Perfect City (for me) in the Northeast

[Pidgett]

Hi Softmachine,

Great early 70's band, BTW

I disagree with the posters above who said that Potland is more isolated than Ithaca. Isolated from what? It's all relative. I am a native Mainer--(Maine-iac ) and I have spent some time in both Ithaca and Portland. Some fatcs:

Portland is considerably bigger than Ithaca, especially when you consider that it is practically commutable to Boston for heaven's sake. Ithaca is more isolated only in the sense of it not being a part the great East Coast Megalopolis; i.e., Washington DC-Baltimore-Philly-NJ-NYC/LI-Hartford-Boston. In fact, some demographers consider Portland ME to be inside the very northeast edge of Megalopolis. It is crazy for someone to think that Portland is more isolated by the above example and criterion for isolation. Conversely, Ithaca is a few hundred miles from "mega-land." It is, however, near Syracuse--about 70 miles, hardly next door. And Syracuse is hardly a huge metro area--much to its credit I might add if you like small up-and-coming cities like Syracuse. Other than Syracuse there are no other sizable cities around it. Now, having said this, it is not as isolated as, say, the Adirondacks or northern Maine or the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, just to name a few. Ithaca is a small village in the Finger Lakes region which, as pointed out by others, is the home of world-class Cornell U. and Ithaca College. It has LOTS of artsy/craftsy types who may or may not wear Birkenstocks, frequent ethnic restaurants, particularly a variety of Asian ones, love bookstores, etc. You either like this type or you don't. It's not for everyone. It sounds to me that Ithaca would be a great choice for you. Portland also has similarities to Ithaca with respect to the artsy/educated population, but it feels more gritty becuase it used to be a shipping and industrial/mill town of bigger importance when America was in the industrial age of the last century. It, is however, re-inventing itself and has some marvelously New Englandy architecture and fine homes. Its economy is not as robust as Ithaca, but that doesn't matter because the Boston suburbs and Boston itself are closeby and invigorate Portland imeensely.

Good luck in your choice!

[softmachine]

Thanks Pidgett for the response. That seems to make a lot of sense about Portland. Oh yeah...and to clear the record, I am definitely not a hippy. Although I try to live an environmentally friendly life, I am much more apt to listen to a Bill Evans album than a Phish one and I'll choose getting drunk over getting stoned any day. I've never even owned a pair of Birkenstocks (lol). I guess I just like young, free-thinking people. I suppose I could have used the word "Bohemian", but that seemed a little pretensious. Grit is fine with me as long as there is some art and culture under it. I've spent more time in grizzled Buffalo bars, drinking with old factory workers, than is probably normal for someone my age and I still consider myself an enlightened person (well I'm trying to be anyways). That goes back to my thing about college towns. They are "plastic" cities in a way; no one is really gutting it out. Everyone one is idealistic and passionate in college when you’re being bombarded with new ideas and you don’t have to worry about earning a living. It's another thing to maintain those believes, and be stoic about it, when you’re actually out in the world. This is maybe why I seem a little hesitant about Ithaca.

[honeychrome]

Having been to many, many college towns I'll say Ithaca is much more than a college town. Sure, it has all the elements you'd expect from a college town, but I think the 'permanent' population shapes the character of the city far more than the transient student population. There is a lot of very interesting progressive activity in the Ithaca area (permaculture organizations, a couple sizeable, long-term and well established 'intentional communities', home-schooling groups, co-ops, etc. etc.)- but at the same time it's all held in some balace by the relative 'red-ness' of surrounding upstate. I don't agree that Ithaca is a 'village'- it is definitely a city, but I would say it is more isolated than Portland. I found Portland to be a pretty vibrant city (and considerably larger than Ithaca, at least in overall 'feel'), but also has a little bit of that all-too-common in the Northeast faded industrial glory vibe- like the city is playing catchup and trying to revive (which in fact it has managed to do to an extent). There is more of a sense in Ithaca that it is what it is and it has pretty much been that for a long time. Of course there is ongoing downtown development, etc. but it feels less like its part of a desperate revitalization plan. To me Portland seems like it is practically part of the Boston sprawl, and being on the coast, the surrounding areas seem quite densly developed. On the other hand, five minutes from downtown Ithaca and you can be in farm country. While I think Ithaca is pretty singular, Portland to me is very much like Manchester, Worcester, and any number of formerly industrial N.E. cities. I spent about 2/3 growing up in coastal New England and 1/3 in rural upstate NY. I love coastal N.E., and the ocean is forever 'in my blood,' but upstate NY wins easily now for my permanent home.

And Hartford...... ugh.

[honeychrome]

Oh, and additionally....
I would certainly call Ithaca 'progressive' but not really 'hippy.'

[Ex-Ithacan]

@ Pidgett - I didn't mean for it to sound like Portland was in the Arctic, but I meant isolated in the sense that Ithaca is a shorter drive to most of the major Bos-Wash cities (and nearly all of the top metro cities in the US, population wise). Portland is 107 miles from Boston. While these cities aren't Boston, they are metros of 1/2 million or a million folks which Ithaca is somewhat close to: Syracuse - 59 miles, Rochester - 89 miles, Buffalo - 153 miles.


I actually like Portland, because it's a brick charmer which still has blue-collar roots (which is how I grew up). It's true that metro Portland (about 265,000) is bigger than metro Ithaca (about 150,000). But as far as the arts, dining, and education go, I think Ithaca holds its own against cities which are much bigger.

Not trying to turn this into a city versus city thing, but a move to either city might well fulfill softmachine's criteria.

[Lauri_25ny]

Softmachine~

Here's an article that was in today's Ithaca Journal that you might find interesting:

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps...WS01/703080361

[winnie]

If you can live wherever you want, and your search area is the North East I would recommend either Syracuse NY or Northampton/Amherst MA. Northampton is not a huge city but it is in a pretty heavily populated general area (Springfield, Holyoke, Westfield MA and 45 minutes from Hartford CT)

Scenery wise N'hampton is very nice and has nice resturants, college atmosphere and a nice intellectual feel to it with a walkable town center. Syracuse has snow and stuff to do and some nice towns to the north. I would personally pick Amherst/Northampton over Syracuse.

[Wanda-ng]

I don't live in Portland though I have friends that do and have lived in Ithaca.

I think Ithaca is a great town..lots of things to do and it's progressive and artsy & green. I do like those things....but I felt too far inland, and the economy is not great there...property taxes are beyond reasonable and the downtown area shows the stresses of a depressed economy. Housing is very transient and can be grimy. I think if you are really into what it has to offer culturally it's great.

Portland is a nicer city...FAR less depressed than Ithaca. It is very close to Boston and the mountains in NH, and the ocean....how can you go wrong. It is also very hip, just not as grassroots as Ithaca.

I vote for Portland. Good luck!

[brattpowered]

I think New Haven may be a good fit for you. It may well be my next stop after I get out of Austin. It has a nice, real walkable downtown with lots of restaurants/coffeeshops/music venues, culture from Yale, very nice (E and W Rock) Parks, and the 'grit' that you don't mind around the edges. It's also the last stop on Metro North, if you want to take the train into NYC, and it's at the end of I-91 which makes it 1 hour to Northampton and 2 to Vermont (lots of cool towns in between).

[lammius]

Check out Portsmouth, NH