Everyone I know who has dined or attended an event at Pocketbook Hudson has had nothing but good things to say about it. The same cannot be said about the people who live in the neighborhood immediately surrounding the repurposed factory building which describes itself as "not just a hotel destination but a living, breathing place for care, creativity, and transformation." The neighbors complain about constant noise from the mechanicals situated on the roof and about patrons parking on the street and taking up their parking spaces.
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| Photo: Boutique Hotelier |
The neighbors' complaints are the subject of an article that appeared this afternoon in the Register-Star: "Hudson residents say Pocketbook hotel 'diminishing our quality of life.'" The neighbors are expected to attend the Common Council meeting en masse next Tuesday to demand the City take action to redress their grievances.
COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK
The damage has been done and it will be really difficult if not impossible to undo. The reason it has come to this is thanks mostly to the Hudson Planning Board (a creation of our former mayor) that approved the project but never should have. The PBH's so-called Parking Study for the project was complete bullshit, just as Galvan's was for their Depot project, and I believe the same engineering company concocted both studies.
ReplyDeleteOf course, our mayor lives in the neighborhood. Will he show up to the meeting to complain, too? Or is he a supporter of the insanity that the PBH is?
Have felt sorry for the folks in that neighborhood. Good idea in the wrong place.
ReplyDeleteAre the empty lots by the fire station, across the street from pocketbook, available for PB to purchase?
ReplyDeleteThe take-away here is that an unwise Planning Board (Joyner era, which delivered no joy) underperformed, and now there is strife and no easy resolution.
ReplyDeleteAnd this with very well intentioned Pocket Book owners, who are going out of their way to hire locally, train locally, and support local initiatives. And who also benefited from a non-trivial PILOT tax break.
The Pocket Book is also a relatively small footprint, bring tourists, weddings, families, and corporate retreats, that bring money to Hudson, and they used mostly local or County based contractors.
Now compare that to Bliss 3.0....
Not a small footprint, locals have been hired and fired, we have enough tourists and weddings. What are the good intentions of the PBF?
DeleteThere is now a parking lot available for the visitors but absolutely no wayfinding signage to send people to the *UNMARKED* parking lot on Washington Street between 6th and 7th. Signage is needed on 5th between Washington and Prospect, and on Washington and Prospect Streets between 5th and 6th. I was told that the hotels let's guests know in email but nothing in our neighborhood helps anyone (visitors or residents) know how to find the parking. Individual residents should not be required to make their own signs. It's absurd.
ReplyDelete*(There is a tiny little paper sign that can only be read if you are on foot and unfold the paper.)*
The staff is parking all over Washington Street. That can’t be a signage issue.
DeletePocketbook is a transformative restoration and likely a boon for the local economy. That being said, its impact on the local residents is non trivial. So how can we make this work for everyone? The two main issues are sound and parking…
ReplyDeleteThe HVAC system on the roof was a major oversight by the former planning board. I think Pocketbook could remedy this by installing a sound barrier around it. This is a common issue in NYC and there are systems that can be installed to mitigate the noise and improve the aesthetics of the overall building.
As for parking, this is solely on the city as they were the ones to eliminate parking minimums in 2019(?). I believe at the behest of Galvan, likely to remove that requirement in preparation of submitting the Depot Lofts before the planning board. Ever since, several developers have taken advantage of this mistake and have gotten their projects approved with inadequate parking. The likely solution is for the city to consider and enact residential parking permits on residential streets. The time has come. And not just for this particular area, but the entire city. We also have problems with nonresidents taking up parking on Union Street to avoid paying the meters on Warren, as well as the blocks around the hospital (especially since the hospital charges their staff to use their garage), and around the Amtrak station. Charge a simple annual fee of around $25 to cover the administrative costs. This would free up parking for residents and increase revenue by forcing nonresident visitors to park in the underutilized meter spaces and municipal lots. It would also help to eliminate registration and insurance fraud by those residents who register their cars out of state since they’ll have to prove residency and local registration to get a permit. There will be likely pushback, but just like the fuss over the Amtrak lot, it will be from nonresidents mad about losing their free parking. Too bad, the council represents residents and it’s about time they focus on Hudsonians first and less about free stuff for Greenporters and random Columbia County residents.
The parking issue is not on the Planning Board. It’s on the PBF plan and the misrepresentation of the plan and the “parking lot.” There is no penalty to backtrack on everything said before the Planning Board once it’s approved.
DeleteHudson zoning currently has no parking minimums. So ultimately it doesn’t matter what they proposed. The planning board cannot deny based on parking since the city code does not require it. They would be easily sued via Article 78… not that that ever stopped that planning board. The only solution is for the council to adapt the parking rules to prioritize residents and to change the zoning back to require adequate parking for future developments.
DeleteThis was inevitable. People just can't handle the idea that with a complete overhaul of a small crumbling city there is bound to be disruption. It's not the end of the world-- we deal with the issues and move on. ~ PJ
ReplyDeleteThis is ridiculous
DeleteThe drawback to a residential parking permit system is that it requires signs, and not just one or two. You can't just issue permits; streets have to be signed as "permit parking only," otherwise the permits are useless. And HPD will have to enforce the rule on the signs.
ReplyDeleteSigns are ugly clutter, particularly unwelcome in a residential neighborhood that has plenty of them already, and they are not cheap. More signs, lower quality of life.
Who the heck didn't see this coming?
The difficulty is going to be making changes without too much signage to prevent PBH guests from turning onto the 50O block of Washington (where the PBH is located), and to get them directly to the parking lot in the 600 block of Washington. All of this should have been discussed in the planning stage, not now. At one point, the PBH people floated the idea of having their guests park in the Oakdale lot down the hill! And no one on the Planning Board laughed at them and told them to go back to the drawing board. That's how well this was all thought out. The PBH developers/investors were desperate to open their doors as soon as possible, residents of the neighborhood be damned. Big money too often runs rough shod over Hudson City Hall. Why? Because no one is paying attention.
PBH is on 6th between Washington and Prospect, not 5th. Their unmarked parking lot is on Washington between 6th and 7th, across from the fire station. It is right past the beautiful new parking lot for the Depot Loft Apartments, with a nice large sign at the entrance to that lot.
DeleteDRAMA OFTEN OBSCURES THE REAL ISSUES
ReplyDeleteENJOY YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU CAN"T CHANGE ANYTHING ANYWAY
EVERY ACHIEVEMENT REQUIRES A SACRIFICE
EVERYONE'S WORK IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT
IF YOU LIVE SIMPLY AND YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT
MOSTLY YOU SHOULD MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS
From Truisms
JENNY HOLZER
Carole -- shame on you for publishing this comment. It's Facebook shit!
Delete