Hudson Connects--The Vision and the Reality

Work on the City's largest DRI (Downtown Revitalization Initiative) project, first known as Hudson Connects and more recently as Hudson Streetscapes, is winding down. One of the last elements--the installation of the metal railings on the Second Street stairs--began this weekend but is still not complete. This photo shows the state of things late Monday afternoon.

The centerpiece of the entire project, one of the goals of which was to reconnect the city with the river, was the raised "pedestrian plaza" at the western terminus of Warren Street, at the entrance to Promenade Hill.  

Early renderings of this "plaza" made it appear that it might be composed of some type of natural stone, as the surfaces in the re-creation of the entrance to Promenade Hill are. Despite appearances, the Hudson Connects Connectivity Plan indicates the plaza was to be constructed of "scored concrete," which makes sense, given that cars and even the occasional Colarusso gravel truck would be passing over the plaza on a regular basis. 

The plans for the entire project date from April 2021, but as recently as January of this year, mayor's aide Justin Weaver led the Public Works Board through a review of the plan for the plaza at the end of Warren Street. Given the current status of Hudson Streetscapes, I was puzzled that no work has been done on the plaza. So today I asked Weaver and Rob Perry, superintendent of Public Works, about the status of the plaza. Both informed me that, given cost constraints, the plaza had been eliminated from the plan.

It turns out that what was proposed in the Hudson Connects Connectivity Plan was going to cost $6.6 million. The amount available for the project--a mere $3 million--was less than half that amount, so the scope of the project had to be drastically reduced. The plaza was eliminated, along with the following things:

• 450 feet of sidewalk from Hudson Terrace to the former Furgary site
• 1,000 feet of sidewalk and bike lanes on lower State Street, connecting Bliss Towers to Front Street
• New intersection with bump-outs, seating, and plantings at Second and State streets
• New ADA ramps, crosswalks, and sidewalks at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park
• New intersection at First and Columbia streets between Schuyler Court and Providence Hall
• New sidewalks and ADA ramps on South Second Street between Partition and Allen streets
• New intersection with sidewalks and ADA ramps at Second and Union streets
• New intersection with sidewalks and ADA ramps at First and Union streets and sidewalks for Cherry Alley
• New sidewalks and plantings on Allen Street from Second Street to South Front Street and the new Ferry Street Bridge

What survived the cuts was the street furniture, which, in the opinion of many, would be more appropriate for a mall in New Jersey than it is for our historic main street.

According to Perry, the furniture is back-ordered, but it is still part of the plan.

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Ear to the Ground

Gossips has learned that Tom DePietro has filed with the Board of Elections to decline the Working Families Party line on the ballot in November. DePietro, who has been Common Council president since 2018, lost his bid to be the Democratic candidate for the office to Margaret Morris in last week's primary.

Candidates who lost in the Democratic Primary have until Monday, July 7, at 5:00 p.m., to file a declination form with the Board of Elections to drop another party line.

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Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

In this week that sees the end of June and the beginning of July and culminates in Independence Day, not much is happening on the meeting front. But here's what there is.

• On Tuesday, July 1, the Conservation Advisory Council 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. 
• On Wednesday, July 2, the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA) meets at 9:30 a.m. 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, July 2, the Common Council Legal Committee is scheduled to meet at 6:00 p.m. No agenda is available for the meeting, but there is a chance it could include the most recent version of the proposed tree ordinance. 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.

Post card image, Green Street. Courtesy Hudson Area Library

• Friday, July 4, marks 249 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the document that announced the creation of a new country. Along with the barbecues and the fireworks that celebrate the holiday, it might be worthwhile to spend some part of the day reading the document, a transcription of which can be found here. 

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The State of the Stairs

If there's a Latin phrase familiar to Gossips' readers it is this: Post hoc ergo propter hoc (After this therefore because of this). It describes a logical fallacy, but one can dream.

Last Sunday, Gossips reported on the sad state of the temporary wood railings on the Second Street stairs--railings that mayor's aide Justin Weaver said were to be replaced with the permanent metal railings during the week of June 9 to June 13.

Today, Saturday, June 28, the work of installing the new railings began. The photographs below were taken at about 6:00 p.m. today, when, at the bottom of the stairs, workers were still actively engaged in carrying out the installation.

How long it will be before the installation is complete is not known.

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On the Subject of Signage

At its June 20 meeting, the Historic Preservation Commission decided to have a public hearing about an internally illuminated sign proposed for 421 Warren Street. 

In the past, the HPC has not approved internally illuminated signs, considering them to be incompatible with the historic character of Warren Street. Because the sign proposed for 421 Warren Street is the second internally illuminated sign proposed this year, the HPC thought it would be useful to have a public hearing to seek input from the community about such signage. However, a public hearing on the matter did not happen yesterday, apparently because the applicant requested a postponement.

When the public hearing is rescheduled, it will also include the sign recently installed at 119 Warren Street. This sign, too, is internally illuminated.

Because the sign at 119 Warren was installed without the necessary sign permit or a certificate of appropriateness from the HPC, code enforcement officer Craig Haigh ordered it be removed until a proper review can be completed. This sign, along with the one proposed for 421 Warren, will be the subject of a public hearing to take place at a time yet to be determined.

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Recommended Reading

This week's Trixie's List includes an incisive analysis of Tuesday's Democratic Primary by Rich Volo: "Political Analysis of Hudson Mayoral Race." Volo includes this painting as an illustration, asking the question: "Do they teach Icarus and Daedalus at Hudson High School?"

The Fall of Icarus, Peter Paul Rubens and Jacob Peter Gowy

Looking Forward to November

This morning on its Facebook page, the Hudson City Democratic Committee expressed congratulations to the winners of the Democratic Primary.

In case it needs explaining, (I) indicates "incumbent." 

As the announcement indicates, there will be hand counts of the ballots in two races: for Fourth Ward councilmember, where incumbent Jennifer Belton beat out Alexis Keith, who is seeking to return to the Council after close to ten years, by only six votes: 68 to 62; and in the Third Ward, where 17 votes separate incumbent Lola Roberts (102) from incumbent Shershah Mizan (85). Election law requires a hand count in any race where the margin is 20 or fewer votes.

News for R. B. Schlather Fans

Known to us for bringing opera to the Hudson Opera House--The Mother of Us All in 2017, Handel's Rodelinda in 2023, and Handel's Giulio Cesare earlier this year--the very talented R. B. Schlather is directing the Heartbeat Opera production of an adaptation of Samuel Barber's Vanessa at the Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer. Nine performances take place from July 17 to August 3. 

The following is quoted from the press release received today:

In this thrilling reimagining of Vanessa, Heartbeat Opera's Artistic Director Jacob Ashworth, together with "one of our more ambitious and effective younger directors (The New York Times) R. B. Schlather, strip away showiness that was present in original productions, highlighting the palpable emotions of the characters. Samuel Barber is one of the most celebrated American composers of the twentieth century, and Vanessa was a hit upon arrival at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958; it also won the Pulitzer Prize in Music. It should have remained in the canon as one of the great American operas of all time, but over the following decades the piece receded into near-obscurity. Ashworth asks, "Was it too sensationalist for the academic tastes of the time? Was the criticism that it was 'uncategorizable' just a veiled dig at its queer authors? Or is American opera simply doomed to second class citizenship in the operatic canon forever?" Heartbeat tackles the piece's troubled reception history head on, questioning the piece in ways that previous revivals have not dared to. Paring the opera down to five singers and a tight, intermission-less 100 minutes, Heartbeat's adaptation dives deep into the subtext of the atmospheric libretto to reveal the riveting extremes of the characters.

Vanessa is directed by the inventive opera director R. B. Schlather, known for his stunning work, immersive installations, and unconventional stagings, Schlather's recent production of Handel's Giulio Cesare at Hudson Hall in Hudson, NY, received national acclaim for its community-fueled "locavore" essence, garnering both an in-depth preview story and a glowing review in The New Times.

Of Vanessa, Schlather says: "I am struck by the cyclical quality of this work. These characters feel suspended in some kind of emotional isolation, replaying cycles over and over. They are dealing with existential ideas about who they are, what their destinies are, what to do with the material of their pasts, how to face their futures. They feel like people out of Greek Drama, completely tragic, pathetic, and poetic. I'm haunted by the atmosphere of the piece--eerie, stark, seductive, repressive, and also raw and brutal. It really pulls you in, gets under your skin. I'm particularly interested in what gets inherited, especially from woman to woman: trauma, silence, expectations. It's not about the past, it's about patterns. It exists out of time. That's what elevates it for me to something mythic, tragic, monumental."

For more information about the performance and to purchase tickets, click here.

What Lies Beneath

At the end of May, Gossips reported that borings were being done around Bliss Towers to determine the nature and stability of the soil where the Hudson Housing Authority plans to site its new development. At the HHA Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, Jeffrey Dodson, HHA executive director, reported that the borings were complete but there were no results yet, promising the results would be presented at the board's July meeting.

Meanwhile, yesterday, a reader spotted this legal notice in the Register-Star, announcing that the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has received a Brownfield Cleanup Program application for 41 North Second Street, the address of Bliss Towers.  

Today, this article appeared in the Register-Star: "Developer seeks state funding to clean up Bliss Towers contamination." The following is quoted from the article:

According [to] a report prepared by Poughkeepsie-based engineering and architecture firm PVEDI Engineering, Architecture, and Geology, D.P.C, . . . the site of Bliss Towers and Columbia Apartments was previously used as a furniture manufacturer in 1923, junkyard prior of 1965, and a slaughterhouse from 1949 through 1961.

The property was also used as a malt house with a kiln, and possible sources of contamination from the former uses were found to be from chemicals used in the operations from the furniture manufacturer, junkyard and kiln.

According to the report, four chemicals, known as semi-volatile organic compounds, and four metals, including arsenic, barium, lead, and mercury, were found in soil samples collected from the site in concentrations higher than the state level for brownfield cleanup areas in residential areas. . . .

The article also reports that John Madeo, executive vice president of development and general counsel for Mountco Construction, HHA's development partner, said contamination on the site on the site does not mean it cannot be built on.

Come November

Given Joe Ferris's victory in the Democratic primary yesterday, it appears there will be four candidates running for mayor in November:

• Joe Ferris, Democrat
• Lloyd Koedding, Republican
• Kamal Johnson, Working Families Party
• Peter Spear, Future Hudson

This morning, in a handwritten note addressed to Johnson and shared with Gossips, Koedding called on Johnson to bow out.

That's not likely to happen. On Facebook and Instagram this morning, Johnson shared this message with his supporters and followers:

In a comment on Gossips this morning, Alex Petraglia made the following prediction:

Calling it now so bookmark this post: Lloyd wins 30% in the general, the remaining 70% is split between Kamal, Joe, and Peter with none receiving more than 30%; Hudson Mayor Lloyd Koedding sworn in Jan 2026.

Photo courtesy Mark Allen

Only in Hudson

This morning, at exactly 4:20 a.m., an unknown person removed a flag displayed at The Forshew Gallery on Warren Street and replaced it with a Jolly Roger, a pirate flag. 

Photo contributed

The flag that was removed was smoothed out and carefully folded. On top of the folded flag, a handwritten note was left. The following is a transcript of that note:

25/VI/2025 Halve Maen (Dutch for Half Moon)

To Whom It May Concern (and it concerns you):

Let it be known to voters, bloggers, taxpayers, and porch-sitters alike.

To the bullied, the forgotten, the wrongly accused of racism, classism, or invasion, when all you sought was safety. To those who just want to protect their families, their pensions, and their peace of mind. To immigrants, first-time buyers, and retirees, unwelcome by the Welcome Stranger Tax. To those who chose calm and got chaos. This is our democratic mutiny, a defensive alliance for common sense, diversity, and love.

We are not storming the gates. Our ancestors built them and our grandparents restored them. We are not angry, just disappointed like parents who had to step in after carelessness and guide the ship back on course. We are sweeping our porches . . . and your deck, while reading the town charter and planning a better future Hudson.

But we are serious. And we are many. And we want a town that is welcoming, affordable for all, fair, and free of national politics, tribalism, and tax dodging non-resident billionaires and their false flag bunglers.

Let's build a new Hudson together, in the spirit of the Mohican, the Dutch explorers, the Nantucket mariners, the Proprietors, and the Quakers of old, and generations of New Yorkers who sought refuge in this weird and wonderful clay City on a Hill. Let's build the best small town city in America.

~The Spirit of Henry Hudson and the Rebel Alliance

P.S. Be kind to the nerds, the merchants, the rainbow alliance, and the grannies. This is our town. You are welcome here if you follow the rules and pay your fair share of taxes.

And Kk and Tom, you come at the Queen(s) and the Wail(s), you best not miss.  

I'm told the format of the date--Arabic numeral for day/Roman numeral for month/Arabic numeral for year--is not only the format used in Dutch East India Company correspondence (Henry Hudson's voyage on the Halve Maen was financed by the Dutch East India Company), but also the format taught to children in Irish and Commonwealth boarding schools. 

The final line, apparently a message to Kamal Johnson and Tom DePietro, echoes a line from The Wire: "You come at the king, you best not miss."

A Hudson Upset

The news of Joe Ferris's win over three-term incumbent Kamal Johnson (for two of those three terms, Johnson ran unopposed) is being reported in the Register-Star, "Hudson mayor Johnson, incumbents upset in Democratic Primary, Ferris wins," and in the Times Union, "Joe Ferris defeats Kamal Johnson in Hudson mayoral primary."

Joe Ferris addressing supporters tonight at St. Florian's
Photo courtesy Common Sense Election Observer

Johnson Concedes

Mayor Kamal Johnson posted the following message on Instagram.

So far, there has been no public statement from Council president Tom DePietro, who lost 2 to 1 to Margaret Morris in today's Democratic primary.

And the Winners Are

The unofficial election results are now available on the Board of Elections website. Click here to view them.

• Joe Ferris won over Kamal Johnson--497 to 416.

• Margaret Morris beat out Tom DePietro--598 to 300.

• In the First Ward, Alex Madero beat Randall Martin for First Ward supervisor--166 to 72.

• In the Third Ward, Jason Foster (136) and Lola Roberts (102) bested Shershah Mizan (85) for the two Council slots.

• In the Fourth Ward, Rich Volo (116) and Jenny Belton (68) won over Alexis Keith (62) for the two Council slots in that ward. 

But it isn't over until it's over. All of the losers in today's Democratic primary have been endorsed by the Working Families Party, so they will still be on the ballot in November.

Happening Tomorrow

Today, we are focused on the Democratic Primary, the outcome of which will have significant consequences for the City of Hudson. Tomorrow, something else of significant import may happen. 

Tomorrow night, there is a Hudson City School District Board of Education meeting--the last meeting of the 2024-2025 board. Gossips has learned that the board may, at this meeting, consider extending Superintendent Juliette Pennyman's contract, before the two recently elected new board members--Diana Howard and Maureen Sheridan, both retired HCSD teachers--take their place on the board. 

Pennyman's current contract, which sets her annual salary at $190,000, runs from September 1, 2023, to August 31, 2026, but it contains the following provision: "On or about June 1, 2025. in addition to discussing and determining what, if any, salary increase shall be made for the following year, the Board shall also discuss whether or not it desires to extend the length of Dr. Pennyman's employment as Superintendent at that time." It seems the 2024-2025 board may be contemplating extending Pennyman's contract beyond August 31, 2026. It seems highly inappropriate to do this before the new board members are sworn in and without allowing the new board members, parents, and the public to weigh in.

Tomorrow's Board of Education meeting will take place at 6:00 p.m. in the Hudson High School library.

Here's more news about our school district. Earlier this month, it was announced that the Hudson City School District had received an award from the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) for its monthly newsletter. The announcement can be found here. In the announcement Pennyman is quoted as saying, "We are incredibly honored to be recognized by NSPRA for our team's efforts in creating a transparent, engaging, and high-quality communication for our families, staff, and community. I want to thank our team for their creativity and dedication to telling the stories that make our schools special." 

According to a Gossips source, HCSD pays a Brooklyn-based public relations firm about $10,000 a month to help create the newsletter. It's not clear who comprises the "community" Pennyman mentions, but I can say with some certainty that I, a school tax paying resident in the Hudson City School District for three decades, albeit never the parent of a student in the district, have never seen it.  

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A Primary Day Footnote

Today, the ubiquitous Lloyd Koedding, the Republican candidate for mayor, whom Mayor Kamal Johnson disparagingly called "the Santa Claus candidate" in the debate last week, launched an effort that suggests he may not totally comprehend how the election process works--at least not the primary process. He is urging people to write in his name as a "protest vote" in the Democratic primary. 

Here is Koedding outside the polling place for the First, Second, and Third wards. The rake has become his campaign symbol since he assisted in raking algae out of Oakdale Lake a couple of weeks ago.

Photo courtesy Common Sense Election Observer

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Of Interest

This morning, mayoral candidate Peter Spear, who is not on the ballot in today's primary because he is running on his own independent line, commented in one of his regular alley chats on the article about Mayor Kamal Johnson that appeared on Saturday in the Times Union: "Hudson mayor refuses to reveal rent for home owned by Galvan." That chat, which is currently available only on Instagram, can be accessed here. 

There is one thing Spear gets wrong in his comments regarding the Galvan plan for the Depot District. The building proposed for the west side of the street, the one whose development has now been suspended for an indefinite period of time, was initially supposed to be for lower income households--households with incomes between 50 and 130 percent of the area median income (AMI). That is no longer the case. 

When it was discovered that Galvan had disqualified the project for NYS Homes and Community Renewal funding by demolishing the three houses on the site before securing funding for the new construction, Galvan changed the nature of the building. It was now to be primarily market rate with some affordable units. Of the 75 units in the building, 15 would be reserved for households with incomes of less then 80 percent the AMI and 5 units for households with incomes of less than 130 percent of the AMI.

The Depot District was the "huge plan for housing" Johnson talked about in an interview on News10 in October 2019, claiming then he had been working on it "for about a year now." Galvan announced the project on January 7, 2020, six days after Johnson took office. The announcement declared, "First and foremost, the Depot District will help relieve Hudson's housing crisis." Six years later, how are we doing with that?

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Today Is Primary Day!

If you're not among the hundreds of Hudsonians who took advantage of early voting, get thee to the polls today.

The polls opened at 6:00 this morning and will remain open until 9:00 p.m. These are the polling places:

Wards 1, 2, and 3: St. Mary's Academy, 301 Allen Street

Ward 4: County Office Building, 401 State Street

Ward 5: Central Fire Station, 77 North Seventh Street

In a city where primary elections have been lost by one vote, every vote matters!

The Bridge Is Open!

Without ceremony or a ribbon cutting or hoopla of any kind, the new bridge opened to vehicular traffic. Both approaches to the bridge--from Front Street and Water Street--are now complete and traversable.

Photo: Win Jackson

Photo: Win Jackson

Shortly after sunset, which occurs today at 8:35 p.m., the temperatures are expected to drop into the high 80s. You may want to take advantage of the slightly less oppressive weather conditions to venture out of your air-conditioned spaces to check out the Ferry Street Bridge reborn.

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HPC to Hold Public Hearings

When the Historic Preservation Commission meets on Friday, June 27, the meeting will include two public hearings.

The first public hearing is for an internally illuminated aluminum box sign, measuring 41 inches square, to be installed at 421 Warren Street. The sign is for Hudson Dry, which, according to its website, is "The Hudson Valley's First Zero-Proof Bottle Shop." The HPC decided to hold a public hearing about the sign because such an illuminated sign is not the sort of thing the HPC typically approves, considering it out of character for Hudson's historic main street. 

In April, the HPC approved a smaller internally illuminated sign for Flowerkraut at 722 Warren Street. The rationale for that decision was the area above Park Place had a different vibe from the blocks farther west on Warren Street. What was appropriate for the block that included Rivertown Lodge, the Park Theater, and such 20th-century buildings as the diner, the Crescent Garage, and 751 Warren Street, with its lovely Art Deco eyebrow, would not be appropriate for blocks where the majority of the buildings were consistently 19th-century. With their decision about the Flowerkraut sign, the HPC did not believe they were establishing a precedent that would apply to all of Warren Street. Besides, the owner of Flowerkraut said the sign would be turned off every day at 6:00 p.m., when the shop closed.

Granting a certificate of appropriateness for an internally illuminated sign in the 400 block of Warren Street would set a precedent for the type of signage acceptable on all of Warren Street, and for this reason, the HPC is seeking public input.

The second public hearing pertains to the proposal to construct a new three-story building at 9 Partition Street. 

The Zoning Board of Appeals granted the project the necessary area variances at its April meeting after adjustments were made to the design to reduce the lot coverage from 100 percent to 89.58 percent, and an elevator and handrails on the rooftop deck were removed to eliminate the need for a height variance. The minutes from the April ZBA meeting at which the variances were unanimously granted can be found here.

During the public hearing on the project held by the ZBA, residents of lower Union Street, whose properties back up on Partition Street, expressed concern about the number of zoning code restrictions that had to be ignored for the structure and the precedent it would set. They were not, as the ZBA obviously was, placated by the changes made to the plan to make some of the variances less extreme. Other concerns voiced by the neighbors were that the building proposed is out of character with its setting, both in design and use, and that it will have a negative impact on their quality of life, both during construction and after, and on the value of their property.

Presenting the project to the HPC on June 13, Chip Bohl, the architect for the building, who formerly served as the architect member of the HPC, explained that the concept of the design was to transition from the "finer homes on Allen and Union to the industrial buildings at the waterfront." He spoke of the oriel proposed for the front of the building, which he called a bay window, as a detail found on many of Hudson's 19th-century buildings. Indeed, oriels are a prevalent feature of Hudson architecture, so prevalent that Gossips did five posts about oriels back in 2012, which can be found here, here, here, here, and here. Although oriels are common in Hudson, most of them are found on Warren Street not on Union and Allen.

Members of the HPC seemed sympathetic to the design. John Schobel expressed concern about the metal cladding. Bohl responded by saying that "metal gives us that transition," calling it "a nod to the industrial part of Hudson." Miranda Barry commented, "New construction allows us the opportunity to consider where we want to fall on the timeline," and expressed the opinion that the transition is "a brilliant idea." She said she liked the oriel and opined, "The scale of the building is very appropriate." She went on to say that the design was "bringing forward a piece of Hudson history that has almost been lost." She was alluding, of course, to the fact that very few--actually only three--of the industrial buildings that populated our waterfront in the 19th century still survive today. 

Friday's Historic Preservation Commission meeting, which begins at 10:00 a.m., 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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Erratum: Gossips originally reported that the sign proposed for 421 Warren Street was plastic. That was incorrect. It is aluminum, with a black finish. That error has been corrected in the body of the post. 

Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

As we brace for a few days of exceedingly hot weather and wonder if the country is now at war with Iran, here's what is happening in our two square miles.

• On Monday, June 23, the Hudson Housing Authority Board of Commissioners meets at 6:00 p.m. Every meeting of the HHA Board offers the possibility of learning more about HHA's redevelopment plans. The project is now in its value engineering phase, but perhaps in time, we will learn what the buildings are actually going to look like. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person in the Community Room at Bliss Towers and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting remotely.

• On Tuesday, June 24, it is the Democratic Primary in Hudson. The polls are open from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Here are the polling sites:
• Wards 1, 2, and 3--St. Mary's Academy, 301 Allen Street
• Ward 4--County Office Building, 4o1 State Street
• Ward 5--Central Fire Station, 77 North Seventh Street

• At 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, the Common Council ad hoc Parking Committee holds its monthly 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.

Update: Tonight's meeting of the Parking Committee has been canceled.

• On Wednesday, June 25, Columbia County District Attorney Chris Liberati-Conant holds a Town Hall Meeting from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Hudson Area Library, 51 North Fifth Street.

• On Thursday, June 26, Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency (HCDPA) meets at 5:00 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.
• On Friday, June 27, the Historic Preservation Commission meets at 10:00 a.m. The meeting includes two public hearings, one regarding an internally illuminated sign proposed for 421 Warren Street, the other on the new structure proposed for 9 Partition Street. 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 Friday, June 27, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., the Columbia County Historical Society hosts an opening reception for its exhibition, The Rise and Fall of the Port of Hudson: An Illustrated Timeline & Whaling Stories of Black Mariners, Perils at Sea, Moby Dick." The exhibition is at the CCHS Museum, 5 Albany Avenue in Kinderhook.

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Railing About Railings

On June 5, Gossips reported that the temporary wood railings on the Second Street stairs were going to be replaced the following week by proper metal railings. The stairs would be closed for a week--from June 9 to June 13--while the new railings were installed. 

None of that happened. 

More than two weeks later, the flimsy wood railings are still there, and now they are falling apart.

Author's Note: Railing is a bit of an exaggeration, but I couldn't resist the homonym.

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Have You Voted Yet?

Early voting ends today, Sunday, June 22. Vote today from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. at 401 State Street.

If you don't vote early, Election Day is Tuesday, June 24. Polls will be open on that day from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.