Another Tree Downed
When you notice a tree coming down, chances are the doomed tree is located on a property owned by Eric Galloway. Such was the case yesterday, when the tree behind 356 Union Street, a vacant apartment building owned for several years by Galloway, was felled.
What is it that Galloway finds so offensive about a tree?
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yeah - get rid of those detestable shade bearing eyesores that attract noisy birds - onward to the trees of the register star building - can't wait
ReplyDeleteIn episode 25 of "Deadwood," the HBO series that depicts a culture which many have likened to Hudson's deeper strata, the evil saloon-keeper Al Swearingen contrasts his fairer sense of free market competition to the show's portrayal of a megalomaniacal, dictatorial and voracious Geo. Hearst:
ReplyDelete"There’s no practical need for him to run the [town]. That’s out of scale. It’s out of proportion, and it’s a warped unnatural impulse ..."
Mr. Galloway's disproportionate impulse intends to remake the appearance of Hudson into his personal monument and memorial. Even nature must bow to his megalomaniacal grand design, which symbolizes his influence over the rest of us. It's a warped, unnatural impulse.
In the context of another great film, Hudson is slowly turning into Bedford Falls vis-a-vis our own Henry Potter.
Conversely, a committee which could develop the necessary "heritage tree" legislation might form itself out of the tree preservation petition which circulated last year. (Does anyone know the final number of signatures?)
Predictably, citizens will instead wait for a politician or some other "leader" to take the initiative to form the kind of association that used to come naturally to all Americans. The very moral at the heart of all Capra's films was what happens when we let these better inclinations languish, and who knows better than Hudsonians the kind of leadership that forms when the citizenry leaves a vacuum.
Unless and until we do this ourselves, our political class will stand by as tree after tree is leveled, and the very appearance of the City of Hudson - buildings, landscape, everything - is refashioned to reflect the crass aesthetics of one man bent on creating a monument to his supposed largesse.
How many trees were felled years ago on the original site of what is now NYOH, formerly the Cavell House? Exotic species of trees and shrubs according to a Gossips mention a little while ago. The long gone garden has been a parking lot for a long time
ReplyDeletecontributing to the institutionalization of Prospect Avenue which once must have been a very gracious area. The Cavell house was saved but became an institution compatible with its neighbor, the hospital.
Below that is COARC. All necessary establishments, but now that area of Hudson on the south side of Rossman Avenue above 8th Street and over to Columbia Street is designated an area where transitional people may be housed. It's a far cry from the vision of Mr. Rossman and the Cavell House owner.
Even New York State and the City have recognized the north side of Prospect and Rossman Avenue as an Historic District, but South side changed a long time ago. The Hospital, NYOH are benefits we can't do without and the parking lots are part of a lifestyle no one wants to change. So I'm afraid Mr. Galloway will be able to make his footprint as large as he wants in Hudson and change the landscape accordingly. Big bucks and institutions march on regardless.