^ Yep, Greek Peak is definately in the Ithaca/Cortland metro. Nice find Vis, thanks.
Here's an interesting article about the future of Ithaca's downtown(?).
Downtown's past presented to help plan for its future
By Krisy Gashler • Journal Staff • September 9, 2008
ITHACA — Ithacans want their downtown to look classic and unique, to feel open and clearly signed, and to be more inviting to a diverse group of people — though less inviting to loitering hooligans.
A presentation and public input meeting hosted Monday night by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance drew roughly 40 people to the Tompkins County Public Library.
Developers, business owners, residents and elected officials learned about the changing history of downtown and provided their input on what they want to see in downtown in the future. The information will be compiled as part of the Alliance's Downtown Ithaca 2020 Strategy.
Downtown Ithaca Alliance Executive Director Gary Ferguson provided a brief history of downtown Ithaca, from its founding just after the revolutionary war up to the impact of Route 13 chain stores and investment in projects such as Cornell's Seneca Place development.
“Oftentimes you hear, ‘I want to maintain a certain historical character of the community,' ” Ferguson said. “The question is, which one?”
The first settlers in Ithaca came to Cascadilla Creek to 1789, but the first store and post office didn't open until 1804, Ferguson reported.
“I don't know what they did between 1789 and 1804,” Ferguson said.
“Planning,” a member of the audience responded, jokingly referring to the deliberate pace of many city planning decisions.
The original center of civic life in Ithaca was DeWitt Park, Ferguson said, then State Street emerged as the commercial hub of downtown.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, before Cornell was founded, Ithaca settlers slowly filled in swamp land. Ferguson said people regularly ask him why Ithaca's downtown isn't on the water, and he responds that it was — everything between the current downtown and the waterfront has gradually been filled-in swamps.
Ithaca became an industrial hub, with big factories creating things such as clocks and cigars, and in 1868, Cornell was founded.
In an economic downturn that saw industry fall off sharply, Cornell began its role of stabilizing Ithaca's economy, he said.
“Education as an industry was really the salvation of this community,” Ferguson said.The period between 1900 and 1950 was the “heyday of downtown,” Ferguson said, with no competition for downtown retail.
In the late 1940s, the first large-scale peripheral shopping plaza began drawing customers away from downtown. The Ithaca Shopping Plaza was built as a large grocery store at the site currently occupied by Northside Wine and Liquor, Ferguson said.
In 1950, Route 13 was built as an arterial to bypass downtown, and ever since has become the primary draw for new commercial development, he said.
Participants at the meeting provided their opinions on maintaining and preserving downtown.
Suggestions ranged from re-designing the Commons to remove central features such as pavilions to pulling out the Commons entirely and returning it to vehicle traffic.
Eldred Harris, who with his wife owns Diaspora art gallery on the Commons, said the center of the Commons “has to be reclaimed.”
“It attracts every ne'er do well in the four-county area,” he said.
Creating positive attractions for kids to come downtown, such as an arcade or a skate park, could discourage kids from just hanging out, he said.
Making entry ways more safe and inviting and creating better signs so people can see what's available down the Commons should also be priorities, Harris said.
Tanya Vanasse, a member of the Alliance's Board of Directors, said the comment she heard most often was that people want downtown to be “clean and safe.”
“People don't come to the Commons because they don't feel safe,” she said.
Successful pedestrian malls can be designed in ways to “make it less comfortable to hang out,” and encourage a greater cross-section of shoppers, she said.
kgashler@ithacajournal.com
What a place. and it's not like there's a huge amount of crime downtown, but this article was just a few away from the one above:
Police seek suspects in Commons assault, robbery
From Journal Staff Reports • September 9, 2008
ITHACA — Police are looking for three men in their late teens who they believe assaulted and robbed a victim Sunday in the 100 block of East State Street.
The trio confronted the victim around 6 p.m., Ithaca Police said. Two of the males assaulted the victim while the third stole the victim's bike, which was described as a red men's Road Master mountain bike.
One of the suspects fled on foot, and the others fled on bikes, police said. The victim reported the crime to an officer patrolling The Commons, and Bangs Ambulance Personnel treated the victim at the scene, they added.
