It Isn't Easy Being Green Street

Gossips has in the past lamented the fate of Green Street, which in 1798 was "a road through a piece of woods leading from the County road" and around 1890 was one of Hudson's earliest "suburban" neighborhoods--a tree-lined street dotted with houses.

Green Street has suffered a lot in the past two centuries. A hundred years ago, the house shown below--one of the finest residences in Hudson in 1905--stood at 24 Green Street. It doesn't exist anymore. The same is true for the houses that were replaced by the buildings (both originally car dealerships) that are now the Hudson Grand Buffet and the offices of Dr. Ibrahim Rabadi.

Although much has been lost, many of the historic houses on Green Street survive. Sadly for those houses, what was once "a road through a piece of woods" is now the most heavily trafficked street in Hudson. The two truck routes that pass through Hudson converge on Green Street. And the effrontery and abuse Green Street must endure isn't limited to trucks. Two projects that came before the Planning Board last night are evidence of that.

The first is 67 Green Street, formerly Cumberland Farms, now Quick Mart, at the corner of Green Street and McKinstry Place.

What's being proposed to the Planning Board is expanding the size of the existing building at the back and on the McKinstry Place side and adding a second story to create three two-bedroom apartments, each approximately 1,000 square feet. Part of the expansion of the retail space will involve a kitchen area at the back of the building, which will include a grill, to prep sandwiches that will be sold in the expanded convenience store. 

Questions were raised about an exhaust fan for the grill, and there seems to be a problem. The back wall of the proposed expansion will only be 6.5 feet from the property line with 17 McKinstry Place. State code requires that vents and exhaust fans be a minimum of 10 feet from any lot line.

At the Planning Board's next meeting, scheduled for February 11, the applicant will be back with additional information about the proposed expansion, including elevation drawings that will show what this building will look like with a second story perched on top. A public hearing is expected to take place on March 11.

Another Green Street transformation is just across the street, at 78 Green Street, where a very large--24 feet at its highest point--black metal building was constructed in the wrong place. The drawing below shows where the building was supposed to be built--behind 86 Green Street--and where the building was actually built--behind Enterprise Car Rental at 78 Green Street.

It is hard to figure out exactly who knew what when, but the problem seems to have come to a head when Craig Haigh, Hudson's code enforcement officer, refused to issue a certificate of occupancy to the building because it had not been constructed in the location that had been approved by the Planning Board in the site plan review. Bizarrely, the same code enforcement officer had been inspecting the building at various times throughout its construction, but it seems never to have dawned on him that the building wasn't where the site plan approved by the Planning Board indicated it was supposed to be.

Members of the Planning Board voiced their opinion that the building was out of compliance with the site plan they had approved and therefore should be taken down and moved to where it was supposed to be. Planning Board chair Don Tillson declared he would not sign off on a site plan amendment (which is what the architect for the building, who appeared before the Planning Board, sought) just so the building could get a certificate of occupancy. But Andy Howard, new counsel to the Planning Board, advised that the board needed to consider the project again as if it were a brand-new site plan submitted for review. That process will begin on February 11, and a public hearing is expected to take place on March 11. 

When asked why the building was constructed in the wrong place, the architect explained that cost was the reason. Building it where it wasn't supposed to be allegedly saved $100,000.

It was also revealed at last night's meeting that the owner of the property--who owns 78 and 86 Green Street and everything in between--wants to demolish the little house where Enterprise Car Rental is located. The house, whose facade was crudely adapted for commercial use, no longer looks the way it does in this picture. There is now a black metal building looming up behind it, and it is surrounded by blacktop and parked cars.

As compromised as it already is, Green Street really should be designated a historic district, to protect the buildings of architectural significance that survive.

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Hudson in the World of Books

Abe Books, an online marketplace for rare and out-of-print books, recently published a list of "10 Beautiful Bookshops That Will Stop You in Your Tracks." Half of the bookshops featured are in Europe; half are in the United States. One of the latter is Hudson City Books.

Click here to see the other nine.

The Evolution of a Law

It all began in August 2013, when then city attorney Cheryl Roberts misinterpreted the Schedule of Bulk and Area Regulations for Residential Districts and declared that the city code required that apartments be a minimum of 1,500 square feet. It took almost a year for the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Common Council Legal Committee to accept the "plain language" interpretation of the regulation offered by former assistant city attorney Dan Tuczinski: the 1,500-square-foot minimum per dwelling unit pertained to the lot size not the apartment size. 

In the meantime, the Legal Committee got to like the idea of engineering residential development and decided they would craft a law dictating the minimum size for a studio apartment and the minimum size for a one-bedroom apartment: 350 square feet and 500 square feet respectively. The law was "laid on the aldermen's desks" on October 21, 2014, and it has been lying there ever since. Because it deals with zoning, the proposed law required a recommendation from the Hudson Planning Board and the Columbia County Planning Board, which has taken time, but now the Council is ready to move ahead. 

On Thursday, January 15, at 5:30 p.m. the Council is holding a public hearing on the proposed new law to amend the zoning ordinance. Next Tuesday, January 20, at the regular Common Council meeting, Council members will complete a Full Environmental Assessment Form, as required by law, because the zoning change affects 25 acres or more. On Tuesday, too, they will also vote on enacting the law. 

Although the public hearing isn't until Thursday, the proposed law has already drawn criticism. On his blog Hudson Urbanism, in a post entitled "How to make it more difficult for the poor to afford an apartment," architect and urban planner Matthew Frederick questions if there exists objective evidence that "people's health and well-being are compromised by living in apartments smaller than the proposed standards" and predicts that the proposed amendment "will threaten the well-being of some individuals on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder by increasing the cost of renting an entry-level apartment."

At last night's informal Common Council meeting, Stephen Dunn argued that establishing a minimum apartment size was unnecessary because the zoning code already requires that there be one parking space for each apartment, and therefore "no one can create a bunch of micro apartments." 

Dunn urged the Council to withdraw the distinction between a studio apartment and a one-bedroom apartment and simply set 350 square feet as a minimum size, regardless of configuration, and submitted a drawing to show that a "very functional one-bedroom apartment" could exist in 350 square feet.

Council president Don Moore defended the 500-square-foot minimum for one-bedroom apartments by saying, "It is what we consider an appropriate size."

The text of the proposed new law can be found here. The public hearing on the law is at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 15. 
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New Year, New Committee

Last night, Gossips arrived at City Hall, according to the clock on the wall, about four minutes late for the Common Council organizational meeting and missed the whole thing. Unless the meeting started early, we can assume that Council president Don Moore did not deliver a State of the City address, as he did last year, outlining his goals for the year ahead. What did happen was the announcement of a new majority leader: Tiffany Garriga (Second Ward). Bart Delaney (Fifth Ward), the only Republican on the Common Council, will of necessity continue as the minority leader.

Moore also announced the creation of a new committee: a Diversity Task Force. The request for such a committee was made a year ago by then newly elected aldermen Garriga and Alexis Keith (Fourth Ward) "to address the barriers, policies and procedures that have prevented Hudson's workforce from reflecting the diversity of Hudson's residents." Garriga and Keith will chair the new committee made up of Moore, Nick Haddad (First Ward), Henry Haddad (Third Ward), and Abdus Miah (Second Ward).

The makeup of the standing committees remains the same.

Youth & Aging
Chair: Alexis Keith 
Bart Delaney 
Tiffany Garriga 
Ohrine Stewart 

Arts, Entertainment & Tourism
Chair: Ohrine Stewart
Henry Haddad
Alexis Keith
David Marston
Don Moore

Finance
Chair: Nick Haddad
John Friedman
Tiffany Garriga
Henry Haddad
Abdus Miah

Economic Development
Chair: Don Moore
John Friedman
Tiffany Garriga
Nick Haddad
David Marston
Ohrine Stewart

Police
Chair: David Marston
Bart Delaney
Robert Donahue
Henry Haddad
Nick Haddad
Abdus Miah

Fire
Chair: Bart Delaney
Robert Donahue
Henry Haddad
Alexis Keith
Don Moore

Public Works
Chair: Robert Donahue
Bart Delaney
Tiffany Garriga
Nick Haddad
Abdus Miah

Legal
Chair: John Friedman
Bart Delaney
Abdus Miah
David Marston
Don Moore
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"While There Is Tea, There Is Hope"*

William Ewart Gladstone attributed these powers to tea: "If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are excited, it will calm you." Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote in Notes from Underground, "I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea."

Photo: Margaret Morgan

Did you know that January is National Hot Tea Month? It is, and in honor of the month-long celebration of the benefits of drinking tea, Examiner.com has an article about Hudson's very own tea emporium, Verdigris Tea & Chocolate Bar: "Sip a cup of tea in January in celebration of National Hot Tea Month."
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* Arthur Wing Pinero

New York in Hudson

For years, Time & Space Limited has been bringing the Metropolitan Opera, live in HD, to Hudson. Now, starting this week, Congregation Anshe Emeth will be bringing the educational and cultural programs of the 92nd Street Y to Greenport.

The inaugural program of 92Y Live takes place on Wednesday, January 14, at 8 p.m., when, streaming live from the 92nd Street Y in New York and broadcast on a huge screen at Congregation Anshe Emeth in Greenport, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman will talk with best-selling author and "global thought leader" Dov Seidman on the topic "How to Repair Our World." At the beginning of the program, attendees will have the chance to submit questions for Friedman and Seidman to a moderator. Dr. Anna S. Kadish, one of the chairs of 92Y Live, promises it will be "a dynamic program spearheaded by two of the world's most innovative and progressive thinkers."

Dessert will be served after the broadcast. Attendance is limited to 100. Click here to make a reservation and secure your spot. Congregation Anshe Emeth is located 240 Joslen Boulevard.

Hudson in New York Magazine

In June 2010, New York Magazine featured Hudson as the destination for The Five-Point Weekend Escape Plan: "Meet Hudson's Emerging Artists and Photographers." Back then, The Gossips of Rivertown, in existence for only six months, was included in "Links": "Get Hudson's inside dirt on the Gossips of Rivertown, a blog started by an in-the-know local with a penchant for the area's history."

This past Friday, Hudson was once again the destination for The Five-Point Weekend Escape Plan: "Chow Down in Hudson." Don't mistake my snarkiness for chagrin over being left out, but you have to wonder if the author of this new piece, Sierra Tishgart, ever set foot in Hudson, or if she did when. 

In "Where to Stay," she mentions Hudson Merchant House and Union Street Guest House and says of the latter: "One block from the main house, there's an entire bungalow, complete with four bedrooms as well as a few common rooms and a screen porch." The bungalow in question, once part of the Union Street Guest House complex, is now leased as a private residence. She mentions The Barlow as well and says that the hotel's proprietors, Russell Gibson and Duncan Calhoun, also operate Croff House, "a B&B right next door." The Barlow is on Warren Street; Croff House in on Willard Place.

In "Where to Eat," she mentions Bonfiglio & Bread and the dish served there that everyone raves about: poached eggs over avocado. She calls Fish & Game "Hudson's only fine-dining restaurant." What about Swoon and The Crimson Sparrow? What about DA|BA and Ca' Mea and Vico? She's entitled to her opinion, of course, but she makes an unfortunate factual error when she describes Hudson Food Studio as "the perfect place to while away the afternoon with friends." The restaurant doesn't open until 5 p.m.

Photo: Paul Lowry, via Flickr, via New York Magazine 

The most egregious blooper (in my opinion, at least) comes in "Insider's Tip," where the C. H. Evans mansion is cited as the most notable of the "architectural marvels scattered throughout Hudson." A picture found on Flickr is used to accompany this section, which shows the house before it got its new all black slate roof. It a good thing the address of the house is included, otherwise the average weekend visitor would have a devil of a time finding the house they were meant to admire.

Congratulations to Sideshow, The Spotty Dog, and Hudson Vintage for getting mentioned in "Oddball Day" both in 2010 and again in 2015.

Gossips Update: Miraculously, since this post was published, the piece about Hudson in New York Magazine has been edited, and most of the errors pointed out here have been corrected.
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Our Future Along the River

Partners Restoring the Hudson is a public/private partnership made up more than twenty academic and not-for-profit organizations and federal, state, and local government agencies working together to create a Hudson River Comprehensive Restoration Plan. Speaking of the restoration plan, Andy Bicking of Scenic Hudson, one of the groups involved, told Gossips, "There are a lot of great things we could realize for habitat, plants and animals, and public access to the river" by the work being done. Even more, said Bicking, "the restoration plan would benefit people throughout the region by putting some strategies in play that could help communities be more resilient in the face of flooding, sea level rise, climate change, and severe storms."

Hudson Waterfront after Hurricane Irene/Photo by Sarah Sterling

On Tuesday, January 13, there will be an informational meeting about the Hudson River Comprehensive Restoration Plan (the Plan) at Columbia-Greene Community College. It is promised that those attending will learn how their communities can:

• Participate in a regional planning process that will improve habitat conditions and community resilience along the Hudson River Estuary and in its shoreline communities;
• Gain technical support and access to cutting-edge tools that evaluate community vulnerabilities related to sea level rise, storm surge, flooding;
• Have your local/regional projects be identified and prioritized in the Plan; and
• Be eligible for local/regional funding through an array of federal and state agencies once the Plan is in place.

The informational meeting takes place from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Click here to register to attend. If you are unable to be at the meeting, you can learn about the Hudson River Comprehensive Restoration Plan on the website The Hudson We Share.

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The State of the City: Part II

As promised, an interview by John Mason with Common Council president Don Moore, to counterbalance the interview with Mayor William Hallenbeck published on Thursday, appears in today's Register-Star: "Ward boundaries, parking permits, bridge top Moore's 2015 wish list." The article, which inventories the Council's accomplishments in 2014 and goals for 2015, touches on the recent kerfuffle about the design for the police and court building:

A potential rift between the Mayor's Office and the Police/Court planning committee over the design process was apparently resolved in a shareholders' meeting Thursday, according to both Mayor William Hallenbeck Jr. and Alderman Nick Haddad, D-1st Ward. The mayor said the project's appearance before the Hudson Historic Preservation Commission would be an appropriate time for public comment.

It should be noted that meeting referenced was a meeting of stakeholders not shareholders.
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Of Garage Doors Imagined and Real

There was an article in the Register-Star today about MOTO Coffee/Machine, the new collaborative venture that will bring together the popular coffee bar Swallow and a motorcycle shop at 357 Warren Street, in the space that had been the location of Sorted Creative. The article made this statement: "The new establishment at 357 Warren St., to be named Moto Coffee Machine, will sell motorcycle-related gear and coffee beneath garage door facades."

The thing about "garage door facades" inspired some concern. The building was on the agenda of the Historic Preservation Commission for "facade repair/renovation." Would a plan be presented to replace the plate glass windows in the building's storefront with something that mimicked a garage door?

At the HPC meeting, Antony Katz, the owner of the building and the creator of the motorcycle part of the new enterprise, presented the plans for the facade, which involve replacing the two panels of glass in the storefront and the glass in the transom with insulated glass and replacing the "poorly functioning door" with something that looks exactly like what is there now. What was meant by "garage door facades" remains a mystery.

An actual garage door, however, was part of the plan presented for 35 South Third Street, formerly Harmon's Auto Repair, which is being renovated for reuse as an art gallery cum coffee shop by day and wine bar by night.

The garage door currently on the east facade of the building will be replaced with a "new insulated unit" to simulate the original door. It will still function as a garage door, allowing it to be opened in warm weather. The windows on either side of the garage door will become doorways.

Additional changes to the building involve replacing the vinyl siding on the addition at the north end of the building with "cementitious horizontal siding," i.e., HardiPlank, installing a new standing seam metal roof, and inserting one over one, double hung windows on the north wall of the addition, where there is evidence windows once were.

In the case of both projects--357 Warren Street and 35 South Third Street--the five members of the HPC present (Rick Rector, David Voorhees, Peggy Polenberg, Phil Forman, and Miranda Barry), voting unanimously, determined that the applications were complete and authorized legal counsel to draft certificates of appropriateness.
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"In the Bleak Midwinter . . ."

Scott Baldinger anguishes about the challenges the bitter cold and post-holiday malaise pose for a self-described flaneur and ambulatory blogger in "A Post About . . . Nothing."

Brownfield Cleanup for Old Foster's Site

Hudson Development Corporation (HDC) announced today that a $427,000 grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has been awarded for site clean up at the former Foster's Refrigeration.

HDC says in its press release: "This funding, coupled with a planning grant awarded to the County in late 2014, will assist the City and its partners realize a long-term goal of restoring and reviving the North Bay and its environs."

The planning grant referred to is the $131,250 awarded by the Regional Economic Development Councils to design a recreational and natural trail in the North Bay Recreation and Natural Center.

Back in April 2o12, Mayor William Hallenbeck offered the Foster's site as a location for a dog park. Within a week, that plan was scrapped, when it was discovered that it would cost from $120,000 to $228,440 to complete the demolition of the buildings on the site. Since then, whenever there is talk of cleaning up the old Foster's site, using it as a dog park is never mentioned. Instead the reuse of the site everyone seems to have in mind is a parking lot for the North Bay Recreation and Natural Center.
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The Half Moon and Hudson

On its home page, Historic Hudson River Towns reports: "The Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area is pleased to announce that the Replica Ship Half Moon joins the nearly one hundred historic sites and attractions as an officially designated Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area Heritage Site." It is not indicated when this announcement was made, but the sad irony is that this Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area Heritage Site is likely on its way to the Netherlands.

Sign the petition to keep the Half Moon on the Hudson. As of this morning, there are 496 signatures, but many more are needed. A little effort could make all the difference. Click here to add your signature and lend your support.
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Update on the Police and Court Building

Speaking with the Register-Star’s John Mason about his “many accomplishments to take pride in, as well as some frustration, and some promising avenues of progress for the future,” Mayor William Hallenbeck cited the police and court building as one of his accomplishments for 2014:

"The Police and Court building was a huge undertaking in 2014, with organizing and providing many months of planning and selecting a construction manager and architect," Hallenbeck said. Although he has recently criticized the process by which a design was selected, and said he wants to open it up to a public hearing, he said he looks forward to completing the project in 2015.

On Tuesday, in the Register-Star article that reported the mayor's dissatisfaction with the design for the building and his discontent about being, as he perceived it, "left out of the loop," it was announced that a meeting had been scheduled, "to include Hallenbeck, [mayor's aide Eugene] Shetsky, Alderman Nick Haddad, D-1st Ward, who has been the Common Council's point-man on the project, Police Chief Edward Moore and Police Commissioner Gary Graziano, a representative from the Office of Court Administration, and Project Manager Joe Rapp, to remedy the perceived lack of communication." That meeting took place earlier today.

According to Gossips sources, the mayor used the meeting as an opportunity to take Haddad to task for allegedly leaving the mayor's office out of the planning process, accusing Haddad of making unilateral decisions and approving change orders that might cost the City more money. The mayor's consternation seems to have been a matter of misunderstanding.

A "task plan schedule" had been adopted in September, at a meeting that included both the mayor and the mayor's aide. At that meeting, the design for the exterior proposed by architect Richard Franklin was presented, and the mayor and the mayor's aide both signed off on it. Since September, the focus has been on the interior of the building, which given the nature of its function is far more critical than the exterior. Franklin and his team have been working exclusively with the Hudson Police Department and the Office of Court Administration--the stakeholders--to ensure that the interior design, which includes such non-cosmetic things as electrical systems and other mechanicals, meets their very stringent requirements and specifications. No one, reasonably, was involved in those meetings except the architects and the stakeholders.

During today's meeting, the process was reviewed and explained by Joe Rapp, the construction manager, and Carl Whitbeck, the City attorney. By the end of the meeting, the mayor's concerns had been assuaged, and he was persuaded that neither he nor his aide had ever been "out of the loop" and the design for the exterior had not been "selected" but is still evolving. The project, it seems, is "back on track."

Because the building, although a noncontributing structure, is situated in a locally designated historic district, the design for the exterior will go before the Historic Preservation Commission for a recommendation. (As a City project, it does not require a certificate of appropriateness.) It is not clear when this will happen. The HPC meets tomorrow morning, and the police and court building is not on the agenda.

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Lost Dog Update

According to a comment on Facebook, the owner of this dog has been located, and the dog is now being reunited with his humans. There is no information, however, about how or why he was out on his own at 4:30 in the morning in single digit temperatures. Thank goodness officers from the Hudson Police Department found him and brought him in out of the cold.
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Lost Dog

About forty minutes ago, this picture was posted on the Hudson Police Department's Facebook page.

Police officers discovered the dog at 4:30 this morning, on Columbia Street next to Columbia Memorial Hospital, and brought him to the police station to get warm. If you recognize the dog and have any information about him and his humans, please call the HPD: 518 828-3388. 

The State of the City: Part I

In today's Register-Star, there is an interview by John Mason with Mayor William Hallenbeck, in which the mayor looks "back over the events of 2014 and forward to hopes for 2015: "Mayor foresees parking, solar energy, riverfront land." Note the caption on the photograph that accompanies the article: "Mayor William Hallenbeck looks over a binder filled with the outlines of projects to which he has attended."

The editor's note that prefaces the article promises a similar interview with Common Council president Don Moore "later this week." Since it's Thursday, "later this week" probably means tomorrow.
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Great Expectations

Early in 2011, Harbalwant Singh promised to bring the glitter and fun of Route 9 south of Poughkeepsie to Route 66 in Greenport. Four years later, the possibility of fulfilling that promise, which centered around the adaptive reuse of the V&O Press building, has vanished. The Register-Star reports today that what little remained of the building has now been demolished, including the part of the wall that bore the V&O name: "V&O building, name plate bite the dust." There had been talk of installing the name plate from the building in Greenport Town Park, to commemorate what had been such an important business in the area in the years before, during, and after World War II, but it turns the name on the building was not etched in stone but rather in cement, which crumbled when the wall came down.
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Something Else to Ponder

Two months ago, Chris Gibson defeated Sean Eldridge to win re-election as the representative from New York's 19th Congressional District. Yesterday, it was reported that he is expected to announce his retirement today. Apparently, he intends to finish out his current term, and one source indicates that he is interested in "running statewide" in 2018. Does that mean he's contemplating a run for governor?
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I'm Not an Architect, But . . .

The City desperately needs a new police and court facility--it has for almost twenty years--and that need is finally being addressed. After months of planning to satisfy the myriad requirements of the Hudson Police Department and the New York State Office of Court Administration, as well as Amtrak and the Department of Homeland Security, the project was expected to go out for bid in the next week or so. But this morning, John Mason reports in the Register-Star, the new facility "may have entered some rough political waters": "Mayor questions police/court process."

The mayor has two issues with the project. He reportedly feels that mayor's aide Gene Shetsky, whom the mayor has designated "clerk of the works," just as Cappy Pierro, mayor's aide to Rick Scalera, was the designated clerk of the works for the Central Firehouse, has been "left out of the loop on recent decision making regarding the design the building." The mayor's other issue is with the design itself.

On December 16, Alderman Nick Haddad (First Ward), who is the point man on the Common Council for the project, presented a progress report at the Council's regular meeting. As part of the report, he showed a rendering of the proposed design for the building, which differed from the rendering created by John O'Connell early in the planning process.

The next day, Gossips published the rendering Haddad had shown at the Council meeting, explaining that some refinement of the design was still to come.

According to the mayor, the appearance of the rendering on The Gossips of Rivertown led to "an outcry of opposition." The Register-Star quotes him as saying:

I am finding there are many residents who are not happy with the exterior design of what this building will look like. I have had several people over the month of December who have contacted me expressing their concerns with the outside building design. While I'm in no way looking to delay this project, I am suggesting that simultaneously to the project moving forward, a public review of the design of the outside of the building take place as the city has done with several other projects along the way.

It's not clear what "several other projects along the way" the mayor has in mind, but he is calling for a public hearing on the design for the police and court building. He is quoted by Mason as saying, "We should be open to allow for a public hearing for people to voice their approval or opposition to these plans. If there were not people saying they were upset, it wouldn't be a problem."

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Tales of Hudson and Greenport

As is generally known, the City of Hudson originally included all the surrounding area that is now the Town of Greenport. How and why the division of Hudson and Greenport took place is described in Greenport: The Forgotten Town, a booklet published in 1987 to commemorate Greenport's sesquicentennial. 

As the population of Hudson grew, the City became thickly settled in the section nearest the River. By 1787, 1,500 people lived in 500 houses standing shoulder to shoulder down town. This necessitated things like paved streets, street lighting, police and fire protection and a well organized form of local government. Those in the outlying districts of this large tract found themselves paying for services which, at least at the site of their homes, were of very little use to them. There had been unrest for some time, and finally, in 1837, a committee which was probably headed by Oliver Wiswall contacted the New York State Legislature, requesting that a town be raised around the perimeters of the City. This was done on May 13, 1837, and Hudson was thereby clasped in Greenport's confining arms which dipped into the Hudson River on its north and south borders.

There is an unsubstantiated story (unsubstantiated by Gossips, at least) that, early in the 20th century, there was a plan to re-annex part of Greenport with Hudson. This account, from Greenport: The Forgotten Town, of Greenport's first housing development, known as the Friss Tract, sheds some light on that.

Greenport's first real housing development began in 1920, the brain child of William D. Friss. The original purchase covered Homestead Park in the vicinity of Hartwell Avenue, and in May 1920, negotiations were started to make this land part of the City of Hudson. Surveyed by Michael J. O'Hara, the city engineer, it was agreed that Mr. Friss would install sewer and water mains at an estimated cost of $4,700, and with the completion of an anticipated modernized City Charter, he would be reimbursed. Water mains were laid, and a sewer connected with the Aitken Avenue main in Hudson, a facility which is probably still in use by some Greenport residents. But the plan to make it all a part of Hudson was never put into effect. Mr. Friss said Hudson could see no future in the plan, but Greenport bought the idea!

The land covered what had been for many years a popular ball field known as Homestead Park. The original acquisition was the Curry and Storm property and was bought from Timothy Leary who ran the Colonial Inn on what is now Hartwell Avenue. This building had 18 rooms, and the land covered nine acres. In the beginning, a group of well known men in the community were to make the purchase and erect a number of up-to-date houses for sale, but all dropped out except Friss.

From the Inn, he removed the back portion, and this was sold to Carl Tresselt who moved it across the Claverack road where it became his home. The hotel's third storey was taken off, and an elliptical porch was built at the front entrance. The entire structure was remodelled into an attractive private dwelling to which the Friss family moved. The whole area was marked out into building lots, and Friss began to sell them, erecting some of the new homes himself. . . .

It was [Friss's] dream that this project would satisfy the needs of people wishing to live in solitude and quiet, and the original deeds specified that no commercial property could be established there.

When William Friss died, July 3, 1949, more than 90 homes had been completed on the tract, and plans were underway for about 60 more. Among the streets included in the development were Hartwell Avenue, Milo Street, Janis Street, Ten Broeck Avenue, St. Charles Place, Marie Street and Wortman Square.

From the description of the Colonial Inn provided in Greenport: The Forgotten Town, one might conclude that the building that became the Friss residence is 4 Hartwell Avenue.

Greenport historians, is this the case? If so, does the back part of the house, which was sold to Carl Tresselt and moved across the road, still exist?

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Micropolitan Diary

I've always enjoyed the "Metropolitan Diary" in the New York Times. The tales of everyday encounters and observations are compelling snapshots of life in New York City. Last week, I had an experience while walking my dog, Joey, that captured a bit of what makes life special in our little city, and it inspired me to conceptualize a new feature for The Gossips of Rivertown. In shameless imitation of the "Metropolitan Diary," I call it "Micropolitan Diary," because Hudson is a metropolis in microcosm. Here's the inaugural entry:

Dear Diary:

Joey and I were heading home on our afternoon walk. In one hand, I held Joey's leash; in the other, a bagful of veggies and goodies from Bruno's. We were on Union Street when a DPW truck stopped at the curb, just a little ahead of us, and two guys got out with buckets and litter sticks. Joey chose that moment to stop and poop, so I pulled off my mittens, retrieved a poop bag from my pocket, and did my responsible dog owner duty. Resignedly realizing that there was no trash barrel between where we were and home, I fumbled to knot the top of the poop bag, while clutching my mittens, the leash, and the bag of groceries. When I accomplished the task, I looked up to see one of the DPW guys proffering his bucket. I deposited the poop bag, with expressions of gratitude, and we exchanged best wishes for the new year.

COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

Strange Natural Occurrence Today

Today, January 4, Pluto will pass directly behind Jupiter, in relation to Earth. According to British astronomer Patrick Moore, this rare alignment will cause the combined gravitational force of Pluto and Jupiter to exert a stronger tidal pull that will temporarily counteract Earth's gravity. This is expected to happen at exactly 9:47 a.m. PST, which is 12:47 p.m. EST. To experience the phenomenon of partial weightlessness, Moore suggests jumping into the air at exactly 12:47 p.m. If you do this, he predicts, you will experience "a strange floating sensation," because it will take about 3 seconds to land back on the ground instead of the usual 0.2 seconds. Read more about it here.

Why a Simulated Ball Drop?

Many people who gathered in the cold on New Year's Eve, waiting to witness Hudson's first ever ball drop, were a little puzzled by the computer generated ball displayed on a video screen, which seemed to pulsate rather than descend. The flagpole was right there. Why not run a ball up the flagpole and lower it on the countdown to midnight? It seemed like a huge missed opportunity.

It turns out the organizers of the ball drop wanted to use the flagpole, but Rob Perry, superintendent of public works, vetoed the plan. Although a flagpole has stood on Promenade Hill for more than a century, this particular flagpole is fairly new, having been erected, if memory serves, in 2008. Perry told Gossips: "The installation of the pole was extremely difficult and exceeded the capabilities of our equipment. Damage to the pole or mechanical working would be costly to repair and would no doubt result in the absence of the flag for quite some time." Perry went on to explain that the cables on the flagpole were internal and there was "no way of knowing what type of weight rating it would be able to withstand." When asked if flag etiquette prohibited the flagpole from being used for any purpose other than displaying the American flag, Perry responded: "I'm not aware of any specific regulations for the pole itself. However, I am sure many people would find the use [of] a flagpole as a prop to be distasteful, at the very least."
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

All Good Things Must End

December is over, and so is free parking at meters on streets and in municipal parking lots. So gather up all those quarters that have been weighing you down for the past month and start feeding them into the meters once again. The word is that the meter monitors are on the street and issuing tickets to those who grew too used to ignoring the meters during the holiday grace period.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

Remembering Mario Cuomo

More than thirty years ago, on July 16, 1984, Mario Cuomo made the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in San Franciso. For those who remember it and for those who never heard it, you can listen to it again or for the first time here.

A Memory of Mario Cuomo

Mario Cuomo died yesterday. In an article by John Mason in today's Register-Star, Democrats from around the county share their thoughts and memories of the former governor: "Locals recall Cuomo's hard work, charm, idealism." I too was a great admirer of Mario Cuomo, but I never met him and had only one close encounter with him. It happened during a WAMC fund drive, back in the day when Mario Cuomo was governor of New York and was regularly interviewed by Alan Chartock on The Capital Connection.

I was working as a volunteer at the station, answering telephones. On that afternoon, the fund drive had been going on for a few days. It was "drive time," and Chartock was making an impassioned appeal for listeners to support the station. The phones started ringing around the room. When my phone rang, I answered, as we were instructed to do, "Welcome to WAMC. May I take your pledge?"

The voice on the other end said, "Could I speak with Alan? This is Mario Cuomo."

Chartock was on air, so I said, "Just a moment, please," covered the receiver, and gestured frantically to the WAMC staffer who floated around the room to assist the volunteers. When he got within earshot, I said in an awestruck whisper that hushed the room: "It's the governor!"
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

Not to Be Missed

There are two more chances today to see The Neighborhood That Disappeared, the excellent documentary about the area of Albany that was leveled in 1962 to build the Empire State Plaza--a project that demolished more than a thousand buildings, displaced 3,600 households, and closed 350 businesses. The documentary can be seen today at 3:30 p.m. and again at 9:30 p.m. on WMHT-TV. It's a story that resonates for Hudsonians. Perhaps someday someone will make a documentary about the neighborhood that disappeared in Hudson during the same era.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK