Ithaca as I know it has always been a wee bit off the map as far as cities go. However, this week I learned that Ithaca was once a place where trade with New York was abundant. Professor Blalock taught us a bit of the history of Ithaca’s geographical history this past Monday. He began the talk by asking me and two other attendees about our knowledge of city planning. I honestly did not know much and guessed it was basically involved a group of government city planners in a room mapping out a course for the city. And I was right, city planning involves just that. It involves a lot more too, of course. The purpose of city planning is to ensure that as the city grows, certain measures are put in place for the accommodation of more people. These measures include rules for drainage, sewage, what types of buildings should be built where, and more. And apparently, Texas cities do not have proper building zoning laws. The flooding in Houston after the hurricane could not have been as bad as it was. We also talked about flooding in Ithaca as well. Did you know that downtown Ithaca was built at the bottom of a hill? As a result, it experienced intense flooding, until an artificial river was created to redirect the water to Cayuga Lake. And it’s on this lake that old farmers would take their produce along the lake to Lake Hudson near New York City to sell their wares. That river has now been replaced with a highway, which we are all familiar with since we do not have to take a boat to the city. I love learning to the city of Ithaca and what it was like hundreds of years ago!