More About Galvan Quarters
This morning on WGXC's @Issue, Victor Mendolia talked with Hudson supervisor Bill Hughes (Fourth Ward), who is a passionate supporter and defender of the plan to contract with the Galvan Initiatives Foundation to provide a homeless shelter in Hudson, and with Alderman John Friedman (Third Ward), a lawyer who has read the proposed lease agreements with Galvan three times and questions its wisdom. The lively discussion, which is recommended listening, can be heard here.
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| Bill Hughes |
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| John Friedman |
Excellent show. The passion emanating from all three made it much more than talking voices.
ReplyDeleteWhen meetings take place to design a program from bricks and mortar to budgets to program design to contracts with little or no input from the public then those who meet in private tend to feel a good deal of ownership to their plans. I heard that sense of ownership from Mr. Hughes. And I heard push back from Victor Mendolia and Mr. Friedman who have not been close to the planning. It was the same push back coming from the public last night at the Board of Supervisors meeting. The lesson that should be learned here, especially in reference to putting a homeless shelter into a community, is to get community buy in first. Getting community support can be infuriatingly slow and arduous but it is democratic and it is essential to producing something most can feel part of. Mr. Galloway seems to prefer to stay in the background while buying up a fair amount of property in the City of Hudson and recently making what is perceived by some as politically motivated grants through the Galvan Foundation. Questions hang in the air and people tend to try to answer them, rightly or wrongly. Open the windows.
ReplyDeleteMHA is a partner to this initiative. It would be good to hear from representatives of their executive staff or their Board in reference to MHA's program intent at Galvan Quarters. What have they agreed to and how does it fit with a homeless population in Columbia County which has few of the characteristics of people seen by MHA?