Last night, I as able to get an insight into the planning of Ithaca by listening to senior city planner Lisa Nicholas speak about ideas that the city has about its future. One concern that I have always had is finding housing for the next year. It is one of the common struggles students here at Cornell have. In fact, I distinctly remember an upperclassmen friend of mine telling me that “friendships are lost during housing selection.” Fortunately, that was not true for me but I did see it happen.

Though there are some developments going up including a few hotels, I think that Ithaca should also have more housing selection for its students. It is immensely expensive to live here and sometimes I feel like I am spending way more money than I should as a student. Between paying for several expensive textbooks (sometimes for one class), laundry, the gym, the bus, and printing. On the one hand, I do want there to be more housing for students. However, I do realize that in order to make more housing close to campus, people may have to be displaced. I can’t help but wonder if there is a win-win situation for the students and for the community.

One thing that love about this city is its commitment to preserving the small town feel. I agreed with Lisa Nicholas when she said that she was happy they preserved the little pedestrian area in the commons as opposed to making it into a street again. Last semester when I went to the “Diagon Alley” event it was magical to be able to see the community having so much fun in an open and dynamic environment.