Great photos!
Quote:
Originally Posted by photolitherland
That must be the most amazing place to live, not a dumb redneck in sight, in fact, this city is the exact antithesis of everything conservative, and the cities overall IQ must be at least 30 points higher than the national average.
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You'll find rednecks when you get about 15 km or so beyond downtown Ithaca. Remember, Ithaca is located at the edge of the Appalachian Mountain range in New York, and many early settlers were of the the same Scots-Irish/Ulster-Scots/Highland Clearance-era descent as those in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. There are a few very isolated pockets of shocking Appalachian lifestyle poverty; e.g. Buffalo Road in the Town of Caroline. However, the outlying rural areas are also full of old-school "back to the land" hippies, and Cornell and IC staff in search of more affordable housing. The "rednecks" here aren't of the far right Bible-thumping variety; they have more of a "live and let live" philosophy.
Six Census tracts in the city and surrounding town are among the top 20 of the United States for percentage of residents that are PhDs.
The photos missed out on some of the more iconic parts of Ithaca's culture, for example, the insane number of Volvo and Subaru Outback wagons on the road, and cars covered with bumper stickers promoting various causes.
The love affair locals have for old Volvos is really an integral -- and quirky -- part of the local culture.
Ithaca also has an extremely large lesbian community, predominantly middle-aged and older. Ithaca is
very GLBT-friendly; sexual orientation is simply a non-issue here. However, because gay men tend to prefer life in larger cities, and a large subculture of lesbians is attracted to more "rustic" and "crunchy" areas, the gender makeup of the gay community is very lopsided towards women. The large lesbian population is a pretty good indicator of the tolerance and open-mindedness of the larger community.
Don't forget that downtown Ithaca has
seven head shops.
It
is an amazing place to live. I've bounced around the United States a lot, and once I landed here, I decided that I'm not leaving.