Ithaca Blog

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Four Things Visitors Like About Ithaca (And One They Don't)

One of the rewarding experiences in our work for the Ithaca Hours currency system is meeting the many visitors who come to Ithaca to study the system.

As we have mentioned on these pages before, we particularly like seeing Ithaca from a visitor's view, and learning what we take for granted, as well as what could be better.

This past weekend, we had a visitor from Chapel Hill NC, and one from Brooklyn NY. Four things linger in short-term memory of what they really liked about Ithaca. And the one thing they found surprisingly bad.

The good things:
1. the Library Sale. It impressed in size, variety, and in physical quality of the books themselves.

2. the broad recycling and composting options in public places and businesses.

3. the buttered popcorn at Cinemapolis.

4. the little sushi place next door to Autumn Leaves Books. It was our personal first visit. Good quality food at very reasonable prices ($2 cup of miso, e.g.). Our NC visitor went back on her own on Monday.

Monday was also the day of the bad experience in Ithaca, which was: the post office. Our NC guest went there to mail back books she bought at the Library Sale. She stood in line 20 minutes.

It was after this that she went back to the sushi place, to boost herself up.

(Next time we are at the sushi place, which will be soon, we will try to catch the name, and mention same here. Maybe we'll also mention to the owners that they need to trumpet that name a bit more. Usually we notice and retain such critical info.)

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Samurai Suhi!

Andy said...

The post office leaves a lot to be desired. The postal workers do a surprisingly good job considering people get pretty impatient by the time they make it through the line. 20 minutes waiting is on a good day. From my experience, it's best to stay away during commute times and lunch, so plan for 10-11 or 2-3 for the shortest wait time.