It's the final week before the summer solstice, and all the meetings this week are concentrated in the first three days.
- Today, Monday, June 14 (actual Flag Day), the Tourism Board holds a special meeting at 5:00 p.m. The link to the Zoom meeting should be published on the City of Hudson website later today.
- On Tuesday, June 15, Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency (HCDPA) holds a special meeting at noon to discuss the disposition of its vacant properties. The link to the Zoom meeting should be published on the City of Hudson website at some point prior to the meeting.
Update: It's 11:20 a.m. on Tuesday, June 15, and the Zoom link to the HCDPA special meeting has still not been published.
- Also on Tuesday, June 15, the Common Council ad hoc committee drafting legislation to solve the city's sidewalk problem meets at 5:30 p.m. The link to the Zoom meeting should be published on the City of Hudson website at some point prior to the meeting.
- At 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15, the Common Council holds its regular monthly meeting. Click here to access the Zoom meeting.
- On Wednesday, June 16, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment (BEA) meets at 3:00 p.m. The BEA is made up of the mayor, the city treasurer, and the Common Council president. The purpose of the meeting is not known, and no link to the Zoom meeting has yet been published.
- Although the city calendar indicates that the subcommittee of the Hudson Housing Authority Board of Commissioners has a meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 16, at the HHA meeting on Wednesday, June 9, it was announced that there would be no meeting this week.
No agendas, no public participation welcome, often stymied. This Goverment — both executive and legislative - is anti-democratic, proto-authoritarian and trumpist in both their approach to and practice of public administration. Even if they were good at what they are tasked with doing (and they’re not) this approach is Soviet in nature and inherently anti-American. Time for this entire group of bad managers to be shown the door.
ReplyDeleteIt's shocking to me how very patronage-minded both the mayor and the Common Council president are, all the while painting themselves as 'progressive' champions.
DeleteIf ever there were a cycle that justified a slate of write-in candidates, the last couple of weeks (or years, depending on how long you've been paying attention) have shown this is it. Tom and Kamal (as well as, apparently and somewhat disappointingly, Alderman Lewis) have to go. The Hudson community can't afford two more years of this nonsense.
And the first out the door is the Touris Board, closely followed by Garega and Wolf.
ReplyDeleteMore people need to demand that Mayor Johnson remove most of the Tourism Board and allow hospitality business owners on Warren Street to distribute the remaining funds to worthy projects. This group of people have shown themselves to be self-serving and utterly corrupt, as well as utterly incompetent, as anyone driving down Warren Street can tell you. I don't think the community should be expected to get behind any initiative they spearhead.
ReplyDeleteJust going to suggest a radical thought here, maybe we don't need a tourism board right now. Maybe we should be a little more nuanced about short term rentals, and then direct the money raised from those fees towards real affordable housing projects and initiatives. Hudson Politics is so often a zero sum game, in black and white / right wrong terms. Real life is not. There are creative solutions, and ways to think about quality of life for all of our citizens that don't require pitting people against one another. If we spent more time in thoughtful engagement and trying to creatively problem solve instead of factions railing against one another, and making little or no progress on any front, we might actually get something done here... Just one girl's thought.
ReplyDeleteSays the most polarizing person in town! ;)
DeleteMonica, you are absolutely correct. The Tourism Board's mandate was to promote Hudson as a tourist destination- this group has largely failed, preferring the short-term political benefit of pork barrel spending over the more serious policy work to that could more sustainably lift the Hudson community.
DeleteI would add that a member of the board in question making anonymous, ad hominem attacks against members of the community (again) in response to valid criticism really does help hammer home how deeply unproductive the Tourism Board is and how very arrogantly they engage with the community. Chris McManus is an obvious offender, but he's certainly not the only one on the board.
It would make much more sense for the Board to be purged and replaced with business owners who can salvage open streets for the season and reinvest what remaining funds there are into meaningful data collection and plans with long-term economic benefit.
If there were anymore subsidized housing in Hudson we’d all live in subsidized housing. We need a rationalized tax base, not a Soviet style public housing block or blocks. We need focus on our shit show of a school district and how we attract educated workers here, not those who can’t support themselves at the expense of the city and its taxpayers. There is no housing crisis in Hudson — plenty of rentals in Greenport. Or Philmont.
DeleteRespectfully, JF, I have to disagree with you. There has been both an acute spike in demand because of the pandemic migration and intertwined with that a steady trend of shifting work habits that have telecommuters making more money than the local work opportunities can keep up with. When I was looking at places this winter, one bedroom apartments (decent ones, anyway) were asking $2100/mo.
DeleteYou are certainly correct about the solution. The self-appointed vanguard of the revolution has been happy to partner with an unscrupulous, wealthy developer to provide subsidized housing with no jobs and little chance of upward mobility in exchange for generous tax breaks to be shouldered by the middle class who will pay for his infrastructure and social services. It's absurd.
Hudson Hudson, Am I? If so, that’s a shame. However, if in pointing out that there are more possibilities than the right / wrong dichotomy that I observe framing many issues in the community, I am considered polarizing, does that not underscore the point?
ReplyDeleteBtw, just to clarify, my point regarding the Tourism board is about the idea of the board in general. At this juncture when Hudson has many pressing needs, Tourism, or rather visitation, is doing well, and resources might be better used on a more pressing need. My example being, instead of framing a false choice between short term rentals and affordable housing, which doesn’t actually help the affordable housing issue, why not use revenue generated by short term rentals to invest in affordable housing…. I know there are those who will be quick to point out the reasons why that money can’t be used differently, but you can have solutions or the reasons why not. Just one example of where we could try to build up rather than tear down. Meet many peoples needs instead of creating division. I guess that’s polarizing?
Also, it doesn’t escape my notice that when a women has a strong voice, she’s divisive, but a man? We’ll, that’s just another guy in Hudson (amongst so many).
Tourism Board funds might also be used to fill in the seasonal gaps that affect so many businesses and workers. Winter is no picnic in the industry, and Hudson still has significant midweek gaps in visitation that have forced businesses to sit fallow and tables empty. There was low-hanging fruit to grab, but the Tourism Board opted to pull up a plate to the all-you-can-eat pork barrel buffet instead. Watching them gorge themselves hasn't left anyone with much appetite for civic engagement.
DeleteTourism also provides the sales and lodging tax revenue the City needs to sustain, grow, and diversify its economy. Sadly, the Tourism Board has done nothing to strengthen these revenue streams and create a better future for their neighbors.
The Tourism Board has to go.