Ithaca, New York? (Syracuse, Binghamton, Elmira: vacation, jobs, houses)

[OHtoCT]

What do you think of Ithaca, New York? Is it a good place for a married couple in their mid thirties to live or is it primarily a college town? Crime rate? Public Schools? Where to the professional/executives who live in Ithaca work? Do they have far to commute or does Ithaca offer commerce/banking/technology jobs.

[skaneatelesmom]

This board, me included, loves Ithaca. What's not to love? It is beautiful, affordable, creative and highly cultural. There is a famous bumper sticker that says, "Ithaca is Gorges", referring to the natural beauty of the gorges there. Now, I hear it has been tweaked to say, "Ithaca is not Georges". Did I mention it is a hugely liberal town? I live about 40 minutes away and visit often.
Joanne

[tviz25]

I am someone that doesn't love Ithaca. I know that it sounds like the perfect place to live, but maybe thats just it. It seems too perfect for me I think. I picture it as a place with too many college kids, a large percentage of Asians, a lot of homosexuals, and rich, preppy, snooty people. Not to say that those things are bad, but I just don't like Ithaca for some reason. The scenary is great though. I also don't like the feeling of an overgrown town that it has. I rather like the feeling of a city that has shrunk somewhat such as Elmira or Binghamton. Thats is just my opinion though and you don't have to and most likely won't agree with it.

[honeychrome]

Originally Posted by tviz25

I picture it as a place with too many college kids, a large percentage of Asians, a lot of homosexuals, and rich, preppy, snooty people. Not to say that those things are bad, but I just don't like Ithaca for some reason.

Wow, that has to be about one of the most ignorant statements I've read on the boards here in a long time. Not that that is bad, I just don't like ignorant statements for some reason. Have you actually spent any time in Ithaca beyond driving through it once?

[tviz25]

Are you offended that I said that or something? Do you live in Ithaca and think it is so "gorges"? I have been there and I don't really like it at all. I am also a high school student that lives in Elmira. Just thought I would tell you that too. To put it plain and simple, I just don't like the overall feeling of Ithaca.

[jgreg]

Ithaca is about as leftist as you can get. If you’re cool with that, you’ll be fine. If you are conservative or right-of-center you may not enjoy it as much if you are a follower of current events, politics and public policy debate. Politics plays a large role in the culture of Ithaca.

There is a large creative class and the city is very artistic and many interesting things to do – there is a great deal of community involvement.

It is true that there are a huge number of college students – many of whom are very wealthy – they tend to behave like college students.

Education is the big driver of the economy. Manufacturing has declined all across Central NY, but I think there are growing tech opportunities.

Commutes to work are very reasonable, even if you live in one of the surrounding communities, but there are not interstate highways in or out. It’s all two lane roads.

The public schools are well respected. For many years, the Ithaca schools district was the most difficult one in the state to get a Regents scholarship, since there are so many really smart kids – the children of all those PhDs at Cornell and Ithaca College.

The winters are long and grey. I don’t have stats, but there is probably a bit more crime in Ithaca than some surrounding towns since college students and communities with large transient populations tend to attract more crime.

It’s a nice place, but you’ll need to check it out for yourself to see if it fits your personality.

[vicarian]

Originally Posted by OHtoCT

What do you think of Ithaca, New York? Is it a good place for a married couple in their mid thirties to live or is it primarily a college town? Crime rate? Public Schools? Where to the professional/executives who live in Ithaca work? Do they have far to commute or does Ithaca offer commerce/banking/technology jobs.

Ithaca has a Collegetown area and most of the college students live in the southern and eastern parts of the city. Students are less predominant in the north, west and suburbs (because they are farther away from Cornell and IC).

The crime rate is below the national average, but a little higher than surrounding towns. The public school system is rated well; it's in Newsweek's top 1000, and tends to have high standards because of the education-based economy. White-collar Ithaca residents tend to live in upscale houses in the city, in the village of Cayuga Heights, or one of the neighboring towns/suburbs, Dryden and Lansing being the most popular.

I know of people that commute to Ithaca from Binghamton and even Syracuse, which is 60 miles away. I've also heard of people commuting just as far from Ithaca. There are some technology and information services jobs, but the colleges are still the primary employers. Tech jobs are growing though.

Winter is...well, winter. It's cold, and it's cloudy, and it isn't uncommon to go 4 or 5 days without seeing the sun. The summers are nice though.

I echo jgreg's sentiment about checking out the place before you make any decision. Take a weekend trip to the area, look around, and see if the area would be a good fit.

[gastric]

My favorite part of Ithaca is the variety of great food. I worked at Ruloph's for quite a while and their damn WC5 white chocolate chocolate chip cheese cake is still #1 on my cheesecake list. I'm struggling to remember the name of the place that had my favorite pizza but it begins with an S and I believe one street down from Ruloph's.

Otherwise I never really liked living in Ithaca that much. We took our kids back for a 2-day vacation once and didn't like it that much then either. It didn't seem to have a whole lot of young-kid-centric activities other than the lake though they were constructing some new outdoor and science-related kids stuff when we were there.

[vicarian]

Originally Posted by gastric

My favorite part of Ithaca is the variety of great food. I worked at Ruloph's for quite a while and their damn WC5 white chocolate chocolate chip cheese cake is still #1 on my cheesecake list. I'm struggling to remember the name of the place that had my favorite pizza but it begins with an S and I believe one street down from Ruloph's.

Otherwise I never really liked living in Ithaca that much. We took our kids back for a 2-day vacation once and didn't like it that much then either. It didn't seem to have a whole lot of young-kid-centric activities other than the lake though they were constructing some new outdoor and science-related kids stuff when we were there.

Out of curiosity, was this the ScienCenter in the northern part of the city? It would be about 1992 for the orignal construction, 2002 for the addition.

[gastric]

I honestly cannot recall. It was probably more like 2003-2004 when we were there last.