I've lived in Ithaca now for over thirty years and I had not heard about this situation on Southside, but I do not doubt it. The tech bubble (I haven't been paying attention from South Hill" may be combining with the always challenging problem that downtown landlords can charge exorbitant rents, because Cornell (and some IC) students split the costs--so a 1-bedroom downtown may go for 1500, and a 2-bedroom for 2000 or more (I've owned my townhouse for twenty years, so I don't know what actual rents really are, except for what colleagues tell me). I do know that when I was a younger and untenured faculty member, I ended up living in an apartment complex near the airport (15-20 minute drive from my campus) because I couldn't afford anything downtown.
Sadly, the same situation happened, in a much larger way, in my hometown of Chicago (actually, its suburbs): gentrification of the near South Side (which, during my childhood in the 60s and 70s was affordable housing for African American and Latinx people in that segregated city) has led to working-class minority populations having to move to down-at-their-heels suburbs (many southwest of the city), sometimes a two-hour commute each way on public transportation for those who work in the city and who may not own a car, or be able to pay for parking in the Loop all day. |
