The honor bestowed upon Ithaca by UTNE READER magazine - a clearinghouse for alternative media reports and stories gleaned from sources promoting the progressive lifestyle - puts us ahead of Portland, OR; Durham, NC; Burlington, VT; and Madison, WI, in the first five of the 10 Most Enlightened Towns in America. It is not a Best City list like those compiled by FORTUNE or USA TODAY, which is why most of the larger municipalities are not included.
ÓWe wanted to champion towns that are looking at problems with a more inclusice strategy,Ó says UTNE Editor Hugh Delahanty. Among the criteria considered were urban design, progressive politics, lively media, and cultural options. Writes Jay Walljasper, editor of the magazineÕs special section, Ò...We chose communities that we think are dealing creatively with the challenges they face, places that can provide inspiration and practical ideas about how to improve life in your hometown.Ó
Ithaca was singled out, Walljasper reports, Òin part because of its truly breathtaking array of opportunities for citizen participation - everything from tireless historic preservation groups and enthusiastic union organizing drives to a bicycle recycling program.Ó Our seven unabashed leftists on Common Council are cited as well.
Senior Editor Jay Spayde was dispatched by UTNE READER at the end of February to visit our town, meet some people and take notes for the lead story in the magazineÕs special section. One weekend here was enough to leave a favorable impression.
ÓI was impressed by the willingness of people to talk about the upside, and the downside, of the community - the problems with wages and the local economy,Ó he says. The energy and sophistication of things like Ithaca Hours, the degree of integration of Greenstar Coop and the Alternatives Credit Union into the life of the town was impressive. There are people with alternative values in positions of influence in Ithaca, Spayde says, adding that the strength of debate and discussion among the citizens is something not found in most cities. The number of non-profit and activist groups was overwhelming, he says.
Indeed, much of his report on Ithaca focuses on Hours and Paul Glover, EcoVillage, the Citizens Planning Alliance, Greenstar and the efforts of local activists to be heard and understood. ÒI would have liked to talk more about the physical pleasure people get from this place,Ó Spayde says. ÒI did not get to see the Farmers Market, and I am sure that during the summer there is a different feeling in the city.Ó
But enlightenment knows no climatic boundaries. Spayde spoke with Glover, former Mayor Ben Nichols (noting the Socialist label), former alderperson Dan Hoffman and Chamber president Linda Daybell during his stay. He also met with Brad Edmonson, editor and senior writer at American Demographics and a sometimes contributor to UTNE READER.
Edmonson, a long-time Ithaca resident, took some of the bluch off the rosy portrait painted by Spayde. In a sidebar piece titled Ithaca Smithaca, Edmonson writes: ÒIÕll admit that it embarrasses me that so many people here wear tie-dyed shirts and funny hats and/or wear humorless expressions and attend piss-in-the-wind protests and/or are consumed by their search for inner growth and personal fulfillment. The young ones are nice to have around, but the ones who are on the far side of 30 are troubling.Ó
But Edmonson is one of those for whom the positive aspects of life in Ithaca outweigh the negative. ÒThe tensions and contradictions of life here are also the things I love the most,Ó he writes.
To Delahanty, the idea to rank the enlightened cities came from a desire to find examples of places that seve as good examples. ÒWe wanted to focus on things that people are doing to create the good life. Where there is a sense of we rather than I. These are the cities that people can learn from.Ó
No one had done such an evaluation, he points out. It is important to look at those living close to the ground - living in a real way - because this gets lost in the mainstream press. Places like Ithaca are off the radar screen. We want to focus on how people can be a part of their community.
ÓThat,Ó writes Spayde, Òis what puts us head and shoulders above the rest. ÒHe writes: ...Ithaca stands as the very model of the word ALTERNATIVE, which here is understood to mean a serious, thoughtful, powerful civic force with many faces and a strong inclination toward social inventiveness.
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