Assuming it's safe to leave home later today, there is meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. at City Hall that deserves attention. It is a meeting of the Common Council Economic Development Committee, chaired by Don Moore, at which a presentation will be made by Karen Strong, the biodiversity outreach educator for the Hudson River Estuary Program, and Ellen Jouret-Epstein, community projects manager for the Columbia Land Conservancy. They will be talking about Conservation Advisory Councils and how such a council could benefit the City of Hudson by advising the city officials on issues relating to conservation. The Town of Ancram already has a CAC, as does the Town of Red Hook in Dutchess County.
Since this is a meeting of the Economic Development Committee, it might also be an appropriate place to raise questions and voice opinions about decisions being made that affect Hudson's economic development, like the latest permutation of the Galvan plan to house the homeless in Hudson.
It would be wonderful if as many members of the Hudson community as possible -- esp. the business community -- could make the Economic Development Committee meeting tonight. The CAC idea is a, I think, a good one (and thanks to Dave Marston for spearheading this issue for the Council) and something we should be thinking about seriously.
ReplyDeleteThe second issue -- Galvan and its ever-amorphous homelessness-as-business-model idea -- really needs the community to come out and question every aspect of it. The last time Galvan proposed something like this (besides the thankfully ill-fated Civic Hudson project) was to build permanent non-supportive housing on the corner of Warren and S. 5th. That idea was a disaster and the public opposition evident at the Council meeting the night it was proposed was, I believe, a good part of the reason it was abandoned.