Meetings Tonight
At 7 p.m. tonight, the Hudson Common Council holds its informal meeting, at which new resolutions are introduced and discussed. Although the agenda for tonight's meeting has not yet been published, Common Council meetings are rarely lacking in intrigue, so that's where Gossips will be.
But there's another meeting happening tonight of great interest and importance: the Claverack Town Board meeting, that which the board is expected to discuss an amendment to the Claverack zoning code--the adoption of the Planned Development District (PDD)--that would permit the massive development proposed by Amedore Homes for a site on Route 9H just south of the intersection with Route 66.
Recommended reading for anyone who is not familiar with what's being proposed and what's at stake is a piece by Enid Futterman published yesterday on Imby: "Stupid Growth--NOT IN OUR BACK YARD." The town board meeting, which begins at 6 p.m., takes place at Claverack Town Hall, 836 Route 217, on Mellenville.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, there's this, which is dead on accurate:
https://www.facebook.com/TuckerCarlsonTonight/videos/485692651766059/
And do those tourism jobs pay enough for a worker to be able to afford either one of those houses on Millbrook Road or one of those cottages in Valatie?
Last night's meeting was both fascinating, eye-opening, and slightly confounding - for me, at least, although I am just a local.
ReplyDeleteHere is what I learned, in no particular order of importance:
1. Apparently, it has been deemed that Claverack will only allow and accept agricultural and tourism jobs. What confuses me is that unless you own the farm and/or the tourism-designated venue, it has been widely documented (forgive the unintended pun) across various social media platforms, that the agricultural and tourism related jobs (not careers) are almost entirely held by undocumented workers. So does that mean that Claverack only wants jobs for undocumented workers?
2. I learned that Section 8 is apparently a very bad thing, with lots of people nodding their heads in agreement about that. I wonder how many specific experiences people have had with Section 8, and if they'd publicly share those experiences.
3. I learned that people, in a public meeting, CAN in fact make hateful, derogatory, derisive statements about other communities generally, like Greenport, for instance, about certain groups of people, about certain businesses generally, about the workers at those businesses, and THAT is apparently NOT considered hate speech if the speakers characterize themselves as voters, and always use correct noun/verb agreement.
4. The most contemporary thing I learned was that apparently some developers have a super villain capability to shoot all the stars out of the sky. Anyone with some capital and a contact in the toy industry: The Next Big Thing in the toy industry: DEVELOPER: Takes on Big Dipper; obliterates Little Dipper.
5. I learned that making money in Claverack, which last I looked, was still part of the USA, where our economic system is based on capitalism, like New York City's, is only allowed and accepted in some industries, but if you're in the development business, you're disallowed or capped on the amount of money you earn, regardless of the amount of work you do or the amount of risk you incur.
6. I learned that in Claverack, some businesses, not all, are required to publicly reveal their voting preferences, and their political affiliations, so I guess we won't be needing all those Election Inspections or Voter Scanning Machines, or secret ballots anymore. We'll all just show up at the firehouse and one by one, office by office, announce who we're voting for. Honestly, that'll be AWESOME entertainment. Bring popcorn.
And finally, I'm a registered Democrat. A Mario Cuomo Democrat. Governor Mario Cuomo had as much respect for the hopes and aspirations of a truck driver as for a poet or an artisanal cheese maker. He also had compassion for those folks who through a combination of bad choices, bad luck, and bad timing found themselves in a tough spot.
But that apparently, was a different America, AND a decidedly different Democratic Party.