We recently enjoyed our four night stay in downtown Ithaca. The Ithaca Commons pedestrian shopping area was within a short walk from the hotel. The area covering four blocks has many interesting shops to look around freely without any traffic with seating for rest and refreshments. There is also the History Center which traces the history of the region with interesting exhibits and there is also the historic 1920's State Theatre which still hosts live music and film presentations.

The Commons is a wonderful idea but it seems like it has declined since I was last in town several years ago. Several empty storefronts and fewer restaurants. The shops that were open were interesting, though.

Couldn’t believe the state of downtown Ithaca. Visiting from Denver, CO and expected a lovely fall day walking around downtown Ithaca. Nope! Downtown was looking filthy, and quite frankly/ dangerous. What happened to the idyllic college town? Have respect for your town and the thousands of students and parents paying tuition here. No sense of collegiate pride that we noticed. Really sad to see how dirty and downtrodden everything looked. We couldn’t wait to leave. Time to clean up the city- it’s really pretty terrible.

We had heard many good things about downtown Ithaca so we checked it out. At some point in the past, I bet this was a great place, but it seems to be showing its age. There were a few cute stores, but also a lot of empty ones. It's nice to not have to worry about car in the pedestrian mall. Just feels like the area is losing its appeal, which is too bad.

Downtown Ithaca was a bit disappointing. The good was a nice variety of restaurants. The bad was a lack of interesting retail shopping and on street parking.