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Pitfalls for Planning in New Orleans

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“I want to be as candid as I can be without losing my job,” Eric Shaw stated with frank humor as he began his talk “Planning, Institution Building, and Long-Term Recovery in the State of Louisiana,” which he delivered to a packed audience in Lewis auditorium last Friday afternoon. The young, Harvard-educated hired gun brought in from previous urban planning positions in D.C., Miami and Silicon Valley, he was in the unique position of a technocrat who was running not to be elected to public office, but rather to create a new public office. Still, he had to carefully negotiate paying lip service to the stance of disinterested academic expertise while playing kiss-up to the interests of his political superiors.

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C.U. Plan Prepares for Population Increase

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“Poor air quality, massive parking lots, traffic jams and delays are integral parts of life in many parts of the United Sates, but they don’t have to be a part of our future here,” said Bill Wendt, Cornell’s director of Transportation and Mail Services. Wendt’s optimism about Ithaca’s future can be attributed to the Transportation-Focused Generic Environmental Impact Statement released today, which examines the future of Ithaca’s transportation in light of presumed population growth in the next 10 years.

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Ithacans’ Visit to Charlottesville Puts City in Context of Other College Towns

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Correction Appended

From Ithaca Hours to the Ithaca Commons, no one can deny that the city Cornell calls home has its fair share of quirks. But the question of how unique Ithaca really is has surfaced recently with the city’s comparison to other college towns.

Last month, a delegation from the Ithaca Downtown Partnership took a trip to Charlottesville, where they observed the town, met with public officials and brought back a wealth of information on how the two cities compare. The trip was part of an effort to develop a 10-year master plan for downtown Ithaca.