Tiney Abitabile Principal at Hudson High School
Brenda Adams Executive director for Columbia County Habitat for Humanity
Kim Bach Owner of Verdigris Tea & Chocolate
Shaheim DeJesus 2017 graduate of Hudson High School, now a student at Hudson Valley Community College; recipient of a Hudson Dollars for Scholars scholarship
Todd Erling Executive director for Hudson Valley AgriBusiness Development Corporation
Betsy Gramkow Executive director for the Columbia Greene Hospital Foundation
Michelle Hughes Director of investments and partnerships for the National Young Farmers Coalition
Jeff Hunt President and CEO of the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce
Joan Hunt Project director for Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood
Tony Jones Chair of the Columbia Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) Board of Directors; former owner of the newspaper The Independent
Peter Jung Owner of Peter Jung Fine Art; president of Friends of Hudson during St. Lawrence Cement struggle
Sara Kendall Assistant director at Kite's Nest
Bob Lucke Owner of The Cascades
Randall Martin Owner of Martin Audio Video Services and a member of the Hudson City Democratic Committee
Elena Mosley Co-founder and executive director of Operation Unite, New York
Matthew Nelson Vice president, loan production, at Community Preservation Corporation
Seth Rapport Owner of Valley Mortgage Company and former chair of the Hudson Development Corporation (HDC) Board of Directors
Jabin Ahmed Ruhii Team member at Hudson Muslim Youth
Michael Sadowski Program director for the Bard College Early College Hudson Initiative at the Warren Street Academy
Dan Seward a.k.a. Dan Bunny, owner of John Doe Records
Colin Stair Owner of Stair Galleries
Christine Vanderlan Community project manager at the Columbia Land ConservancyCOPYRIGHT 2017 CAROLE OSTERINK
I'd feel a lot better about this list if more of the members lived in Hudson. Brenda Adams, whom I've worked with and respect greatly, lives in Canaan I believe; Todd Erling, Livingston. Glad to see Dan Bunny there -- at least some creativity on the panel. Where do the rest of the members live? Why are there folks on this panel who don't have any skin in Hudson? Colin Stair, someone I count as an admired friend, may live a few miles down river from Hudson but he has invested heavily in our city. How about the rest of the members?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to all.
ReplyDeleteIf you do not live in Hudson please do not accept the Mayor's appointment.
The residents of Hudson are presently in a stew with residents of Greenport.
Come on Mayor your constituents deserve a little more respect than your personal favorites,
It is all about Hudson and the HBB/HBC people.
Wow. Its nice to see she hand picked all of her friends! She only picked people that would bow down and do what the snowflakes want.
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ReplyDeleteMy project (and group) was one of the few singled out for line-item attention in the DRI, but we were not invited to participate. Here's why.
First, I see several other names of people from outside Hudson not mentioned by JF above, but I'd argue that anyone has "skin" in the game who's motivated by ideas of the general good and who has access to significant money.
I prefer anyone who can bring a local understand to the table, which means particular rather than general goods. But as we all know, agendas will crop up anywhere.
With that in mind, here's how the story is meant to go. I will lose my line-item grant to the housing issue (this is the reason I'm not on the committee), but we'll also see most of the rest of the grant commandeered by the housing issue as well.
It's not that I welcome more gentrification to Hudson, which is a different kind of generalized outcome, but that the competition for housing taken in the context of runaway gentrification is notoriously unsolvable.
Like our current mayor's failed waterfront program (which I argue was the failure of its committee members), this DRI committee will fritter away its sense of resolve as soon as it becomes evident that the revitalization grant will center on housing issues, period.
2.
ReplyDeleteBecause so many committee members aren't residents, there will be very little accountability (another kind of "skin"), and two tendencies will develop to the city's detriment.
Watch as those who have ideological notions about "what city's need in general" begin to dominate the proceedings. In inverse proportion, those who defend anything other than social needs will be ostracized as "gentrifiers," and their voices will grow more faint the further away they live.
That's why I'm concerned that, besides the excellent Mr. Jung, nobody on the committee was involved with our previous waterfront program (2009-2011). The LWRP was nearly a comprehensive plan in itself, which adopted specific planning policies and even required the changing of our zoning laws to achieve them. Shouldn't we be building on our previous planning efforts rather than inviting outsiders to reinvent the wheel?
Nobody on this list knows anything about the City's sewer separation plans (idiotic and polluting as they are), or had any involvement whatsoever with the City's failed brownfields revitalization effort in 2012 (BOA).
By the time these DRI members learn something about Hudson's particular needs (a.k.a. "reinventing the wheel"), the committee will have fragmented and dissolved exactly like the recent LWRP effort.
By then, our next mayor will have to restructure the committee (just like the 2016 waterfront committee was restructured and still failed) so that the DRI effort represents the interests of ALL city residents. At that time we'll look back and understand that it should have been composed of city residents to begin with, those with a particular knowledge of this particular place who can better withstand the general pressures of (predictably) aggressive agendas without giving up right away.
It's now obvious to me that my own DRI project which enjoyed a rare line-item mention was never intended for anything other than the procuring of the grant. Now that that's done, my part is over.
But going forward, watch as the Colarusso company expects its own piece of the action. For the benefit of the outlying committee members who have no accountability and zero knowledge of local particulars, the company will present its interests as tied to the housing issue when it pretends (again) that running trucks over City streets is anything but a business convenience. It's an effective fable repeated endlessly for the benefit of the uninformed, and our mayor has compiled quite a list of uninformed people here.
This new committee which is the recipient of an immense planning power will be lobbied relentlessly until it grants the mining company everything it desires. In doing so, committee members from other municipalities will be assured that they're helping underprivileged neighborhoods. And they'll come to believe it, too, and even feel good about themselves!
Again, the committee members who don't live here and who have less of a stake in a holistic outcome ("skin") will end up harming the city through their sheer daftness. Until the next mayor can correct this misguided experiment, we should acknowledge in advance that the non-city residents on the committee will warrant and receive the greatest scrutiny from city residents. It's common sense, which is lacking enough whether in or out of Hudson.
Thank you for the information.I was wondering who these people were, with a few exceptions and even then some of those I didn't understand why they should have such influence what's happening to our waterfront and City up to North and South Second St.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it would be helpful if Mayor would write a brief explanation on how she feels each member selected would contribute and represent Hudson's diverse citizenry.
Yes, thank you, I wondered why only Peter Jung, Colin Stair and Bunny Brains were the few names I knew here, me a 25 year resident and 32 year business owner in Hudson, other than Tiffany herself of course. Some panel to figure out what's best for 'the Bridge' distrct or 'below Second'. Good going Unheimlich, sorry you were left out.
ReplyDeleteAlso J, you've been a member of the South Bay Task Force for six years.
DeleteTo demonstrate that the DRI will be a showdown about housing (an otherwise commendable issue), consider the City's two foremost housing activists interviewed in today's The Register-Star piece by housing advocate Ann Friedman.
The article is ostensibly about Rick Rector's meet-and-greet last night, but look again and it's really about housing.
The R-S gave the housing activists several quotations totaling 206 words, whereas only 47 of Mr. Rector's words were quoted, nearly half of those about his past.
Taken in context with the identity of the committee members, the evidence is abundant that the fix is already in.
Oops, forgot Bob Lucke, good guy, and Elena Mosely.
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