Cayuga Heights, New York
Encyclopedia
Cayuga Heights is a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in Tompkins County
Tompkins County, New York
Tompkins County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and comprises the whole of the Ithaca metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 101,564. The county seat is Ithaca, and the county is home to Cornell University, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 3,273 at the 2000 census.

The Village of Cayuga Heights is in the Town of Ithaca
Ithaca (town), New York
Ithaca is a town in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 18,198 at the 2000 census.The Town of Ithaca is a horseshoe-shaped portion of the metropolitan area of Ithaca, New York. It surrounds the City of Ithaca and is the City's only border, although the City has a...

, north of the City of Ithaca. The village is also north of the main campus of Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

.

History

The village is in the former Central New York Military Tract
Central New York Military Tract
The Military Tract of Central New York, also called the New Military Tract, consisted of nearly two million acres of bounty land set aside to compensate New York’s soldiers after their participation in the Revolutionary War....

.

The village was formed in 1915 to provide housing for university faculty and local merchants.

Residents of note, past and present

  • Vernon and Irene Castle
    Vernon and Irene Castle
    Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. Vernon Castle was born William Vernon Blyth in Norwich, Norfolk, England...

    , film stars, developers of the Castle Walk
    Castle Walk
    thumb|Castle walkCastle Walk is a dance originated and made famous by Vernon and Irene Castle. The Castle Walk became popular through its introduction into the Tango.In this dance, the man continually goes forward and the lady backward...

     and popularizers of the Foxtrot.
  • Louis Agassiz Fuertes
    Louis Agassiz Fuertes
    Louis Agassiz Fuertes was an American ornithologist, illustrator and artist.-Biography:Fuertes was the son of Estevan and Mary Stone Perry Fuertes....

    , Ornithologist
    Ornithology
    Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...

     and painter.
  • Kirkpatrick Sale
    Kirkpatrick Sale
    Kirkpatrick Sale is an independent scholar and author who has written prolifically about political decentralism, environmentalism, luddism and technology...

    , writer and activist, co-founder of Students for a Democratic Society
    Students for a Democratic Society
    Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...

    .

Geography

Cayuga Heights is located at 42.466338°N 76.488678°W (42.466338, -76.488678).

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the village has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km²), all of it land.

The village is at the south end of Cayuga Lake
Cayuga Lake
Cayuga Lake   is the longest of central New York's glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area and second largest in volume. It is just under 40 miles long. Its average width is 1.7 miles , and it is at its widest point near Aurora...

, one of the Finger Lakes
Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are a pattern of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York in the United States. They are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are long and thin , each oriented roughly on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in...

.

Cayuga Heights borders, on its north, the Village of Lansing
Lansing (village), New York
Lansing is a village in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 3,417 at the 2000 census.The Village of Lansing is in the Town of Lansing and is north of Ithaca....

.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 3,273 people, 1,497 households, and 772 families residing in the village. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 1,850.9 people per square mile (714.0/km2). There were 1,584 housing units at an average density of 895.8 per square mile (345.5/km2). The racial makeup of the village was 85.73% White, 1.86% African American, 0.06% Native American, 8.95% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 1.19% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 2.11% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.57% of the population.

There were 1,497 households out of which 17.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.5% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 2.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.4% were non-families. 38.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 2.71.

In the village the population was spread out with 15.3% under the age of 18, 14.1% from 18 to 24, 24.0% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 24.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 95.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.9 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $74,258, and the median income for a family was $122,746. Males had a median income of $70,893 versus $33,621 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the village was $47,493. About 1.5% of families and 8.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under the age of eighteen or sixty-five or over.

Fire Department

The Cayuga Heights Fire Department was founded in 1955 and currently provides fire, rescue, and ALS first-response emergency medical services to the village, areas of the Town of Ithaca, and sections of Cornell University. The department is an all-volunteer agency with response times averaging under three minutes. This is due to the department's dedicated volunteers, as well as the innovative and highly successful "bunker program" that allows for 7-8 Firefighter/EMT's to live in a second floor dormitory and provide duty shifts in exchange for their room in the station. Unlike conventional membership recruiting/acceptance methods, the department recruits and restricts new member acceptance to bi-annual "recruit classes" in tandem with the academic semesters.

Deer Culling Controversy

On April 4, 2011, the village Board of Trustees approved a plan to reduce the deer population by sterilizing 20 to 60 does in two years while killing remaining 160 to 200 deers in the village. Professor Paul Curtis who has worked with the Board of Trustees in 2005 stated, "The primary problems that the deer cause to the community are damage to garden plants, deer-vehicle accidents and the potential threat of the spread of foreign diseases.” Opposition to the deer culling program both in Cayuga Heights and nationally has criticized the culling program as "war on sweet innocent deer", "brutal slaughter" and Cayuga Heights as a "constant killing field". Local opposition group Cayugadeer.org has accused the Board of Trustees actions as deceptive and dishonest while calling for alternatives to killing of the deer such as cutting off the main food source for the deer by requiring fencing home gardens.

External links

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