A palpable energy and an eclectic spirit

<p>If anybody else remembers the spat from a couple of weeks ago when some misinformed individuals started calling Ithaca a ghetto and full of white trash, the NY Times today begs them to differ:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/greathomesanddestinations/14havens.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&em%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/greathomesanddestinations/14havens.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&em&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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If you’re trying to catch up with a friend, chances are good you’ll run into them at Ithaca’s farmers’ market. Settled at the edge of the lake, the 150-stand weekend market is like an East Coast version of Seattle’s Pike Place Market, where artists and musicians mix with sellers of prepared ethnic foods and organic produce.</p>

<p>A similar conviviality can be found on Ithaca Commons, the main commercial area. Besides one-of-a-kind shops (plenty of tie-dye, but also upscale furniture), there are many restaurants, including the Mahogany Grill, a steakhouse, and the Moosewood Restaurant, which put organic and vegetarian food on Ithaca’s map. With its proximity to Finger Lakes wineries and with the many graduates of Cornell’s hospitality school choosing to stay in the area, some call Ithaca the state’s best culinary outpost outside New York City.</p>

<p>In the last 10 years, various publications have named Ithaca the “most enlightened city,” “best emerging city,” one of “America’s smartest cities,” and among the best cities for gays and lesbians, retirees, mountain bikers, vegetarians, career growth and green living.

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<p>Yay I knew Ithaca wasn't full of white trash! It's really full of smart mountain-biking veggie-munching employed and retiring gays.</p>

<p>You know, as soon as I graduated, I seriously considered finding a way to move back to Ithaca. There's really everything you need there. Food, wine, and intellectual stimulation. Oh and also it's beautiful and I'm one of those people who loved the winters. The only drawback that I can think of is that it's not easy to get in or out of. But apart from that, it's perfect.</p>

<p>I hope I'll have the opportunity to enjoy it for four years!
Cornell seems like the perfect college for me.</p>

<p>Most of my professors have told me so far: "once you're in ithaca, you stay in ithaca" :)</p>

<p>just because property values are high and retired people come to live here...does not mean there are not lower classed individuals (white trash) coming in and out of ithaca. </p>

<p>the truth is that ithaca is a small city...it's not a suburb of some major urban area...while there arent as many lower classed individuals living here as there are in philly....they are here...</p>

<p>and to expect that there will not be at least some people of a "lower class" is absolutely ridiculous.</p>

<p>unless you want to restrict the movements of "hobos" and "white trash" then you can't expect anywhere to not have their fair share of both.</p>

<p>I think you need to learn to see the glass as half full. Your posts are consistently negative and nit-picky. If you are going to complain about every possible negative thing you see in a location, you can expect to never be happy in a location.</p>