Parking Woes

People have a lot of complaints about the new parking system in Hudson: I didn't know paid parking extended the length of Warren Street and got a ticket. I tried to use the QR code to pay but still got a ticket. I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do so I got a ticket. I was running late and didn't want the hassle so I got ticket. I don't have a smartphone so I got a ticket. 

The remedy for most of the problems, except the last one, is simply to download the ParkMobile app. Once you've done that, paying for parking involves just a few taps on your phone. For those without smartphones, the kiosks are on the way. 

Tiresome as it is for those of us who park on Warren Street to adjust to the new system, consider how it has changed the job of parking officer. In the past, the parking officers could walk up and down the street, on the sidewalk, looking for expired meters. When they saw one, they would issue a ticket. Now their job requires that they scan the license plate of every car parked on the street to find out whether or not the parking fee has been paid. On a holiday weekend like this past one, that's a lot of cars and a lot more work for the parking officers than in the past. 

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Opera at the Red Dot

It has often been the case (four times to be exact) that hearing opera at Hudson Hall (a.k.a. the Hudson Opera House) was followed up with dining at the Red Dot. Next Saturday, February 28, opera--arias, as well as show tunes--is coming to the Red Dot.

To reserve your spot for an evening of live music, use the QR code in the image above or click here.

Addenda to Meetings and Events

Two events were unintentionally left out of this week's "Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead." They have since been added, but for those who don't go back to yesterday's posts, here's what was left out: two of Mayor Joe Ferris's town hall meetings.

• On Wednesday, February 18, a town hall meeting for the Third Ward takes place at Creative Legion, 7 Fairview Avenue.
• On Thursday, February 19, a town hall meeting for the Fifth Ward takes place at FASNY, 125 Harry Howard Avenue.

Both meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. and are expected to continue until 8:00 p.m.

Three Projects of Interest Before the HPC

The architects designing the replacement for this accessory building behind 30 Union Street were back before the Historic Preservation Commission on Friday, February 13.

At its January 9 meeting, the HPC expressed concern about the increased height of the new building and also about its design, which was very different in character from the existing building. It was noted that the doors are a distinctive element of the original building, and it was suggested that the design of the new building should somehow harken back to what was there. It was agreed the applicant would consider the concerns of the HPC and come back with revisions. 

The revisions presented at the February 13 HPC meeting, however, consisted only of altering the pitch of the roof to lower its apex. The result is a building that looks even more like a modern generic garage than the design with the more steeply pitched roof that was originally proposed. 

New building as originally proposed on January 9

Revised design presented on February 13

Asked about revisions in the design to make it reminiscent of the historic building and more compatible with its surroundings, the architects they had created such a design, but it had been rejected by their client, the owner of the property. They did, however, show the revised design to the HPC.

The HPC declared the application complete and voted on what had been proposed. It was unanimously rejected by the members of the commission. Phil Forman, HPC chair, requested that the next time the proposal came before the HPC, the owner of the property be present at the meeting, either in person or virtually.

A second proposal of interest involves 26 Warren Street, a true Federal house constructed in 1810, which is now being operated as a hotel called the Hudson Mariner.  

The proposal, which was presented by architect Walter Chatham, is to increase the occupiable space by introducing dormers at the front and building out an addition at the back.

Cara Cragan, the architect member of the HPC, noted the roofline of the house is in actuality much lower pitched than it appears in the drawings. Of the proposal, she opined, "This is a reasonable solution for a business problem, but there is thought that the building should not be touched at all." 

It was determined that Chatham would return with the necessary adjustments to the drawings, and that there would be a public hearing on the project to take place at the next HPC meeting on February 27.

Demolish and demolition are two words you don't like to hear at an HPC meeting, but they are central to the proposal for 309-311 Union Street. The owners wish to demolish everything on the lot--the two-family house and the two accessory buildings--and construct new buildings in their place. 

The owners reported that an engineer's study, recommended by former code enforcement officer Craig Haigh, "advised against even attempting to salvage the house." The renderings below show what they are proposing to build in its place. The first two show the house, which would face Union Street; the second two show the "carriage house" (a garage with an apartment above), which would be behind it on Partition Street.

Cragan acknowledged that the proposed new structure was "in keeping with the building that exists." HPC chair Phil Forman described the proposal as a "loss of history issue not a compatibility issue." Cragan then suggested that the house might be replaced with something contemporary, "to create something that the future wants to preserve as well." Commenting later in the meeting, Ron Kopnicki questioned the principle of contrast, saying that what good contemporary design is has not been determined. He urged that the HPC "have respect for the past and respect for context." 

HPC member Paul Barrett spoke of 34 South Front Street, saying, "It should have fallen down by itself, but it didn't. It was salvaged." (According to Apartments.com, one of the apartments in the building is now renting for $2,800 a month.) Barrett suggested that the owners of 309-311 Union Street speak with the man who salvaged 34 South Front Street about his experience.

34 South Front Street before renovation

34 South Front Street today

Kopnicki noted that the house at 309-311 Union had not been condemned, and, up until the house was sold at the end of 2024, there were people living in it. (According to the assessment rolls, the property is currently owned by Dinally Home Restoration of Hudson LLC, with an address in Bloomfield, NY.) Matt McGhee urged the HPC to request photographic evidence of "the crumbling walls and other things claimed," commenting, "People who don't understand old buildings may not understand that was the way they were meant to be."

For this proposal too, the HPC will hold a public hearing at its next meeting on February 27.

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More Attention to Botstein in the Times Union

The Times Union today has another article about Bard College president Leon Botstein and the revelations of his connections with Jeffrey Epstein: "'S___show': Bard students protest Botstein's ties to Epstein as trustees meet." The explanatory phrase following the headline tells it all: "Anger on campus is mounting amid Bard College's continued silence about its president's relationship with the convicted sex predator." The following is quoted from the article:

Trustees have not censured Botstein for the relationship, which the president has characterized as an unpleasant and ultimately unsuccessful attempt at raising money for the college. None of the trustees contacted by the Times Union responded to questions.

Their silence has spawned rumors and at least one fake press release that duped a local news outlet into falsely announcing Botstein's resignation over the weekend. The phony announcement was sent to reporters from an address that mimicked the name of Bard Communications Director Jennifer Strodl. It remains unclear who sent the email, and the college quickly clarified that Botstein was not stepping down.

The local news outlet misled by the fake press release was Rural Intelligence. Early on Saturday afternoon, Jamie Larson, editor of Rural Intelligence, published this retraction: "CORRECTION: Leon Botstein Resignation Story a Hoax."

Hudson Has a New Code Enforcement Officer

The following announcement appeared this morning on Hudson Hub and the City of Hudson website:

Effective today, at Mayor Ferris' appointment, Nick Fox was sworn in as the City of Hudson's new Code Enforcement Officer. Nick is a seasoned facilities professional with over 20 years' experience building, maintaining, and managing residential and commercial properties. He is skilled in electrical, plumbing, HVAC, structural systems, and groundskeeping, with extensive knowledge of codes, safety regulations, and preventative maintenance. A strong leader, Nick has overseen capital projects with a focus on facility safety and efficiency.

In 2022, Fox was named one of Mayor Kamal Johnson's "Forty Under Forty." At that time, he was the owner of Silver Fox Builds and Renos.

Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

As the long weekend that included both Valentines Day and Presidents Day winds down, here is what's happening in the rest of the week.

• On Tuesday, February 17, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., it's the annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper at Christ Church Episcopal, 431 Union Street. 

• Also on Tuesday, February 17, the Common Council holds its informal meeting at 6:00 p.m. So far, there's not much of interest on the agenda for the meeting except a communication from the Board of Elections informing the Council of the intent to move the Election Day polling place for the Fourth Ward from 401 State Street to the Central Fire Station, 77 North Seventh Street. Early voting will continue to take place at 401 State Street. The informal meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and in Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.
• At 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 17, the Columbia County Democratic Committee holds an Assembly Candidates Forum, moderated by Abbie Hodgson, CCDC co-chair. The following candidates will be participating: Assemblymember Didi Barrett and Sam Hodge, running in AD106, and Chloe Pierce and Chris Lansing, running in AD107. The forum takes place on Zoom. Click here to register to attend.

• On Wednesday, February 18, the Hudson Housing Authority Board of Commissioners meets at 6:00 p.m. It is likely there will be some discussion of HHA's appearance before the Planning Board last week and perhaps also of the elevations for the proposed buildings that were submitted to the Planning Board. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person in the Community Room at Bliss Towers and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting remotely. 

• Also on Wednesday, February 18, at 6:00 p.m., the Zoning Board of Appeals holds its monthly meeting. The meeting takes place in person only at City Hall. No agenda for the meeting is as yet available.
• Yet another thing happening on Wednesday, February 18, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Mayor Joe Ferris is holding a town hall meeting for the Third Ward at Creative Legion, 7 Fairview Avenue. 
• On Thursday, February 19, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Mayor Joe Ferris is holding a town hall meeting for the Fifth Ward at FASNY, 125 Harry Howard Avenue.  

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Presidents in Hudson

Today, on Presidents Day 2026, I repost the inventory of presidents who have visited Hudson, first published eight years ago in 2018. 

Before Presidents Day 2018 is over, Gossips presents this review of the presidents who have visited our little city. Of the forty-five, ten came to Hudson--before, during, or after they were president.

Thomas Jefferson (3) and James Madison (4) came to Hudson in the spring of 1791, before either became president. They came to visit Seth Jenkins, who owned a large distillery, with the hope of persuading him that French wine would produce better spirits than molasses from the British West Indies.

Martin Van Buren (8) visited Hudson often. Long before he became president, Van Buren had a law office in Hudson. In 1839, at his midterm, Van Buren came to Hudson expecting, as reported in the Columbia Republican, that he would be greeted by "a pageant, brilliant, glorious and unprecedented in the history of Presidential tours," but, alas, Van Buren was a Democrat, and the city leaders of the time were Whigs. The Common Council "wisely refused to squander the people's money in defraying the expense of Mr. Van Buren's electioneering tour." Even the fire department, "whose splendid appearance on gala days have won for them an enviable reputation," refused to turn out.

Abraham Lincoln (16) stopped in Hudson in February 1861 on his inaugural journey from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C. Hudson was one of eighty-three stops along the route. In 1865, after his assassination, Lincoln's funeral train, retracing the route of the inaugural journey to carry his body back to Springfield for burial,  stopped briefly in Hudson on the night of April 25.

Theodore Roosevelt (26) visited Hudson in 1914, five years after he left the White House. He came to speak about his Amazon expedition at the Hudson Opera House, but he made the crowd assembled to hear him speak wait while he stood in the wings and devoured not one but two big bowls of vegetable soup fetched for him from a lunchroom across the street. The lunchroom that supplied the soup was very likely the establishment of Thomas E. Cody, located at 330 Warren Street. 

There is photographic evidence that William Howard Taft (27) visited Hudson, probably on a whistle-stop tour while he was president, but exactly when this happened is uncertain.

On Saturday, November 11, 1916, Woodrow Wilson (28) was briefly in Hudson. Traveling from Williamstown, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C., his train stopped in Hudson. His private car was attached to the end of a regular train, and when the train pulled into the Hudson station, his car came to a standstill under the Ferry Street bridge. A crowd, reported to number nearly 500, clamored to get a glimpse of the president. He came out onto the rear platform just as the train started up again, and he remained on the platform until the car passed the station. The Hudson Evening Register reported, "Several people had the opportunity to grasp his hand." 

 

Franklin Roosevelt (32) visited Hudson in 1932, when he was governor of New York, to dedicate to the hospital at the Firemen's Home.

Photo courtesy Lisa Durfee

On October 10, 1952, Harry S Truman (33) stopped in Hudson while campaigning for Adlai Stevenson. Hudson was one of a dozen stops made that day.

The tenth president to visit Hudson was Bill Clinton (42), who was here just about a year ago, on February 27, 2017, having lunch at Grazin'.

Photo courtesy Aaron Enfield and Amy Lavine

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What Else Was Lost for a Parking Lot

Recently, the picture below, which appeared in the Register-Star for Monday, February 5, 1973, inspired Paul Barrett, the historian member of the Historic Preservation Commission, to wonder about the building being demolished. He shared his discoveries with Gossips, along with permission to publish his research.

Most know that the parking lot in the 300 park of Warren Street, across from what is now The Maker Gymnasium, was the site of the Hotel Lincoln, which was damaged by fire and subsequently demolished in the 1950s. 

But the parking lot occupies the site of another building as well: 313 Warren Street. According to the 1911 Sanborn map, the building was the location of a Chinese laundry.   

This picture, taken in 1956, documenting the fire at the Hotel Lincoln, shows the building that once stood at 313 Warren Street and was demolished in 1973 for no known reason other than it was old.

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Of Interest

Mark Orton, who used to live in Hudson (but now lives in Florida) and from 2009 to 2024 ran the Orton Davis Gallery at 114 Warren Street with his wife, Karen Davis, has written a book about the U.S. economy. The book is called The Heist: How the Rich & Corporations Stole the American Dream. 

Here's what Orton says about his work:

After eight years of research and writing, my book, THE HEIST: how the rich and corporations stole the American dream, has been published.

The book tells the very important story of the changes in the US economy over the past fifty years that have produced today's tsunami of income and wealth inequality, with the accompanying broadening and intensification of insecurities for the bottom 90% of our population. It also reviews many other troubling features of the economy and how our society does and doesn't function with equity and sustainability.

THE HEIST is written to be accessible to everyone and is not overly long at 180 pages. It is fully referenced, so you can see the sources I used. It also includes appendices that provide an introduction to why orthodox economics is not useful, how to understand charts and graphs, getting you head around huge numbers like trillions, and more.

Somewhat ironically, the book is available in paperback and ebook formats on Amazon and in paperback at IngramSpark.

Money for Sidewalks

A major topic of discussion at the Public Works Board meeting last night was the news that the City would not be pursuing the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for $1 million to be used for repairing sidewalks. It seems that the New York State Office of Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), which awards the grants, had some questions about the application, and the City allowed the deadline for answering the questions to pass without responding.

Last summer, when the resolution authorizing Mayor Kamal Johnson to submit the application came before the Common Council at a special meeting on August 11, the resolution failed to get the necessary support. The councilmembers who did not support it expressed concern that the grant was a matching grant, and the City did not have $1 million to use for the match. Those who had crafted the CDBG application--Justin Weaver, Ryan Loucks, and the grant consultants from Laberge--maintained that the $307,000 the City would be collecting annually in Sidewalk Improvement District fees could be used as the match. 

Although the resolution failed at the special meeting on August 11, eight days later, at the regular meeting of the Common Council, it passed with unanimous support, and the grant application was submitted.

At the Public Works Board meeting last night, Weaver, the former mayor's aide who was attending the meeting virtually, said it was "very disheartening that the grant opportunity has fallen by the wayside." Responding to an inquiry from Gossips, Tiffany Martin, aide to the current mayor, Joe Ferris, explained: "The Mayor felt it was prudent to pass on the opportunity while we assess priorities and get a better understanding of match requirements across all grants currently in play and the administration of those grants."

During the meeting it was revealed that the City paid Laberge $12,000 to prepare the grant application.

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A Post for Lincoln's Birthday

Today is the 217th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. On this day, Gossips recalls Lincoln's connections with our little city on the Hudson.

From February 11 to February 23. 1861, Lincoln made his inaugural journey by train from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., stopping in eighty-three cities along the way. On his 52nd birthday, Lincoln was in Cincinnati. On February 19, Lincoln's train left Albany and made the journey, quoting Carl Sandburg, "Down the Hudson River, with greetings at Troy, Hudson, Peekskill. Then New York, the Front Door to America." 

In the spring of 1865, one week after his assassination, the train bearing Lincoln's corpse from Washington, D.C., back to Springfield also stopped in Hudson. The train arrived in Hudson at 9:45 p.m. Assistant Adjutant General Edward D. Townsend, commander of the funeral train, described what transpired in Hudson in his journal:

At Hudson . . . elaborate preparations had been made. Beneath an arch hung with black and white drapery and evergreen wreaths, was a tableau representing a coffin resting upon a dais; a female figure in white, mourning over the coffin; a soldier standing at one end and a sailor at the other. While a band of young women dressed in white sang a dirge, two others in black entered the funeral-car, placed a floral device on the President's coffin, then knelt for a moment in silence, and quietly withdrew. This whole scene was one of the most weird ever witnessed, its solemnity being intensified by the somber light of the torches at that dead hour of night.

In 2013, Jamison Teale read this account from Townsend's journal in James L. Swanson's book Bloody Crimes: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis. Teale shared that discovery with Gossips, and two years later, on April 25, 2015, the sesquicentennial of the funeral train, what was described by Townsend in his journal was re-created on the lawn beside the Hudson train station. 

Photo: Robert Burns

An account of that event can be found here. Lance Wheeler's video of the event can be found here.

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Guess What

Many would say that Hudson has become has become unaffordable, but this article would argue differently: "10 Cities in New York Where You Can Actually Live on Nothing but Social Security."  The picture below shows the first city on the list. Guess which city is number 10.

News from the Planning Board

Given the marathon Planning Board meetings of the past, this is news. Last night, the Planning Board got through its six-item agenda in just ninety minutes. But speed alone is not a good measure of a Planning Board's efficacy. 

Early on in the meeting, Planning Board chair Ron Bogle reported on this effort to establish collaboration between the Planning Board and the Conservation Advisory Council and the Planning Board and the Historic Preservation Commission. At the CAC meeting last week, it was suggested that Nathan Woodhull, who was recently appointed to the Planning Board and up until that time served on the CAC, might serve as the liaison between those two groups. Last night, Bogle reported that Woodhull that agreed to do that. He also asked for a volunteer from the Planning Board to serve as liaison to the HPC. Peter Spear volunteered to do that. Bogle explained, "The role of the liaison is informal. It's not a new layer of bureaucracy. It's just to keep the dialog open between these three groups, so that, when projects may overlap or somehow relate to more than one of us, we can share contact and collaborate together."

Ron Bogle at last night's Planning Board meeting

Bogle also made a statement about the Hudson Housing Authority project, the elevation drawings for which Gossips shared on Monday. Bogle prefaced his statement by assuring Jeffrey Dodson, HHA executive director, that he agreed the project was essential and the Planning Board would expedite the review process. What Bogle said merits being quoted extensively here:

The history of affordable housing in our country is not always a great story. Our first efforts in the mid-century were to create monstrous, institutional structures that were not welcoming and friendly to the folks that lived there. And they were not good for the cities they were in, because they created restricted areas of living for people living on low wages or in poverty. The DNA that were in those early designs still gets carried forward, and we need to be thinking of places of dignity, places of pride, places of belonging. 

People who live on low wages and affordability may not be able to take as many vacations as some of us, may not be able to see the beauty of the country around them. They only have their own town, and we believe that they deserve to have beauty just as much as any of the rest of us, and that's a guiding philosophy that I hope to carry through this project, but the problem is that DNA gets carried forward. 

If you look at Bliss Towers you can see that it carries the DNA of the early '60s affordable housing movement, and we've now learned, having lived with it for over 50 years, that there are so many things about that design that really diminish the quality of life of the residents and frankly doesn't really belong in the community. It feels like something that got parachuted in--the architecture, the design, the scale, the appearance. 

I think we need to be sure that we do not carry forward the DNA, or at least minimize it as much as we can, of those early 1960s projects. The folks that built Bliss Towers I'm sure were dedicated civic leaders who thought they were doing the very best for their community, but the fact that it's been there for fifty years. . . . I think probably it started out not being that well constructed in the beginning, but it lasted fifty years, so that should give us pause that we are making a decision as we deal with this process to build housing that will probably be with us beyond 2075, 2080, 2090. We are building a site that will serve multiple next generations of Hudson residents, families, children grow up, their children may grow in this facility. So it needs to be expedited, but it also needs to be done with thoughtful consideration about what this new piece of Hudson looks like and how it's going to define so many lives in our city. So we need to do better than to just follow past models. 

The current best thinking for affordable housing emphasizes the human scale, integration into existing neighborhoods, dignity of design, durability of materials, sense of home rather than a sense of an institution, and we also need to overlay green design as we move through the next fifty, sixty, seventy years. We need to be thinking about sustainability. We ought to look at US Green Building Council guidelines and other national guidelines that might help inform our thinking. Taking time to get this right is our most important job at the Planning Board. . . . 

I would conclude by saying we're not going to talk about the design tonight, because we don't have a lot of information yet. We've seen your elevations. But I will tell you we have work to do, because there's an awful lot of the mid-1960s DNA still existing. We need to look at it, we need to study it, and we need to understand what does it feel like to be a human being and a family living in that space. How do we make it the best possible experience for them? We cannot simply do what we've done in the past. but look at the paths forward in terms of how we think about investing our time, money, in these people's lives and in our community.

Bogle's entire statement can be heard here, beginning at about 24:20.

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More About Botstein and Epstein

Times Union investigative reporter Sarah Trafton has another story about Leon Botstein and Jeffrey Epstein in today's paper: "Epstein told assistant to ensure woman has 'appropriately dressed' for Botstein."

News from City Hall

Our new mayor has a number of vacant positions to fill--commissioners, as well as code enforcement officer. Today it was announced that he has named a new Commissioner of Youth. The official announcement from City Hall follows.

Mayor Ferris is pleased to announce the appointment of Daren Collins, Sr., to serve as the City of Hudson's Commissioner of Youth. A lifelong resident of Hudson with two children who attend Hudson Junior High School, Daren has dedicated his life to serving our community. He currently works as an Attendance Officer/Community Relations Specialist for the Hudson City School District and a Youth Mentor with the Mental Health Association. His passion for youth, sports, and cooking drives his work as an assistant coach for the Hudson Varsity Football team, head coach of Southern Columbia Hudson Pop Warner, and a coach for Got Game Sports. He also proudly serves on the Columbia County Youth Bureau board, the Southern Columbia Hudson Pop Warner board, and supports local catering initiatives with What's Really Good. His philosophy is simple: unity is power, positivity is light, and love is the answer.