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Friday, March 7, 2025
Spear Weighs In on Dock Issue
Today, Peter Spear, declared candidate for mayor, posted on Instagram his letter to the Planning Board about the conditional use permit required by Colarusso for its dock operations on the Hudson waterfront. The letter is reproduced here with permission.
Spear's mention of the new comprehensive plan prompted me to check the timeline for its completion. According to what's published on the City of Hudson website, draft recommendations were to be ready in February. If they were submitted on schedule, they were never made public. One wonders who received them and reviewed them. The final comprehensive plan is due next month, in April 2025. What's in that plan will be a surprise to all but a very few.
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I agree with Peter on the spirit of his message, but the issue isn’t long forgotten. Sure the last public hearing on the dock issue was 2020, but as recent as last year there was a well participated public hearing and letters written about the haul road—which is really about the same thing: the vision for the waterfront. At the time, public comments from “actual” residents were overwhelmingly against continued heavy industry on our valuable waterfront. The main supporters of Colarusso were brigaded in from Greenport and the far reaches of the county where the negative impact won’t be felt.
ReplyDeleteMy suspicion is that, like the haul road, the PB will give Colarusso everything they want. My theory is that they’ve been told to do whatever they can to stop private real estate investment and tourism and keeping and expanding a 19th century industry on the gateway to our city is a good way to do it. I suspect the lawfare will continue on all sides.
Although, now that Randall Martin was appointed to the Board of Supervisors, he’ll probably want to listen to his first ward constituents if he wants to actually be elected. So keep an eye out for a new founded interest in what the public has to say.
I overhead someone today on Warren say Peter Spear's vibe in his videos and with this appeal to neighborliness, not law, is very "Mr Rogers".
ReplyDeleteWe did not have "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" on TV in Africa... so not sure if that is true but thought it was interesting.
Hudson Wail Memelord & Mark Allen as resident artist and culture translator might know better if that is an apt comparison. And whether it will win.
The really strange thing about this situation is that during the 7-year review of the Colarusso proposition, the company itself, the Planning Board, the Mayor or anyone else have failed to explain why having a big gravel dump and industrial truck route on our waterfront next to our city park is good for Hudson. It's not a big employment or revenue producer for the City, and it comes with a huge menu of downside impacts. So, WTF????
ReplyDeleteBecause those you specifically mention want the tourist on Amtrak to see the dump, then get back on the nyc bound train and go straight back. Heaven forbid they patronize our small businesses, or even worse, decide to move here. Who will they then move property taxes to is a problem they’ll figure out later.
DeleteJack, I'd be very surprised indeed if a tourist disembarking the Amtrak ever noticed the dock and how it's being used.
DeleteTourists are most likely unaware that there's even a park down there. They get off the train, turn left, and beeline straight to Warren St. There's not even signage by the train station that would point to the Riverfront Park.
As I've said previously, Hudson does not have a credible plan for the waterfront. You'd think that Our Hudson Waterfront might have one but you'd be wrong. They want to shut down the dock but they are not telling us what they'd like to see in place of it.