Archive: Opinions

Sometimes I think Lansing is in a crack between being a very small town and a well-off suburb.  Half the town has the Ithaca ZIP code.  There are even Lansing residents, Village of Lansing officials have told me countless times, who don't know that they don't live in Ithaca.  We think of the community as tight-knit, but there are significant differences in outlook and attitude among Lansingites.

The split becomes more focussed as a challenge the community must face if a town center is ever to become a reality.  The Town has a long history of doing more with less -- just look at the staffing and budget of the Town Recreation programs vs the huge scope, participation and number of them.  But when it comes to business, doing more with less isn't realistic.  We either have to support our local businesses or not.

Lansing people seem to want businesses like Lansing Market, Lisa's Dream Salon, People's Market, and The Lansing Star, to name only a few.  Folks tell me they like having them around.  They like the idea of Lansing as a viable community these businesses help define.  But are we really willing to support them?

For our part, we have met with local resistance to buying advertising in the Star.  Obviously we think it is a great value.  But when people say 'Did you see that article in the paper this morning?' they obviously don't mean a different newspaper that has been quickly diminishing in recent years.  That attitude extends toward purchasing advertising, and extends to other local industries.  Get a basket of stuff at Lansing Market but do the bulk of shopping at Wegman's.  Check out local crafts if you happen to stop at the post office, but go to the Commons to buy gifts.

That worries me when I think about this community supporting a whole town center.

Remember the Sure Fine?  Remember the hole it left in the community when it closed?  Remember the Lansing Community News?  Remember how connected you felt to your community until it shut down in 2000. and remember how disconnected you felt?  Do you miss having a hardware store at the corner of Triphammer and Peruville Roads?

We finally got a great little market in Lansing just over a year ago.  Sure, it's smaller and the selection isn't as wide, but they have more than a lot of good stuff there.  I am hoping Lansing folks will shop more at Lansing Market and not treat it as a glorified convenience store, because a market can't survive on a convenience store ration.  For myself, I am finding a lot more that I like there than I first thought I would, as well as a nice atmosphere and really friendly and helpful employees.  And it's a managable size, both in the store and in the parking lot.

Lisa Craig is an artist when it comes to hair.  As a more or less regular guy I am not really an aficionado of hair styles (which gets me in plenty of trouble with my wife when I don't notice a new do).  But I know art when I see it, and Lisa makes it daily in her Lansing salon.  Speaking of art, People's Market sells nothing but local artists' and artisans' work.  I bought some alpaca socks as a gift there recently, and saw an amazing array of really beautiful items.  Why wouldn't you go there first when looking for a gift?  Don't say 'location'... you pass People's Market on the way downtown.

If these wre lousy businesses I wouldn't be writing this.  But Lansing businesses offer high quality products and services, so why not shop there?  If the community wants the quality of life businesses bring it has to support them, and not just with moral support.

Look how long it took to fill the attractive retail space where the old fire station stood.  Years.  Two coffee shops couldn't make it in the little building next to Rogue's Harbor Inn, a central location in Lansing.  That one I really don't get, because whenever we run a story in the Star about coffee shops we get many more hits than usual.  Lansing readers LOVE local coffee news!

If we can't support these businesses, how are we ever going to have any kind of viable retail area in a town center?  Lansing could have a Dryden or Groton or Trumansburg-like town center.  Right now we hear town center and think of housing and developers, but when it's all been built we'll think of the town center as the retail area, parks and walking paths that we will all use.  If we don't support the businesses that settle here, we'll be looking at a ghost town center before long.  This community can't survive on a split personality.  It's just not big enough.  We have to decide as a group whether Lansing is a community that can sustain a center, or just be a semi-rural suburb of Ithaca.

I am certainly not suggesting that Lansing is or ever should be a city in its own right, but in a community as engaged as ours I buy into the idea of a small village atmosphere where local people can get basic goods and services.  I like the idea of having a walking center where I can get food, maybe a small hardware store (we had one but it didn't make it), an ice cream cone... just some basic things.  The convenience of having them in the town and the community identity local businesses bring are vital to the quality of town life.

These things are within our grasp, but I am not convinced the community is committed to having them.  It's time for Lansing to decide whether it is willing to put its money where its mouth is.

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