Many students were excited last week when the City of Ithaca Planning and Development Board approved plans for an Urban Outfitters store set to hit downtown Ithaca this summer. The store is part of a larger plan meant to bring more people to downtown Ithaca. Hopefully, however, the trip to a new chain store will not mark students’ first visits downtown. As residents of Ithaca, Cornellians have the responsibility to be active in the community around them, rather than merely shop in it.

You may want to hold off on that new car or think twice before booking that Spring Break trip to Acapulco, or even stop yourself from shelling out the $7.00 for a Collegetown bagel, because despite the House’s approval of the economic stimulus package, experts warn that there will be no quick solution to the financial crisis. 

Yesterday, just over 40 people gathered at the Tompkins County Public Library to hear a panel of experts discuss what President Barack Obama must do to begin to right the economy. The event, which was sponsored by the Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America, featured four speakers who offered unique insight into different aspects of the issue. 

On Jan. 8, shots rang out on the 300 block of First Street, disturbing the usual peace and quiet of an Ithaca evening. Yesterday, the Tompkins County Grand Jury charged Caesar Slaughter, 52, with first-degree assault, according to the Ithaca Journal. Slaughter was also charged two counts of second-degree criminal possession for the alleged shooting, which wounded an Ithaca man.

The contentious debate over plans for Milstein Hall finally reached an end yesterday evening when the City of Ithaca’s Planning and Development Board unanimously approved the final site plan resolution.

The Milstein Hall discussion at yesterday’s meeting was largely procedural. Kim Michaels, senior landscape architect for Trowbridge & Wolf, LLP, and Andrew Magre ’90 presented samples of the project’s building materials to the board. No members of the public addressed the board.

Taste of Thai and Tamarind, two Ithaca restaurants owned by Ariya Pancharoen, were found to have violated numerous labor laws following an investigation conducted by the New York State Labor Department, according to a press release issued by the Department of Labor yesterday.

The DOL, working in conjunction with the Tompkins’ County Workers’ Center, discovered that 36 workers were affected by these violations and were cumulatively underpaid $28, 388.

In addition to being fined for these violations, Pancharoen has agreed to pay each of the workers in three monthly payments. The Taste of Thai workers received their first payments on Nov. 15, 2008, and the Tamarind workers collected theirs on Jan. 15, 2009.

The dual designation of State Street as Martin Luther King Jr. Street was made official yesterday.

About 200 people watched and cheered as the first street sign for Martin Luther King Jr. Street was revealed at about 9 a.m.. The ceremony was one of the highlights of the annual Martin Luther King Day celebrations in Ithaca.

Property owners can choose to retain their State Street mailing address or adopt a new Martin Luther King Jr. Street address. Unless they requested a change of address through the Ithaca Fire Department, mailing addresses will remain unchanged.

In Yiddish, dank is the opposite of kvetch, and means “thanks.” Dank to Cornell for holding the first week of classes during Inauguration. Once I got past being bitter at not being able to go to inauguration and having school on MLK Day, I was able to see the positive side of things: not having two of my five classes this week because of Inauguration. So dank Cornell for keeping me in Ithaca while my profs woop it up in DC.

— JM

Both of my parents called me today. Not because they were concerned about their daughter, wanting to tell her how bursting with pride they are at my mere existence. They wanted to talk about the weather. “Oh, it’s an uncomfortable 80 degrees here, sun shining, not a cloud in the sky ... How’s it there?”

Very funny, Dad.

This is the second part of a two-part series analyzing socioeconomic issues at Cornell and in the surrounding community.

When most Cornell students walk into Wegmans for a routine grocery run, they are not thinking about Ithaca’s homeless only a few hundred yards away.

The Jungle is a small tract of land located between the railroad tracks and the Lake Cayuga inlet that provides a safe haven and a sense of community for several of the city’s homeless.

The city has no jurisdiction to kick the residents off the land because the railroad owns the land; in fact, conductors on passing trains often throw water and supplies into the Jungle.

In an effort to address the tense student-police relations in Collegetown regarding the City of Ithaca Noise Ordinance, Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson assembled a group to discuss the issue. In attendance were Ed Vallely, the new Ithaca Police Chief, Nancy Schuler (D-4th Ward), Mary Tomlan ’71 (D-3rd Ward), Svante Myrick ’09 (D-4th Ward) and Student Assembly President Ryan Lavin ’09.

According to Peterson, she called the meeting after Lavin ’09,came to a Common Council meeting to address the problems with the noise ordinance and deteriorating student-police relations.

According to the City of Ithaca Noise Ordinance, a noise violation can be issued when a party or social event produces disruptive noise that carries at least 25 feet.