And let's not forget the place itself

It's kind of arrogant to actually review a place. If I write what I think about Ithaca, NY, why would they care? Why would anyone care? But I've traveled enough and paid close enough attention that I can at least try to put things in perspective.

The first thing I ask myself about a place is, could I live here? This is probably not the most selective screening, since I can enjoy myself pretty much anywhere, but it's an important framework within which to evaluate a place. In the case of Ithaca, I could absolutely live there. It's a nicely sized little city, with two colleges dominating the culture, on the southern shore of a big lake surrounded by rolling hills, assorted natural beauty, and a lot of farms and vineyards. So you got food, you got wine, you got culture, you got scenery. Not the best weather maybe, but not too shabby.

I found most of the people I talked with to be pleasant and helpful. The downtown "Commons" area is that most economically precarious of urban designs, the pedestrian mall, but it seems to work with a nice mix of shops and restaurants. Downtown is ringed by parking lots, a surprising number of parking lots in fact. It's hard for me to imagine enough people being there to come close to filling them. I'm not a huge fan of parking lots and I never entered one, but I'm guessing that their existence helps free up street parking. There is also a reasonably robust public bus system.

Urban design-wise, it's kind of a mess. It kind of can't help it though, with half of it ringed by hills and the other half next to a lake, you're kind of stuck with whatever flat space you can find. Downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, both on flatland and hillside (which I can tell you from biking experience is 4 miles of fairly steep uphill with no letup whatsoever), seem pleasant and reasonably safe.

All of the suburban type development is crammed into one small area on the southwest side of town. This a good balance of convenience and inconvenience. Traffic on that end of town is hellish (what do you expect from a half mile of shopping center entrances every 50 yards, each with a traffic light?), and the shopping centers run into each other at odd angles making it hard to know whether you're in the Kmart center or the Walmart center (they're right next to each other because...well, there's no place else) or the Lowes center.

Fortunately, the first thing in the strip is a Wegmans and so it isn't ever necessary to go anywhere else (any place with a Wegmans has to be livable, even Cherry Hill). And the rest of the stuff is so difficult to navigate that I think it keeps all those big box stores and chain restaurants from decimating downtown. Plus I'm guessing that the college students either don't have cars or wouldn't get caught dead in a Walmart.

There's a nice old theater that houses good concerts and other theater type shows. There's a 5 screen art movie house a block from the Commons. Lots of decent restaurants and pubs with live music on weekend nights. And of course there's ample natural beauty and good air. Maybe not that much sunshine between September and June, but at least the air is clean and the water tastes good.

Ithaca also boasts one of the best farmers markets I've seen. There seem to be markets somewhere in town most days, but they have a big wooden pavilion full of booths that gets filled with over 100 vendors on Saturday and Sunday (some vendors both days, some only one and replaced by something else the other day). Aside from the usual array of fresh organic stuff, there are specialty growers (one guy who, and I'm not making this up, sold nothing but currants, currants of all different colors and flavors, all of which the guy could describe in great detail).

The market features a huge variety of fresh prepared foods of all nationalities. Would you expect that in Ithaca you could choose between Cuban, Cambodian and Sri Lankan food? Apple cider slushies? Flatbread pizzas from a portable wood-burning pizza oven? Plus wine, cheese, chutney, kefir, and hard cider tasting, crafts and baked goods. Yum.

There's also at least two microbreweries (nothing exceptional but all reasonably tasty) and a good local coffee roaster in town. Their coffee shop also has a massive stock of craft beers (as does Wegmans). I decided to buy a few half liter bottles on the way out of town. The girl at the register said she really liked the Ommegang Abbey Ale (from Cooperstown) but hadn't tried the other Ommegang offering I'd selected. I looked at her for a moment and asked, "are you old enough to drink?" She turned pink and kind of stumbled to answer. I said, don't worry, I've got a 19 year-old daughter so I understand.

And with that we were on our way home.