Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca (named for the Greek island of Ithaca in Homer's Odyssey) sits on the southern shores of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York.

Problems faced by the city

Although Ithaca is considered by many to be a very desirable place to live, it also faces some problems. One key problem is transportation. As a growing urban area, Ithaca is facing rapid increases in levels of vehicular traffic on the city grid and on the state highways. The city is at the convergence of many regional two-lane state highways: Routes 13, 13A, 34, 79, 89, 96, 96B, and 366.

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Ithaca is one of a few small urbanized areas in the US without direct access to the American Interstate highway system. At one point, it was planned to convert Route 13 from Horseheads to Cortland through Ithaca into an expressway (it is currently an expressway only for three miles heading north from Ithaca), but the plan quickly fell out of favor. Occasionally suggestions or proposals to connect Ithaca to the Interstate system still are made, but it seems highly unlikely that this would happen any time in the foreseeable future.

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The City's emphasis is on traffic management and better using the existing road capacity rather than building new roads. The Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council is the coordinating body for federal and state funded transportation projects covering Ithaca.

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One positive trend for the health of downtown Ithaca is the new wave of increasing urban density in and around the Ithaca Commons. But as multi-story mixed-use projects (of offices, hotels, shops, parking and residences) are built, traffic congestion around the Commons will progressively increase.

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Retail development trends in the city have created traffic pressure in neighborhoods. In the late 1990's, the City decided to encourage "big box" retail development in an area known as the Southwest. To influence traffic traveling through neighborhoods, the City Government adopted traffic plans to introduce traffic calming elements on City roads including, traffic tables at intersections, mini traffic circles, traffic humps, and a traffic rotary. (These ?traffic calming devices? are unpopular among many drivers from Ithaca and the surrounding areas, and are a common local subject of criticism and satire.) The City also rebuilt a bridge over Six Mile Creek.

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In 2005, Mayor Peterson emphasized pedestrian and bicycle circulation, safety education and traffic enforcement. Highly publicized pedestrian-vehicle and bicycle-vehicle accidents have focused attention on these traffic conflicts. Underfunding of sidewalk construction and maintenance are basic pedestrian infrastructure issues facing the City.

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The near-disappearance of grocery stores from neighborhood areas (replaced by larger stores in the commercial strips) has made it harder for Ithacans without cars to shop for food.

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For decades, the Ithaca Gun Company dumped lead near Fall Creek (a tributary of Cayuga Lake) and Ithaca Falls. A major clean-up effort sponsored by the United States Superfund took place from 2002 to 2004.

Related Topics:
Ithaca Gun Company - Superfund

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Since the Tompkins County Assessment Department re-assesses property values annually, significant increases in property values in the City cause burdens to property owners facing higher local property taxes for the Ithaca School District, City of Ithaca and Tompkins County. House shopping is very competitive.

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