Sustainable Tompkins organized a series of “thought pieces” for the Ithaca Times this spring exploring some of the issues associated with Ithaca’s housing imbalances. Data and statistics are scarce, but we’ve been hearing for a while about the extremely high cost of housing in the Ithaca area, along with many anecdotes about lower-income people, even long-term residents, being forced out of the city because they can’t afford the property taxes or the ever-increasing rents. Others who are anxious to buy a home and start a family can’t find anything on the market. This problem has been growing in amplitude the past few years and we anticipate continued imbalance between demand and supply. But it isn’t a simple matter of just adding buildings to our community. We must examine how the costs and benefits of growth are distributed in our community and take a deeper look at our assumptions about carrying capacity and how market forces fulfill demand.
March 16- Gay Nicholson, President, Sustainable Tompkins: Let’s Work on Development Together
March 16- Frost Travis, Principal, Travis Hyde Properties: Demand Drives Development
March 23- Anna Kelles, County District 2 Legislator: Urban Growth and Character
March 30- Kirby Edmonds, Coordinator, Building Bridges: Addressing Dislocation
April 6- Paul Mazzarella, Executive Director, Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services: Filling the Affordable Middle
April 13- Seph Murtagh, City of Ithaca 2nd ward Alderperson and chair of the Planning and Economic Development Committee: Development and Its Discontents
April 20- Krys Cail, rural business consultant with DE Squared and Cooperative Development Institute: Rural Land for Housing?
Be sure to join us on April 23 at The Space for Earth Day Ithaca from 12-3 pm. We’ll open the day with a community conversation on the housing crisis in the Ithaca area, and explore the trends, constraints, and tools available to address this ongoing challenge.
