Saturday, May 26, 2018

The Origin of the Language

The Hudson Development Corporation has honored Sam Pratt's FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request and released "records created between January 1st, 2017 and December 31st, 2017 which mention, discuss, originate from, or otherwise concern the A. Colarusso & Son company ('Colarusso')." Yesterday, Pratt made those documents available to a few people, Gossips among them. Exploring the documents provides insight into how such language as this made its way into Hudson's Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) application: "city officials and neighboring business owners support the expansion of Colarusso" (page 18); "Key improvements to be considered . . . reduction of truck traffic through residential areas of the BRIDGE District by re-routing Colarusso trucks onto a widened two-way haul road at the City's south border" (page 47); "On any given fair weather Saturday, brides in their gowns might pose for photos at Basilica Hudson, while just outside gravel is delivered by truck from the Colarusso quarry to the deep water port across Front Street" (page 37). 

The DRI application was not made available to the public until after the award was announced on August 1, 2017. When it was released, Gossips learned that the application had been "totally rewritten" in the six days before it was submitted on June 14. In the records FOILed by Pratt, there's a particularly interesting thread of emails from June 6. It begins with an email sent at 8:55 a.m. by Mike Tucker of CEDC (Columbia Economic Development Corporation) to Sheena Salvino, copying the consultants involved in preparing the application, Kathleen Foley and Juhee Lee-Hartford, and Pat Gareau, whose role in the process is not entirely clear. In the email, Tucker makes this request: "In reaching out to Colarusso to get them on board, it would be very helpful to have a clear description of how we want to portray them in the application to get a sign off so they don't say after the fact that 'we never agreed to this'? If we have some idea of how we see them fitting in, perhaps we can draft some language for me to get them to agree to?" 

At 9:35 a.m., Salvino responds: "I agree that we should get their input and include their work in the application as it is a long lasting industry on the waterfront and we are making every effort to compromise--live & let live." 

At 9:38 a.m., Tucker replies: "Great--I want to be sure I have some direction so that I can find common ground that insures Colarusso is on board and that we haven't offended other constituencies in the process."

At 10:22 a.m., Kathleen Foley, the consultant credited with writing the grant application (see "The $10 Million Women," which appeared in The Highlands Current on August 19, 2017), shares her ideas for taking a "broad approach to the issue of Colarusso" in these bullet points:
  • acknowledge the industry positively as a link to Hudson and the District's industrial heritage--it represents the working waterfront that once thrived up and down the river
  • identify it as an example of healthy coexistence of uses
  • point out the proactive steps that the city has taken, via code updates and permitting processes, to protect the industrial use and weave it into the growing multi-use area as well as mitigate impacts on the environment and public health
  • refer to the ongoing work to build a collaborative relationship with Colarusso
  • highlight the intention that the traffic and pedestrian rationalization of the southern end of our district will help to streamline the industrial transport as well as improve wayfinding and access for residents and visitors alike
Two days later, on June 8, at 5:05 p.m., Foley sends an email to Tucker and Salvino with the subject line "Advice on Colarusso." The email begins:
In my view, the "working city" elements of our application would work best if we can make reference to our existing heavy industry in the form of Colarusso. It is that operation that has the greatest impact on traffic flow, noise, particulates, etc. It's also the element that seemed to appeal heavily to the state reviewers on their site visit as a positive--active industry in an emerging arts zone.   
After acknowledging that "we are balancing a number of sensitive issues around the gravel mining" and listing those issues as she understands them, Foley concludes, "We have to capture this economic driver with a gentle grip." She then presents her bullet points again, in a somewhat enhanced way:
  • Colarusso is a link to Hudson and the District's industrial heritage--it represents the working waterfront that once thrived up and down the river
  • identify it as an example of healthy coexistence of uses in our district . . . gravel and galas meet in the BRIDGE district
  • point out the proactive steps that the city has taken, via code updates and permitting processes, to protect the industrial use and weave it into the growing multi-use area and mitigate impacts on the environment and public health
  • refer to the ongoing work of surrounding business owners and civic leaders to build a collaborative relationship with Colarusso
  • highlight the intention that the traffic and pedestrian rationalization of the southern end of our district will help to streamline the industrial transport as well as improve wayfinding and access for residents and visitors alike
To echo an observation made by Pratt, the advice provided by a hired consultant disregards "twenty years of civic struggle, debate, and decision making." Still, in the interest of getting the $10 million, the advice was accepted and followed in the DRI application.

Sheena Salvino and Tiffany Martin Hamilton pose with Juhee Lee-Hartford (second from left) of River Architects, the firm that did the design renderings for the DRI application, and Kathleen Foley (far right), credited with writing the application















Given what we now know about the origin of the language, it's interesting to watch the evolution of one of my favorite paragraphs from the application, one that exemplifies the "gravel and galas," "healthy coexistence of uses," and "live and let live" rhetoric of the application, as it develops over the six days of review and revision. 
June 8
Hudson's BRIDGE District has the look and feel of the post-industrial cityscape that Millennials seek in neighborhoods like Brooklyn's Greenpoint and DUMBO . . . except in Hudson, "post" doesn't quite apply. Hudson is an authentic working city with a working waterfront. Yes, once shuttered industrial buildings are being transformed into performance and event venues or hotels as they are [in] Brooklyn, but in the BRIDGE District they stand alongside structures that continue in their lifetime manufacturing service. A healthy number of such properties are primed for creative redevelopment as mix-used [sic] spaces, supporting and expanding BRIDGE's diversifying economy.
June 12
Hudson's BRIDGE District has the look and feel of the post-industrial cityscape that Millennials seek in neighborhoods like Brookyn's Greenpoint and DUMBO . . . except in Hudson, "post" doesn't quite apply. Hudson is an authentic working city with a working waterfront. Yes, once-shuttered industrial buildings are being transformed into performance spaces, event venues and hotels as they are [in] Brooklyn, but in the BRIDGE District adaptively reused buildings stand alongside structures that continue in their lifetime manufacturing service. And they sit together comfortable in their contrast. On any given fair weather Saturday, brides in their gowns might pose for photos at Basilica Hudson, while just outside gravel is delivered by truck from the Colarusso quarry to the deep water port across Front Street. It goes back to that live and let live philosophy of BRIDGE.
June 14
Hudson's BRIDGE District has the look and feel of the post-industrial cityscape that Millennials seek in neighborhoods like Brooklyn's Greenpoint and DUMBO . . . except in Hudson, "post" doesn't quite apply. Hudson is an authentic working city with a working waterfront. Yes, once-shuttered industrial buildings are being transformed into performance spaces, event venues and hotels as they are [in] Brooklyn, but in the BRIDGE District adaptively reused buildings stand alongside structures that continue their lifetime manufacturing service. And they sit together comfortable in their contrast. On any given fair weather Saturday, brides in their gowns might pose for photos at Basilica Hudson, while just outside gravel is delivered by truck from the Colarusso quarry to the deep water port across Front Street. It goes back to that live and let live philosophy of BRIDGE. This dynamic environment doesn't just appeal to Millenials [sic], of course--older second homeowners and visitors love the aesthetic and feel as well.
The June 14 version is what ended up in the final document. The word in, needed before Brooklyn in the third sentence, never got inserted. In the final version, millennials does not begin with capital letter the first time it appears, but it is still capitalized in the last sentence, added in the final version, where it is also misspelled.

Addendum: Sam Pratt just informed me that any member of the public who wants access to the documents can contact him: sampratt@mac.com.
COPYRIGHT 2018 CAROLE OSTERINK

18 comments:

  1. Anyone who wants access to these public records is welcome to have it... Just email me at:

    foil@sampratt.com

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  2. I am posting this comment on behalf of the undersigned reader:

    If the Colarusso company only shared Ms. Salvino's "live and let live" attitude, then it would accept the terms of the 2011 zoning for a property it bought in 2014.

    Instead, the company challenges the Core Riverfront zoning incrementally while City Hall grows cold feet about its two related lawsuits (too few even know how to distinguish between them). Add in our craven Zoning Board of Appeals and the mining industry is well on its way to achieving a two-way road through the South Bay. If I weren't so opposed to the plan I'd say we deserved it for our own monumental stupidity.

    But why was anyone involved with the DRI concerned to have Colarusso "on board"? And concerning which specific proposals?

    Or was it only a general threat which Michael Tucker and others anticipated, that a neighbor which won't "live and let live" might cause harm to the DRI?

    Without making reference to the company's precise objections, if any, it's fair to question what outcome these individuals had hoped to allay? Despite Tucker's meddling, why didn't anyone suggest just leaving the matter alone?

    T. O'Connor

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  3. I believe the phrase that applies here is "being sold down the river."

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  4. Mr. Pratt has performed a valuable public service. As interesting as the citations provided in the article above is additional language in the June 6 email of 10:22AM from consultant Katherine Foley to Mike Tucker(cc'd to Sheena Salvino, Juhee Lee-Hartford, and Pat Gareau), mentioning that the importance of the Colarusso inclusion was clear to her after "the first meeting I joined with the State folks." She doesn't identify same.

    Foley's email, as Carole notes, was written in reply to one from Mike Tucker of 9:28 AM on the same day, in which he states that "I want to be sure I have some direction so that I can find common ground that insures Colarusso is on board." But he also states in the same email that he was "waiting to hear back from Jeff Cleary in Senator Marchione's office."

    And in a June 12 email critiquing an early draft of the DRI proposal, Tucker writes: "No mention of or tie in to Colarusso and the value of proximity/association with a working waterfront - ESD indicated this is an important aspect of the plan."

    Empire State Development Corporation? Inquiring minds want to know...

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  5. $10M in this context just isn’t that much money.
    If it were my decision, I’d just return it. Hudson has never had a wonderful history with grants.

    The fact that the sidewalks and City Hall are not ADA compliant, and everyone is running around obsessed by this grant and its origin and implementation, is just dumb.

    What a crazy little city we live in....

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    Replies
    1. Would $10M fix all the sidewalks of Hudson ?

      Delete
  6. Given the travesty of the grant and what we now know, we really have been sold down the river. Return the money and start over. Hudson should be able to win a grant on its own merits, without pandering to a gravel company that does not wish us well.

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  7. It takes a special kind of stupid to believe that a community can build a great waterfront around a gravel dump and a truck route. Anyone who has followed this issue knows exactly what is going on-- Colarusso is hoping to get their operation fully permitted and then they will sell it off to some larger entity. Hudson will end up in exactly the same position we were in for decades, with our waterfront owned by some nasty corporate entity that doesn't give a rat's ass about our community.

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  8. We owe Carole and Sam a big thank you for making this info public and giving us a better understanding about how the DRI was put together. Support a free press!!

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  9. Thank you for letting the light shine on how this came to be included in the DRI application!

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  10. Maybe it's just a question of scale. Remember ESDC and the "Buffalo Billion"? http://observer.com/2016/09/cuomo-vows-to-learn-from-claims-of-corruption-in-his-economic-development-programs/
    We're a smaller town, so we got the "Hudson Ten Million." The question now is whether Hudson's elected officials will (a) throw in the towel and settle with Colarusso (we'd find out after the fact, with verbiage about litigation costs, "live and let live," etc.) or (b) actually DO something to renounce the utterly false language apparently inserted into the DRI application through the collaboration of (i) the "consultants" (with Foley admitting she was acting on the wishes of unidentified "State folks"), (ii) Mike Tucker of CEDC (apparently per instructions from the Empire State Development Corporation), (iii) Sheena Salvino of HDC, and (iv) Hudson's ex-Mayor. Those lies (Hudson’s merchants LOVE Colarusso!) are now being flaunted by Colarusso and its attorneys in every related litigation, with claims that this language is an endorsement from the very community it pollutes.
    This collaboration occurred in the dark, and was only revealed by a hard fought FOIL request that HDC resisted. Which is why the tagline of one of this country’s best newspapers reads, “Democracy dies in darkness.” We’re about to find out which our elected officials will choose: Democracy or darkness. Stay tuned

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  11. So what does the city of Hudson want? Do we want Colarusso to just pick up and leave? Is that the reality?

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    Replies
    1. and herein lies the problem with framing what is actually a very narrow and specific abuse of space, as an all or nothing proposition. you not only lose the ask, it carves out the public (and the state for that matter) as demagogues, rather than addressing a long running objection to something quite specific. in fact, acs inc. could carry on for another 100 years, but they shouldn’t be doing it by strangling the common good (bay and shore), especially one as rarified as ours.

      for a company who claims 90% of their business originates from government contracts...

      Delete
    2. Thanks DM, very eloquently put.

      By presenting a false dichotomy from over a decade ago, it's Oldtymehudson who needs to answer for "reality."

      T. O'Connor

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    3. OldTyme,

      Colarusso enjoys the right to operate in Hudson under the terms and conditions that were in place when they bought the property in 2014. No more, no less.

      Delete
  12. I would like to know of a burgeoning arts community anywhere in the country that has occurred or is occurring in a neighborhood of heavy industry. I don't think grant writer Kathleen Foley could cite one and indeed she amends her language from "heavy industry" to "active industry in an emerging arts zone" in the space of three sentences. If that's not a tell, I don't know what is.

    -Charlie Suisman

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  13. I will not be surprised if this trail leads thru State Senator Kathy Marchione's office. Colarusso is a long-time funder of the Republican Party, and they might very well have succeeded in getting to lobby for their interests.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, you wouldn't be surprised, would you. And who are you?

      That someone "might very well have succeeded" is not an even a substitute for an argument, it's just a sheer, unsubstantiated smear.

      I can attest that Marchione's office has worked diligently and effectively to see that my own FOIL requests to NYSDEC regarding Colarusso proposals were satisfied according to the letter of the law. If you want to find State government's hand in this, learn even a little about the Departments of State, Environmental Conservation, and the Office of General Services.

      Your smear requiring anyone who disagrees to prove a negative is a puerile form of argumentation, and that is all.

      T. O'Connor

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