Important Meeting Tonight
Today--Thursday, November 7--at 6 p.m., there is a meeting of the Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency (HCDPA) at City Hall. At issue is the Hudson Community Garden's desire to remain on land it has tended and developed over the course of twenty years and Habitat for Humanity's plan to acquire the land and build houses on it--a plan that reportedly has been in the works for four years. Gossips reported the issue on Monday; the Register-Star published an article about it on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, garden directors Vanessa Baehr and Sarah Falkner issued an open letter to the people of Hudson, outlining the events of the past few months and calling for public participation and transparency in the decision about this property--a decision that impacts a vital neighborhood and community resource: "The garden feels that while Habitat for Humanity may have an overall very benevolent mission, when planning for 4 years to develop on the land the community garden has occupied for 20 years, they did not show due diligence in contacting the garden leadership to discuss the potential impact of their plans, nor assess how many people would be affected."
In a letter to the community issued late on Wednesday, Sheena Salvino, executive director for HCDPA, responds to the letter from Baehr and Falkner, offering her account of what has transpired in recent months. Salvino's letter concludes: "It is my belief, sincere hope and goal to come to a solution that satisfies, if not exceeds, the expectations of both organizations and the community we serve. I have little doubt that we have the capacity to do this together." (Elsewhere in the letter, Salvino describes herself as "an unflappable optimist.")
Read both letters--the one from Baehr and Falkner, and the one from Salvino--and plan to attend the HDCPA meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Reading the fine plea by Vanessa Baehr and Sarah Faulkner, one fact jumped off the page in an uncomfortably familiar way:
ReplyDelete"An organic garden is a delicate ecosystem that cannot be easily replaced or moved ..."
That's a point we struggled to explain to a previous (and exceptionally obtuse) Common Council, one of many examples of that council's struggle to justify a plan it couldn't fully comprehend in a Local Waterfront Revitalization Program it eventually authorized as complete.
While our legislators were deliberating over the LWRP's extant plan to place a marina and giant parking lot south of the Holcim yard, the problem of existing beds of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) was raised by New York state.
When our paid expert from BFJ Planners told the council what they wanted to hear - that we'd simply "move" the SAV - I replied that if there was anywhere else to move them they'd already be growing there.
But thanks to the bureaucratic mindset, the aldermen needed no further explanation then the facile one supplied by the hired technician.
Among the most important considerations in the present case, the line I've quoted above from Vanessa and Sarah's letter will have no context, and therefore no meaning, for either today's Common Council or the Board Members of Columbia County Habitat for Humanity.
Do not expect this council - or any committee for that matter - to appreciate the simplest facts of ecology any more than they'd grasp particle physics.
The Common Council has nothing to do with this land: it's owned by HCDPA, not the City. While a number of elected officials sit on the HCDPA board as of right (the mayor and the majority and minority leaders of the Council), the balance is composed of local business people and residents.
ReplyDeleteJohn--You are correct, of course, when you say that the Common Council has nothing to do with this land, but when you describe the HCDPA board, I think you may be thinking of the HDC board. The HCDPA board consists of the mayor, Cappy Pierro (Common Council majority leader), Ohrine Stewart (Common Council minority leader), Don Tillson (chair of the Planning Commission), and Lyle Shook (who I think may be there representing the Hudson Housing Authority).
DeleteThank you for the necessary clarification, Alderman Friedman.
DeleteThat leaves the misguided plan for a marina and a giant parking lot south of the Holcim port.
Post Carole's comment, I was at any rate describing the obtuseness of all councils and committees to the finer points of ecology.
DeleteI hope that Mr. Friedman can appreciate the broader point, since he is listed as a Board Member of the Columbia County Habitat for Humanity. To phrase it in a more generously, I hope that he's able to convince his fellow board members that you cannot easily relocate an entire ecosystem.