Urban Outfitters Opens Store in Downtown Ithaca
Downtown Ithaca underwent a wardrobe change last month when national clothing company Urban Outfitters opened it’s second upstate New York store in Ithaca.
Urban Outfitters occupies the majority of the ground floor beneath Cayuga Green, a new mixed-use apartment building on Green Street.
Some students welcomed the variety that Urban will add to local shopping.
“I think nothing better has ever happened in Ithaca,” Allie Strauss ’11 said.
Other students voiced concern that the store would disrupt Ithaca’s quaint atmosphere.
New Gourmet Café Debuts on College Ave.
A new gourmet delicatessen on the corner of College Ave. and Dryden Rd. opened in March, bringing new competition to the Collegetown economy.
Green Café, owned by Charles Park, is modeled after its flagship café on Park Avenue in New York City. The eatery occupies a building that had previously been vacant for three years.
Featuring everything from espresso to smoothies and antipasto sandwiches to homemade tofu, the new 24-hour café offers a menu that overlaps with that of many other Collegetown restaurants.
Michael Carley, manager of Insomnia Cookies, located across the street, anticipates some new competition with Green Café.
“I think we have a pretty solid group of customers,” he said. “We mainly sell cookies to late night drunk kids after the bars let out. The fact that they are open 24 hours may create some rivalry for us.”
Ithacan Throws Shoe at Mayor
A former member of Weather Underground brought a February meeting of Ithaca’s Common Council to a sudden halt when he threw his shoes at Mayor Carolyn Peterson.
Robin Palmer ’58, a long time resident of Ithaca, threw his shoes at the mayor in protest of the Council’s resolution that called the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan “immoral.” The shoes fell short of hitting anyone and Palmer was escorted from the room by ambulance personnel and police officers.
Palmer said that he was happy with the reaction to the incident, which garnered regional and even national media attention in light of the similar protest by an Iraqi journalist against President George W. Bush last December.
“I wasn’t on an ego-trip. I was trying to assert my position,” he said. “I was making what they would call in the ’60s a ‘guerrilla theater statement’ in throwing the shoes at the Mayor.”
Since the incident, the City of Ithaca has bolstered its security measures at City Hall through an increased police presence, metal detector wanding and bag searches.
City Votes to Dually Name State Street After Martin Luther King, Jr.
In January, the City of Ithaca dually designated State Street, one of the city’s major thoroughfares, as Martin Luther King Jr. Street, ending a nearly five-year long heated and racially charged debate over the street’s renaming.
Residences and businesses have the option of retaining their State Street mailing address or adopting a new Martin Luther King Jr. Street address.
While some Ithacans said that renaming the street would both encourage and commemorate the fight against racism, others had practical and public safety concerns over changing mailing addresses. Some were also against the loss of a historical street name, as State Street is one of Ithaca’s oldest and most traveled streets.