It’s a wonderful thing that Ithaca has several works of art in public spaces, primarily along the Commons. My favorite piece is a 3-foot bronze man in a suit with dragonfly butterfly wings, he appears ready to take flight from the planter box he sits in near Tioga and Seneca. It’s called Businessman in touch with Nature and was dedicated by NYSEG.

He has a new buddy a few feet away from him - an enormous rusted-metal armadillo calf that I haven’t stopped to take a close look at yet, and it’s one of several new (metal) art pieces that have been planted over the past couple of weeks.

At the entrance to DeWitt Park you can’t miss this:

Forgive me (if you are the artist) for questioning how the positioning of this work has any benefit to the community or artistic merit as it stands. At first sight I think anyone would see this as an awkward installation: it’s parked smack in the middle of a high-traffic pedestrian spot, creating an obstacle preventing free movement through the area; sightlines from the adjacent park benches are disrupted; and in a college town with poor night-lighting it won’t be long before that rusty beak makes hazardous contact with an eye - its height is actually at my own eye-level and I’m nervous about passing within a few feet of it. To add insult, the context of its predatory expression tells me to run far away, as fast as I can run. Not ‘Welcome to DeWitt Park, come hang out here’. Where it stands this bird is not art, it’s a nemesis to the pedestrian.

Public art is always a topic for debate and discussion.

Also new to the Commons is a pocked, hammered-metal sculpture of a woman seated against a wall. I’ll snap a pic of that one soon, and save my comments til then…

The Ithaca Times’ May 25 issue has the cover story Lofty Vision: Will building up rather than out revitalize Ithaca’s downtown? It seems at least one person doesn’t think so, and that’s enough dissent for a cover story. Here’s a snippet:

But everyone does not share the enthusiasm for downtown development. Members of some of the city’s neighborhood associations have concerns, including Sarah Adams, co-chair of the Fall Creek Neighborhood Association and vice president of Historic Ithaca. Adams, a planning board member in the early 1990s (”when Walmart was happening”) has voiced her concern about zoning changes, both passed and proposed, at several city council meetings.

“I believe that the proposed zoning change that increases the height from 60 to 85 feet along the north side of Green Street is ill-conceived and irresponsible,” Adams told the Planning Committee in May.

(more…)

There’s plenty of flooding in the area and more rain expected today.

I personally prefer rain to snow (without the flooding part, of course) - it reminds me of Vancouver where it snows very little during the winter. It rains instead.

The gorge waterfalls are far more impressive after heavy rainfall. Though still officially ‘closed’ for winter, we ventured up Cascadilla Gorge last night up to the point where the path is first washed out. It’s likely passable, but since it was getting dark we turned back. Last week an enormous tree had fallen across the path below the stairs to the footbridge. The tree’s now done gone and washed away I guess!

The entire trail is in desperate need of clearing, cleanup and repair. I tried looking up information about how this is done each spring but didn’t find much of anything online. I would happily volunteer some time with a broom to sweep out rocks.

It seems Cornell Plantations manages the area but doesn’t have the proper budget to effectively do it. After a major flood in January of ‘96 the gorge was closed for more than a year before Cornell Plantations received federal repair funds to fix it.

I’m surprised there isn’t a clear community partnership dedicated to maintaining the trail. Doesn’t it seem logical to have a volunteer effort where groups could go in and assist in clearing and rebuilding it? The Plantations lists many volunteer opportunities, but none that are relevant to the gorge trail. I randomly found that in spring ‘98 the Cornell Outing Club helped clear out debris.

Considering Cornell University advertises the gorge trail as a passage from downtown to the university, shouldn’t they be more actively involved in coordinating cleanup?

I just don’t understand how, in over 75 years of the trail’s existence, there isn’t a more active response team in place to keep Cascadilla Gorge operating for students, locals and tourists to enjoy.

As a side note - below the frat houses along the rim there’s a flow of trash indicating these people have no real respect for their surroundings, or guilt about using the gorge as a natural landfill. And why are there no trash bins at the entrances to the trail with signs requesting ‘carry in, carry out”?

Obviously there’s no easy solution to managing the area, but how about some evidence of an attempt?