The Outcome of Last Night's Meeting

Last night's special meeting of the Common Council ended, perhaps predictably, with the approval of the resolution supporting Hudson Housing Authority's application for a Restore New York grant. The vote was 9 to 2, with only councilmembers Margaret Morris (First Ward) and Rich Volo (Fourth Ward) voting against it.

The resolution had been amended since the previous meeting to add this statement:

WHEREAS, the Hudson Housing Authority agrees to hold future public meetings concerning the design of this project and will remain in communication with the Common Council by appearing regularly with updates at Council meetings.

The resolution was further amended last night to add this clause to what was already a run-on sentence: "and will not take this resolution as an approval of the draft plan."

Although the outcome seemed predictable, it took two hours to get to the point of voting. After opening comments from Council president Tom DePietro, in which he assured the councilmembers that the resolution does not imply "anything beyond what's in the resolution," and the project will be "subject to much discussion" in the future, Morris read a statement that summarized her concerns about the proposed project. The statement follows:

The resolution we are voting on is to approve an application for Restore NY grant money for the demolition of Bliss towers. This is part of a larger project to build replacement housing for Bliss Towers, and then to demolish Bliss Towers and build additional housing on the site. The project as presented to us at the regular meeting of the Common Council expands the public housing capacity from 135 units--104 of which are currently occupied--to 315. Placing this volume of public housing in one location is not consistent with the Strategic Housing Action Plan, which specifically speaks to locating affordable housing in multiple locations within the city, rather then concentrating them in one location.

Restore NY guidelines state: 

Projects should be architecturally consistent with nearby and adjacent properties or in a manner consistent with the municipality’s local revitalization or urban development plan.

It is further anticipated that the improved community and business climate will result in an increased tax and resource base thereby improving the municipal finances.

What was presented to us at the Common Council does not meet these criteria.

Additionally, the building categories listed by Restore NY are vacant, abandoned, surplus, and condemned.

Currently Bliss Towers does not fit into any of those categories.

Priority is given to projects based on feasibility and readiness. To quote: "Applicants that can demonstrate that plans are in place, project financing has been committed, and that the project is expected to start within a year of a Restore NY award will be considered more competitive”

The demolition of Bliss Towers will not begin within one year. We have been told that this application is only for demolition, so the demolition of Bliss IS the project.

Further, the application requires submission of a Project Proposal which we have not seen. Nor have we seen any analysis of the financial impact on the municipality as a whole.

The application also requires evidence of public hearings which have not yet occurred.

Given the dearth of information provided to the Common Council, I do not believe that voting to approve an unseen application for a component of a project that has not undergone input from the community at large is responsible or in the best interest of the city.

Finally, given how this demolition project appears to meet few of the criteria for Restore NY, what is the urgency? It is my belief that a vote in favor of this resolution will be used as a signal to future investors and to the State that the residents of Hudson are in favor of the overall project--a project, mind you, that has not been presented to them. Almost all of the comments I have received have urged me to vote no on this resolution. That is how I will be voting this evening.

Councilmember Dominic Merante brought up the Strategic Housing Action Plan (SHAP), wondering why it was not mentioned in the resolution. (The 2002 Comprehensive Plan and the 2017 Downtown Revitalization Initiative Plan are cited as justification for the proposed project.) Nick Zachos, who sits on the HHA Board of Commissioners and whose company, Build Hudson, is rehabbing houses for HudsonDots, maintained that SHAP tasked specific agencies with specific things, and HHA was exempt from having to have "scattered site" housing as its goal. He argued that the plan being pursued by Kearney Realty & Development, to build on three City-owned parcels, was taking on the "scattered site" component.

John Madeo of Mountco, HHA's development partner, claimed that including the three parcels now owned by Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency made the proposed HHA plan "scattered site," overlooking the fact that all of the parcels are adjacent to existing subsidized housing or, in one case, houses built by Habitat for Humanity. 

Eu Ting-Zambuto, also of Mountco, maintained there would be an "income mix" within the proposed project. Bliss Towers currently has extremely low income tenants. The new development would combine extremely low income tenants with "working families," households with incomes between 50 and 80 percent of the AMI (area median income). For this reason, she argued, the project would not be concentrating poverty.   

The question of the appropriateness of seeking Restore New York funds for the project brought forward some interesting information. DePietro alleged "the State" had already determined the project to be eligible based on the letter of intent submitted in March. It was also revealed that NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), which apparently is expected to be an important source of funding for the $220 million project, suggested they should go to Restore NY, a program of Empire State Development, for money to demolish Bliss Towers. When it was suggested that they might be seeking Restore NY funding prematurely, since Bliss Towers cannot be demolished until a new building has been constructed to house the tenants currently residing there, Madeo told the Council, "This city is competing with housing authorities all over the state. We want to get on the state's radar." Later, when asked what would happen if the Council did not support the grant application, Madeo said, "We have to go back to the State, and that's not going to look good," confirming what Morris had predicted, that the Council's support of the application "will be used as a signal to future investors and to the State that the residents of Hudson are in favor of the overall project." 

At one point, Mayor Kamal Johnson chided councilmembers who complained they had inadequate information about the project, telling them there was an opportunity every month to learn about the project, referring to the monthly meetings of the HHA Board of Commissioners. As regular readers know, Gossips attends all of those meetings, virtually or in person, and I can attest that very little information was made public at those meetings (and what was has always been reported here). Plans were once handed out to commissioners during the meeting, never shown to the audience, and collected at the end of the meeting, lest they fall into the wrong hands. At another meeting, a presenter from Mountco hid a drawing she was holding up when I tried to take a picture. A councilmember who requested digital copies of the master plans received them but was asked not to share them with anyone. Despite Jeffrey Dodson's protestation that they weren't trying to "hoodwink" anybody, this group has hardly been forthcoming, and there is good reason to be skeptical that anything will change, no matter what amendments were made to the resolution.

One concession that has been made to the concerns of the greater community is this. Typically, a housing authority project can circumvent review by a municipality's regulatory boards. It was announced last night, however, that HHA and Mountco have agreed "voluntarily" to subject the project to site plan review by the Planning Board.

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Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

The week starts off with a special meeting of the Common Council, which you can read all about here. After what may be a contentious beginning, the rest of the week is not without potential for excitement.

• On Tuesday, April 30, Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency (HCDPA) meets at 4:30 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.
• Also on Tuesday, April 30, Jennifer Belton and Rich Volo, councilmembers representing the Fourth Ward, hold a Town Hall meeting for their constituents from 6:15 to 8:00 p.m. in the Community Room at the Hudson Area Library, 51 North Fifth Street.

• On Wednesday, May 1, the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA) meets at 10:30 a.m. It is expected that the hotel proposed for 620 Union Street, which was granted a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) and other tax abatements in 2020, will reappear before the IDA at this meeting. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at 1 City Centre, Suite 301, and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting remotely.

• Also on Wednesday, May 1, the Common Council Legal Committee meets at 6:00 p.m. No agenda is available for the meeting, but at its April meeting the committee discussed amendments to the city's vacancy law and its law prohibiting formula businesses. It is likely this discussion will continue. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.

Update: The Legal Committee meeting has been canceled and will be rescheduled for another time.

• On Thursday, May 2, the Common Council ad hoc Truck Route Committee meets at 6:00 p.m. At the special meeting of the Common Council on Thursday, April 24, the Council passed a resolution authorizing an agreement with The Transatlantic Group to do falling weight deflectometer testing to determine the load-carrying capacity of our streets. The testing is expected to cost $32,640, which will be paid for with what remains of the $100,000 grant received in 2019 for the origin and destination truck study that was completed in 2021. The proposed testing will likely be a topic of discussion. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely. 

Update: The Truck Route Committee meeting for this month has been canceled.

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Be Careful What You Ask For

Today at 6:00 p.m., the Common Council holds a second special meeting to consider a resolution supporting the Hudson Housing Authority's application for a Restore New York grant to demolish Bliss Towers, as part of a larger redevelopment plan for HHA properties.

At the previous special meeting, which took place on Thursday, April 24, the resolution failed to get the six affirmative votes needed. In advance of that meeting, one letter was submitted by a member of the public asking the Council not to support the application. In the documents posted on the city website for today's meeting, there are twenty letters. There are seven that urge the Council to support the application, and, with the original letter, fourteen that oppose that action.

Peter Spear of Future Hudson posted his letter to the Council on Instagram and followed up today with another post on Instagram, which attributes the current situation to a failure of leadership. The following is quoted from that Instagram post.

I think throwing a massive housing development into the public sphere, without taking responsibility for helping the community understand it, is irresponsible.

I don't think it's enough to claim that housing leadership has done its job simply by having its regular operating meetings open to the public.

This transfer of responsibility of comprehension onto the recipient of this proposal is unkind and counterproductive.

Fourth Ward supervisor Linda Mussmann has also expressed her opposition, on her Facebook page and in an article posted on imby: "Hudson Housing Authority is trying to rush through 300+ unit project." That post begins:

Hudson Housing Authority has proposed a 300+ apartment project where Bliss Towers now stands.

But the residents of Hudson and the Hudson Common Council have little information about the project, other than than cost of $700K for each unit. We have seen no design for the buildings themselves, only a street map, and there has been no study of the actual impacts on our city.

Council president Tom DePietro, who called the second special meeting after the resolution failed to pass on Thursday, has revised the resolution. The original resolution can be found here. The revised resolution can be found here. The changes to the resolution are these (underscore added):

• The seventh Whereas has been changed from "the City of Hudson is requesting $2,000,000 in funding assistance from the Restore NY Communities Initiatives Program to support this redevelopment" to "the City of Hudson is requesting $2,000,000 in funding assistance from the Restore NY Communities Initiatives Program to support for [sic] the demolition of Bliss Towers."
• Also, a twelfth Whereas has been added to the resolution: "Whereas, the HHA agrees to hold future public meetings concerning the design of this project and will remain in communication with the Common Council by appearing regularly with updates at Council meetings."

It is not clear if HHA, which, as Gossips has reported, has been keeping its plans close to the vest, has agreed to this condition.

Since starting this post, seven more letters about the issue have appeared on the City of Hudson website. As things now stand, it is 17 opposed to supporting the grant application, and 11 in favor.

The meeting at which the Council will vote on the issue, for the second time, takes place at 6:00 p.m. today, in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.

Update: At 4:17, there are six new letters on the city website--5 urging the Council to support the grant application, 1 expressing opposition to such action. That brings the total to 18 opposed and 16 in favor. Of course, it should be noted that two of letters urging support come from members of the HHA Board of Commissioners--Nick Zachos and Rebecca Wolff--who, of course, would want the Council's support for their project.

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Auspicious Beginnings

In September, Gossips had the great honor of sharing a chapter from the new book, then still in progress: Hudson's Heart: The Story of Hudson, New York's "Greatest Deal from the New Deal." The book, which is the product Ken Sheffer's exhaustive and passionate research, tells the story of how, in the dark days of the Great Depression, the showplace that was the Livingston Educational Center came to be. 

Today, on April 28, Gossips has the great privilege of hosting the official launch of the book. The significance of April 28 to the story and for the launch of the book is explained in the opening chapter: "'Life Preserving' April 28, 1935: FDR's 'Fireside Chat' and His Historic Work Program for America." To read the chapter, click here. 

Hudson's Heart is an extraordinary contribution to Hudson history, not only for its text but also for its illustrations. Accompanying the opening chapter are these two "bonus" illustrations, called "Miracle Maps." They are previewed here but should be viewed in full size on the Fresh History site. 

On April 28, 1935, Americans spent part of their evening listening to President Franklin Roosevelt speaking to them on the radio about his plans to bring jobs, hope, and relief from the Great Depression. On April 28, 2024, Gossips invites readers to spend part of their evening reading about that moment in history.

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Sidewalk Update

The Public Works Board, tasked with implementing the Hudson's Sidewalk Improvement District legislation, has met twice in the past couple of weeks. The five-member board is made up of the Commissioner of Public Works, Jason Foster; the ADA coordinator, Michael Hofmann; a member of the Common Council, Gary Purnhagen (First Ward); a mayoral appointee, George Kroenert; and a Council appointee, David Marston. The first thing the board did at its first meeting was to appoint Purnhagen as its chair.

A few things of interest learned from these meetings are the following:

• Annual maintenance fees will not be charged to property owners until 2025. May is the deadline for adding those fees to the annual property tax bill, and there isn't enough time to calculate the fees before the deadline this year. The annual fee for most residential property owners will be $200.
• The first focus for sidewalk repair and replacement will be the sidewalks between key areas of service which were the subject of a sidewalk audit done in October 2020. (That study can be found here.) Those sidewalks are;
• Warren Street from Third Street to Seventh Street
• Seventh Street from Union to Washington Street
• North Fifth Street from Warren Street to Prospect Street
• North Sixth Street from Warren Street to Prospect Street
• South Third Street from Union Street to Warren Street

It was originally estimated that repairs to these sidewalks would cost $5.5 million. In 2022, the City requested $5 million in Congressionally Directed Funds (CDF) to make the repairs to these sidewalks, but the request was not granted. 

• The DRI-funded Hudson Connects project, about which the public has heard nothing for a few years now, will address sidewalk repair on Warren Street below Second Street, but Allen, Union, and State streets below Second have been eliminated from the project. What the project actually looks like at this point, after it has been, as Council president Tom DePietro said, "condensed, condensed, condensed," is not known, but that's another story.

Another thing the Public Works Board is tasked with is hiring a project manager to help them scope, prioritize, and carry out the sidewalk improvement project. For the past two meetings, they have been debating whether to hire an individual or a consulting firm to do this work. A decision on that matter has not yet been made.

The next meeting of the Public Works Board will take place on Thursday, May 23. Going forward, the board will meet regularly on the fourth Thursday of the month.

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The Evolution of the "Depot District"

Earlier today, this photograph of the construction in progress at 76 North Seventh Street appeared on Facebook.

Photo courtesy Michael Weaver

The picture inspired me to revisit a post from a couple of months ago: "The Naming of Projects." That in turn inspired me to check if the website HudsonDepotLofts.com, which at that time was only a secured domain name, was up and running. It is. And here are a couple of images from that website.

Readers are encouraged to explore the website, which provides this description of Hudson Depot Lofts: 

It will be remembered that 76 North Seventh Street, the Depot District building on the east side of the street, was originally proposed as market rate apartments. Because the Common Council and the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) questioned the appropriateness of granting a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) to a market rate apartment building, the building was redefined as "workforce housing," for households with incomes from 80 to 130 percent of the area median income (AMI). Although the website, which describes the location of the building as the "Cultural, Artisanal, Artistic Capital of the Hudson Valley," somehow doesn't make it seem as though the building should be qualifying for tax abatements, the building has a twenty-year PILOT.

Regarding the building proposed for the opposite side of the street, the one in this "mixed income development" meant for households with incomes between 40 and 80 percent of AMI, the project has twice tried and twice failed to get funding from New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR). It is rumored, but Gossips has not yet been able to confirm, that the project has been disqualified for HCR funding because three houses on the site were demolished, eliminating four dwelling units, before funding for the new building had been secured.

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If at First You Don't Succeed . . .

schedule another meeting and vote again.

At the special meeting of the Common Council yesterday, the resolution supporting the Hudson Housing Authority's application for Restore New York funding came short of receiving the six votes needed to pass. Of the seven members present at the special meeting, five--Jennifer Belton (Fourth Ward), Gary Purnhagen (First Ward) Lola Roberts (Third Ward), Mohammed Rony (Second Ward), and Council president Tom DePietro--voted in support of the resolution, and two--Margaret Morris (First Ward) and Rich Volo (Fourth Ward)--voted against it. Four members of the Council were absent from the meeting: Dewan Sarowar (Second Ward), Shershah Mizan (Third Ward), Vicky Daskaloudi (Fifth Ward), and Dominic Merante (Fifth Ward).

Obviously hoping for better attendance and a different outcome, DePietro has called another special meeting of the Council to consider the issue again. That meeting will take place on Monday, April 29, at 6:00 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.

Although at yesterday's meeting DePietro insisted that the Council was only voting to support HHA's Restore NY grant application, some councilmembers saw it differently. Morris argued that "in voting to support this application, we are voting to support this project." She noted that this would be the Council's only opportunity to weigh in on the project except to approve or deny the proposal to alter the street configuration which is part of the project, explaining that the buildings will not have to come before either the Zoning Board of Appeals or the Planning Board. She and Volo, as well as Belton, expressed concerns about being asked to support a request for grant money "for a project we don't know that much about." They also argued, "We don't know what the costs to the city of this project will be." Volo pointed out that the project, which concentrates lower income households in one area of the city was counter to the recommendations of the city's Strategic Housing Action Plan.

Jeffrey Dodson, executive director of HHA, told the Council, "The current housing situation is not safe, and this project is the remedy." He went on to say, "What you are voting for is wanting to do better for the citizens of Hudson that live at Bliss." He argued that it made no sense not to try to access whatever money they can for the project. It should be noted that the maximum they could get in Restore NY funding is $2 million, for a project that is expected to cost $220 million, and that money would have to be spent on the demolition of Bliss Towers and Columbia Apartments. 

Rony, who admitted he had "very similar concerns about how the project will proceed" as those expressed by his colleagues on the Council, said he saw the vote as "more of a moral support," adding that he was "not satisfied with the proposal as it stands now."

So far, two members of the public--Tim Showinski and Britt Zuckerman--have contacted members of the Common Council to express opinions on this issue. Both have urged the Council not to support the application for Restore NY funding. Given that representatives of Mountco, HHA's development partner, have been claiming at HHA meetings that the project has the support of the City of Hudson when in fact they seem up until now only to have had the support of Mayor Kamal Johnson and DePietro, the fear seems to be that the Council's support for this application will be touted as support for the project.

Readers with opinions about the proposed project should not simply share their thoughts in comments on this blog. They should express their concerns to DePietro and all the members of the Common Council before the special meeting on Monday: 

• Tom DePietro councilpres@cityofhudson.org
• Gary Purnhagen (First Ward) gary.purnhagen@cityofhudson.org
• Margaret Morris (First Ward) margaret.morris@cityofhudson.org 
• Mohammed Rony (Second Ward) mohammed.rony@cityofhudson.org
• Dewan Sarowar (Second Ward) dewan.sarowar@cityofhudson.org
• Lola Roberts (Third Ward) lola.roberts@cityofhudson.org
• Shershah Mizan (Third Ward) shershah.mizan@cityofhudson.org
• Jennifer Belton (Fourth Ward) jennifer.belton@cityofhudson.org
• Rich Volo (Fourth Ward) rich.volo@cityofhudson.org
• Vicky Daskaloudi (Fifth Ward) vicky.daskaloudi@cityofhudson.org
• Dominic Merante (Fifth Ward) dominic.merante@cityofhudson.org

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Oops!

Earlier this week, Hudson Valley Post published an article about Mel the Bakery and its nomination for a James Beard Award: "Brand-New Upstate New York Eatery Nominated for Best in America." 

Bizarrely, the article is accompanied by several pictures of this house on Columbia Street, once the home of the late Estocia Berry . . . 

instead of the bakery's actual location at 324 Warren Street, with its entrance from the PARC Park next door.

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The Plans for HHA's Redevelopment

Later today, the Common Council holds a special meeting to decide if it will support an application for Restore New York funding for the Hudson Housing Authority's redevelopment plans. So far, the public has gotten very little information about what's being proposed, except that the project will more than double the number of dwelling units managed by HHA, build on three parcels currently owned by Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency, close one block of State Street to vehicular traffic and extend First Street for a block, and cost $220 million. No information has been provided about what the buildings will look like, although the public is assured they will "fit it" with the historic architecture of Hudson and "mitigate the stigma of affordable housing."

Recently, Gossips acquired copies of the master plans for the project, which are shared below. They seem to involve not only extending First Street from Columbia to State but also reinstating Lombard Street, which doesn't exist today. (Click on the images below to enlarge.)

Today's special Common Council meeting happens at 6:00 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.

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Of Interest

Over the years, Gossips chronicled the fate of the building that once stood at 211 Warren and the evolution of its replacement as the events were happening.

Today, Chronogram retells the story in an article with a subtitle that is completely false: "Warren Street Redux: A Historic Home Gets a Renewable Renovation."

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Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

The week begins with Earth Day. The theme for Earth Day this year is "Planet vs. Plastics," which seems appropriate on a day when half the city's trash gets bundled up and carted off in blue plastic bags. After that auspicious beginning, here's what is happening this week.

• On Monday, April 22, the Stuyvesant Town Planning Board continues its review of the agritourism project proposed for Sharptown Ridge. It is expected the Planning Board will resume its consideration of Part II of the Short Environmental Assessment Form. The meeting takes place in person only at 7:00 p.m. at Stuyvesant Town Hall, 5 Sunset Drive, in Stuyvesant. 
• On Tuesday, April 23, the Common Council ad hoc Parking Study Committee meets at 6:00 p.m. No agenda has been provided for the meeting, but it is expected the committee will hear presentations from one or more companies that can provide the needed equipment for upgrading the city's parking meter system. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.

• On Wednesday, April 24, the Common Council holds a special meeting to vote on whether or not to support the Hudson Housing Authority's application for a Restore New York grant for its redevelopment project. The maximum they can get in Restore NY funds in $2 million. The project being proposed is estimated to cost $220 million. Also on the agenda for the special meeting is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract for "falling weight deflectometer testing services," to determine if our streets can bear the weight of the trucks that pass through our city daily. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely. 

• On Thursday, April 25, Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency meets at 4:30 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the click to join the meeting remotely.

Update: The HCDPA meeting has been canceled.

• Also on Thursday, April 25, the Public Works Board, the group tasked with overseeing the implementation of the Sidewalk Improvement District legislation, meets at 6:00 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely. 

• Also at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, the History Room at the Hudson Area Library, in collaboration with the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, presents "A French Fabulist in Leisler's New York," a talk by Owen Stanwood about the Canadian explorer and raconteur Mathieu Sagean, whose fabulous tales of the New World intrigued the elites of Europe. The event takes place in person in the Community Room at the Hudson Area Library, 51 North Fifth Street. For more information, click here.

• On Friday, April 26, the Historic Preservation Commission holds its second meeting of the month at 10:00 a.m. The meeting includes a public hearing on a proposal to construct an asymmetrical, curved stoop at 442½ Warren Street. The building is one of three identical buildings, and the proposed stoop would be a departure from the straight stoops on the buildings at either side. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.

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Opening This Weekend

An exhibition of the work of Tony Thompson opens tomorrow, Saturday, April 20, at the Lockwood Gallery, 747 Route 28 in Kingston.  

The exhibition is a celebration of Thompson's life and work. An opening reception takes place tomorrow from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Tomorrow Is the Day!

It's a sure sign that spring has come when the Hudson Farmers' Market returns to its outdoor location at Sixth and Columbia streets, and that is happening tomorrow! The market will be open in its old, familiar location from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. 

As if the opening of the outdoor market in itself wasn't enough, the folks at HFM have shared this news:

We will have a film crew on location starting at/around 10:00 a.m.! There will be a dozen or so people, their equipment, and signage throughout the lot. We want you to be aware of your surroundings for personal safety, ESPECIALLY if you're coming with your pups. If you would NOT like to appear in the background of their scenes, please move away from where they are filming and they will follow up with respecting those boundaries.

We can't spill any secrets, so don't ask! You will just have to COME TO MARKET to see who it is and what they will be doing. We are excited to host them and have them meet our amazing community.

Schedule your visit to the market to be there when the film crew is there or to avoid them, but by all means plan to be at the market tomorrow to buy your week's provisions, catch up with friends, and enjoy the sense of community that is Hudson.

The Future of the Shacks

At the Common Council meeting on Tuesday, the Council approved the proposal to hire Hudson Cultural Services "to prepare and implement a mitigation plan that documents the structures and history of The Shacks, installs at least one interpretative panel at the site and/or develops an exhibit to be displayed locally, and continues to study the feasibility of retaining at least one of the historic structures for use as part of the proposed park." 

Shacks being demolished on January 3, 2024

Introducing the resolution authorizing this action, Council president Tom DePietro referred to the historic fishing village as the "red-headed stepchild" of DRI projects, implying that it was neglected or perhaps even unwanted. Before the Council voted on the resolution, Councilmember Margaret Morris (First Ward) asked how the resolution had come about. It seems a valid question given that Hudson Cultural Services appears to have been hired to do an alternatives analysis, which was then submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office, without the Council's involvement or knowledge. Why was the Council to be involved at this point when it hadn't been involved before? 

As usual, the small amount of money--$150,000--allocated for the project was offered as an explanation of why the project hadn't been pursued in a timely fashion. Councilmember Jennifer Belton (Fourth Ward) suggested that some of the work involved in the project could be carried out by volunteers. In the past, when the use of volunteers has been suggested, the idea was dismissed because a study done in August 2015 found asbestos and lead paint present in most of the shacks. (That study can be found here.) It's not clear what Belton was suggesting volunteers might do, but the demolition of shacks containing hazardous materials, particularly asbestos, requires a crew trained to deal with such materials. According to Rob Perry, the four shacks that were demolished in January were the only ones that did not contain hazardous materials and hence could be demolished by the Department of Public Works.

Community member Ronald Kopnicki asked if there had been a committee involved in making decisions about how to proceed with the Shacks. He was told that it is not in the plan to have a committee and decisions had been made by the mayor and LaBella. (Chazen Companies, the original consultants on the DRI projects, was purchased by LaBella in 2021.) DePietro explained they had decided not to spend the consultants' time in meetings, adding that involving the consultants in public meetings was "just sucking money from the project funding."

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HHA and Restore NY

Last night, at the Common Council meeting, the folks from the Hudson Housing Authority (HHA)--Revonda Smith, chair of the HHA Board of Commissioners; Jeffrey Dodson, HHA executive director; and Eu Ting-Zambuto and John Madeo from Mountco, HHA's development partner--made their pitch for the Council's support of their application for Restore New York funding. But before that happened, Council president Tom DePietro read aloud a communication from the other project that had been seeking Restore NY funding: Lil' Deb's Oasis, which is planning to redevelop the former TJ Auto Service Center building at 735-737 Columbia Street as its new location. The first paragraph of the message, from someone identified only as Halo, follows:

I am writing to let you know that after much thought, we have decided to no longer pursue Restore New York funding for this round. Competing with the Hudson Housing Authority's Bliss Towers project feels spiritually and culturally misaligned with our core values. Our hope is that by pulling out, this important project may have increased visibility and more opportunity to advance in the Restore funding process.

In the presentation of the HHA project made to the Council, it was clarified that the mixed income intended for the project is from 15 to 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). What was not clarified is how many units are being proposed. The number previously cited was 300, but last night 148 was given as the number of units in Phase 1 and 186 as the number of units in Phase 2. That adds up to a total of 334. 

The presentation also gave some insight into why the project is expected to cost $220 million, or about $733,334 per unit. The plans call for geothermal heating and cooling and subsurface parking.

In promoting the project, it was argued that the increase in lower income households would benefit the community. It would enable businesses to hire locally. It was also maintained that the design of the new buildings, which thus far no one has seen, would "mitigate the stigma of affordable housing." The courtyard being planned for the new development, which apparently will be open to everyone, is claimed will be "as big as Seventh Street Park." That seems an overstatement.

When Ting-Zambuto first told the HHA Board of Commissioners that they were seeking Restore NY Funding, Nick Zachos, who sits on the board, asked if there was a history of housing authorities getting money through Restore NY. Ting-Zambuto claimed there was an affordable housing component, but Madeo admitted he was unaware of any housing authority getting Restore NY funding. Wondering about the appropriateness of Restore NY funding for this project, Gossips decided explore the guidelines for Restore NY funding. The following is quoted from the Program Description and Goals:

The 2023-24 State Budget provided new funding for the Restore New York Communities Initiative and gave Empire State Development the responsibility of implementing this program for the sole purpose of revitalizing urban and rural areas, disadvantaged communities, and stabilizing neighborhoods. 

Municipalities, defined as counties, cities, towns, and villages, are invited to submit a Request for Funding Proposal for projects to demolish, deconstruct, rehabilitate and/or reconstruct vacant, abandoned, condemned, and/or surplus properties. . . . 

Projects should be architecturally consistent with nearby and adjacent properties or in a manner consistent with the municipality’s local revitalization or urban development plan. . . .

An important goal of Restore NY is to revitalize urban centers, rural areas, and disadvantaged communities. It is anticipated that upon completion, the projects funded by Restore NY grants will attract individuals, families, and industry and commercial enterprises to the municipality. It is further anticipated that the improved community and business climate will result in an increased tax base thereby improving municipal finances and the wherewithal to further grow the municipality’s tax and resource base, lessening its dependence on state aid.

It should be noted that at this point there is no concrete evidence that the proposed project will be "architecturally consistent with nearby and adjacent properties or in a manner consistent with the municipality's local revitalization or urban development plan."

What might be the most interesting bit of information provided about Restore NY process is this:

If a Municipality is intending to apply for Restore NY funding, a letter of intent must be submitted by the leading municipal official no later than 5:00 PM on March 25, 2024. 

This information suggests that the letter of intent was submitted by Mayor Kamal Johnson, independent of the Common Council. Last year, the Common Council has asked to choose between the Pocketbook Factory and the Kaz redevelopment in January. This year, the Common Council's support is being sought just a month before the application deadline on May 22. 

In the discussion following the presentation at Tuesday's meeting, Councilmember Margaret Morris questioned the wisdom of "bringing that number of people to a place that doesn't have many employment opportunities and no public transportation." Responding to this, Johnson asserted that "the hospital and the school district have a large number of openings." Last week, Michele Pierro cited employees of the school district as potential tenants for the market rate apartments proposed for Fairview Avenue.

According to one source, the AMI for Columbia County, which is the measure used by HUD, is $76,515. Eighty percent of $76,515 is $61,212. SeethroughNY publishes the salaries of 201 employees of the Hudson City School District in 2023. They range from $57,001 to $191,880. Only 18 are paid less than $61,212, and 50 are paid more than $100,000. 

A special meeting of the Common Council has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 24, to vote on whether or not to support HHA's application for Restore NY funding.

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