How Often Do You Get a Second Chance?

If you've never seen It's a Wonderful Life on the big screen, you're missing a remarkable experience, and for all those who, for whatever reason, did not come to see this holiday classic at Fairview Cinema 3 last Saturday, there is another chance this Saturday. 

Friends of Fairview Cinema 3 have made special arrangements to repeat Breakfast and a Movie on Saturday, December 21. Enjoy coffee and coffee cake (no leftovers--we're making everything fresh) while watching this beloved American classic as it was meant to be seen--on a big screen in a movie theater. Come appreciate the detail and nuance--visual and verbal--you've been missing all these years!

The movie starts at 10 a.m., but come anytime after 9:30 to get your coffee and coffee cake and settle in to enjoy the film that is for many a Christmas tradition. A donation of $25 is suggested to benefit the Fairview Cinema 3 projector fund and help our only locally owned, hometown movie house (just across the border in Greenport) survive the switch to digital. Enjoy a happy ending while helping to make another one happen!

Reservations are not required (there's plenty of room in the theater), but humor us and send an email to let us know you're coming.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

Snow Emergency Woes

On Sunday and twice on Monday, Gossips reported the experience of one resident (moi) trying to follow the snow emergency regulations to the letter. After a harrowing trip down Warren Street late yesterday afternoon, it was clear that things were better in my little corner of Hudson than they were elsewhere in the city. In today's Register-Star, John Mason reports the complaints of residents, business owners, and their representatives on the Common Council about snow removal and the explanations and counter complaints of the mayor and the DPW superintendent: "City draws criticism for problems with snow clearing."

Hyperlocal Update: The snow thrower and its entourage of dump trucks passed by Gossips Central at 8:37 a.m., removing snow from the even side of the street. As the snow begins again, this block is in pretty good shape.

Of Particular Interest

The audiorecording of last Wednesday's committee meeting on the Columbia County Airport and the proposed expansion can now be heard online at WGXC. 

Re-Envisioning Hudson

Imagine a Hudson that generates its own renewable energy, has a dog park, an art museum, a food market, a community garden, a cable car, its own High Line, and a statue of Henry Hudson on the bluff but no historic architecture and no City Hall. Welcome to Hudson #2!

Hudson #2 is the cardboard dream city, created, with the guidance and inspiration of Sara Kendall, by a dozen children learning together at Kite's Nest, and it was on display Sunday afternoon at the Kite's Nest Fall Expo. It was constructed on the actual grid of Hudson, incorporating the part of the city from Allen to State streets and from Fifth Street down to Front Street and the river.

To conceptualize their ideal city, the kids formed themselves into a planning board and spent long hours discussing the elements required for an ideal city. There was persistent debate about whether or not Hudson #2 should have a chocolate fountain, and in the end, the planners decided against it. During the course of planning, the kids went out on the street to solicit ideas from Hudson residents about what should be in their dream city. A few of them went with Kendall to the HCDPA meeting on November 7, when Hudson Urban Gardens (HUG) and Habitat for Humanity presented their proposals for the lots at the corner of Columbia and Second streets. (The kids' reaction to meeting? Adults should probably adopt the practice of using a "speaking stick" to designate the person who has the floor, the way they did in their planning board meetings.)

Hudson #2 has many features that merit our attention and should probably be considered by city officials making planning decisions for the real Hudson. Among them is the art museum, which May, the official guide to Hudson #2, explained didn't contain much art yet but was itself a work of art.

An intriguing aspect of the art museum is the way the kids solved the problem of parking--with floating a car park. The platform is lowered to the ground, the cars drive on, and the platform is raised up out of the way. No wasting valuable ground space with parked cars.

During the time the kids were planning their city, real Hudson was involved in making plans for a new police station, and maybe for that reason, Hudson #2 includes a police station. It's located on the south side of Allen Street at Second Street and features on its roof a combination heliport and (more futuristic than militaristic) a rocket launching pad.

Just across the street from the police station, in a cardboard building that bears a striking resemblance to the building on that site in real Hudson, is a nightclub called Stars. The photograph sadly does not show the colorful lights flashing inside this Hudson #2 hot spot.

When talking about the education center, May explained matter-of-factly that "the rectangle is an unhealthy shape for the imagination," so the center is in the shape of a star. Each of the five points is devoted to a different area of study: music, fashion, renewable energy, wilderness, and zombies.

Behind the education center is the food market, called Green Bean. Among its special features is a section devoted to food for people with braces. (Some insider information: Michelle Hughes, who is studying the feasibility of Hawthorne Valley opening a market in Hudson, really liked the name Green Bean for a market.)

Hudson #2 also features a community wilderness garden, close to the river and equipped with a seine net for fishing . . .

     
a walking bridge, on the north side of Hudson #2, that is reminiscent, in different ways, of both the High Line on Manhattan's West Side and the linear park the PARC Foundation is creating in real Hudson . . .

and a cable car, with a proposed Plexiglas bottom, to transport people high over the city.

In most ways, Hudson #2 is quite different from Hudson as we know it, but there is one element of the original city that the kids agreed was an important landmark that had to be retained: Lick. In Hudson #2, Lick has been transformed from a tiny ice cream parlor into a soaring tower, still in its same location at the heart of the city.

Lick Tower, which has its own windmill supplying the power to keep the ice cream frozen, is half hotel and half apartment building. Residents of Hudson #2 will be able to buy a gallon of ice cream at Lick for $2, but for residents of Lick Tower, a gallon of ice cream will cost only $1. 

I'm hoping I can get an apartment in Lick Tower. Not only are the benefits of living there irresistible, but in Hudson #2, my house no longer exists!
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

Snow Emergency: The Plan and the Execution

At 8:30 a.m., half an hour after, according to the snow emergency parking rules, it is no longer lawful to be parked on the even side of the street, the snow plow comes through to clear the odd side. So I go out and move the car.

No sooner was this accomplished than a snow plow comes through again, this time in the opposite direction (heading west along the south side of the street), making a second pass at the odd side, and my little car is the only one parked in its way.

I stand on my stoop and watch with fear and trembling as the snow plow approaches, head on, and, at what seems like the very last possible moment, swerves to go around the car. I utter a sigh of relief. 

That's enough drama for one day in the Friendly City.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

A Flaw in the Snow Emergency Plan

It's 8 a.m. on Monday. The cars that have been parked since yesterday at 8 a.m. on the even side of the street now need to be moved to the odd side, but in the 24 hours that the cars have been on the even side, no plows have come by to the clear the odd side. What to do, what to do?

Of Interest

A Brit named Liam O'Farrell comes to Hudson to paint and to write: "A painting trip to New York City and New York State."

Thanks to Dorothy Heyl for bringing this to our attention.

Snow Update

The snow has stopped, the plows are out, and Gossips just got word that the Fall Expo at Kite's Nest is going ahead as scheduled. Right now, they're starting to press the fresh apple cider. From 1 to 3 p.m., they will be welcoming visitors and showing off what they're been up to for the past ten months. So, after brunch, head on down to Basilica Hudson, 110 South Front Street, and check it out.

Sunday, Snowy Sunday

When it comes to parking a car on a narrow, snow-clogged street, I've always believed there is safety in numbers. If there are many cars parked on one side of the street and only one parked on the other, it seems there's a greater likelihood that the lone car will be hit by someone trying unsuccessfully to navigate the slippery and congested street. Operating on this logic in past snow emergencies, however, I have gotten one "snow emergency" parking ticket ($25, if memory serves) and once narrowly missed having my car towed.

So this morning, at 8 a.m., I dutifully dug my little car out of the snowbank and parked it on the even side of the street, where it stood by itself, looking very small and vulnerable, for an hour and a half before it was joined by a neighbor's (bigger) car.

What Didn't Come Before the HPC on Friday

Even though, with winter less than a week away, it can hardly be considered the construction season, the Historic Preservation Commission had a full agenda on Friday morning. Gossips will report soon on all the projects that came before the HPC for consideration. In the meantime, let's consider two projects that didn't.

As was reported here on Monday, a building permit had been issued, on October 24, for the reconstruction at 215 Union Street of what was once 900 Columbia Street. Craig Haigh, the new code enforcement officer, defended the action by saying that there was a certificate of appropriateness. When it was pointed out to him, by city attorney Cheryl Roberts, that a certificate of appropriateness had been granted to move the house not to reconstruct it with materials salvaged from disassembling the house, Haigh ordered that work at 215 Union Street stop, after the foundation was completed, and suspended the building permit until the HPC had reviewed the plans for the reconstruction and granted a certificate of appropriateness.

It was thought that the project might come before the HPC on Friday, but it didn't. Instead, Rick Scalera, special adviser to the Galvan Foundation, was there to say the application for a certificate of appropriateness would be presented to the HPC on January 10.

Something else that didn't come before the HPC was this sign, which was erected on Thursday at 35 South Third Street.

The location is in the heart of the locally designated Union-Allen-South Front Street Historic District, so it would seem that a certificate of appropriateness is required, even though the new sign utilizes the framing and mounting of the old Harmon's sign, thus presumably avoiding the need for an "erection permit" from the code enforcement office. But one has to wonder about the rationale for putting this sign on what is clearly an abandoned auto repair shop. Could it have anything to do with the fact that Third Street is the principal gateway to the city from the south?

COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

Snow News

Don't Miss It's a Wonderful Life!

There's very little snow on the ground, and it's not supposed to snow in earnest until much later in the day. But it's cold. So come to Fairview Cinema 3 at 9:30 this morning and warm your hands and your hearts with coffee cake, coffee, and It's a Wonderful Life. 

The suggested donation for all this seasonal warmth and good cheer is $25, which goes to equip the theater with digital projectors so it can stay in business and keep showing the movies you want to see. If you didn't let us know you were coming, don't worry. We've baked a lot of coffee cake, and we're brewing a lot of coffee. 

Enjoy a happy ending and help make another one happen!

Don't Be Deterred by Predictions of Snow

According to weather.com, between 9 a.m. and noon tomorrow, there's a 30 percent chance of a few snow showers. From noon to 3 p.m., there's a 60 to 70 percent chance of light snow. Real snow won't begin until late afternoon, so do not despair. The weather will not rob you if the rare opportunity to see It's a Wonderful Life on the big screen.

Tomorrow morning at 9:30, the Friends of Fairview Cinema 3 invite you to the theater in Fairview Plaza for Breakfast and a Movie. Watch a classic American holiday film while enjoying a classic American holiday breakfast--freshly brewed coffee and freshly baked coffee cake. A donation of $25 is requested to help Fairview Cinema 3 purchase the digital equipment needed to survive and stay in business. Enjoy the happy ending that takes place in Bedford Falls while helping to make another happy ending happen right here in Hudson.

Sunday at Kite's Nest

A couple of months ago, Sara Kendall emailed me looking for a simple map of Hudson that showed the city's grid pattern. She wanted it for a model-building project she was doing with kids at Kite's Nest, the end product of which she predicted would be "a sort of child's fantasy version of Hudson." I had a map that fit the bill, so I delivered it to her at Kite's Nest, and since then I've been looking forward to seeing how the kids would build out Hudson. This weekend, I get the chance. 

On Sunday, December 15, Kite's Nest is having an end-of-season exposition. All are invited to come to 108 South Front Street to see what the kids at Kite's Nest have been up to over the past ten weeks. You can visit the cardboard city, which is what I've been looking forward to doing, build fires, write collaborative stories, and sample some delectables. Sounds like a whole lot of fun, and admission is free.

See It in a Whole New Light

It's commonly known that It's a Wonderful Life was Frank Capra's personal favorite. It was also, of all the films in which he appeared, James Stewart's favorite. But here's a bit of information not generally known. Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, and Clifford Odets all worked on the screenplay of It's a Wonderful Life, but their names to do not appear in the credits.

At 9:30 on Saturday morning, December 14, you have the rare opportunity to see this post-World War II American classic on the big screen--in the one theater at Fairview Cinema 3 that's equipped with a new digital projector. Friends of Fairview Cinema 3 invite you to Breakfast and a Movie. For a suggested donation of $25, you can indulge yourself in the heartwarming comfort of homemade coffee cake and coffee while watching the bittersweet tale of George Bailey's struggle against the evil Mr. Potter and with his own unfulfilled aspirations. Revel in the movie's happy ending while helping to bring about another happy ending--buying another digital projector to keep our only locally owned movie house from going dark. 

Click here to send an email to let us know you're coming. (We need to know how much coffee to brew and how much coffee cake to bake.) If you miss this chance, your despair may be so great that you will wish you'd never been born.

The Women of the 400 Block

Rural Intelligence currently has an article by Jamie Larson about the unprecedented concentration of woman-owned businesses on the 400 block of Warren Street: "A Mercantile Matriarchy on a Main Street: The Women of Hudson's 400 Block."

On Saturday, December 14, from 7 to 9 p.m., seven of those businesses--Lillie K. Traders, TK Home and Garden, Kosa, ec.o.sys.tem, Harvey's Counter, Laloon, and Hudson Vintage--are having an open house--a Holiday Soiree. There will be refreshments and demonstrations and music and, of course, shopping! If you believe in making your shopping choices benefit others, you will rejoice to know that 10 percent of the profits from all sales during the Holiday Soiree will go to the Columbia-Greene Domestic Violence Program.

Among the special things happening during the Holiday Soiree are gift wrapping lessons offered all evening at TK Home and Garden by Greg Urra of Kate's Paperie in New York City. Learn to wrap your gifts in a manner as elegant and amazing as the gifts themselves. Harvey's Counter is stocked with the bounty from a recent treasure hunting trip to Buenos Aires--"colorful vintage handmade blankets, handwoven throws, traditional belts, unique one-off jewelry pieces, and artwork by a variety of young and exciting Argentinian artists." For the occasion, Hudson Vintage has a special collection from Brooke Astor's closet. Alluding to the altruistic aspect of the event, Dawn Vennekohl, proprietor of Hudson Vintage, said of Astor, "She was the most philanthropic person. It's like her goodwill just keeps going. I think she would love it."

Who Got the Money?

This morning in Albany, the total amount of money going to each of the ten Regional Economic Development Councils was announced. The Capital Region, of which Columbia County is part, will receive a total of $82.8 million. Since then, Gossips ferreted out the document that lists the specific projects being funded, and here are the ones of particular interest to us here in Hudson.

Housing Resources of Columbia County has been awarded $100,000 in Rural Area Revitalization Projects funds for the renovation of this building on State Street.

Hudson Development Corporation (HDC) was awarded $150,000 in Rural Area Revitalization Projects funds to make repairs and improvements to the Hudson Daycare Center at 10 Warren Street.

The Olana Partnership received a $195,000 EPF grant from the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to create design documents for the stabilization and restoration of the Main Barn complex at the Olana State Historic Site.

The entire list of grant awards can be accessed here. The awards to projects in Columbia County begin on page 90.

More About the Airport

There's a meeting today at 3 p.m. at 401 State Street about the Columbia County airport and the proposal to expand the runway's safety zone. In advance of that meeting, Sam Pratt just published on his blog the financial statistics for the airport from the past ten years, taken from a report prepared by Public Works Commissioner David Robinson: "County airport is losing money, and subsidized by millions in public dollars."

Another Holiday Event for a Good Cause

On Saturday, December 14, at 6 p.m., organist Graham Farrell presents a concert to benefit the Friends of the First Presbyterian Church's effort to restore the major stained glass window in the church's north facade.

The concert, entitled "Jazz Goes to Church: A Rhythmic Rethinking of Celebrated Carols," is the fourth concert Farrell has performed to support the church's restoration efforts. For this concert, he is joined by Greg Glassman on trumpet and Peter O'Brien on drums. A donation of $15 is requested of those attending.

Photo by Dan Region

If You Can't Go Home for Christmas . . .

spend a couple of hours in Bedford Falls.

This Saturday, December 14, at 9:30 a.m., join the Friends of Fairview Cinema 3 at the movie house in Fairview Plaza for Breakfast and a Movie. Hunker down with coffee and homemade coffee cake--come in your jammies if you want--and enjoy America's favorite holiday classic, It's a Wonderful Life. 

A donation of $25 is suggested to benefit the Fairview Cinema 3 digital projector fund and help save our only locally owned hometown movie house (just over the border in Greenport) from going dark.

Revel in the happy ending that took place in Bedford Falls and help bring about another happy ending right here in Hudson! Click here to send an email to let us know you're coming, so we can brew enough coffee and bake enough coffee cake.

And the Winners Are . . .

The Hudson Opera House has announced the winners in the 17th Annual Winter Walk Window Decorating Contest. The winning displays, chosen by anonymous judges, are: 

Best in Show
Stair Galleries, 547-549 Warren Street

Best Christmas Tree
Fish & Game, 13 South Third Street

Best Here Today Gone Tomorrow: The Pop Up Shops of Hudson
Spruce Ridge Farm, 255 Warren Street
Cedar Farm Holiday Shop, 253 Warren Street
Cashmere in Hudson, 502 Warren Street

Best Traditional
Lili and Loo, 259 Warren Street

The Sparkliest

Shana Lee Jewelry, 315 Warren Street

The Most Elegant (Inside and Out)

Rural Residence, 316 Warren Street

Best New Year's Countdown

Vince Mulford Antiques, 419 Warren Street

Best Retro Display

George Antiques, 438 Warren Street

Best Dressed

Kosa, 443 Warren Street

Best Whistle Stop

Elijah Slocum, 504 Warren Street

Most Unusual Nativity

Ziesenitz, 532 Warren Street

Most Nonsensical

Stephen McKay and Abel Ramirez, 554 Warren Street

Best North Pole Theme

Finch, 613 Warren Street

Best Vintage Display

The Antique Underground, 711 Warren Street

Best Window with No Shop

Wolves Howling at the Winter Moon, 743 Columbia Street

tied with

Norwegian Alpine Forest, 557 Warren Street

The Sweetest

Vasilow's Confectionary, 741 Columbia Street

Honorable Mentions

Ca' Mea (Most Edible), Carousel Antiques (for the White Goddess in the Looking Glass), de Marchin (for cleverness), Santa's Village on the Town Green (for entertaining the kids . . . again)

Photo of Best in Show window (with Lisa Durfee as the Winter Night Fairy) by Walter Hill

Good Enough

In his book The Spirit of the Place, native son Samuel Shem (a.k.a. Dr. Stephen Bergman), who left Hudson for Harvard in the 1960s, characterizes the fictionalized Hudson as a "town of breakage." Others, especially those who have moved here in recent decades from other places, are wont to describe Hudson as a city with low self-esteem. Considering the recently patched pavement at the entrance to Promenade Hill, that latter description seems most apt.

There was undoubtedly good reason why the pavement needed repair, but this is the entrance to our most historic park, this is the access to some of the finest views on the Hudson River. It should be a showplace, a point of pride, a site where the City puts its best foot forward. So why must the appearance of the brick red pavement be marred by these unsightly patches of asphalt?
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

Columbia County on Jeopardy!

Gossips learned from a reader that, last night, the Final Jeopardy answer was: "Although born in the United States, he was the only president who spoke English as a second language."

The correct question, of course, was: "Who was Martin Van Buren?" Apparently, at the end of the 18th century (Van Buren was born in 1782), they were still speaking Dutch in Kinderhook.

Make Your Holiday Complete

Did you know that the town of Bedford Falls, New York, which in reality wasn't in New York at all but in Hollywood, was, in 1946, one of the largest American movie sets ever created? It took two months to construct, covered four acres, included seventy-five buildings, and featured a three-block main street--a boulevard really--with twenty fully grown oak trees. And did you know that for the winter scenes a new kind of realistic snow was created?

Whether you knew any of that or not, don't miss your chance to see this groundbreaking movie, It's a Wonderful Life, on the big screen. It's a holiday tradition as old as the oldest of the post-World War II baby boomers!

On Saturday, December 14, at 9:30 a.m., the Friends of Fairview Cinema 3 present Breakfast and a Movie at Fairview Cinema 3, featuring It's a Wonderful Life. Indulge yourself in the comfort of coffee and coffee cake for breakfast (come in your jammies, if you like) and enjoy the world's greatest feel-good movie.

The suggested donation for reveling in all this holiday spirit is a mere $25 and benefits the Fairview Cinema 3 digital projector fund. Enjoy a happy ending and help make another happy ending--keeping Fairview Cinema 3 from going dark--happen! 

Click here to send an email to let us know that you're coming, so we can brew enough coffee and bake enough coffee cake.

Preservation Update: 215 Union Street

At the Historic Preservation Commission meeting on November 22, it was learned that a building permit had been issued to reconstruct what was once 900 Columbia Street on the vacant lot at 215 Union Street, in spite of the fact that a certification of appropriateness had never been granted for the reconstruction.

The information raised the question of when the building permit had been issued and by whom. It turns out that it was issued on October 24, two days after Peter Wurster retired as code enforcement officer on October 22, and four days before Craig Haigh officially took over as code enforcement officer on October 28. So who issued the building permit?

Apparently, Wurster and Haigh issued the building permit together, when Wurster was no longer officially the code enforcement officer and Haigh wasn't officially the code enforcement officer yet, in an interim when Wurster was training Haigh. Haigh defended the action, saying there was a certificate of appropriate to "relocate" the house to 215 Union Street, seeming to think that it was significant that the narrative of the certificate of appropriateness did not specify that the house had to arrive at its new location intact and not in bits and pieces. City attorney Cheryl Roberts, who had written the narrative, intervened, pointing out that Galvan Partners had applied for a certificate appropriateness to move the house to a historic district, and the certificate of appropriateness that was granted did not cover reconstructing the house in a historic district using materials salvaged from the dismantled house.

Haigh has reportedly suspended the building permit and issued a stop work order until the plans for the reconstruction have been presented to the Historic Preservation Commission, and the HPC has granted a certificate of appropriateness. 
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

New York Energy Highway Update

On Friday, December 6, the Public Service Commission extended the schedule for comments on scoping. The new deadline for submitting comments is February 21, 2o14. 

Holiday Season Reminders

The Hudson River Exchange vendor market continues today at 704 Columbia Street. Exceptional wares from amazing makers and collectors, food, and music are on offer from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and again next weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Also today, and only today, Carole Clark exhibits her Woodland Gems at "12," 318 Warren Street, from 3 to 6 p.m. Clark's work evolved from her habit of searching for edible mushrooms in area woodlands. Walking in the woods, "focusing on nature's extraordinary diversity," she discovered an astonishing array of natural materials, beautiful in their form, color, line, and texture. It is these materials--a variety of molds and mushrooms, as well as fallen tree bark, lichen, moss, and seed pods--that Clark fashions into vessels, which are not really vases but sculptures, and jewelry of all kinds--earrings, pendants, pins and brooches, and fascinators.

Dog Tales: William and a Winter Walk Past

William didn't go to Winter Walk last night. It's not a place for an old dog whose endurance isn't what it once was. But he used to go and walk the festive street with me. 

William once had a splendid pair of reindeer antlers--luxurious red plush (no dollar store gear), originally purchased for a Christmas card photo. One Winter Walk--around 2004 or 2005--I got it into my head to have William wear the antlers as we strolled together on Warren Street. Such a tolerant dog, he gamely wore the antlers, put up with the shrieks of excited children when they noticed a dog got up like a reindeer, and posed for pictures. When the antlers fell off at the top of Warren Street, he patiently allowed me to put them back on him. 

After we had walked from Third Street to Seventh Street and back again, we went to see the reindeer, who were located just below Third that year. William, his antlers still on his head, stared at the beasts with what seemed like wonderment. He appeared to make eye contact with one of them. Then he lowered his head, raised a paw, and very deliberately pushed the antlers off his head.

Could it be that, presented with the real thing, William was embarrassed by his silly headgear? Did he sense that the real reindeer thought he looked ridiculous? Those explanations attribute human emotions and sensibilities to animals. More likely, the end of William's tolerance coincided with our arrival at the reindeer pen, but who knows?

Whatever transpired, when I tried to put the antlers back on, William was having none of it. He made it clear that he had had enough--enough of the antlers and enough of Winter Walk. So the two of us headed toward Allen Street and home.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

Hudson's Finest Once-a-Year Day

The day is upon us! From 5 to 8 p.m., it's Winter Walk! To get you prepared for the event, I've asked Ellen Thurston, esteemed doyenne of Winter Walk, for permission to reprint here on Gossips her preview of tonight's festivities from Much to Do About Hudson.

I may be prejudiced, but . . . of course, the Super Pick this week is the 17th Annual Winter Walk, produced and organized by the Hudson Opera House, in cooperation with the City of Hudson and the businesses on Warren Street and beyond. 

Winter Walk is a big open house for the city, the county, and anyone else who wants to come. And come they do! Winter Walk often serves as the basis for inviting out of town guests, and for family parties and reunions of all kinds. Walking is the mandate for the night, from the top of Warren to the bottom, with forays onto Columbia and Front, and the side streets as well.

As Hudson grows and changes, so does Winter Walk. Many residents fondly remember the very first Winter Walk, when there was a dusting of snow crystals in the air. Seventeen years ago, Mayor Rick Scalera played Santa Claus, and the frivolity took place mostly in the 500 and 600 blocks. Now there is action from Eighth Street to Front Street. Talk about growth! More than 20 new businesses have opened on Warren Street and environs since last year’s Winter Walk and five pop-up shops have chosen to join them for Winter Walk and the holiday season.

On the entertainment side, there is a lot to see and do. New this year is ice sculpting in the 300 block, and aerialist Robin Lynch performing in the upstairs performance space at the Opera House. Flamenco guitarist Maria Zemantauski will be playing at Lili & Loo on the corner of Third. Below Third is the popular Eggnog Challenge, with ten eggnogs to sample. At Fifth & Warren, in front of FACE Stockholm, the lovely Santa Lucia celebration takes place on the hour and the half-hour. Live reindeer have been at Winter Walk for a number of years now. They are joined this year by live alpacas (Third & Warren) and miniature horses (Fifth & Warren). You’ll find new costumed characters and entertainment on the street, joining the old favorite, Sax-O-Claus (formerly known as Saxophone Santa), who started his career here in Hudson and is still jazzing it up after all these years. Dance is everywhere, including in the former Register-Star building. The Sternfeld Dance Studio, which started in Hudson and then moved to Greenport, is back in Hudson at 4 Park Place, and presenting The Dancing Doll. The Art Bunny is back, too, at Terenchin, 533 Warren. They just can’t stay away. And neither should you. Don’t let the weather scare you. Just bundle up and walk faster.

Click here for a complete schedule of Winter Walk events.

For fans of the BeLo 3rd Eggnog Challenge, here is the list of locations and the potables to be found at each one:

• Lili and Loo, 259 Warren Street--Just Say Nog (with or without alcohol)
• J. Damiani Gallery, 237 Warren Street--Gluhwein (with alcohol)
• Cafe Le Perche, 230 Warren Street--Maple Bourbon Eggnog (with alcohol)
• Tanzy's, 223 Warren Street--Blood Orange (with alcohol)
• Savoia, 214 Warren Street--Sicilian Kissed Eggnog (with alcohol)
• Verdigris Tea & Chocolate Bar, 135 Warren Street--Chia Vegan Eggnog (without alcohol)
• Limner Gallery, 123 Warren Street--Organic Eggnog (with or without rum) and Hot Spiced Tea
• BCB ART, 116 Warren Street--Eggnog (with alcohol) and Hot Mulled Cider
• DAVIS ORTON GALLERY, 114 Warren Street--Chocolate Eggnog from VICO (with alcohol)
• COLUMBIA COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 1 North Front Street--Local Yokel Eggnog (without alcohol)