Lisa Nicholas gave me a fresh perspective not only on Ithaca, but on planning and development as well. To be honest, when I feel like I’m constantly passing construction sites in a place that I live, I often think, “Can’t we just leave it alone for a little while”? Of course some areas need to be improved, but with my limited knowledge it often looks like a relentless drive to make perfectly good things newer and better – and implementing changes is expensive and exhausting for a community. Listening to Lisa talk, however, made it very obvious that this perception was wrong. She clearly loves Ithaca, and she loves her job because of what these projects mean for the community.

I love Ithaca too, and I’ve come to see it as a second home. I’ve tried to get off of campus and down into Ithaca regularly in the year and a half that I’ve lived here, and that’s made me feel some ownership and connection to the town. Because of this, hearing the reasoning behind each project and what Lisa hopes the community will gain from them was really interesting. I also liked hearing about some of the future projects, like the possible conversion of the old chain factory into living and working spaces. I enjoyed getting to hear Lisa speak, and I’ll be looking at construction around Ithaca differently.