Seeking and Not Seeking Public Input

Yesterday, the folks at Henry Hudson Hall, formerly the Hudson Opera House, shared the news that more than 6,000 people had responded to the Hudson Area Visitor Survey. The survey results are expected to be published in late spring. "This data," the message continued, "will be invaluable . . . when it comes to creating an environment that's conducive to tourism and visitorship."

The response to the survey was gratifyingly good, but the response to the organization's name change, which was announced on Monday, has been anything but good. In an interview on WGXC on Wednesday, Gary Schiro, executive director of what had been the Hudson Opera House and is now Henry Hudson Hall, acknowledged that he and the board knew "not everyone is going to like it," but it seems there isn't anyone who likes the new name. Since the announcement, there have been several posts on Facebook decrying the new name and calling for the staff and board to reconsider, each one garnering a long string of comments in passionate agreement. Byrne Fone, author of Historic Hudson: An Architectural Portrait and part of the original group that formed the not-for-profit to purchase the building back in 1992, weighed in from the idyllic Dordogne to express his objections to the name. 

Among the interesting facts that emerged from the WGXC interview was that although nine focus groups had been held to establish that the name Hudson Opera House was a barrier to people immediately grasping the mission of the organization, the new name, Henry Hudson Hall, was never tested with a focus group before it was announced on Monday.
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