Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Galloway Watch

The agenda for tonight's Planning Commission meeting is on the City of Hudson website. Among the items on the agenda are two being presented by the Lantern Organization, Eric Galloway's not-for-profit in New York City. The agenda describes the projects to be presented as "proposal for 4th and State St." and "the 5th and Warren supermarket." 


What is going to be proposed for Fourth and State streets is a mystery. That's the location of 400 State Street, which used to belong to the Hudson Area Library but now belongs to the Galvan Foundation. It's possible that a mistake has been made on the agenda, and it's Fourth and Columbia that is meant and the project slated for presentation is the police station cum city court cum Tier 3 housing for the chronically homeless that Galvan has dubbed "Civic Hudson." We'll have to wait until tonight to find out.


The fact that the supermarket project on Warren near Fifth Street, which Galvan calls "Hudson Arcade," is being presented to the Planning Commission by the Lantern Organization offers a clue about what is being planned for the apartments over the store. There's a rumor that these are going to be Section 8 apartments, but it is more likely what is being planned is the return of the infamous Starboard project proposed two years ago for this location, on a much smaller scale. The Lantern Organization specializes in permanent supportive housing for the mentally disabled, the homeless, and those with substance abuse problems, and that may be what they have in mind for the second floor of this building.  


The Planning Commission meeting begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall. 

4 comments:

  1. What utter claptrap, how do people come up with the idea that the apartment, one apartment, above the grocery store is going to be low income housing or the Starboard project. I can authoritatively correct that ridiculous rumor, it just has no basis and is not true.

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  2. 5th & Warren is not an appropriate location for any kind of shelter for distressed individuals. Oy....

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  3. The Galvan Foundation's statement above is very angry and intemperate. I don't go in for rumors either, but the fact that Galvan proposed SROs on this corner in the recent past and now has TWO proposals for "supportive" housing in other locations in Hudson, refutes the notion that such rumors, innuendos or accusations, are in fact, "ridiculous" "claptrap". Mr. Swope or whoever wrote that terse response needs serious public relations training. Would the Ford Foundation or the Doris Duke Foundation respond with a similar tenor? I doubt it. (Newbies, Galvan Init. Foundation compares itself, as does its attorney, to those two foundations-- and I think we can all agree such a comparison is "ridiculous" and "utter claptrap").

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  4. It would appear that Mr. Galloway and Mr. Van Amerigen prefer to stay in the background and let their staff and consultants represent them. This is not unusual. But I wonder why Galloway and Van Amerigen continue to encourage written and verbal unprofessional public statements from their hired help. I get a sense from those in the Galvan network that they feel privileged and should, therefore, be insulated from speculation, questions or criticism. When the thin skin of Galvan is poked it seems the eye rolls, loud asides, and amateurish ripostes begin. Galvan was compared to the Ford Foundation? To the Doris Duke Foundation? Such a comparison is full of bluster and swagger and is, frankly, nonsense.

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