Downtown Ithaca Alliance celebrates 25 years

**Editor’s note: The print version of this story listed the Downtown Ithaca Alliance’s (DIA) celebration as happening Nov. 17, but the DIA announced after printing that the celebration has been postponed to a date yet to be announced. This online article reflects that update. 

This year, the Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA) is celebrating its 25th year serving the community, a milestone it will celebrate with a party at a date yet to be announced.

During the event, the DIA will recognize leaders who were, according to a recent press release, “instrumental” in DIA’s development last year by presenting seven awards — City Partner Recognition, Economic Development Project, Downtown Nonprofit Partner of the Year, Special Events Partner of the Year, Board Member of the Year, Downtown Business of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award.

Event-goers will also get the chance to hear about the DIA’s long and complex history, a taste of which DIA leaders provided for Tompkins Weekly.

“I was on the Commons advisory board when there was discussion to create [the DIA],” said Joe Wetmore, one of the members of the DIA’s original board of directors back in 1997. “And the city sent me to, I’m pretty sure it was an association of towns, … one of those kinds of bodies, to learn what a business improvement district was because there was nobody who really knew a lot about them.”

As Wetmore explained, back in the mid and late 1990s, a group of property owners downtown petitioned to create a business improvement district, but their first bid failed.

“The first time around, it went to a vote, and enough of the property owners voted no that it was not able to be created,” he said. “So, they went back and said, ‘Alright, what did we do wrong with our first incarnation? How can we change it, rearrange it so it will be created?’ That’s when I came on board through the city, [as a] city rep to try to help move it.”

DIA Executive Director Gary Ferguson explained where it went from there.

“They actually took another couple years, and then [they] tweaked it and came back out with the 22-block bid that we know of today,” he said. “And that passed overwhelmingly … in 1997, and that’s when it got started.”

Ferguson and Wetmore both said that the DIA, which at its formation was called the Ithaca Downtown Partnership, was originally tasked with the infill of parts of downtown Ithaca “that were either underdeveloped or basically vacant lots,” as Wetmore explained. But that focus, and especially its scope, has changed drastically in the quarter century since.

In the early 2000s, the DIA “got into the business of doing ambassadors,” Ferguson said, like claim and hospitality ambassadors. By the mid-2010s, the DIA significantly increased the size of its Board of Directors. As sources explained, the board, according to state law for business improvement districts, has to be at least 51% property owners at all times, and by the 2010s, downtown had grown so substantially that many more board positions had to be added to keep that 51% or more standard.

“When I was elected to the board, 2017 I believe, … it was because they had expanded the board in an effort to get more diverse board of directors membership,” said Ashley Cake, current president of the DIA’s Board of Directors. “To expand the diversity of the organization and add a few class B members, which are business owners, the board had to be expanded with both property owners and the merchant class.”

The DIA of today looks very different from the Ithaca Downtown Partnership of yesteryear, though sources said most residents and visitors don’t know the full extent of DIA’s past and current impact on the downtown community.

“In many respects, a lot of the things that we do sometimes are under the radar screen, which is not bad, but it just is what it is,” Ferguson said. “So, oftentimes, we don’t necessarily get kudos for those because many people don’t even know that we do. We have an annual work plan that has usually between 100 and 110 different elements in it. And most people know us for the eight or 10 things that relate to special events, not the other 100 things that relate to everything else.”

These days, the DIA handles everything from events and expansion to beautification and even transportation through its GO ITHACA program (tinyurl.com/2m7tv2tm). Ferguson added that the DIA’s increase in scope is reflected in its budget — around $250,000 in 2001 (about $400,000 when adjusted for inflation) to around $1.3 million today.

“That reflects our ability to take on a lot of different projects and activities and work … that originally, we didn’t feel like we needed to do,” he said. “But, for example, as the city began to cut back on some of its public work staff, we found ourselves in a position where we wanted to have a cleaner downtown — that’s what our ambassadors do. So, we got into that business to provide supplemental assistance there.”

The DIA is also heavily involved in downtown revitalization and expansion projects, like the recently reopened Green Street Garage, and those efforts are a big part of the DIA’s plan for the future. Cake referenced the DIA’s current Development of Regional Impact (DRI) application and the numerous projects the requested $10 million is expected to support (view full document at tinyurl.com/2z5vrj28).

“Because … all of the sort listening and coordinating and planning and cooperating and collaborating that the DIA staff does, we have attracted funds throughout the years that I’ve been on the board that then go to things like the conference center,” she said. “Even if we don’t get the DRI grant, all of that research about what kinds of projects we would like to see funded in the community puts us in the perfect position to be able to make those things happen when the opportunities come.”

Ferguson described some of the short- and long-term goals of the DIA going forward.

“We know the Seneca [Street] garage needs to be rebuilt — parts of it are not in great shape,” he said. “We would love to put together a trail system for Six Mile Creek so that people can use that not only for recreation but also for commuting in and out of downtown. We want to try to do something with DeWitt Park. It’s an asset that can be better used if we spend more time and attention on it. We want to improve West State Street, and we want to improve parts of Cayuga Street. So, there are different things I think that we think we can look at and say, ‘Absolutely, these are going to show up on our game plan going down the road.’”

Cake added that the DIA expects a significant increase in residents downtown in the coming years, much of which the result of the DIA’s current and upcoming projects.

“[I’m] really looking forward to those conversations, not only as a member of the DIA board but also a downtown business owner and resident myself,” she said. “I’m really hoping that those conversations can be many and varied and both formal and informal and that we’re going to figure out how best to live together.”

Overall, Ferguson said that the DIA will continue to evolve as time goes on, just as downtown Ithaca has done over many decades.

“One thing we can definitely count on is change,” he said. “There’ll be new competitors; there’ll be new districts; there’ll be new economic pressures, factors from the world or from … the country. All sorts of things will continue to change to make it really important that there be an organization like the DIA to help guide this district and help the folks who have made investments here not only maintain them, but it makes sure that they are secure and they grow and they’re healthy and also make sure that we have the downtown that the community wants to have.”

For more information about the DIA, visit its website at downtownithaca.com.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@VizellaMedia.com.