As we move deeper into autumn, enjoying day after day of spectacular weather, here is what's happening on the meeting front.
- On Monday, October 7, the Common Council holds its informal meeting at 6:00 p.m. So far, there is nothing of interest on the agenda, but, if you're interested, there are seventy-four communications regarding the Good Cause Eviction Law, which the Council is expected to vote on this month. 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 Tuesday, October 8, the Planning Boards holds its monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. Lots of familiar things are on the agenda, including the apartment building proposed for Fairview Avenue between Oakwood and Parkwood boulevards. It is expected that the applicant will present a response to the Planning Board's requests for change to the proposed project. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
- On Friday, October 11, the Historic Preservation Commission holds the first of its two monthly meetings at 10:00 a.m. As always, no agenda has been made available for the meeting. 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.
Seventy-four communications.....pfffffh. There is probably only four or five distinct ones. Everyone else was just lazily copying some template provided to them by someone with clearly a lot of skin in the game of good-cause eviction.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Carole, did you change the color of weblinks? They stand out now, which is excellent!
Seems like more letters against Rent Control than for it…
ReplyDeleteLooking into your question on the source of the letters… on the surface at least:
🏡 NYSAR is the local realtor lobby and professional group… it makes sense for them to be against rent control (aka "Good Cause Eviction Law") because (as they write to explain) they fear fewer homes will be developed… and then realtors (their dues paying members) will make less commission on new homes sales and renters moving around less frequently to new opportunities, or upscaling or downscaling as families form and change.
💰 On the other side is For the Many (front for the Tides Foundation) originally started in CA, with billionaire backers (RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company), and more recently Soros and many other smaller CA based Donor Advised Funds from Silicon Valley folks. *
🗳️ I guess locally FOR THE MANY is known for backing Claire Cousins in her unsuccessful primary bid against Democrat Didi Barrett? Will they also back Kamal Johnson when he eventually runs for the NY Assembly as he signaled he would? Their corporate history and big money aside, local members seem to be sincere.
In any event, this is the sort of peak America that makes Europeans scratch their heads: Tobacco and Tech billionaires and millionaires from one coast funding left-leaning causes on another, ultimately harming and eroding the working middle class who pay the majority of taxes.
It is unfortunate that both groups, one from Albany and one from CA (with a recent local field office in Poughkeepsie) fight political battles in Hudson… a town the size of a small College, to pass a law designed for Manhattan.
If only there was a way to make Hudson less political. If only other towns and cities had figured out a way…
~
🧐 For those who do not mind detail:
1️⃣ "In 2024, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation sued the Tides Foundation, saying that Tides had "egregiously mismanaged" more than $33 million in donations earmarked for Black Lives Matter. "
That sentence is from Wikipedia, which is supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, one of whose biggest backers is…. the Tides Foundation. According to Wikipedia… of course. 🤷♂️
2️⃣ Hudson residents reached out to both sides… NYSAR responded within hours with a clear point of view and facts. For the Many's local 20 something field office leader, who seems sincere, never responded to email or texts over many weeks.
It is always telling who engages directly, who tries to change minds… and who disengages from those who respectfully disagree with them.
One of the perfectly lawful (but sad) letter trails:
ReplyDelete1️⃣ Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition FB / IG Post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DA0opT8J5iz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Leads to... Housing Justice for All / Action Network, form:
2️⃣ https://actionnetwork.org/letters/hudson-tenants-demand-housing-stability/
Which then sends a form to the whole Council.
It would be better if verified residents could send verified-private letters to their elected leaders.
It's so curious to see these campaigns by different organizations from the outside of Hudson pushing form letters for one side or the other. Why does our little city attract so much attention. If this was Rensselaer or Schoharie county, I don't feel like anyone care. There must be a lot of wealthy interests behind the scenes who want in on Hudson for either development or some other agenda. The letters, many seeminlgy from people not around here or who understand Hudson, are telling. Especially from a person called "Feather No Name." They go really mask-off about what some have in mind for our city.
ReplyDeleteThe current trend over the past few years has already been effecting the housing market. When the STR restrictions went into effect, how many units went back into long term rentals? How many were sold and converted to single family homes? Also, I know of a few people (anecdotal, I know) who bought second properties in Hudson over the past couple of years. Some of them intended to rent them out long term and hold on to them after renovations. But after seeing the current climate and earlier pushes for Good Cause in the state legislature, as well as the earlier attempt in Hudson, they decided to just flip them and sell. They can see the way the wind was blowing and decided it's not worth it. One was sold recently to someone who just wants to use it as an occasional crash pad when visiting Hudson. Another drop in the rental stock. I just can't tell if the intention is to push out small private landlords and make room for larger tax subsidized development - as a bug or feature of the law.
This is chef's kiss 😘:
ReplyDeletehttps://cms3.revize.com/revize/hudsonnynew/Common%20Council/Agendas%20Meeting%20Documents/2024/October/Feather%20No%20Name%20Good%20Cause%20Eviction%2010%2007%202024.pdf
Is Feather No Name sarcastic or not? I cannot tell.
DeleteIt's so ridiculous that it obviously has to be sarcasm. Yet, it's not ridiculous enough that a real person in or around Hudson couldn't hold these beliefs.
It's probably not a good thing when real opinions and parodies thereof can no longer be distinguished.
The State clearly neither sees nor desires a place for private landlords in NYS except in the luxury space. I advise all my MDU clients to convert to signal family asap if they hope to salvage their investment in the realty. Or, jack the rent severely right now. See how this plays out? Rational people reading clear policy signals and reacting in a contextually rational manner. NYS already affords tenants the strongest protections in the country. I’m presently in Missouri where a tenant who is a day late can be excited on 7 days notice. A single family house in Columbia (mid state, where the U of Mo is) with a garage, front and back yards on a cul de-sac rents for $1k/mo. Whose policies are working for the vast majority of tenants? Whose reward private investment in neighborhoods? Hint: it ain’t NYS.
ReplyDelete