Tonight I had the chance to attend a great talk by Lisa Nicholas on economic development in Ithaca. She spoke a lot about the importance of compact, mixed use development – compact meaning everything is within walking distance, and mixed use meaning that there is a combination of businesses and residences. I definitely think that compact development is a good idea. As a student who does not have a car and has to rely on the TCAT to get places, being located close to businesses makes a huge difference (especially during the winter when it is blizzarding and below zero degrees outside). As Nicholas pointed out, the southern part of Ithaca where Wegmans, Wal-Mart, and Chipotle are located seems like a huge trek to people without a car. Even though distance-wise it is only a few miles, it takes over an hour to get there by bus from Cornell’s campus. Nicholas talked about how they are currently trying to make the Wegmans area more accessible, which I think is a great idea. For the students who aren’t on a dining plan, Cornell is something of a food desert – places like Target, Wegmans, Wal-Mart, and Tops are all a long bus ride away. Even if students do decide to take the bus, they can only buy as much food as they can carry in two hands.

Nicholas also talked about the high rent issue in Ithaca. Nicholas explained that there is a very low housing vacancy rate, which means high demand and low supply – hence the high prices. Even though I have lived in a dorm for all three of my years at Cornell, I am still incredibly interested in all of the problems with the Ithaca housing market, since I have so many friends who are paying exorbitant prices for run-down apartments.