Finding Ulysses

Well who knew?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a short article about the mythical village of Trucktown as advertised on a billboard here in the town of Ulysses, New York. There is no such thing as Trucktown, of course, but that didn’t stop the owner of the car dealership in the unincorporated area on route 96 just south of Trumansburg where developers are hoping to create a suburban strip-mall economic zone where sprawl flows like water from declaring that Trucktown exists.

Well, yesterday I, along with every other resident of Ulysses, got a little packet of information about the plans for a new sprawl-enabling water district. Trucktown wasn’t on the map, but it turns out that another settlement is: The hamlet of Halseyville.

Take a look around now, and you don’t really see any hamlet where Halseyville is supposed to be. Sure, there’s the Halsey House, and a few other buildings, but if that makes the area a hamlet, then Cayuga Street is a highway.

It takes more than a name on a map and a few people living within walking distance to make a community. As radical changes to the nature of Ulysses and Trumansburg are being proposed by our Town Board, that’s something we residents would do well to keep in mind.