Ithaca (/ˈɪθəkə/) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is located on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. According to the 2020 census, Ithaca has a population of 32,108. It is the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area, which includes all 103,558 residents of Tompkins County. Ithaca is the county seat of Tompkins County. The city is named after the Greek island of Ithaca, which is the home of Odysseus, the main character in Homer’s Odyssey.

Ithaca is a college town known for hosting Cornell University, an Ivy League university founded in 1865, and Ithaca College. Before the late 18th century, the area now known as Ithaca was inhabited by the Cayuga people, who were part of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. In 1789, the federal and state governments began giving land in the area—called the Central New York Military Tract—to veterans of the American Revolutionary War as compensation. The land was in the township of Ulysses, or Tract 22. White settlers moved to the area in 1794, and Ithaca was officially established as a city in 1821.

History

Native Americans lived in this area for thousands of years. When Europeans arrived, the Cayuga (Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ), one of the five tribes in the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee), controlled the land. Jesuit missionaries from New France, now part of Quebec, tried to convert the Cayuga people starting in 1657.

Later, the Saponi and Tutelo, who spoke Siouan languages, lived at the southern end of Cayuga Lake. These groups were allowed to settle on Cayuga hunting lands, including areas near present-day Newfield and Cayuta, New York. They had been forced to leave Virginia and North Carolina due to conflicts between tribes and European settlers. Similarly, the Tuscarora, an Iroquoian-speaking tribe from the Carolinas, moved to join the Oneida after losing the Yamasee War. They became the sixth nation of the Haudenosaunee, with leaders confirming their migration was complete in 1722.

During the American Revolutionary War, four of the six Iroquois nations supported the British in fighting against the American colonists. Fighting decisions were made independently by each group. Battles were fierce in the Mohawk Valley and Western New York. In 1779, the Sullivan Expedition targeted Iroquois lands in western New York, destroying over 40 villages, winter food supplies, and forcing the Iroquois to leave the area. The Tutelo village of Coreorgonel, near the junction of state routes 13 and 13A south of Ithaca, was destroyed. Most Iroquois left the state after the war, but some remained. The state sold former Iroquois lands to encourage non-Native settlers and gave land to war veterans as payment.

Within Ithaca’s current boundaries, Native Americans used a temporary hunting camp near Cascadilla Gorge. In 1788, 11 men from Kingston, New York, explored the area with Lenape guides. The next year, Jacob Yaple, Isaac Dumond, and Peter Hinepaw returned with families and built log cabins. In 1788, Abraham Bloodgood of Albany received a patent for 1,400 acres, including present-day downtown Ithaca west of Tioga Street.

In 1790, the federal and state governments began giving land in the Central New York Military Tract to Revolutionary War soldiers as payment. Most local land titles trace back to these grants. However, the Bloodgood tract was not part of the veterans’ land program. It was given to a state militia member, Martinus Zielie, under a different law for recruiting soldiers.

Simeon De Witt, Bloodgood’s son-in-law and New York’s Surveyor General, oversaw the survey of the Central New York Military Tract, which included northern Tompkins County. He hired his cousin, Moses De Witt, to survey the area around Cayuga Lake. Both Simeon and Moses were related to DeWitt Clinton through their mother, Mary De Witt. In 1790, the New York State Commissioners of Lands, led by Governor George Clinton, met to organize the land grants. The town where Ithaca is now located was named Ulysses. Later, Moses De Witt moved to Ithaca, then called “The Flats,” and renamed it after the Greek island home of Ulysses, following a trend of using classical names for settlements.

In 1791, De Witt divided the downtown area into lots and sold them at low prices. That same year, John Yaple built a grist mill on Cascadilla Creek.

On November 11, 1794, the Treaty of Canandaigua was signed between about 50 Iroquois leaders and U.S. officials, including Timothy Pickering on behalf of President George Washington. The Cayuga agreed to give up their land in present-day Tompkins County in exchange for a reservation of about 64,000 acres at the north end of Cayuga Lake. Today, the Cayuga Nation of New York, descendants of the treaty signers, still use the treaty to show their legal rights to self-governance.

Ithaca’s first frame house was built in 1800 by Abram Markle. In 1804, the village had a postmaster, and in 1805, a tavern.

Ithaca became a hub for transporting salt from Salina, New York, to buyers in the south and east. This led to the 1810 construction of the Owego Turnpike. When the War of 1812 blocked access to gypsum from Nova Scotia, Ithaca became a center for Cayuga gypsum trade. In 1819, the Cayuga Steamboat Company launched the first steamboat on Cayuga Lake, the Enterprise. In 1821, the village was incorporated as a separate town from Ulysses. In 1834, the Ithaca and Owego Railroad began operating horse-drawn trains, connecting the Erie Canal to the Susquehanna River.

During the Long Depression of 1837, the Ithaca and Owego Railroad was reorganized as the Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad. It was redesigned with switchbacks to reach Ithaca in the late 1840s. In the late 20th century, part of the railroad’s old path in Ithaca was used for the South Hill Recreation Way.

However, other railroads bypassed Ithaca, such as the Syracuse, Binghamton & New York Railroad built in 1854. After the Civil War, railroads connected Ithaca to Auburn, Geneva, Cayuga, Cortland, Elmira, and Athens, Pennsylvania, mostly funded by Ezra Cornell. These were branch lines, as Ithaca’s steep location made it hard to link directly to major rail routes.

In 1892, the Lehigh Valley Railroad built a main line from Van Etten Junction to Geneva and Buffalo, bypassing Ithaca and Auburn. Earlier, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad had done the same in 1882. For many years, two daily New York City–Buffalo trains served Ithaca via the Ithaca Branch until passenger service ended in 1961.

In the late 1800s, Ithaca’s economy grew. In 1883, William Henry Baker and partners founded the Ithaca Gun Company, which made shotguns.

Geography

Cayuga Lake is located in a long, narrow valley that runs north to south. Ithaca is at the southern end of the lake, but the valley continues to the southwest beyond the city. This valley was originally a river valley that was deepened and widened by ice sheets from the Pleistocene era over hundreds of thousands of years. These ice sheets moved across the land, altering the direction of older streams and creating hanging valleys. When the last ice sheets melted about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, the streams carved deep into the hillsides, forming gorges, rapids, and waterfalls such as Fall and Cascadilla Creeks in Ithaca, as well as Buttermilk Falls, Enfield Gorge, and Taughannock Falls. Cayuga Lake is the most recent lake in a series that formed as ice moved northward. The lake drains to the north and was created behind a dam made of glacial material called a moraine.

The area is mostly made of rocks from the Devonian period, including shale and sandstone. North of Ithaca, these rocks contain many fossils, which can be viewed at the Museum of the Earth. Large rocks moved by glaciers, called glacial erratics, are also found in the region.

Ithaca was built on flat land just south of the lake, which formed when silt filled the southern end of the lake in more recent geological times. The city later expanded onto nearby hills, including East Hill, West Hill, and South Hill, which rise several hundred feet above the flat land. The Cornell University campus is bordered on the north and south by Fall and Cascadilla Creeks.

The natural vegetation in Ithaca is a northern temperate broadleaf forest, dominated by deciduous trees like maple, sycamore, black walnut, birch, and oak, and coniferous trees such as white pine, Norway spruce, and eastern hemlock. The city has a wide variety of trees, with over 190 species planted, including cherry, southern magnolia, and ginkgo. This diversity helps protect against tree diseases, such as those caused by the emerald ash borer.

According to the Köppen climate classification, Ithaca has a warm-summer humid continental climate, also called a hemiboreal climate (Dfb). Summers are warm but short, while the rest of the year is cool or cold, with long, snowy winters. On average, about 67 inches (170 cm) of snow falls each year. Frost can occur at any time except mid-summer.

Winters in Ithaca are typically cold, with cloudy skies and light to moderate snowfall. The heaviest single-day snowfall was 26.0 inches (66 cm) on February 14, 1914. However, winters can vary, with brief warm periods and occasional extremely cold air, sometimes reaching temperatures as low as −10 °F (−23 °C) or lower. Summers are usually sunny with moderate heat and humidity, but also frequent afternoon thunderstorms. Nights are often pleasant and cool. Heatwaves, with temperatures reaching 95 °F (35 °C) to 100 °F (38 °C), can occur but are short-lived.

The first freeze in Ithaca typically occurs on October 5, and the last freeze is around May 15, giving the area a growing season of 141 days. The first and last snowfalls usually occur on November 12 and April 7, respectively. The hardiness zone for the area is between 5b and 6a. The coldest temperature recorded was −25 °F (−32 °C) on February 2, 1961, and the warmest was 103 °F (39 °C) on July 9, 1936.

The flat valley areas tend to be slightly cooler in winter, and Ithaca residents sometimes see snow on the hills while it rains in the valley. A mix of rain, wind, and snow, common in late fall and early spring, is humorously called "ithacation" by locals.

The lakes in the area, including Cayuga Lake, create microclimates that support a short but suitable growing season for winemaking, similar to Germany’s Rhine Valley wine region. Because of this, the Finger Lakes American Viticultural Area is home to many wineries.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census, Ithaca had a population of 32,108. The average age of residents was 22.9 years. Eight point eight percent of people were younger than 18, and eight point one percent were 65 years or older. For every 100 females, there were 104.3 males. For every 100 females who were 18 years or older, there were 105.6 males who were 18 years or older.

One hundred percent of residents lived in urban areas, and zero percent lived in rural areas.

There were 12,440 households in Ithaca. Twelve point six percent of these households had children younger than 18 living in them. Sixteen point eight percent were married-couple households. Thirty-six point one percent had a male householder without a spouse or partner, and 40.9 percent had a female householder without a spouse or partner. Forty-nine point five percent of all households included only one person, and 8.1 percent had someone living alone who was 65 years or older.

There were 14,011 housing units, and 11.2 percent of them were vacant. The vacancy rate for homes owned by people was 1.6 percent, and the vacancy rate for rented homes was 6.8 percent.

The most common ancestries reported in 2020 were:
• German (12.6%)
• Irish (11.6%)
• English (11.2%)
• Chinese (6.8%)
• Italian (6.6%)
• Indian (3.8%)
• African American (3.8%)
• Scottish (3.5%)
• Polish (3.3%)
• French (3.1%)

Ithaca is the main city in the Ithaca-Cortland Combined Statistical Area. This area includes the Ithaca Metropolitan Statistical Area (Tompkins County) and the Cortland Micropolitan Statistical Area (Cortland County). Together, these areas had a population of 145,100 in the 2000 census.

As of the 2000 census, there were 29,287 people, 10,287 households, and 2,962 families living in Ithaca. The population density was 5,360.9 people per square mile (2,069.9 people per square kilometer). There were 10,736 housing units, with an average density of 1,965.2 per square mile (758.8 per square kilometer).

The racial makeup of the city was:
• 73.97% White
• 13.65% Asian
• 6.71% Black or African American
• 0.39% Native American
• 0.05% Pacific Islander
• 1.86% from other races
• 3.36% from two or more races
• 5.31% Hispanic or Latino of any race

There were 10,287 households, of which 14.2% had children younger than 18 living with them. Nineteen percent were married couples living together. Seven point eight percent had a female householder without a husband, and 71.2% were non-families. Forty-three point three percent of all households included only one person, and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years or older. The average household size was 2.13 people, and the average family size was 2.81 people.

In 2000, the population was distributed as follows:
• 9.2% under 18
• 53.8% aged 18 to 24
• 20.1% aged 25 to 44
• 10.6% aged 45 to 64
• 6.3% aged 65 or older
The average age was 22 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.6 males. For every 100 females aged 18 or older, there were 102.2 males.

The median income for a household was $21,441, and the median income for a family was $42,304. Males had a median income of $29,562, while females had a median income of $27,828. The average income per person was $13,408. Thirteen point two percent of individuals and 4.2% of families lived below the poverty line.

The term "Greater Ithaca" includes the City and Town of Ithaca, as well as several smaller settled places within or near the Town:

Census-designated places

Economy

The economy of Ithaca depends on education and is also helped by agriculture, technology, and tourism. As of 2006, Ithaca had one of the few growing economies in New York State outside New York City. People from nearby rural counties like Cortland, Tioga, and Schuyler, as well as from more urban Chemung County, travel to Ithaca for jobs.

Ithaca has worked to keep its traditional downtown shopping area, which is designed for walking. This includes the Ithaca Commons pedestrian mall, Press Bay Alley, and Press Bay Court. Another shopping area, Collegetown, is near the Cornell University campus. It has many restaurants, stores, and bars, as well as more tall apartment buildings. Most people who visit Collegetown are students from Cornell University.

Ithaca has many businesses typical of small American college towns, such as bookstores, art cinemas, craft shops, and restaurants that serve vegetarian meals. Moosewood Restaurant, started as a group in 1973, published several vegetarian cookbooks. Bon Appetit magazine listed it as one of the thirteen most important restaurants of the 20th century. Ithaca has both local and chain restaurants, offering a variety of ethnic foods.

The Ithaca Farmers Market, a group of people working together, began operating on Saturdays in 1973. It is located at Steamboat Landing, a place where steamboats from Cayuga Lake once stopped.

The South Hills Business Campus first opened in 1957 as the regional headquarters for the National Cash Register Company. At that time, the company employed many people and ran three full factory shifts. Although it was sold to American Telephone and Telegraph in 1991 and later bought by Cognitive TPG, it remains a major tenant at the South Hills Business Campus, now owned by private investors.

Ithaca is home to the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which has a strong relationship with Central New York’s farming and dairy industries. Around 60 small farms are located in the Ithaca/Trumansburg area, including research farms managed by the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station. Cornell’s Dairy Research Facility helps support New York’s growing milk and yogurt industries.

Arts and culture

Founded in 1983, the Sciencenter is a non-profit science museum where visitors can explore science through hands-on activities. It is officially recognized by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and is a member of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and the Association of Children's Museums (ACM).

The Museum of the Earth is a natural history museum that opened in 2003. It was created by the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), which was started in Ithaca in 1932. The PRI publishes the oldest paleontology journal in the Western Hemisphere. The museum’s exhibits show the 4.5-billion-year history of Earth in a way that is easy to understand, with interactive displays. In 2004, the PRI officially joined Cornell University.

The Cayuga Nature Center is located on the site of the Cayuga Preventorium, a building from 1914 that cared for children with tuberculosis. At that time, treatment for this disease focused on rest and good nutrition. In 1981, the Cayuga Nature Center became an independent, non-profit organization that teaches about the environment to local schools. In 2011, the PRI merged with the Cayuga Nature Center, making it a sister organization to the Museum of the Earth.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity. The Lab’s Visitors’ Center and observation areas are open to the public. Displays include a surround-sound theater, object-theater shows, a sound studio, and kiosks with information about bird sounds.

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell has one of the best art collections in upstate New York. Each year, the museum hosts special exhibitions and displays art from around the world, including Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, graphic arts, medallic art, and Tiffany glass. The collection includes works from ancient times to the present.

Ithaca has several professional theaters. The Center for the Arts at Ithaca, Inc., operates the "Hangar Theatre," which opened in 1975 in a former airport hangar. The Hangar hosts summer theater performances and offers programs for students, including school tours and Artists-in-the-Schools initiatives. Ithaca is also home to the Kitchen Theatre Company, a non-profit theater group started in 1991. The Cherry Arts, founded in 2017, runs a flexible theater space called the Cherry Artspace. They present unusual international plays and host performances by other artists. They also manage the Cherry Gallery for art exhibitions and the Camilla Schade Studio for rehearsals and events. Other groups, like Civic Ensemble, create original plays and community productions without a dedicated performance space.

Ithaca is known for its annual Ithaca Festival and hosts one of the largest used-book sales in the United States.

The Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts supports artists and writers in New York State through two programs: free, juried residencies and low-cost, non-juried retreats. Founded in 1995, the foundation is located eight miles from Ithaca. From 1996 to 2008, it gave grants to artists and writers in central and western New York. The foundation hosts public events called Open House to introduce visitors to artists and writers in residence.

The Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, founded in 1992, is the North American home of the Dalai Lama’s Namgyal Monastery.

The city and town also sponsor events like the Apple Festival in the fall, the Chili Fest in February, the Finger Lakes International Dragon Boat Festival in July, Porchfest in late September, and the Ithaca Brew Fest in Stewart Park in September.

Ithaca is known for the Ithaca Health Fund, a cooperative health insurance plan, and Ithaca Hours, one of the first local currency systems in the United States, created by Paul Glover.

Ithaca is home to the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra.

The Cornell Concert Series has brought world-class musicians and ensembles to Ithaca since 1903. For its first 84 years, the series only featured Western classical music. In 1987, it included Ravi Shankar and expanded to include a wider range of music, such as jazz, world traditions, and new compositions. Each season, the series presents performers from around the world, including groups like the Leipzig Tomanerchor, Danish Quartet, and Eighth Blackbird.

The School of Music at Ithaca College was started in 1892 by William Egbert as a music conservatory on Buffalo Street. It offers degrees in Performance, Theory, Music Education, and Composition. Since 1941, the school has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.

Ithaca’s Suzuki school, Ithaca Talent Education, teaches music to children of all ages and trains teachers at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Community School of Music and Art provides classes and lessons to students of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities through a scholarship program.

Many musicians live in Ithaca, including Samite of Uganda, The Burns Sisters, The Horse Flies, Johnny Dowd, Mary Lorson, cellist Hank Roberts, Anna Coogan, John Brown’s Body, Kurt Riley, X Ambassadors, and Alex Kresovich. Old-time and folk music are popular, with weekly folk concerts on WVBR-FM’s Bound for Glory, the longest-running live folk broadcast in North America. The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, hosted by local band Donna the Buffalo, takes place annually in Trumansburg, featuring over 60 local, national, and international acts.

Ithaca is a hub for live music, with more than 200 groups performing a wide range of genres, including folk, rock, blues, jazz, country, lo-fi, and reggae. There are over 80 live music venues within 40 miles of the city, such as cafes, pubs, clubs, and concert halls.

Government

There are two government groups in the area: the Town of Ithaca and the City of Ithaca. The Town of Ithaca is one of nine towns in Tompkins County. The City of Ithaca is located within the Town of Ithaca but operates as a separate government.

The City of Ithaca uses a council–manager government system. Its official rules include a full-time mayor and two full-time city court judges. Since 1995, the mayor has been elected for a four-year term. Since 1989, city court judges have been elected for a ten-year term. In 2022, city voters approved a change to a council–manager government instead of a mayor–council system. The city’s first city manager, Deb Mohlenhoff, began work on January 1, 2024.

Since 1983, the city has been divided into five areas called wards. Each ward elects two people to the city council, called the Common Council, for four-year terms. In March 2015, the Common Council passed a resolution stating that freedom from domestic violence is a basic human right. In September 2023, the Common Council passed a law to protect transgender individuals.

In December 2005, the City and Town governments began talking about combining their operations into one group. This idea was discussed earlier in 1963 and 1969. Cayuga Heights, a village near the city, refused to join the city in 1954.

Most voters in the city, including many students, support liberal ideas and the Democratic Party. A 2004 study called the city the most liberal in New York. This is different from the more conservative views of rural areas in Upstate New York. The city’s voters are more liberal than those in the rest of Tompkins County, even though the county last supported a Republican presidential candidate in 1980. In 2008, Barack Obama won Tompkins County in the Democratic primary, the only county in New York he won. Obama also won Tompkins County by a large margin in the 2008 presidential election. Tompkins County is now part of New York’s 19th congressional district.

The Ithaca Police Department (IPD) handles all public safety and law enforcement in the city. It was created on June 1, 1888, when Ithaca became a city. As of 2024, the department has 54 employees, including Chief Thomas Kelly.

The Common Council oversees the IPD and decides the department’s budget.

The Ithaca Police Benevolent Association (IPBA) is a union formed by members of the IPD.

Ithaca has sister city relationships with:
• Eldoret, Kenya
• Pokhara, Nepal

Education

Ithaca is an important educational center in Central New York. Two major post-secondary schools in Ithaca were each started in the late 1800s. In 1865, Ezra Cornell founded Cornell University, which is located on East Hill overlooking the town. The university was opened to accept both boys and girls. Women began attending in 1870. Ezra Cornell also created a public library for the city. Ithaca College was originally named the Ithaca Conservatory of Music and was founded in 1892. The college first operated in the downtown area but moved to South Hill in the 1960s. In 2018, Cornell University had 23,600 students, and Ithaca College had 6,700 students. Tompkins Cortland Community College is located in the nearby town of Dryden and has a branch in downtown Ithaca. Empire State College provides college courses for adults in downtown Ithaca.

The Ithaca City School District, based in Ithaca, covers the city and its surrounding areas. It has about 5,500 students in grades K-12 across eight elementary schools (one for each neighborhood), two middle schools (Boynton and Dewitt), Ithaca High School, and the Lehman Alternative Community School, which serves both middle and high school students. Several private schools are located in the Ithaca area, such as the Roman Catholic Immaculate Conception School, the Cascadilla School, the New Roots Charter School, the Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School, the Namaste Montessori School (in the Trumansburg area), and the Ithaca Waldorf School. Ithaca supports home-schooling families through two networks: Loving Education At Home (LEAH) and the Northern Light Learning Center (NLLC). TST BOCES is located in Tompkins County.

The Tompkins County Public Library, located at 101 East Green Street, is the main library for Tompkins County and serves as the Central Library for the Finger Lakes Library System. The library has more than 38,000 registered members and holds nearly 260,000 items in its collection. It lends out about 800,000 items each year.

Media

The Ithaca Journal, started in 1815, is a newspaper published every morning. It has been owned by Gannett since 1912. The Ithaca Voice is a nonprofit website that provides news and aims to help people in Ithaca and Tompkins County better understand civic and political issues. The Ithaca Times is a free weekly newspaper that is published every Wednesday. The Cornell Daily Sun, which has been in operation since 1880, is also published in Ithaca. Other media in the area include the online magazine 14850.com.

Ithaca is home to several radio stations. Other FM stations include Saga's "98.7 The Vine," a small radio station that retransmits another station's signal; WFIZ "Z95.5," which plays popular music from the current top 40 songs; WCII 88.9, a station that broadcasts contemporary Christian music; and classic rock station "The Wall," which operates from Seneca Falls but has a signal transmitter in Ithaca, broadcasting on 99.3 and 96.3 frequencies.

Transportation

In 2009, the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area (MSA) had the highest percentage of workers in the United States who walked to work (15.1 percent). In 2013, the Ithaca MSA had the second-lowest percentage of workers who used private vehicles to travel to work (68.7 percent). During the same year, 17.5 percent of workers in the Ithaca MSA walked to work.

Ithaca is located in the rural Finger Lakes region, about 225 miles (362 km) northwest of New York City. The nearest larger cities, Binghamton and Syracuse, are about one hour away by car. Rochester and Scranton are about two hours away, Buffalo and Albany are about three hours away, and New York City, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Ottawa are approximately four hours away.

Ithaca is more than a half-hour drive from any interstate highway. All car trips to Ithaca involve driving on two-lane state rural highways. The city is where many regional two-lane state highways meet, including Routes 13, 13A, 34, 79, 89, 96, 96B, and 366. These highways are usually not crowded except in the city center. However, Route 79 between the I-81 access at Whitney Point and Ithaca becomes very busy with traffic heading to Ithaca just before the city’s colleges reopen after breaks.

In July 2008, a nonprofit organization called Ithaca Carshare started a carsharing service in Ithaca. As of July 2015, the service had over 1,500 members and was popular with city residents and college students. Vehicles are located throughout downtown Ithaca and at the two major institutions. Ithaca Carshare was the first locally-run carsharing organization in New York State, and others later started in Buffalo, Albany, and Syracuse.

Rideshare services that encourage carpooling and vanpooling are operated by ZIMRIDE and VRIDE. A community mobility education program called Way2Go is run by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County. Way2Go’s website provides information and videos to help people save money, reduce stress, protect the environment, and improve transportation options. The 2-1-1 Tompkins/Cortland Help Line connects people with transportation services in the community by phone and online 24/7. This service is operated by the Human Services Coalition of Tompkins County, Inc. Together, 2-1-1 and Way2Go offer a single resource for transportation information in Ithaca and Tompkins County.

Intercity bus services are available through Greyhound Lines, New York Trailways, OurBus, FlixBus, and Shortline (Coach USA), especially to Binghamton and New York City. There are limited services to Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse, with connections in Binghamton to Utica and Albany. OurBus offers limited holiday services to Allentown, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Cornell University operates a premium bus service between its Ithaca campus and its medical school in Manhattan, New York City, which is open to the public. Starting in September 2019, intercity buses began using the downtown bus stop at 131 East Green Street after the former Greyhound station closed. OurBus now picks up and drops off passengers on Seneca Street, near the downtown Hilton Garden Inn.

Ithaca is the center of a large bus transportation network. Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, Inc. (TCAT, Inc.) is a nonprofit organization that provides public transportation in Tompkins County, New York. TCAT became a nonprofit in 2004 and is mainly supported by Cornell University, the City of Ithaca, and Tompkins County. TCAT’s ridership increased from 2.7 million in 2004 to 4.4 million in 2013. TCAT operates 34 routes, many of which run seven days a week. It offers frequent service to downtown, Cornell University, Ithaca College, and The Shops at Ithaca Mall in Lansing, New York, but less frequent service to residential and rural areas, including Trumansburg and Newfield. Chemung County Transit (C-TRAN) provides weekday commuter service from Chemung County to Ithaca. Cortland Transit offers commuter service to Cornell University. Tioga County Public Transit operated three routes to Ithaca and Cornell but stopped operating on November 30, 2014.

Gadabout Transportation Services, Inc. provides paratransit service for Tompkins County residents who are 55 or older or have disabilities. Ithaca Dispatch offers local and regional taxi service. Ithaca Airline Limousine and IthaCar Service connect to local airports.

Ithaca is served by Ithaca Tompkins International Airport, located about three miles northeast of the city center. In late 2019, the airport completed a $34.8 million renovation, which included a larger terminal, more passenger gates and jet bridges, expanded passenger amenities, and a 5,000 square foot customs facility to handle international charter and private flights.

American Airlines stopped operating flights to Ithaca on September 7, 2022, due to pilot shortages. Delta Connection provides service to and from John F. Kennedy International Airport, operated by its partner Endeavor Air, using Bombardier CRJ900 planes. United Express offers daily flights to Newark Liberty International Airport, operated by GoJet Airlines and Republic Airways, using Bombardier CRJ700 and Embraer E175 planes.

Until the mid-20th century, passenger trains reached Ithaca. At least two trains per day traveled to Ithaca along the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad until 1942 or the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The trip took about seven hours from New York City, eight hours from Philadelphia, and three hours from Buffalo, New York. Passenger rail service ended on February 4, 1961.

From the 1870s, trains connected Ithaca to Buffalo via Geneva, New York; to New York City via Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; to Hoboken, New Jersey, with a transfer in Owego via Binghamton and Scranton, Pennsylvania; and to the U.S. Northeast via Cortland, New York.

Points of interest

• The falls at Buttermilk Falls State Park
• Cornell Botanic Gardens at Cornell University
• Ithaca Falls
• Ithaca Diner

Reputation

Ithaca is known for its support of many different ideas and ways of life. It is often listed as one of the most culturally open-minded small cities in the United States. In 1997, Utne Reader called Ithaca "America's most enlightened town." By 2007, ePodunk's Gay Index gave Ithaca a score of 231, which is much higher than the national average of 100. Like many small college towns, Ithaca is praised for having a high overall quality of life.

In its early years, during the time of westward expansion, the area now known as Ithaca was briefly called "The Flats" and "Sodom," a name linked to the biblical city known for sin. This name was given because the town had a reputation for activities such as horse racing, gambling, swearing, not following religious rules about resting on Sundays, and easy access to alcohol. In the early 1800s, Simeon De Witt changed the town's name to Ithaca, after the home island of Odysseus in Greek mythology. Nearby Robert H. Treman State Park still includes a waterfall called Lucifer Falls. Today, Ithaca is known for its growing wineries and small beer breweries, live music events, colleges, and small dairy farms.