Blog Watch

For how much Ithacans rave about their love for the community and open debate, I am amazed about the lack of good local blogs focused on Ithaca. Sure we have Steve Burke's Ithaca Blog and Ez's Ithaca Sucks, but why hasn't the Ithaca intelligista caught up with the neighboring communities. Shane Seger left Ithaca recently and who knows what will happen to Happily Stuck in Ithaca. Well, Shane does. But who else knows!? Dryden wields their own private blogging army. Ulysses and Trumansburg are lucky to have Jonathan Cook, especially now that there seems to be additional posts from other contributors on the blog.

Surely, there are other wonderful Ithaca blogs out there? I might be leaving soon and I want to get some sort of final sense about what Ithaca is and what happened these past six years. I understand that Ithaca enjoys the most coverage from the Ithaca Journal and near exclusive coverage from the Ithaca Times. It has the Craigslist rants and raves section and the Story Chat community. However, why hasn't the "enlightened city" taken advantage of the new revolution in user-generated media? Citizen journalism, anyone?

On the Ithaca Craigslist, one reader posted a comment about how Ithaca's progressivism is not as progressive as some would like. He or she identified streaks of iconoclasm and regression in a movement designed to take us forward. Suspicious of modern technology (Ever been yelled at Greenstar for your cell phone ringing?), outright rejection of mainstream culture (You actually saw something that wasn't at Fall Creek!? ARE YOU OK?) and a battery of "progressive" litmus tests (Eat meat? Bad! Watch TV? Oh, so bad! Don't ride your bike? The worst!) Even as a proud liberal, the whole Ithaca political lefty scene turns me off. In a city, supposedly so accepting and open-minded, I have to constantly justify my interest in progressive politics. This is the subject of a whole other post to come later in the winter season.

In the Ithaca zeitegeist, people use the word "silent majority" often. However, exactly what that silent majority means changes from poster to poster and blogger to blogger. Is it a silent majority of the more right-leaning demographics that surround Ithaca? Is it a silent majority of moderates or un-extreme liberals trying to squeeze in change between discussions about impeachment? Or does it just not exist at all? If there are ways to counter the Ithaca Sound Machine then blogs are the way to go. Anyone have some suggestions for good Ithaca blogs? I would love to see some and be proven wrong.

Peace!