Here's my contribution to this:
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I missed participating in the first Great Ithaca Write-In –
that was two months after my daughter was born; and this baby did not want to be put down despite it being one of
the hottest summer on record. Now she’s
25 and living in Brooklyn and I have a little more time.
I still live in the
same house that she grew up in on West Court Street in the West End of
Ithaca. It’s now nestled in the middle
of the highway median between north and
south Route 13, but back then Route 13 was not a divided highway and trees
still lined the sidewalk on Fulton Street, which is now Route 13 South, but was
then a quiet side street. In the late
80’s the divisive debate over what to do to untangle the Octopus broiled over. It eventually ended with the compromise of the
one-way pair for Route 13 and two new bridges over the flood control channel. Thankfully there is not an overpass roaring
over the Cayuga Inlet as some had proposed, along with a four-lane highway on
West Hill. One day we returned from
vacation and all the trees on Fulton Street and the last block of West Court
Street were gone. We endured several
years of construction noise and dust.
The pounding to tear up the street caused fractures in the foundation of
my house. Fortunately insurance covered
the damage and the new sewer lines prevented future flooding. The neighborhood has slowly been healing as
the new trees grow, but it’s still a neighborhood scattered with blight –
vacant and run-down properties.
It may not be obvious to the thousands of drivers going
through the neighborhood, but there is a lot of green space here on the median. When I bought this property with my
ex-husband in 1986, I was drawn to the deep sunny yard and envisioned an urban
paradise. Four old peach trees graced
the property. Three survived for a few
more years providing us with the most delicious peaches I’ve ever tasted. They were planted by a previous owner, Cesar
Capucci. An acquaintance, who was a
friend of his daughter Ann Marie, remembers seeing him plant some sticks in the
ground when she was a child, and she was doubtful when he said they were going
to grow into peach trees. He also had
chickens to the chagrin of his neighbor Frank Gatch.
When Mr. Gatch died in 2001, after living there for over 50
years and raising three kids, one of whom, Ed Gatch, was Ithaca’s postmaster at
the time, we negotiated with the family to buy his house. We had shared a driveway and chats about our
gardens over the fence for 15 years, and my partner Steve had his eye on the
garage which would make an excellent workshop.
Previously he was toiling away on his sculptures in our five-foot
basement. We appreciate that the Gatch family
worked with us to buy the house, even though a neighborhood developer was
bidding on the property as well. The
developer has been buying up properties on the block for years and then they
often go vacant, or are rented out but not kept in repair. It seems to be a long-term plan to eventually
knock down houses and put up apartments.
Today we are continuing some of the old traditions of the
Italians and other working families who lived here in the past – gardening,
canning, and raising chickens. Soil and drainage
are excellent as we stand upon an ancient marsh that was filled early last
century; and the long growing season is the envy of friends who garden in the
surrounding hills. In mid-May we’re
already eating abundant greens from the garden – the dandelions and garlic
mustard weeds that others disdain; kale, radicchio, and spinach which we had
covered with leaves to survive the winter; broccoli raab and wild arugula which
re-seeded itself, as well as the thinnings from the lettuces, spinach and
arugula I sowed in early April. We hope
that in the future there is always some green space in the middle of this block
in the wild West End.
