<p>We spent the weekend visiting Cornell and very much enjoyed the visit. However, someone later mentioned that Ithaca has a large "hippy" population and might not be a good/safe environment for everyone. Should we have any concerns? thanks</p>
<p>I was just there last weekend dropping off a D at Ithaca College. My impression is that the town is safe enough. It's freezing to death that you have to worry about . . .</p>
<p>I would be gravely concerned. The Ithaca hippies are known to be associated with all sorts of subversive counter-cultural activities like listening and dancing to music, practicing yoga, supporting your friendly multi-cultural American president, eating locally grown produce, protesting illegal wars in Mesopotamia, and driving cars run on vegetable oil. All eighteen of them are inherently dangerous to the Cornell student population. Just the other day there was spontaneous rejoicing on the Arts quad when a student from Long Island accidentally ran a hippy over with her five ton SUV that her daddy bought for her. I'm frankly surprised that Cornell hasn't picked up and moved to Watkins Glen yet given the problems they have caused on campus.</p>
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It's freezing to death that you have to worry about .
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<p>Hate to break it to you, but the interior Midwest was a hell of a lot colder. Whining about the cold isn't going to change anything. If a million people survived temps in the teens for eight hours today in D.C., anybody can survive a five minute walk to class.</p>
<p>HIppies are bloodthirsty, demonic, satanists who will steal your child's soul if he ventures into Ithaca. Don't send him there! Besides it's very cold and cold hippies are even worse!</p>
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Hate to break it to you, but the interior Midwest was a hell of a lot colder. Whining about the cold isn't going to change anything. If a million people survived temps in the teens for eight hours today in D.C., anybody can survive a five minute walk to class.
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<p>Hate to break it to YOU, but I have another D at Kansas State University, which I believe qualifies as interior Midwest, and I've had a chance to compare the weather in KS and upstate NY. Ithaca certainly isn't the coldest place on Earth, but the winter is long, overcast, gray, snowy, icy, windy and pretty darn cold, and I don't know anyone who goes to school there or who lives there who doesn't agree. I didn't say that it was a bad place to go to school, but it's hardly a mild climate.</p>
<p>I wouldn't be as concerend about the hippies as I would be concerned about the lack of good christian men. I mean geeze, this school has female teachers and it teaches evolution. I just could not send my child to a place where heathen ideals are drilled into their heads like its fact (women as teachers, isn't that just plain old goofy)</p>
<p>Meh. I was thinking more along the lines of Madison or Minneapolis. Kansas is fairly far south.</p>
<p>And while I've heard of blood sucking hippies who love to skin college students alive, I've never heard of anybody freezing to death in Ithaca. That the winters are long in the Great Lakes shouldn't exactly be a surprise. Gosh darn it winters are cold! But if the nine million people who live in Chicago and the six million people who live in Toronto can survive a winter, I'm pretty sure your D will do just fine.</p>
<p>Ithaca is a lovely college town. I am an over protective mom, and I do not worry about my daughter in Ithaca, at least not from the townies. We have also visited Ithaca quite a few times since last year, safety issue never even crossed my mind.</p>
<p>Ithaca's weather leaves a lot to be desired. It is sunny/cloudy/raining/snowing, but always with a chance of rain or snow. It is also a place that could snow sideways. There are a few live Cornell webcams. I check on it daily to see if it's snowing, it hasn't disappointed me yet. On the other hand, it has not deterred my daughter from going out at night yet. I also went to a school upstate NY. As I remember, it would have to be really cold before it would stop us from going downtown. The danger was to pass out in the snow, so we tried not to walk back by ourselves.</p>
<p>Whatever, i'd rather deal with a bit of snow then spend half my life hiding out in a storm cellar in Kansas everytime a big ole tornado comes around to blow my house away :D</p>
<p>btw OP, to add to the list of sins, Cornell only has 1 all-female residence hall, so chances are not only will she end up running into a hippie or two, she might end up <em>gasp</em> courting one. but in all seriousness, Ithaca is a nice place. I know you want to protect your daughter, but she's not 12 and she can handle seeing someone with long, dirty hair. Is she concerned about this, or is it just you?</p>
<p>btw, my knowledge of Kansas is limited to the Wizard of Oz, so I apologize in advance if the tornado reference was a bit off</p>
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HIppies are bloodthirsty, demonic, satanists who will steal your child's soul if he ventures into Ithaca.
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<p>word</p>
<p>10char</p>
<p>^^ good point. If your son is a ladies man like myself, I would be worried that he would be spending more time at Balch than he spends in his own dorm (at least thats my plan)</p>
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Ithaca...might not be a good...environment for everyone.
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<p>Apparently thought outside of liberal orthodoxy is not where Ithaca best demonstrates is tolerance.</p>
<p>Ithaca: A Place Where Only Liberal Speech Is Protected</p>
<p>C'mon folks, it's obvious she wasn't talking about hippies killing or torturing college students. Let's get real here. She was more likely concerned with hippies' tendency to spontaneously self-combust into flames. Or to get beamed up by aliens into saucers. But those are the ONLY two problems you need to watch out for. Just be careful, use common sense, and don't ever leave your dorm, and you'll be fine.</p>
<p>Yea, seriously, the only times the hippies in Ithaca ever caused a problem was about 6 years ago when they put LSD all over a door handle at the Bio labs. LSD can be transdermally receipted by the CNS. I think all in all, 22 kids taking bio classes ended up tripping for about 12 hours, but none of them were raped or murdered if thats what you were worried about.</p>
<p>I wouldn't be too concerned about it...just use common sense like you would in any city and you'll be fine.</p>
<p>Wasn't Bill Ayers a hippie in his former life? Egads, he is now a College Professor. Be afraid, be very afraid! :D</p>
<p>full disclosure: both my kids did Cornell's summer program and went into town frequently. I would not hesitate to send 'em back (assuming I could find the money).</p>
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btw, my knowledge of Kansas is limited to the Wizard of Oz, so I apologize in advance if the tornado reference was a bit off
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<p>Well, you're not that far off. Last June, an EF-4 tornado (that's one packing winds between 207-260 mph, folks) touched down just north of my daughter's dormitory complex, cut a swath through campus and did $20 million in damage in about 5 minutes. Fortunately, my daughter was not in the area at that time, there was plenty of warning, and there were no deaths or injuries. Prior to this tornado, however, the last tornado touchdown in that area occurred forty years prior. So although tornados are scary things, they are much less frequent, even in "Tornado Alley," than the media would have you believe.</p>
<p>God am I soooooo sick of everyone complaining about the cold anywhere except the upper midwest. Last week in Minnesota we spent 3 days never getting above -20 not including windchill which always made it feel like -40. I never even got a late start at school, and it probably snowed 7 inches that week as well. Then I turn on some football game and they are talking about how all the fans are so hardcore coming out to the game cause it's 32 with a windchill of 20. Sorry, it's just not that cold out in the northeast.</p>
<p>Sorry, rant over.</p>
<p>^ Agreed. I live near chicago, and last week, we had a low of 28 below. It was kind of nuts. I went out on my porch, and took a big deep breath, and it felt like I got punched in my chest/had an athsma attack, so I tried to exhale quickly through my nose, but it was frozen shut. So I went back inside, and boiled a few cups of water and brought it outside. The fog it (hot water) created outside was so intense that looked like thick thick smoke. I threw the water over my porch, and it froze into little beads of ice before it high the ground. THAT is cold.</p>