A Modest Proposal and Appeal for Our Parks

Many people in Hudson want more public green space but balk when the question arises of who will maintain those public spaces. The maintenance of our existing parks is woefully inadequate. From trees dying and not being replaced to insensitive pruning of hedges and shrubs to unsightly repairs to walks to alterations and additions undertaken without proper oversight, there's much that could be done better. The Department of Public Works, whose job it is to maintain the parks, has its hands full with the City's critical infrastructure--collecting the trash, maintaining the water and sewer systems, keeping the streets in good repair and traversable. In addition to being fully engaged just keeping the city running, DPW crews, as DPW superintendent Rob Perry has acknowledged on more than one occasion, lack the expertise required to keep the parks artfully manicured and beautiful.

Enter the Mrs. Greenthumbs Hedge Fund. For the past few years, a half-dozen people--Joe Connelly, Mara Estribou, Sarah Sterling, Ellen Thurston, David Voorhees, and Gossips--have been organizing biennial garden tours in Hudson, in honor of Hudson's most famous gardener, Cassandra Danz, a.k.a. Mrs. Greenthumbs. There were tours in 2014 and 2016, and there will be another in 2018. Donations from "garden tourists" and contributions from other sources built a little nest egg, which the group has dubbed the "Mrs. Greenthumbs Hedge Fund." The purpose of the fund is "to enhance and maintain Hudson's public parks." In pursuit of that mission, the Mrs. Greenthumbs Hedge Fund provided the money to hire a landscape architect to design a ramp for universal access to Promenade Hill when it seemed that a $20,000 temporary ramp—which based on information available hardly promised to be an enhancement—was likely to be installed there.

Now the folks behind the Mrs. Greenthumbs Hedge Fund are looking to broaden their effectiveness, and, toward that end, they are seeking guidance from the community. One idea being considered is to morph the small, informal group into a full-blown Hudson Parks Conservancy, taking as its model the Central Park Conservancy, the not-for-profit that raises 75 percent of the annual budget for maintaining Central Park and is responsible for the work required to keep the park beautiful. The Hedge Fund currently has a little money--a few thousand dollars--that could serve as seed money for such a non-profit.

If you are interested in having a Parks Conservancy in Hudson and want to be a part of it, or if you have specific projects you would like to see undertaken to improve the City's public parks and open spaces, please let it be known either in a comment on this post (you'll need to identify yourself so we can follow up with you) or in an email to Gossips. If enough people show interest, the next step will be to bring everyone together to explore the possibility further.
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