The Town of Greenport is unique in Columbia County for having no zoning laws. That, it seems, is about to change. According to a Gossips source, on Wednesday, May 7, the Greenport Town Board passed a resolution to appoint a Zoning Commission tasked with creating a zoning plan. The commission is to have five members, three of which have already been named: Ed Stiffler, chair of the Greenport Planning Board; Peter Tenerowicz and Michael Grisham, both members of the Planning Board.
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Greenport seems more civil, efficient, and less of a soap opera. Roughly same population? Friends there say they have lower taxes.
ReplyDeleteMax/Tassilo & Nick Z - do you perhaps know the composition or type of Greenport's leadership/council? Or why it works better?
Do they have a city manager / single supervisor like other towns in the county?
Definitely less of a soap opera. Our council-equivalent, the town board, is in perfect balance: two Dems, two Reps and one Independent.
DeleteBeing a town, we have an elected supervisor and she is sort of a personal union of mayor and council president.
I was at Tuesday's town board meeting and what stood out to me was how everyone was only focused on solving the problems: No politics, no gimmicks and no one acting out with an eye towards higher political office.
All department heads were present and even a member of the Greenport Planning Board.
Taxes for sure are lower. A few dark clouds are on Greenport's horizon too, tho. The highway department needs a new garage and the search for a suitable property is proving difficult. It's going be a big expenditure, around or in excess of $5m.
Come to think of it, the financial footprint of agenda items seems to take center stage a lot more often than in Hudson. Part of the discussion of the new garage site was how much money to allot for the property search and requisite studies. Kathy Eldridge felt uncomfortable with just giving $250k upfront and instead suggested to pay out smaller portions as they are needed.
Another topic was the Greenport Playground which is a six-week summer camp for kids. The discussion was about what to charge parents of kids from outside of Greenport. What was news to me is that apparently a lot of Hudson kids get signed up. They ultimately agreed on a higher rate for non-Greenport kids.
Fire chief Mark Taylor was reporting on the cost of EV blankets that are required to contain EV fires. These things are eye-wateringly expensive (as I remember over $2k a pop) and they are one-time use only.
This budgetary mindfulness is something I am occasionally not seeing in Hudson, to be perfectly honest.
Don't underestimate the relative complexity of a city compared to a town in terms of services provided, etc. It's often very much night-and-day in NYS. This is the case between Hudson and Greenport.
DeleteThat said, of the folks I know involved in Greenport municipal operations, they are a capable bunch. Their planning board is required to review and pass on every development beyond a 2-family home. And they get it done. Compare that to our planning board. Night and day.
Speaking of soap operas, has anyone seen the agenda for this month’s council meetings? Choc full of non-binding virtue signaling resolutions. I’m sure coordinating with outside special interest groups to grandstand before the council, conveniently scheduled right before the primaries. While other municipalities discuss the actual issues and business of running their communities, King Tom chooses to load the agenda with useless resolutions about national and international issues, or to speak for the entire city to support state legislation that has no chance of making it out of committee. All this does is wastes the council’s time and attention span from actually running the city, and causes division among the public.
DeletePlacing bets on if there will be more masks or signs in the audience.
See, this is what happens when I take my eyes off Hudson for a hot minute: Tom runs wild and pads the agenda with virtuous signs found in the progressive parts bin.
DeleteIf I was Margaret, that upcoming informal meeting seems like a good one to call in a sick day for.
Thank you Max and Jack -
Delete1️⃣ The A/B Test of Greenport vs. Hudson says it all.
If Kamal and Tom (and the housing / equity industrial complex of Hudson) genuinely cared about the poor... they would run Hudson more like Greenport.
They would lower taxes, charge non-residents for services, and be very judicious with precious public funds. They would also not be so cowardly to run the GOP out of town. Irony of irony... the most efficient public service in Hudson is run by Holly, a moderate American.
But the Hudson "leaders" do the opposite.
2️⃣ Hudson has perfected a type of Grievance Economy, a Protest Ponzi... a Hudson Hustle... where Tom picks some random national issue or Albany bill... then injects it into the Hudson discourse... then Kaya from Kite's Nest, or Peter and the Youth Center, or Kamal and the Promise Neighborhood folks, and now possibly more Spark grant recipients... all get up in arms.
Jenny - you often complain about the time the council takes... just stop this sort of stuff and you will get your life back.
We saw this with the Gaza/Israel Resolution, now this non-binding housing bills, or when the troops marched on Didi's office to demand for appropriation of property rights after Covid...
And this is the new local sport.
Murano (Italy) makes Venetian glass, Tequila (Mexico), makes.. tequila, Los Alamos churns out math and physics stars... Hudson... artisanal grievance hustlers?
In the end Tom will be just fine... but the "youth" his surrogates mislead to waste time in victimhood, instead of taking responsibility and creating value, will be left disillusioned, unequipped, and increasingly irrelevant in a world that rewards agency over outrage.
🤔 I wonder who funds this... what could they benefit from seeding these false prophets of progress?
p.s. Max... I love a good Port Authority apparatchik... but you do realize folks need to wash their cars more because of the Colarusso dust... Colarusso should buy the car wash.
The Council has an attention span? I’ve seen no evidence of that.
DeleteSmart move. There’s a lot of blight to undo.
ReplyDeleteOi....potty mouth.
DeleteI think our biggest source of blight is currently Fairview Ave. There are too many vacancies in these three strip malls. What I am most curious about is what will happen with the old ShopRite.
Fairview Cleaners is another problematic property. May require environmental remediation first but then it's also right next to the car wash where traffic is at its worst.
There was discussion about turning lanes being put in at that intersection. I really hope that will happen.
A lot of people like to wash their cars 🚗
DeleteThere are apparently car wash subscriptions - something that my brain cannot process.
DeleteOne member at the town board meeting on Tuesday mentioned that Hoffman can apparently process up to 1000 cars a day. It's another number that goes beyond the abilities of my cognitive apparatus.
I have a subscription. It becomes a good value at that point and helpful to wash off winter salt, spring pollen, or dust from Hudson’s unpaved roads. I go at least once a week, sometimes more, if I’m driving by.
DeleteSoap opera or not, Greenport's governance is reflected in its main thoroughfare and that it's not good is an understatement. For the thirty+ decades of transversing it, I cringe and regret that I had to come through town. Majority of the stores are useless. Hawking goods that only American corporations could think up. It's no wonder that the most current metamorphosis is desertion. That it has taken them 30+ years to see their creation in a true light (if they notice it now), is a sorry state of affairs. The best if not only solution is tear it down and start all over with credentialed creative architects. Good luck to them.
ReplyDelete