Shaping a City: Ithaca, New York, a Developer’s Perspective by Mack Travis (review)

Scattered across the landscapes of the region known as “upstate New York” are a number of smaller and medium-sized cities and towns that have a collective set of similarities, yet each has its own specific and defining characteristics. Most were settled and developed after the American Revolution, and a great many had reached various levels of static development, or even decline, by the 1960s. Populations were not growing. Older industries and the components of economic bases were either closing down or moving away. Houses and other building stock were moldering. Ithaca, a small city in the Finger Lakes area of central New York, was one of these communities. What were Ithaca and the other kindred cities and towns of “upstate” going to do about this gradual decline? They could rebuild themselves somehow and slow or stop the decay. They could try to simply maintain themselves in a state of stasis. Or they could do little to halt the decay and fade away. Mack Travis has offered an account of how he and many other (mainly) local developers, planners, city officials, and other interested people, together with a number of associations and leaders of three local universities, chose to lead a rebuilding and renewal of downtown Ithaca, which continues to the present day.

This multifaceted transition began between 1971 and 1975 with the creation of a pedestrian mall similar to those developed in Boulder, Colorado, and Burlington, Vermont. Focused on a stretch of State Street located in the heart of the city, spurred on by worries about the building of “suburban” shopping centers, new housing, and the movement of residents out of the city, the business people, politicians, bureaucrats, and private developers envisioned this pedestrian mall as a first step in strengthening the economic, aesthetic, and residential characteristics of the center of the city.

This early step stimulated further actions that were targeted toward holding people, businesses, and social events in the city core. It was during this expansion of the redevelopment process that the author returned to his hometown and started a new career in real estate development and management, while also being employed as an instructor at Ithaca College. He also met with faculty and administrators at Cornell University and quickly became involved with Cornell’s expansion of housing and property management activities. Essential to this stage of the development process that Travis and many others became involved in were a number of projects beyond the pedestrian mall’s development that would diversify, rebuild, add to, and remake the face and body of downtown Ithaca. This included a mixed array of housing types that were both small-scale and included hundreds of units, and an organizational tool called a Business Improvement District. This expanding and diversifying process also included several special projects such as the purchase and rebuilding of the State Theater, several business clusters such as Gateway Plaza and the Gateway Commons, and new high-rise hotels and financial institutions. Several nonprofit organizations, Historic Ithaca, and other groups, in partnership with private businesses and local government, helped preserve historic structures and sites.

As might be expected, not all parts of this complex process succeeded, and there were a number of setbacks, disagreements, and false starts. An example was the destruction (with a human fatality) by a runaway truck of a downtown restaurant. It took two years to rebuild and reopen this establishment. Plus, the original pedestrian mall had to be rebuilt between 2013 and 2015. Older buildings often had to be removed, and new ones, including necessary parking facilities, had to be put up. All this disrupted business activities and personal lives. What evolved, however, is an Ithaca that has had its core remade, invigorated, and strengthened. In contrast to other upstate cities and towns, Ithaca’s center is a lively, active, and largely profitable heart of the city. Yet it...