Comments on: Ithaca Airport & Network Exchange Theory http://nsdl.library.cornell.edu/websites/expertvoices/info2040/archives/2585 This is a supplemental blog for a course which will cover how the social, technological, and natural worlds are connected, and how the study of networks sheds light on these connections. Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:26:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: retiree http://nsdl.library.cornell.edu/websites/expertvoices/info2040/archives/2585#comment-1495 retiree Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:49:15 +0000 http://nsdl.library.cornell.edu/websites/expertvoices/info2040/archives/2585#comment-1495 In the 1970's there were proposals to replace the airports in Elmira, Binghamton and Ithaca with a single airport located roughly equidistant from all three (somewhere near Spencer, NY.) The idea failed. The economic development of this part of New York State would probably have turned out very differently had it succeeded, since there would be flights to and from many more places from a consolidated airport. However the existing airports are in three different counties and the county leaders would lose immediate clout together with the airport. Compare this to the "Research Triangle" area in North Carolina, with Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, which has steadily thrived since it was established in the 1950's and began to share a single airport. Of course there are those who subscribe to the "KISS" concept -- Keep Ithaca Slightly Small -- which does have its merits. At one point there was a scheduled flight from Ithaca to Pittsburgh that stopped in Elmira, about 25 miles away, to pick up and drop off passengers. It was reputedly the shortest flight leg in the country. In the 1970’s there were proposals to replace the airports in Elmira, Binghamton and Ithaca with a single airport located roughly equidistant from all three (somewhere near Spencer, NY.) The idea failed. The economic development of this part of New York State would probably have turned out very differently had it succeeded, since there would be flights to and from many more places from a consolidated airport. However the existing airports are in three different counties and the county leaders would lose immediate clout together with the airport. Compare this to the “Research Triangle” area in North Carolina, with Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, which has steadily thrived since it was established in the 1950’s and began to share a single airport.

Of course there are those who subscribe to the “KISS” concept — Keep Ithaca Slightly Small — which does have its merits.

At one point there was a scheduled flight from Ithaca to Pittsburgh that stopped in Elmira, about 25 miles away, to pick up and drop off passengers. It was reputedly the shortest flight leg in the country.

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