It was from a research paper published earlier this year called "Fraternity Row, The Student Row, and The Faculty Enclave," by Dr. Blake Gumprecht of the University of New Hampshire. He chose to base most of his research on the Ithaca collegiate scene.
Now, another passage I noticed:
"Today, large apartment buildings, the tallest of which is nine stories, line both sides of Dryden Road (see Figure 16). Several other apartment buildings were built on College Avenue and Eddy Street. “It’s like a mini-Manhattan,” observed one local businessman. The city encouraged development by temporarily suspending building height limits and parking requirements. Over a ten-year period, more than a dozen apartment buildings, capable of housing 1,700 people, were built."
Notice the word TEMPORARY. Why is this TEMPORARY
. If anything, it would seem that to encourage more parking spaces and low-rise construction would be sprawl just waiting to happen. It's Collegetown, not suburban Long Island. It won't be as negatively impacted by denser development in the area as it would by this suburbanism they seem to be encouraging. Do I want a twenty-story apartment tower in Collegetown? Not yet (maybe someday). Am I 100% correct. Prob'bly not. But do I feel I have valid reasoning. Yes.
Oh, and be careful what you wish for Ex. It could've looked like...Titus Tower. Or worse, one of those ugly college towers, like Bradfield, since this was the late sixties.
And one last thing. I basically made this an observation about Ithaca current development policies to my history professor. This was the reply: "Why don't you call the City of Ithaca Planning Department and ask to speak to Tais Van Court, the director of planning, or his assistant Leslie Chatterton to get some expert comments. Then you can discuss this with the class."
Damn.
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