Anyone ever live in Ithaca

I'm interviewing with an employer in Ithaca and wondering if anyone on here has lived there?

I’ve never lived there but I’ve visited a few times.  

When I was in high scool I had a Cornell Lacrosse tee shirt. 

I played GeoGuessr last night for the first time in a long time, and it plopped me down in Ithica for one of them. 

Never in but I commute. I was in Candor, 20 miles, 30 minutes south on 96B. Currently in Whitney Point, 30 miles, 45 minutes east on 79 where it hits I81. Are you looking for prices, advice about different areas, or other general info? If prices, ballpark $1k a month rent as the starting point. I haven’t looked too closely in a few years. I could go on and on but I would rather know what you are looking for. 

BAE Systems?  

Finger Lake country.    Not far from the Glen.

I read somewhere that it was inexpensive to live.

Four seasons of NY weather.

In reply to Brian :

I'm looking for general area info.  I've seen a lot about what it's like being a student in Ithaca, but what's it like living in the area for a regular resident? 

I'm a little curious what folks who live there think about its long term outlook - some places you can feel that they are going to be economically depressed forever, some places are going to be ok forever and some places are on an upward curve.

I'm interested in what it's like raising a family in the area - I've got a toddler and a baby, so stuff for the younger set is of particular interest.

I've looked at the housing market a bit.  It looks pretty affordable, but the property taxes also look pretty eye watering.  I've looked at places in Ithaca itself and Dryden.  I've also been hovering on craiglist to get a feel for the rental scene, but it's heavily polluted with student-oriented housing.

Right now I'm up in Alaska.  I've been thinking about moving for a while; I've topped out in my career progression for the region; I'm semi-priced out of housing; I can tell nothing will change here for the next 30 years, except the volume of tourists.  I like the outdoors, I like the water - I've looked into the Finger Lakes area and it looks like it has pretty good (by East Coast standards) outdoorsy stuff.

In reply to NordicSaab :

That'd be cool, but I'm interviewing at Cornell.  I'm a developer that supports scientists, they have some scientists that need developer support, maybe it's a good fit.  It'd be a pay cut, but looking at the local cost of living I might squeak out ahead, even with the increased taxes.  It's all still a bit hypothetical at this point.

In reply to iceracer :

Could you unpack "Four seasons of NY weather" for me?  I've lived in Virginia, I've lived in Pittsburgh and I know what their four seasons are like.  I also know what Alaska's two seasons are like....

Maybe this is the four seasons?

monknomo said:

In reply to NordicSaab :

That'd be cool, but I'm interviewing at Cornell.  I'm a developer that supports scientists, they have some scientists that need developer support, maybe it's a good fit.  It'd be a pay cut, but looking at the local cost of living I might squeak out ahead, even with the increased taxes.  It's all still a bit hypothetical at this point.

Gotcha.  I have limited experience with Ithica, but have a customer in Binghamton/Endicott I go see 6-8 times a year.  All I really know is I have a really hard time getting anyone to move there. 

monknomo said:

Maybe this is the four seasons?

I haven't spent much time there, but I visited there (wife went to Cornell for undergrad).  In the middle of summer - late july or early august, the temperature (and humidity) was incredibly reasonable there.  Looks like low 80s is about the peak.  According to weatherspark, the chance of 'muggy conditions' is very low there as well (esp. for east coast).

Ithaca proper is 30k people, not counting students. Add another 20-30k students. The “Metro” area totals around 100k, including the towns of Lansing, Cayuga Heights, Newfield and more, but not to the extent of Dryden.

As a “local” it depends on where you live and work.  The greater “downtown” area is nicely walkable, but parking is a bitch. College town is the same, but a quarter mile up east hill.  The bus service is pretty solid, in part being subsidized by CU.  Dealing with students is like long term tourists.  We hate them but love their money.  Working on campus, it depends, because the CU campus is big, larger than the actual city limits by 3+ sq kilometers.

Ithaca is fairly prosperous yet surrounded by areas of palpable economic depression. This is courtesy of the colleges. Stay in Tompkins county or a commuter town in adjacent counties.

Ithaca is family friendly, with several city and state parks as well as educational attractions like a science center and The Museum of the Earth.   

Also the finger lakes are beautiful.  I kayak and several times have launched from the parking lot at work into the inlet and up to the lake. 

monknomo said:

In reply to iceracer :

Could you unpack "Four seasons of NY weather" for me?  I've lived in Virginia, I've lived in Pittsburgh and I know what their four seasons are like.  I also know what Alaska's two seasons are like....

The four seasons of Upstate NY weather are Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Road Construction.

Coming from Alaska, I’m not sure what you consider winter but...

Winter starts November 1 and runs to anywhere from mid March up to early May. May snows happen every few years. 

This spring, I went about 2 weeks between turning off the heat before turning on fans and AC. 

Summer is a North East summer. Average in the 80’s, but anywhere from 70-100 with 80% humidity. 

Fall is nice. Shorts weather can go into October sometimes. October is often beautiful. 

In short, the above chart is pretty accurate, but “ice hell” should be at least 180-200 degrees in that pie chart. 

My wife lived there in her youth. She said there is bears.

In reply to Nick Comstock :

Bears are very rare out in the sticks, unheard of in town anymore. Now deer, that’s different. Cayuga Heights and Cornell have some of the highest invasive deer population in the country. A friend of mine is a hunter involved with the culling programs for both the city and CU. 

Summer is as most have described.   Can be a hot/muggy one or a cool one.

 Fall is my favorite season.   Warm to cool.   Of course we have the colors.

Winter will also vary .  Can be cold but below O" is rare.   Again snow fall will vary. Roads are pretty well taken care of.    

 There can be beautiful days in winter when out door activities are fun.

This thread is relevant to my interests. 

I haven’t quite figured out why moving north in the US just gets you much colder winters without really making the summer any more tolerable. It sucks. 

I can tell you that Ithaca has several great SCCA chapters all within the same basic area. The Watkins Glen and Southern New York regions both overlap in that area, and Finger Lakes region and Central New York region (who I race with) are also running pretty near to that area as well. In fact, Glen, FLR and CNY all share a site in Romulus, NY, which is about a 40 minute drive, with massive autocross courses at the old Seneca Army Depot

In reply to NickD :

This is true. You could run every weekend if you do multiple clubs. Bonus, my wife works with the SNY chapter president. He just replaced his Crossfire with a Hellcat Charger. And he remembered my neon’s, um, smoke screen, from its only event 7 years ago. 

I'm in Ithaca a lot for work, just got back yesterday.

I like being able to walk from a hotel downtown to a nice nature trail with a waterfall to a bar with plenty of good beer. The downtown area has a pretty good flux of people as Cornell and Ithaca College kids come and go, but even at peak college times it doesn't feel like a frat house. The mix of people is mind boggling. You can go from hemp and patchuli to camo and Coors in a few blocks. I don't think anyone would find it difficult to fit in there.
I work with a few guys with young kids in Ithaca and the surrounding areas, all seem to like it. No shortage of sports and activities. The locals complain about traffic downtown but coming from SE Michigan it's laughable. They have rental bikes downtown now that may help with the parking. The weather sucks as much as Michigan, just gets there 1-2 days later. They salt the roads as much too but somehow they aren't bombed out. 

Any update?