With no students, small college town worries over future

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

What happens to a college town when the students disappear? Ithaca, a small upstate New York city nearby gorges and vineyards, is finding out.

Most of the 24,000 students at Cornell University and 6,200 more from Ithaca College effectively vanished in March when the coronavirus pandemic struck, leaving behind struggling restaurants and shops. Locals still reeling from the outbreak and resulting exodus are wondering when — or if — things will get back to normal.

“It’s going to be hard. I mean, normally we have about seven months that the colleges are here,” said Gregar Brous, who runs the local Collegetown Bagels shops, other restaurants and a catering operation. He has brought back just over 100 of the 330 employees he laid off, but the long-term fate of college-dependent businesses remain cloudy.

“One of the biggest challenges right now is so many unknowns," Brous said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-students-small-college-town-124904791.html

I have a niece who graduated last year from Cornell.

[erronis]

1. That's a real pity because Ithaca is gorges.

I know that's too worn out to repeat but it is true.

And many small towns across the US rely on local colleges for the economics but also for their flavor.

I hope this pandemic-induced contraction doesn't turn all of these schools into consolidated mega-campuses. It has been happening here in Vermont.