Mayoral Candidate Responds to Galvan News
Responding to today's stunning news that the Galvan Foundation is donating its real estate holdings in Hudson and Columbia County to Bard College, the Ferris for Mayor campaign issued the following statement: Today's news represents the opportunity for a new chapter in Hudson. It is a chance to address our housing and affordability crises with someone who also calls the Hudson Valley home.
Whether it was the 11 Warren Street debacle or the bait-and-switch on affordable housing at both 7th Street projects, it's clear Galvan had long given up on the best interests of our city.
Turning the page from Galvan to Bard is an opportunity to start fresh. It is an opportunity to engage with a partner who can demonstrate that they will work with our city in good faith. As more information becomes available, it is important that Bard address the following questions:
- Will they provide a full inventory of the properties included in the agreement?
- What is the long-term plan for their Hudson holdings?
- What are their intentions for Galvan properties that are currently occupied or in use?
- What is their commitment to working with City Hall to increase affordable housing in Hudson?
- What will their community engagement entail?
Hudson and Bard College have an opportunity to develop a working relationship that builds a Hudson for all. The first step to that reality is full transparency from Bard.
Kamal - what is your take as current mayor and mayoral candidate for what this means for Hudson?
ReplyDeleteDid you know (as mayor, as part of the other acronym groups you chair, or as a Galvan tenant)?
Could this turn Hudson into the good parts of Williams or other small liberal arts College towns in the North East?
Imagine if Bard set up a STEM program in Hudson to complement their arts and humanities offering on the main campus.
Could this help solve or hurt the local labor problem with part-time student labor?
Or will Bard sell off the land the moment contracts expire?
This TV show will make more money than Shit's Creek and Parks and Recreation.
There are many questions and we’ll have to see. Bard will probably practice better public and community relations. They’ll likely be less litigious or politically manipulative.
ReplyDeleteIn light that Galvan is just giving up everything in Hudson, and the fact that they’ve hurt the city’s, school’s and county’s tax base over the years (including suing us several times times to reduce their payments), one has to wonder why they did not give the armory to the Hudson Area Library, or the little league field to Hudson Little League, or the empty plot on 5th & Warren to be a “mid-city park.”
I feel like it was done this way as a last “F you” to Hudson. Give it all away to an organization in a different county, nothing to the actual city, and keep much of the properties tax exempt.
According to him, the mayor was stunned and found out today like the rest of us. Keep an eye out for moving vans on Union St. Possibly moonlighting Youth Department vans.
One wonders. Is Kamal now a beneficiary of good-cause eviction? He probably enjoys the protection it grants given that he must be a model tenant who pays his "rent" on time.
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