- Living as a student on Cornell Campus, I seem to live in a bubble and know actually little about the population and the locations in Ithaca. Lisa Nicholas provided great and informative to learn more about the city we live in. It was incredible to hear that Ithaca is an employment hub and in fact people travel to Ithaca for their work. Ithaca is developing now and in fact are working towards a more diverse housing. Most are still student housing but we are working towards more affordable and manageable housing. It was interesting to learn that even though Ithaca is a small city and more spacious in the country type area, more younger students are living in the urban areas. Thus, they do not have cars and the car ownership decreases with the younger population. The improvement in aesthetics of Ithaca commons was shown and in fact brought the memories of my summer when the construction was going on. The commons indeed has a rich culture for Ithaca where many different types of people, including the residential citizens and students, enjoy the many activities that Ithaca had to offer. She shared with us an upbeat music event that showed the diverse population of Ithaca that attended it and the overall sense of community in the city. A very exciting news that has made Ithaca buzzing is the construction of a new boutique Hilton hotel in the downtown Ithaca. It is amazing that Ithaca is now having so many popular chains of hotels and indeed shows Ithaca as a more visited destination for many people. However, the people are a little concerned about how the hotel will fit and change the feeling of downtown in that they hope it will not change to like the lifelessness in downtown Atlanta. At the same time, the boutique hotel will fit in more with the quaint, small-town environment vibe around downtown Ithaca. The fitting of a new building is important to the acceptance of a construction project and thus people did not like the 11-story housing due to its imposing style in the massive area it would accommodate. Also, I had no idea about the Waterfront Trail and Lisa gave me an idea to go for a bike ride or walk there. Overall, the talk was very engaging and helpful in learning more about Ithaca and how beautifully it is developing.
Rose Scholars Spring 2016
Explore, challenge, connect
