seeking liberal, veggie/eco/outdoorsy friendly small town. help? (Syracuse: neighborhood, construction)

[Royal Ranger]

Suicide rate? I've never heard of it and I've lived here my whole life. Yes you get an occassional student who jumps off Stewart Ave. bridge but that is rare. You must be thinking of Seattle.

[vicarian]

Originally Posted by veggiecook

i've had a number of people mention to me about ithaca's suicide rate in the winter? is it just exaggerated or lots of SAD in the winter? just curious...

It's more associated with Cornell University than Ithaca itself; because of the gorges, if someone decides to off themselves here (not something I'd ever condone) they can do it in a very big, publicised way. Nothing says "I want to die" more than jumping 150 feet off a bridge into a gorge, especially if you can someone to see you before you leap.

The last I knew, the suicide rate in Ithaca metro was about the national average. It also has very little to do with the weather-the few people that jump seem to do it during all times of the year. (you can check out why that is on Urban Legends Reference Pages, the urban legend site).

[honeychrome]

I think that whole suicide rate thing came from some statistics published in the 80's- Cornell was the university with the highest suicide rate. I remember it well because the school I was at was #2, and many were disappointed at not being #1. The numbers were very small though- like if two students happened to commit suicide one year the school would be #1 or #2....

[Ithacaforeigner]

Ithaca sounds like the perfect place for you. This is a small town that is very green, loves evrything vegan, into volvos and subarus. Is naturally incredibly beautiful. Always looking for vegetarian chefs. There is actually a restaurant/gatering spot in small village of trumansburg called "the rongovian embassy to the usa" (rongo for short) currently looking for someone to run it.

[YankeeTom]

If your looking for Winter with Sunshine, I would recomend southern Maine.

It's about as cold as Syarcuse with about half the snow and twice the sun.

White mountains close by and the shore is even closer.

Depending if your closer to Kittery or Portland , your between 50 and 100 miles from Boston , MA.

Personally I'm looking at CNY , I Love the SNOW!

BTW; I lived in Maine a number of years , You get black flys in the country ...not so much in town.

[JWKessler]

Originally Posted by dennis s

I need more information on the naked swimmin' holes............please

I havn't been there in a mighty long time, but Minnewaska State Park had a well known skinny dipping section in an out of the way area. I went with a friend who was into that and found it to be a hoot!

Generally if you are in an natural area and you see signs warning against doing that, you are probably in the right spot.

You can see more here...

http://www.swimmingholes.org/ny.html

[thlk14]

Can somebody please till the truth about the weather in ithaca I have been reading all the replies and everyone says something different. Please someone that has lived in Portland Or. or seattle Wa. and Ithaca NY tell us. I know it snows and is gray but when the winter comes does the sun come out at all. Becouse you don't see it for 6 to 7 month's in the northwest and when I say that I mean it's not gray for four days then sunny for two its gray all winter.

[oktaren]

Ithaca is probably the safest bet, although there are tons of great small towns in western new york that you'd fit into.

[bellafinzi]

Originally Posted by thlk14

Can somebody please till the truth about the weather in ithaca I have been reading all the replies and everyone says something different. Please someone that has lived in Portland Or. or seattle Wa. and Ithaca NY tell us. I know it snows and is gray but when the winter comes does the sun come out at all. Becouse you don't see it for 6 to 7 month's in the northwest and when I say that I mean it's not gray for four days then sunny for two its gray all winter.

People in Upstate NY LOVE to exaggerate the weather. Some folks are proud that they can "survive" Upstate's winters. That's why you'll hear stupid comments like "Summer lasts for two weeks", "its cloudy for weeks at a time", and "it snows non-stop all winter". It's September 24th and the high today was 83 degrees in Syracuse. Tomorrow’s forecast is a high of 90 degrees. High temperatures have remained about 65 degrees since the last week of April. That makes roughly 5 months of summer-like weather.

Although Upstate NY is a cloudy region, it's not as bad as the Pacific Northwest:

Cloudiest Cities in the US

Seattle has 226 cloudy days, while Ithaca has 206 cloudy days.

[Diacon33]

I have been trying to figure out this cloudiness factors as well. I've been living in Seattle for about 17 years and my wife and I are looking to move to NY as well. I think the thing that stats dont say is the depth/type of cloudiness. From my review of this NY forum, the dreariness of Ithaca doesn't compare with Seattle. 1st we are further north and that loss of extra sun behind the clouds along with the added cloud thinkness in Seattle makes winter days much more oppressive. Add in the convergence zone in Seattle and it keeps clouds in place day after day between storm systems.

One other observation about cold. 20 degree cold with lower humidy is much better than a damp 30-40 which can chill a person much faster. I hope I am not wrong with my take on the information shared by so many people here in drawing my conclusion.