More Vandalism

Last week, Gossips reported that the white pine planted on Promenade Hill last October during the observance of the bicentennial of the opening of the Erie Canal, as a symbolic tribute to the Haudenosaunee and a commitment to a sustainable future, had been uprooted and tossed over the fence and down the bluff.

Tonight, at the Common Council Code and Infrastructure Committee meeting, Rob Perry, Superintendent of Public Works, reported about two more instances of vandalism on the waterfront. A window was smashed in the restroom at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park, and someone broke into the Dunn warehouse and damaged the replica of The Hudson, which is stored there, by snapping off the dolphins at its base.   

The Hudson, a whaling ship, was the first ship to be built in the City of Hudson. According to Anna Bradbury's History of the City of Hudson, New York (1908), The Hudson was completed in 1785, the same year Hudson was incorporated as a city. The replica ship was built as a parade float in 1985 by DPW employees for the celebration of the city's bicentennial.

The Hudson carrying the Common Council in the 2009 Flag Day parade, the year of the Quadricentennial Celebration

The Hudson in the 2018 OutHudson Parade

Perry reported that the culprit(s) who smashed the window in the park restroom have been identified. but the perpetrator(s) of the damage to the replica ship/parade float have not.

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Another Round of Town Hall Meetings

The following announcement came this morning from City Hall: 

The Ferris Administration announced the next round of the City's community town halls. Starting later this month, City Hall will host these events in each of the city's five wards. Town Halls will start at 6:30 p.m. and are scheduled for an hour and a half.

• Monday, May 18, Ward Four--Hudson Area Library Community Room, 51 North Fifth Street
• Thursday, May 28, Ward One--Christ Church Episcopal, 431 Union Street
• Tuesday, June 2, Ward Three--Park Theater, 723 Warren Street
• Tuesday, June 9, Ward Five--Hudson Central Fire Station, 77 North Seventh Street
• Wednesday, June 10, Ward Two--Bliss Towers, 41 North Second Street

"Following the success of this winter's meetings, I am excited to announce the next round of events," said Mayor Joseph Ferris. "More than 150 people across all five wards attended a town hall. These meetings represent what city government aspires to on a daily basis--transparent, engaged, and responsive. Listening to the questions, concerns, and ideas of my constituents and neighbors is a fundamental part of what it means to be mayor. I invite everyone to attend these meetings and not just be listened to, but heard."

The next "Meet the Mayor" open office hours will be held at City Hall on Thursday, May 21, from 3 to 5 p.m.

For more information about these community outreach efforts, please email Mayoral Aide Tiffany Martin at mayoralaide@cityofhudson.org.

About School Funding in New York

As the entire state approaches the day when taxpayers vote to approve or reject their school districts' proposed budgets, The Community Journalism Fund, created by the Gazette News Group, the current owners of the Register-Star, shares a report: "New York public schools lead nation in per-pupil spending--again." The article describes the the Hudson City School District as a "large urban district" and describes our per pupil spending as "more moderate":

Other large urban districts in the area, including Hudson in Columbia County and Schenectady in the immediate Capital Region, operate with more moderate averages of $34,000 and $31,000, respectively.

Given the current reported enrollment of 1,557 and the proposed budget of $59,171,704, the cost per pupil is $38,000.

New York State Report Card: HCSD

For those interested in the academic performance of the Hudson City School District, you can explore the data for the 2024-2025 school year here on the New York State Department of Education website.

Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

As the month of May continues, and we wait for temperatures to rise out of the 60s, here is what's happening.

• On Monday, May 11, the Common Council Code and Infrastructure Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
• On Tuesday, May 12, the Planning Board meets at 6:00 p.m. The agenda for the meeting does not include, surprisingly, the Hudson Housing Authority redevelopment. It does include the adaptive reuse of the John L. Edwards school building and, new on the agenda, Phase 1 of "Waterfront Village," the development proposed for the area that was once the site of the Kaz warehouses. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.  

• On Wednesday, May 13, it is "Meet the Board Candidates Night," hosted and moderated by the Hudson High School Student Council. The event takes place at 6:00 p.m. in the Hudson High School auditorium. It will also be livestreamed on YouTube. 

• On Thursday, May 14, the Common Council Legal Committee meets at 6:00 p.m. No agenda for the meeting is yet available. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
• On Saturday, May 16, the African American Archive of Columbia County presents Pinkster Fest 2026, the original Kinderhook Black Family Reunion, a celebration unique to the Hudson Valley. In colonial times, when Dutch settlers visited relatives during the religious holiday of Pentecost, they would give their enslaved African American workers a few days off to reunite with their family and friends. This annual gathering of families became known as the Pinkster Festival. Pinkster Fest 2026 takes place from noon to 5:00 p.m. in Rothermel Park in Kinderhook. For more information and to register, click here.

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The Word on the Public Square

Not long ago, a reader sent me this picture of the Public Square, wanting to know why, given that a lot of money had been donated and earmarked for its renovation, the park looked so bad.

This post was inspired by that picture and the question. 

Indeed, a lot of money has been raised--so far, more than $1.3 million--but more is needed. The restoration will happen in three phases. Phase 1 addresses park infrastructure; Phase 2 is the restoration of the fountain; Phase 3 involves streetscape improvements. 

Re-bidding for Phase 1 is happening right now, and work on Phase 1 us expected to begin this year. The following improvements are included in Phase 1:

• New benches
• New lighting
• New pathways
• 11 new trees
• A temporary, flexible seating area at the center of the park (future site of the fountain, which is Phase 2)
• A repositioned and accessible Veterans Memorial

Friends of the Public Square (FOPS) has provided the following timeline for Phase 1--from May 2026 through March 2027. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

You can review the plans for the renovation and monitor the project here, at the FOPS website. 

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About the HCSD Budget

In ten days, voters in the Hudson City School District will have the chance to approve or reject the $59,171,704 budget proposed for 2026-2027. The presentation of the budget that was made at the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday can be found here. The video of the presentation can be found here. 

The proposed budget involves a 5.8 percent increase in the tax levy. Of interest to property owners is the impact of that increase on their tax bill. The chart below calculates that. 

For us in Hudson, the increase is $138.67 annually, or $11.56 a month, for every $200,000 of a property's assessed value. Most houses in Hudson are assessed at considerably more than $200,000, so the impact on the average Hudson homeowner will be considerably more than $138.67 a year. 

There is one thing that seems encouraging in the presentation. Readers may remember the organization chart below, which Gossips published in 2024. It shows an impressive tier of administrators reporting directly (and exclusively) to then superintendent Juliette Pennyman, who created a few executive level positions during her tenure as superintendent. 

According to the chart found in the presentation, starting in July 2026, there will only be two executive level positions reporting to the superintendent. 

The vote on the budget, and for members of the Board of Education, takes place on Tuesday, May 19. The polling place for Hudson is the Central Fire Station at 77 North Seventh Street. The polls are open from 11:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.

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Superintendent Search Update

At Tuesday's meeting of the HCDS Board of Education, Dr. Kaweeda Adams of HYA provided an update on the superintendent search. She presented the professional profile, created based on community engagement, and a summary of the community survey conducted earlier in the process. Those documents are reproduced below and can also be found here.

In the Leadership Profile report, "Academic Improvement and Instructional Focus" are identified as Highest Priorities, after "Communication & Transparency" and "Rebuilding Trust & Morale." In the Community Survey Summary, "Establish a culture of high expectations for all students and personnel" is ranked second under "top-rated leadership profile characteristics." 

It was reported, as it has been before, that the board received twenty-nine applications for the position of Superintendent of Schools, and nine applicants have been identified for further review. The board conducted the first round of interviews with the candidates this past Sunday. It is expected the semi-finalists will be interviewed in an executive session meeting on Tuesday, May 26.

One of the members of the BOE asked if the process being followed now was the same process that had been used in the past. BOE president Mark DePace replied, "Not last time but four years ago." In other words, it is not the process that resulted in hiring Juliette Pennyman in 2023, but it was the process followed to identify LisaMarie Spindler in 2022, who resigned after fourteen months in the position.

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ICE Among Us

Gossips received the following press release from the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement recounting an incident that took place yesterday morning in Greenport.

At 7:17 [Wednesday] morning, six ICE vehicles surrounded four community members in a vehicle outside Bob's Restaurant in Greenport. While on their way to work and stopping for some breakfast, ICE attempted to detain them. The people inside the car knew their constitutional rights. They kept the doors closed, called the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement (CCSM) emergency hotline, and waited. CCSM's rapid response team arrived within minutes, demanded a judicial warrant be presented, which ICE could not produce, and stayed on scene until the agents left. Nobody was detained. It is the latest entry in a documented pattern of ICE targeting vehicles associated with construction work in our region.

"They said to roll down the window, that they wanted to talk to us. Then we kept saying no, that they had no right. Then they told us, they said these exact words: 'You are immigrants, you have no right to be here and you have no right to an opinion.' That was their response. And we kept telling them that we do have rights, we told them we have the right to remain silent," said one of the people in the car.

Bryan MacCormack: "Our people were ready this morning because we have been building toward this for years. They knew it wasn't local police. They knew not to open the door. They knew who to call. That is not luck, that is community defense. ICE came with six vehicles for four people and left with nobody."

Federal enforcement is escalating. ICE is operating across New York with a budget and a mandate to abduct as many people as it can. The question for Albany is not whether to respond. The question is whether to respond seriously.

The serious response already exists--the New York For All Act (S2235-Gounardes / A3506-Reyes). New York For All would prohibit state and local resources from being used for federal immigration enforcement, end 287(g) agreements across the state, and bar ICE and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] from non-public areas of state and local property without a judicial warrant. CCSM is calling on the State Legislature to pass it and on Governor Hochul to sign it. . . .

A video of the incident can be viewed here.  

UPDATE: The press release from the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement makes reference to a program known as 287(g). If you are not familiar with it, listen to this report, which aired today on NPR's All Things Considered: "ICE is giving local police big money to help with immigration enforcement."

A Special Report from Hudson Common Sense

As homeowners in Hudson face a possible 5.8 percent increase in school taxes, Hudson Common Sense takes a hard look at the cost to the taxpayer of a related Hudson institution: the Hudson Youth Department. The special report titled "Half the Kids. Twenty Times the Budget" can be read here.

HCSD Board of Education Candidates

The Hudson City School District has published the names of the three candidates who have filed petitions to run for the two open seats on the Board of Education. They are Michael Zibella, who is currently on the board, Lou Zapp, and Royce "Rip" Noblin. 

Michael Zibella

Lou Zapp

Royce "Rip" Noblin

The candidates' statements can be found here.

Of Interest

A statement from Leon Botstein on his retirement as president of Bard College appears today on imby.com.

Photo: Matt Dine

It is followed by a statement from the Executive Committee of Bard's Board of Trustees, which includes a link to the summary of WilmerHale's independent review of communications between Botstein and Jeffrey Epstein.

News of Hudson Depot Lofts

At Monday's meeting of the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA), a team of three, representing Depot Lofts and led by Jacob Meglio, who identified himself as "senior head of operations at Galvan," was present to answer questions. The specific interest of the IDA was Hudson Depot Lofts, to which the IDA had granted a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) and other financial benefits with certain expectations. 

Before they got to the topic of Depot Lofts, Meglio offered some insight into the status of Galvan properties that have been gifted to Bard College. As he explained it, T. Eric Galloway was the sole trustee of Galvan Initiatives Foundation. Galloway has now resigned and has been replaced by Bard College. A board of directors, appointed by Bard, now exists to manage what had been the collective holdings of the Galvan Foundation, and an LLC was created solely to manage this building.

Although, on April 8, Zillow was indicating there were 47 apartments available in the building (in other words, 64 percent of the apartments were vacant), Meglio reported that upwards of 50 percent of the apartments were now occupied. (If you check Zillow today, you will learn: "There are currently no available units for Hudson Depot Lofts on Zillow.") At the IDA meeting, it was noted that the second floor, the floor immediately above the commercial space, where the least expensive apartments are located, is almost completely occupied. Those now managing the building are hoping that warmer weather will improve leasing. (Marketing of the building started about a year ago.) 

Council president Margaret Morris spoke of a discussion she had had with Bard CFO Tuan Toay about restructuring the PILOT to increase the number of apartments in the lower tier of affordability (up to 80 percent of the AMI) and reduce the cap on the upper tier from 130 percent of AMI to 110 or 120 and asked if the conversation was still ongoing. Meglio said he could not comment. 

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Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Last October, in celebration of the bicentennial of the opening of Erie Canal, a replica of the Seneca Chief re-created the inaugural voyage of the original Seneca Chief from Buffalo to New York City. 

At each of the stops on the commemorative journey of the new Seneca Chief, a White Pine tree was planted as a symbolic tribute to the Haudenosaunee, the confederacy of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayagas, and Senecas, and as a commitment to a sustainable future. The tribute to the Haudenosaunee was fitting because the Erie Canal contributed to their displacement.

Hudson was a stop on the Seneca Chief's bicentennial celebration journey, and our White Pine was planted on Promenade Hill.

At the Conservation Advisory Council meeting tonight, CAC member Joshua Cohen reported that he had recently gone to Promenade Hill to check on the well-being of the tree and discovered it was gone. There was no evidence that it had been cut down; it was just gone. He reported this to Rob Perry, Superintendent of Public Works, who investigated and found the tree, quite dead, on the slope leading down to the river. Someone had yanked the tree out of the ground and tossed it over the fence.

CAC member Alexandra (Sam) Semchenko resolved to find out who had done this. Peter Frank, who was in the audience, volunteered to plant a replacement.

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They Paved Paradise . . .

Despite the attention paid to making the city walkable, Hudson residents remain wedded to their cars, and the city--residents, elected officials, regulatory boards--remains obsessed with parking. Fifty or more years ago, the desire to create parking lots justified the demolition of buildings. The sites of many significant buildings in Hudson are now parking lots. Fortunately, that doesn't happen as much anymore, but a recent development on Green Street may be a harbinger of things to come. The lawn in front of 72-74 Green Street was paved over--with asphalt--to create offstreet parking for the building, which was recently rehabbed as apartments.

The pictures below--Google captures--show how the building and its front yard used to look.

The creation of this parking lot raises concerns about the fate of the wrought iron fence that used to surround the yard. Some of it remains, but most of it is missing. Back in 2012, Gossips revealed that this fence had been salvaged from the entrance to Promenade Hill back when Urban Renewal reconfigured the west side of Front Street. 

Sadly, there is nothing in the city's zoning code to prevent this from happening. One wonders how long it will be before the folks on Washington Street decide that paving their front lawns will be the solution to their parking problems. The picture below, which accompanied an article in the Register-Star, shows that residents, whose street parking spaces are being taken up by patrons of Pocketbook Hudson, have already started parking their cars on their front lawns.

 

Photo: Spenser Walsh | Register-Star

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