Monday, July 16, 2012
The Eviction of the Furgary
Word is that at 3 a.m. this morning, a Hudson Police Department SWAT team entered the Furgary Boat Club to carry out the City's promised eviction. The three Furgarians who had decided to spend the last night there left peaceably. By 5 a.m., the Department of Public Works had started installing a plastic fence around the area, and by 7:30 a.m., when Gossips arrived to take these pictures, DPW workers were inside pruning trees and cutting shrubbery to ensure that the police would have an unobstructed view of the site lest people sneak back to the shacks.
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On Saturday, in a joyous parade down Warren Street in honor of Allombe Badila, we saw the good Hudson. This Furgary fiasco, with its Swat team and anger, is the bad Hudson, the one that is intent on destroying its heritage. Such a shame. I hope the spirit of Allombe will guide our public servants so that the good Hudson will prevail.
ReplyDeleteThank you Peter Meyer. Very well said. This is a sad day for Hudson and may the people prevail in their attempts to save their property.
ReplyDeleteHere's to all the past & present Furgarians.
ReplyDeleteThey can destroy the buildings but never the memories.
A sad day for all Hudsonians.
I don't see what's so sad about taking part of the waterfront that was held by a small group of squatters for their personal use and converting it to public use so anyone in the city can enjoy it. It's not like a private company is taking it to make it into gravel dump. I would feel sad if I was a squatter and I just lost my free waterfront vacation cabin that I paid no taxes on--on the edge of a city where hundreds of low income people are stuck inside tiny hot apartments with no place to go, yet I've got a free place right on the river, with personal, private river access - I'd be real sad. For the majority of people of Hudson, this is a good thing, seems to me.
ReplyDeleteDear Slow Art, no one is asking for anything more than the City not tear down the buildings. Do you want that?
DeleteI suppose it would depend on the plan. If the object is to develop it as a park for public use, or to make it conservation land with trails, docks for boat launch, etc., then the shacks may just be in the way. Maybe some of them could be used for something. Is every building, shack or garage historic and worthy of preservation just because it is old? Even if it was scrapped together out of old or discarded wood, full of post hole beetles, carpenter ants, termites etc.? It's not like these are fabulous structures representative of a historic architectural style or period.
DeleteNo Furgarian will attempt to sneak back onto the property. They're not that sort of people, and it ain't gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteThe potential trespassers would be from another social demographic, and have less than wholesome intentions.
That's why the Furgarians were relieved today when they learned their cabins were properly secured. (For anyone who doesn't already know, THAT is what kind of people they are.)