Ithaca, NY

Two steep gorge corridors make Ithaca’s campus geography part of ordinary cross-town movement. Cascadilla Creek drops 400 feet from Cornell University to downtown, and the public trail through its gorge passes six waterfalls on ancient sedimentary rock. Cornell, founded in 1865 as New York’s land-grant university, occupies East Hill; Ithaca College began downtown as a music conservatory in 1892 and moved to South Hill in the 1960s. Cornell’s land acknowledgement identifies its campus as part of the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ or Cayuga Nation and recognizes their continuing connection to the area. The compact city covers 5.39 square miles at the southern end of Cayuga Lake. Its population rose from 32,108 in the 2020 census to an estimated 33,632 in July 2025.

Downtown life concentrates on the four-block, pedestrian-only Ithaca Commons, where outdoor dining, small events, street performers, and larger festivals share the same public space. TCAT buses tie that center to both colleges and the waterfront; its 2026 network included a Commons–Cornell loop, an Ithaca College–Commons route, and a route through Fall Creek, the Inner Harbor, and Stewart Park. West of downtown, Cass Park combines an ice rink and swimming pool with 20 athletic fields, four tennis courts, a playground, exercise trail, and picnic pavilion. The seasonal Ithaca Farmers Market adds another gathering point at its Steamboat Landing pavilion, using vendors based within 30 miles of the city and operating on weekends through much of the year.