The downtown area and Ithaca College are integrally linked. A healthy downtown benefits the college and its students. A healthy downtown could spell the difference between a student or a faculty member choosing Ithaca or opting for somewhere else. I can only relate a recent personal experience with my own daughter. Looking at a New England-based school, she toured the downtown area and pronounced that this was not the type of place she wanted to live. in We moved on.

A healthy downtown is important to our community, so I would like to paint a picture of what is occurring downtown.

While downtown has experienced some store closings in recent months, please don’t overlook the new businesses that are scheduled to come into the district, adding new, fresh life and vitality. Since Jan. 1, we count five new businesses scheduled to open in downtown. This ebb and flow of stores in a mom-and-pop downtown district shouldn’t be construed as a weakness, but rather part of a cycle of business growth and rebirth.

Downtown Ithaca is coming to the end of a 10-year strategy that resulted in some $100,000,000 of new investment. For example, downtown has seen the addition of a multi-million dollar branded hotel in recent years, with the construction of the Hilton Garden Inn. This same building also houses 300 Cornell University office employees that weren’t previously working in downtown. Plans are in the works for another branded hotel that will add 102 more hotel rooms downtown. Both of these projects can provide hotel rooms that Ithaca College families will be able to stay in when they come to town. Very few businesses will knowingly expand into an area if they think their investment will lose money because the local economy is bad.

Though the economy has been “stagnant”, I would not characterize downtown Ithaca as such. Retail certainly mirrors national trends, but we also have a local economy that is education-dominated and more able to sustain itself during times of national malaise. Again, downtown and Ithaca College community are inextricably linked to each other.

Yes, businesses in downtown do close, but it is important not to look at the closing of one business in isolation. As an example, one popular coffee shop recently shut its doors. Prior to it opening, there was another popular coffee establishment in the same location. Moving forward, we will see yet another food and beverage establishment in that storefront. If I know one thing for certain, it is that downtowns change. As they change, so will the things that are sold. If coffee shops become too prevalent, several will close and be replaced by other uses more in demand. At last count, we had eight pizza places in downtown. The market may likewise adjust to ensure that we have the number of pizza places that our market can support.

We have launched an effort to plan for a new 2020 Downtown Strategy. Throughout 2008, we will be reaching out to the community, including IC students, faculty and staff, seeking your input and ideas. Among the topics we will be carefully examining are housing, tourism promotion and office space development.

One way the Ithaca College family can help ensure a strong and vital downtown is to constantly remember us and choose to buy local and here in the community. Come and explore the amazing range of goods and services offered in downtown. When you have a choice, choose downtown. Downtown prosperity is all about foot traffic. You can help us maintain the type of foot traffic we need to sustain the style and type of downtown we all want.

Gary Ferguson is the executive director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance. E-mail him at idp@downtownithaca.com