12 Great Places You've Never Heard Of

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“Community builds” are an honored tradition in Ithaca. The Sciencenter, a children’s science museum with more than 200 hands-on exhibits, was built by volunteers — more than 2,200 people contributed more than 40,000 hours of work. When it was time for an expansion a few years ago, more than 1,000 volunteers pitched in to build an addition. The Sciencenter also has an outdoor park with science-oriented attractions; examples include a suspension bridge made of Kevlar cables and a miniature golf course where every hole poses a new problem, such as launching your ball with a giant catapult or getting it through swinging pendulums.

Ithaca is famous worldwide for creating a local currency called Ithaca Hours, which encourages people to shop locally owned businesses — more than 500 now accept the colorful bills, which are issued in various denominations of the value of an hour’s work at the prevailing wage. By using the local currency, Ithaca residents make sure their money supports their own community. The town also has cooperative health insurance called Ithaca Health Fund.

Ithaca recently joined the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, in which more than 200 U.S. cities have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement on climate change that the federal government rejected. Ithaca’s goal is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 2001 levels by 2016. To that end, the city and Tompkins County have agreed to purchase wind energy — offsetting about 1 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of planting more than 68,000 trees or not driving 868,000 miles each year.

The area’s environmental ethic is evident in the success of EcoVillage, a co-housing community in which 90 percent of the community’s 176 acres is preserved as open space. Residents live in passive solar homes and share ownership of many things, including cars, playground equipment, clothes washers and gardening tools. There’s also a community garden and a Community Supported Agriculture program.

Real estate is quite affordable in the area. The highest prices and lowest availability are in the city because there is little new construction. Houses find buyers quickly. “People who come here and find something they like need to move quickly,” says Audrey Edelman, a local real estate agent. Smaller towns within a 10 to 20 mile radius of Ithaca are other options, especially for those who love historic houses, which are abundant in the area. The best soil for farming and gardening is a bit farther north, on either side of the lake. Rural land sells for $1,000 to $3,000 an acre for large parcels, more for smaller ones.

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