Author Archives: mb996

Architecture for an Expanding City

Posted on by

The housing situation in Ithaca and at Cornell amazes me. I took a class on housing and urban development last semester, and since I’ve been pretty sheltered from the housing scene in Ithaca, thanks to living at Rose, it was my first introduction to the insanity that is Ithaca’s rental market. In a New York Times article from 2014, it was rated as the 11th most expensive city to live in in the country, right behind NYC. It was interesting to hear from an architect’s point of view, what building here is like, even though he didn’t touch very much on affordability.

The new projects that our guest speaker discussed in Collegetown give me mixed feelings. On one hand, there is no doubt that they meet a great need for decent housing for students close to the university. The fact of how difficult and expensive it has been until recently to develop in Ithaca is amazing to me because every college area I’ve been to has seen an influx of developers buying up land and building large apartment buildings designed specifically to be student housing. One the other hand, these new buildings on College Ave. will definitely change the look and character of the surrounding neighborhood. The speaker mentioned zoning attempts to prevent impacting the surrounding neighborhoods that have low student populations by creating a tiered system limiting building as it goes out from College Avenue. I know this has worked in other places like Portland, OR, where they attempted to avoid subdivision development and lost of farmland by requiring that developers build in the inner zone around the city and wait until that zone had reached a certain population density before expanding into the outer zones. This may work well to protect the character of surrounding neighborhoods off of College Avenue.

High Flying Talk

Posted on by

In the Rose Cafe this week, we heard from a Delta pilot on his experience flying for the airline. I have a vicarious interest in the “behind-the-scenes” of flying from my brother who’s taken a few flying lessons and watches cockpit videos in his spare time. For me, the feeling of take-off and watching the world from the air is one of the greatest feelings.  I always love the da Vinci quote, “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” It was interesting to hear about recent changes in airline policies. It seems like a common sense thing to limit the number of hours a pilot can fly to allow for rest, but that requirement was only made 6 or so years ago. I have also often wondered about how pilots and flight attendants accept not being paid until the flight is in motion. It seemed like a violation of labor rights, but the pilot seemed fine with it.

House 5

Posted on by

The housing system at Cornell is really fascinating. As someone who transferred from another university, I was shocked by the lack of housing intended for students both on and off campus. At my previous university, the oldest dorms were built in the 1970s, and most people lived off-campus, either in relatively new apartments built to meet student demand or in old apartments build in the heyday of the 1890s. I took a housing policy class last semester that was a great introduction to the complex factors that shape Ithaca’s housing market. Because of that background, it was interesting to hear about the historical factors that led to Cornell having such limited student housing. Namely, the interesting fact that student housing was intentionally not built to avoid having a sequestered, out-of-touch student population like those found at other universities at the time.

It was also cool to hear about the rush of building west campus right before the crash. I knew Rose was opened in 2008, but never really connected that with the expense of building supplies before the crash. It’s also really interesting to consider the gothics

Here’s a picture from wikipedia of the original plan for west campus from the 1920s. Apparently, a full pamphlet is available in Koch Library.

Chilling with Chili

Posted on by

At the Chili Fest this weekend, I was once again struck with how amazing Ithaca is. Even in the middle of winter with 5 inches of snow on the ground, people in the Ithaca community will come out for an event. I come from a small city that’s more than 10 times Ithaca’s size, and we probably wouldn’t have had a crowd that size to taste chili outside. It really shows that the Ithaca community is truly unique.

My favorite was probably Ithaca Beer Company’s chili. I like mostly beans with just a little bit of meat. Although I didn’t try the winning chili, so who’s to say if it was actually the best one?My least favorite was probably Moosewood’s. It had a bit too much sweet potato, and the tofu kind of had an odd texture.

 

I did love Moosewood’s chili sign though.

Cornell Dining’s chili: It had fried onion’s which obviously calls for bonus points

Moosewood’s

Ithaca Beer Company aka the best one in my opinion

Who Judges the Judge?

Posted on by

My high school mock trial team had a running joke that being a judge was the best job in the world because you got to sit in a comfy chair all day while everyone treats you like a god. Scott Miller’s talk really showed that we were probably overstating it. Over the course of his talk, Scott Miller really showed that having that kind of power over people and the ability to set precedents like People v. Brukner is something that should never be taken lightly. It’s a position that can have really strong restorative power, and it’s important to take responsibility in that. I enjoyed his discussion of restorative justice and the notation of the importance of not just punishing for the sake of punishing in the case of nonviolent crimes.

I slightly disagree with his idea that all of our domestic problems could be solved by considering health care and education a human right and acting accordingly (i.e. making addressing both of these issues a priority) I agree that health care and education are a human right, and that not considering them as such causes many problems in United States. However, I feel this outlook ignores more basic problems. Americans still face lack of affordable and safe housing, food insecurity and a growing income disparity. These problems are more immediate concerns. People’s right to a living wage, a safe place to live, and food is more necessary. It can be said that housing and food insecurity are part of health care, but I think it’s important to consider them initially as steps of prevention. The fact that people don’t have clean access to clean water, food, and housing in this country is a bigger problem. I agreed with his point about the needless focus on military spending and cases where funding military operations was given almost unquestionably while citizens go bankrupt trying to pay for necessary medical treatment without private insurance. Near the end, he added a point about us being lucky to live in a time of upheaval that could change the course of history. I don’t feel very lucky.

These complaints are mostly nitpicks. I was really glad to have the opportunity to hear from him about his experiences. I missed the meeting last semester because of scheduling conflicts, so I was really glad to be able to go this semester.