Lisa Nicholas’s talk on Wednesday was nice because rather than focusing on the big, grand issues that people at Cornell usually do, it made us think about the changes that are undergoing our local community.  A lot of people consider themselves to be residents of Ithaca while students here, but at the same time don’t really take a minute to pay attention to what is going on in our city.  That is, until the conversation turns to the lack of student housing, which was conveniently a centerpiece of Ms. Nicholas’s discussion.

Another benefit was that the talk actually explained the questions that I had about what was going on in the Commons (side note: the number of people who haven’t been to the Commons is astonishing; I don’t know how you could go more than a few weeks at Cornell and not take a trip down there).  I think that injecting a dose of commercialism into the area will actually be great for it–while we might lose some small-town feel, the vivacity that follows should be great.  Right now, I feel that the businesses down there don’t have enough appeal to turn the area into a lively district.