surrounding Ithaca environment that was made even before the Arts Quad was constructed. This drawing really allowed me to see all of the construction that has gone on over the years. After an initial introduction into the infrastructure of Ithaca, students began to ask many questions related to the pricing of housing in Collegetown. John’s response was extremely interesting as he told us that the pricing in Collegetown can be as high as a tenant see fit as students are extremely limited in their housing choices. In addition, Cornell has continued to raise its dormitory housing prices along with Collegetown buildings, thereby not discouraging any reduction of Collegetown prices. The building committee of Ithaca has hypothesized that the creation of more apartments in Collegetown will cause an eventual reduction of prices. However, the expected results have not yet been seen as more and more buildings are built. I sincerely hope that Collegetown apartments will eventually come down in pricing for future students. I believe that the current choices of housing for students is very limited, which is why landlords can get away with charging such high prices. Simple solutions that I have tried to brainstorm include: building more apartments, Cornell lowering its housing prices, or students refusing to rent an apartment with outrageous prices. Obviously all of these solutions have one (if not more) complications. This is a difficult problem to solve, but I do hope that we can all work together to help the situation.

I really enjoyed the discussion we all had with John Schroeder last week.  I thought it was really cool to see how the city of Ithaca has changed over time and see how different everything now looks from how it looked 100 years ago.  One thing that greatly annoyed me, however, was what I learned about housing prices and how Cornell plans to provide housing for its students forthcoming.  I always thought that collegetown housing prices were exorbitant because of landlords hiking up the rent to make as much of a profit as possible, but I never considered the ways in which Cornell significantly contributes to the problem.  A lot of houses on Cornell’s campus do not pay property taxes, and Cornell as a whole could charge way less than it does for housing to relieve some of the financial burden students face.  In addition, Cornell has a lack of housing, which allows landlords to drive up prices because of supply and demand.  The new housing coming to north campus is not going to help in the short term because it is going to be swing housing, used to house students who would usually be living in another dorm but aren’t because those dorms will be under renovation.  Cornell needs to fix this problem soon, and fast.

John Schroeder gave this week’s Rose Cafe talk, his presentation mainly focused on the relationship between Ithaca and Cornell over the 150 year history. Being able to learn from an expert on Cornell history was an amazing experience because prior to this I knew very little about the dynamic history of Cornell and Ithaca. This presentation focused on the history of Collegetown and aimed to give some insight to the big question of “Why are the rents so high in Collegetown?” Unfortunately this is such a complex question with so many facets that we could not reach a palpable conclusion. Instead, I felt a thousand new questions spring out of this one question and the new information I had received. I was particularly interested by this topic and John Schroeder’s experience because I am studying Civil Engineering with the intention to work in urban and city planning and found this to be an amazing experience to come into contact with someone in the field.

This week in Rose Cafe, John Schroeder shared with us several ongoing development trends in Ithaca and the impacts that these have on students. It was amazing to see the layout of Cornell at its very beginning; it reminds me that we are all treading on a piece of history. Ithaca is special in its geography and culture: before this, I had never thought of the possible limitations architects faced when designing buildings, such as swampy soil that prevents buildings from being more than 9-10 stories tall, or the impact of our university on the otherwise quiet town of Ithaca in economic and social regards. I enjoyed learning more about our school and town from a unique standpoint.

At this week’s Rose Cafe, guest speaker John Schroeder talked about city planning and the development of Cornell. It was interesting to hear about the changes that Cornell has gone through in the development of the campus and in housing, since I learned more about how historical events have influenced the current housing situation. First, we were shown a map of Cornell drawn in the 1880s, which showed a very different layout of the campus compared to the way it is now. Seeing the dramatic changes to campus over time was surprising to me and also eye opening to see how much the campus has changed from having Collegetown as the main entrance to Cornell, to the development of West Campus and North Campus.

However, there have also been negative changes that students have to face today. Specifically the housing issues that students have to face with high rent and difficulty in finding good housing options. I previously thought that the simple solution to the problem would be to build more dorms and housing options, however John Schroeder revealed that the solution is not so simple. Some of the dorms and buildings are protected to preserve their historical appearance, which has also made the housing situation more difficult for students. There is a high cost and difficulty in renovating these old buildings to stay in line with the law.

In addition, Schroeder discussed the economics behind the housing problem. In a free market scenario, the increase in housing options would indeed lower the cost of rent, however Schroeder talked about how the market is more of an oligopoly, with many of the housing properties owned by very few owners. In this situation, increasing housing options would not necessarily be able to lower the rent by an appreciable amount. 

Although the housing situation is not ideal, Schroeder discusses possible hopes and improvements for the future. Many more housing projects are underway to provide more housing to students and hopefully begin to lower the price of rent in the future. It was interesting to hear about all the considerations and interrelated reasons for why housing is a problem at Cornell. Had I not attended this event, I would not have learned about all the nuances and the complicated reasons behind a seemingly simple housing issue. It definitely gave me a new perspective on why the housing problem exists and how it can be managed in the future. It also helped me realize that many issues that may seem to have a simple solution in my mind are in reality far more complicated, with reasoning and development related to history. This event helped me to realize that looking deeper within a situation or scenario can reveal much more than I previously thought. 

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.