The Mystery of the Lift

On Friday, Gossips reported the delivery of a lift to the boat launch parking lot and wondered if it meant work was going to resume on the escarpment, even though there was a stop-work order in place and the promised public meeting had not happened. Today, thanks to some Gossips scouts on the waterfront, we know why the lift is here. It is being used to retrieve equipment left behind by GSI (GeoStabilization International), lifting it over the fence from the railroad tracks to the parking lot and then to toting it to a truck parked near Ferry Street.

We still don't know the final outcome for the escarpment, but GSI appears to be departing.
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Thanks to John Cody and Bruce Mitchinson for their assistance

Primary Prep: Johnson and Chameides

This afternoon, two days before the primary, two candidates with the endorsement of the Hudson City Democratic Committee are holding a meet and greet at September Gallery, 449 Warren Street, at 4 p.m.

Johnson, who is the only candidate for First Ward alderman endorsed by the HCDC, is up against Rob Bujan and incumbent Michael O'Hara to be one of the two Democratic candidates for First Ward alderman in November. Chameides, who chairs the HCDC, has the committee's endorsement for Third Ward supervisor. He is up against John Friedman, currently an alderman for the Third Ward, to be the Democratic candidate for Third Ward supervisor. Incumbent Third Ward supervisor, Don Moore is not seeking reelection because, as a consequence of the Fair & Equal redistricting, he no longer resides in the Third Ward.

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Commerce and Community

Many of the initiatives discussed in City Hall having to do with festivals and events--changing the requirements for mass gathering permits, routing parades on streets other than Warren Street, eliminating City sponsorship of events--stem from the perception that these events interfere with the retail businesses on Warren Street--both shops and restaurants--that are driving Hudson's new vitality. It is in the context of this perception that I share an email Gossips received from a Warren Street merchant the day after publishing the report about the Common Council Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee meeting.  

I heard a rumor that I hope is not true. Perhaps you can do some investigation. According to the source, The Opera House (aka Hudson Hall) is NOT doing Winter Walk this year. This will be a huge loss for our business but, more importantly, for Hudson. It is the one event that brings people together every year and is the kick off to the holiday shopping season. Once the event is gone it will be hard to get it back.

Fortunately, the rumor is not true. Hudson Hall has already announced Winter Walk 2017--the 21st Winter Walk--on its website and has begun soliciting local food vendors, performers, and volunteers to take part in the festive evening. 

The basis of the rumor may be the exchange that took place at the AET Committee meeting, when, while discussing the possibility of withdrawing City funding for festivals and events in favor of funding a "community day," Alderman Rick Rector (First Ward) posited, "Winter Walk will go on regardless," and Tambra Dillon, co-director of Hudson Hall, shot back, "That's not true." It seems possible, were the City to withdraw its support, there might be no Winter Walk beyond 2017.

The contribution Winter Walk has made and continues to make--both in bringing the people of Hudson together and in bringing thousands of people to Hudson to discover and patronize our shops and restaurants--is irrefutable. Winter Walk has demonstrated that it deserves robust and continuing support from the City of Hudson. The notion that the City might withdraw its support from this event and others that contribute to the character of our community is unthinkable.
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This Morning at the HPC

Two projects returned to the Historic Preservation Commission this morning. The first was the facade improvements proposed for the Half Moon at South Front and Allen streets. Having found a picture of the building as it was when it was first constructed in 1946, the owners changed their plans and decided to make building appear as it did when it was new.

There was a question about the canopies over the doors. They had been removed because the weight of them was pulling the brick veneer away from the building. In the plans presented to the HPC this morning, there were no canopies or awnings over the doors. HPC member Miranda Barry expressed the opinion that the canopies were critical to the original design of the building and should be retained. HPC member Rick Rector suggested that the same effect could be achieved with canvas canopies, which wouldn't have the same weight. Because the applicant was concerned about getting the work on the building completed before winter, it was suggested by Rector that the commission grant a certificate of appropriateness on the condition that the applicant come back with a design for the "detail above the doors." With that condition, the HPC members present--Barry, Rector, David Voorhees, Gini Casasco, and Phil Forman--voted unanimously to approve the project and grant a certificate of appropriateness.

Also back before the HPC was the proposal to demolish this building on Partition Street, behind 439 Union Street, and construct a new building in its place.

At its last meeting, the HPC voted unanimously to deny a certificate of appropriateness. What the commissioners found most insupportable then was condoning the demolition of a building that was perfectly sound and fine for its current and intended use as a garage and storage space but inadequate for its proposed use as a garage and "dwelling." In the new application presented today, nothing had changed except the design for the building. The design originally proposed had been described by Barry as "a new, generic contemporary building." The new design mimicks the existing building.

This time, there was no angst about demolishing a perfectly sound building in a historic district. Content that the character of the street would be preserved by this replica of the pre-World War II garage now there, the five commissioners present voted four to one to grant a certificate of appropriateness. After the vote, Casasco, the only dissenter, said glumly, "We're becoming Airbnb Town."
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Sentencing for Earl Swanigan

Amanda Purcell reports in today's Register-Star that outsider artist and wannabe mayoral candidate Earl Swanigan was sentenced in City Court yesterday by Judge Brian Herman to three years' probation for criminal trespass and forcible touching while collecting petition signatures: "Swanigan sentenced in forcible touching case."
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Primary Prep: Rob Bujan on the Radio

On Wednesday, Rob Bujan, candidate for First Ward alderman, spoke with Mat Tombers on WGXC. That interview has been archived and can be heard here. Bujan is in a three-way race in the Democratic primary next Tuesday for the two Democratic slots on the ballot in November. His opponents are incumbent First Ward alderman Michael O'Hara and Kamal Johnson.
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What Fresh Hell Is This?

There's a stop-work order on the escarpment stabilization, and before work resumes, there is supposed to be a public meeting "to give the community the opportunity to learn more about proposed alternatives for the project"--alternatives to coating the rock face with shotcrete. But this morning, shortly after 8 a.m., a large piece of lift equipment was delivered to the site.

Curiously, Gossips witnessed the truck delivering the equipment approach from the south on Front Street. After the lift had been unloaded, the truck tarried at the Broad Street railroad crossing for no obvious reason for rather a long time--long enough for me to finish my walk by the river with Joey, go home to retrieve the camera, return to photograph the lift, and head back home.

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Following Up with the Dunn

Last Friday evening, Historic Hudson had a fundraiser in the yard outside the Dunn warehouse on the Hudson waterfront. More than two hundred people turned out to sample Central European wines from Hudson Wine Merchants paired with delectable food from Talbott & Arding Cheese and Provisions. Jamie Larson covered the event for Rural Intelligence.

Photo: Kelly A. Thompson

Photo: Kelly A. Thompson

The choice of venue for the event was in keeping with Historic Hudson's mission to promote the appreciation and preservation of Hudson's historic architecture and its history. The Dunn warehouse, which was built around 1850 as the Hudson and Boston Railroad Shop, is one of the last industrial buildings that survive on Hudson's waterfront, and Historic Hudson wants to raise people's awareness of the building and engage their interest in its future.

The event inspired Gossips to wonder about the status of things related to the building. The adaptive reuse of the Dunn warehouse was designated one of the five priority projects in the Hudson's Downtown Revitalization Initiative proposal. The DRI application proposes devoting $2.8 million of the $10 million to "Dunn & Warehouse & Environs," but that isn't the only grant money earmarked for the Dunn building. At the beginning of this year, the City was awarded a $500,000 Restore NY grant to stabilize the building and halt its deterioration. The grant application outlined how the $500,000 would be used:

The utilization of the Restore New York funding is intended to undertake the necessary improvements to: [1] Address immediate issues affecting building condition and stability; and [2] Undertake necessary rehabilitation activities--improvements that are generic in nature and that would contribute to any type of adaptive reuse--that make the building both ready for and attractive to a developer to be selected under a Request for Proposal (RFP) process. The project, and accompanying scope of work, can be organized into two categories:

Phase I--Urgent Repair: involves work that should be conducted as soon as possible. Phase I work consists of repair issues that are required to maintain the stability of the structure to prevent possible collapse, and items necessary to reduce an active deterioration conditions.

Phase II--Short Term Repair: involves work that should be completed with the next 6-10 months.

The award was announced on January 27. More than seven months later, no remedial work on the building has begun. The application also committed the City to issuing an RFP for a developer in 2017. That will no doubt happen. Almost four months remain to do that.

There was also a question of whether or not the building was included in the National Register-listed Hudson Historic District. In November 2016, Mayor Tiffany Martin Hamilton received a letter from Weston Davey at the State Historic Preservation Office explaining the building's situation: "Documentation for the Hudson MRA (Multiple Resource Area) was completed in 1985, but the Hudson and Boston Railroad Shop was not listed at that time due to property owner objections." Since the building has already been documented and determined to be eligible for listing, actually getting it listed in the National Register of Historic Places should not be a difficult undertaking. Being listed in the National Register will be make it more attractive to a developer who wanted to undertake its adaptive reuse, because it would be qualify for historic preservation tax incentives. Still, almost ten months after learning the status of the building, the NR listing, according to Gossips' information, has not been pursued.

Gossips did learn from Sheena Salvino, executive director of HDC (Hudson Development Corporation) that the Dunn building will be on the agenda for the next Common Council Economic Development Committee meeting, which takes place on Thursday, September 21, at 6 p.m., at City Hall.
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No Community Over Community Day

At the August meeting of the Common Council Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee, committee chair John Friedman (Third Ward) presented the draft of a resolution that would end the practice of the committee parceling out $20,000 to organizations that produce public events and festivals in Hudson in favor of investing $20,000 in staging a Community Day in riverfront park. At last night's AET Committee meeting, the discussion of that resolution, the second item on the agenda for a meeting that is meant to last forty-five minutes, took up more than an hour.

Representatives of the Hudson Opera House--executive director Gary Schiro, co-director Tambra Dillon, and long-time HOH board member Ellen Thurston--were at the meeting to voice their objection to eliminating City funding for community events. For the past nineteen years, the Hudson Opera House (now calling itself Hudson Hall) has been producing Winter Walk--an event that brings thousands of people to Hudson on the first Saturday in December and is responsible for many people discovering Hudson and is credited with helping transform Hudson's image from, as our own 2002 Comprehensive Plan acknowledged, a city perceived as "unsafe and unpleasant" to the destination it is today.

The question of City funding for events often gets conflated with the issue of events interfering with business on Warren Street. Three of the Whereases in the proposed resolution (the Whereases being statements to justify the proposed action) support that connection:

WHEREAS, these events often take place on the city's main commercial thoroughfare; and

WHEREAS, these events often take place on Saturdays in the nicer months of the year; and

WHEREAS, the timing of these events often poses problems for the Warren Street merchants due to street closures on what would otherwise be busy shopping days; . . .

Speaking to what seemed to be the motivation for the proposal to end City funding, Sarah Dibben, co-owner of Moto Coffee and before that Swallow, read a statement in which she took issue with the premise that events interfere with business, asserting "parades are one of the things that make Hudson enjoyable." Friedman responded, "They can do events if they want. The City just isn't going to fund them."

One of the assumptions of the committee in contemplating this action was that successful events would happen with or without City support. This was articulated last night by committee member Rick Rector (First Ward) when he posited, "Winter Walk will go on regardless." Dillon countered, "That's not true." Schiro revealed that the budget for Winter Walk was between $60,000 and $70,000, and sponsorship is one third of that number. He cited similar events in nearby communities, among them Sinderklaas! in Rhinebeck, which he said "get robust support from community government." (For 2017, Winter Walk will receive $5,000 from the City of Hudson.) Schiro told the committee, "We've lost money every year we've produced this. The City has a responsibility to support [Winter Walk]. We have always done this because it's good for the city." Shaina Marron, who organizes the Halloween Parade, told the committee, "It's an important gesture that the City supports events. . . . I can't think of a better way to spend $20,000." (The Halloween Parade will receive $850 in 2017.)

During the course of the discussion, the issue seemed to boil down a problem of process and accountability. Friedman told Schiro, "The problem is the way we do it. . . . The way we've been doing it doesn't give the kind of bang for the buck that we're looking for." He maintained that "the purpose of the money is to support the community." He alleged that the committee had no way of knowing how the money was actually spent and complained, "This committee should not be giving money to events if they don't know how to do it."

Although the committee requests reports from recipients of the money, in the past they have not always been submitted. Friedman complained that in some cases the reports told them nothing. It was suggested that the reports would be more useful if there were better guidelines for what was expected. It was also suggested that if the committee didn't know how to make decisions they could establish a peer panel to review the applications. Friedman protested, "We do not have the power to delegate our authority." Schiro responded, "In all peer panel reviews, they are making recommendations," stressing that the committee would still be making the final decisions.

In the end, Rector effectively withdrew his support for the resolution by saying, "I've learned, I've listened. . . . If it is a major impact to Winter Walk, I support going back to giving money away." Committee member Michael O'Hara (First Ward) spoke of improving the process and procedure, and Thurston, who chaired the AET Committee from 2006 through 2011, said she had worked for government agencies at the state and federal level that made grants with taxpayer money and offered to help "figure out the process."
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In Case You Missed It

Mat Tombers' interview this morning on WGXC with Tom DePietro, candidate for Common Council president in next week's Democratic primary, has been archived and can be heard by clicking here. In the course of the conversation, DePietro comments on the letter to Paul Colarusso written by his opponent in the primary, Steve Dunn, urging Colarusso to seek a compromise with the City of Hudson.
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Intimations of Life a Hundred Years Ago

At the beginning of the last century, the name electric park referred to amusement parks constructed by streetcar companies and electric companies. Columbia County had an electric park, operated by the Albany and Hudson Railroad Company, located on Kinderhook Lake in Niverville, midway between Hudson and Albany. 

The Columbia County Historical Society currently has an exhibition devoted to Kinderhook Lake's Electric Park, which operated between 1901 and 1920. It showcases the phenomenon called postcarditis by newspaper columnists--an obsession with sending and receiving postcards--with postcards of the Electric Park from CCHS's permanent collection. The postcards "offer poignant glimpses into the daily lives of Columbia County residents and visitors during the early 1900s."

The exhibition is at the CCHS Museum & Library, 5 Albany Avenue, in Kinderhook, and can be seen from noon until 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. CCHS members, students, and children can visit free of charge; for all others there is a $5 admission fee. 
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Primary Prep: Tomorrow on the Radio

Tomorrow, on the WGXC Morning Show, Mat Tombers talks with two candidates in the Democratic Primary. The show airs from 9 to 11, and, in the first hour, Tombers will speak with Tom DePietro, candidate for Common Council president. It is expected they may cover some issues that were not discussed in last week's debate between DePietro and Steve Dunn. In the second hour, Tombers will speak with Rob Bujan, candidate for First Ward alderman. Bujan is competing in the primary with Kamal Johnson and incumbent Michael O'Hara for the two Democratic slots to represent the First Ward, now greatly expanded geographically.

WGXC is heard at 90.7 FM or online at wgxc.org.

The Primary Election takes place on Tuesday, September 12. Polls are open from noon to 9 p.m.
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An Interesting Development

Ask anyone what the most pressing issues before the City are at the moment, and chances are that one of the things mentioned will be the proposed Colarusso haul road and truck traffic to and from the dock on the waterfront.

The repairs to the dock, undertaken without a required site plan review, and the proposed alterations to the haul road through South Bay are still before the Planning Board. On August 25, the City filed an Article 78 "to annul, vacate, and set aside the July 25, 2017, approval by respondent Town of Greenport Planning Board of a 'Negative Declaration' under the State Environmental Quality Review Act" on the Colarusso haul road proposal. There is a lot happening with regard to the Colarusso proposal, and at the center of much of it, by virtue of being the chair of the Planning Board, is Tom DePietro, one of the two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for Common Council president in next week's primary. Today, the other candidate seeking to be the Democrats' choice for Common Council president, Steve Dunn interjected himself into the situation by sending a letter to Paul Colarusso, president of A. Colarusso & Sons.

During the candidates' debate last week, Dunn posited, "Half of life in just showing up," and went on to say, "Everyone should do what they can without regard for role or title." That's exactly what Dunn seems to have done. In a four-page letter, which he copied to the mayor, the city attorney, the executive editor and a reporter at the Register-Star, and Gossips, Dunn urges Colarusso (the company) to "change its tactics and reach out to the City of Hudson and negotiate with it in good faith to find a mutually acceptable resolution to its haul road proposal and avoid forcing Hudson to take action to permanently shut down over time the industrial activity at its port facility." The letter begins:

Your present course of action with respect to your company's pursuit of its haul road proposal is unwise, and ultimately self-defeating. I am writing this letter to try to persuade you to change course, and negotiate with Hudson in a cooperative manner to work towards a solution that both sides would find acceptable.

Your present tactics make no sense to me. If your goal . . . is solely to enhance the safety of Hudson's residents by reducing the use of Colarusso's haul trucks on Hudson's streets, and has no pecuniary motive, either to reduce Colarusso's operating costs, expand the volume of its operations or otherwise, then Colarusso's actions to date are inexplicable.

If, in fact, Colarusso's objective is to reduce its operating costs and enhance volume, with a view to selling out to a third party at a handsome profit, or otherwise, then in the end Colarusso's realization of such and objective is doomed to failure, and will ultimately result in the termination of all industrial activity on its dock parcel, for the reasons stated below. Thus, whatever Colarusso's real goals, they cannot be realized using Colarusso's present tactics.

The reasons Dunn references take the form of "three obstacles" to ongoing dock operation, which are explained later in the letter. Again quoting from the letter:

• The haul road on Colarusso's property as it approaches Front Street crosses in the C-R zoning district, and cannot be widened absent a change of zoning, which will not happen. . . .
• The 4.38 acre legal parcel south of the dock legal parcel is likely still owned by the City of Hudson. . . . As a consequence, the City of Hudson and its licensees and invitees would have ingress and egress easement rights to the 4.38 acre parcel on a road that crosses through the dock parcel, interfering with the industrial operations on the dock facility. . . .
• Finally, the City of Hudson has the right at any time to adopt an amendment to its zoning code, "amortizing" out of existence the industrial use of the dock facility, the length of which amortization period is based on a formula involving the dock facility land owner recovering its investment cost for the acquisition of such facility, less its value when used for non industrial purposes, and no more. . . .

Dunn goes on to suggest that, "rather than expend its funds on a host of lawyers and consultants," Colarusso should "redirect them to a solution that does not involve its trucks traversing through the Hudson waterfront front." The two possibilities he suggests are a conveyor over the railroad tracks and reviving the idea of hauling gravel through Hudson on rail cars.

During the debate last week, when asked how he would approach the job of Council president, Dunn spoke of using "the skills I've developed as an attorney to help fashion compromise that works for both sides," adding, "That's what attorneys do." Dunn, whose only official role in city government now is as a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, seems to be using those skills on behalf of the City even before he is officially a candidate for Council president, but he did say he thought "everyone should do what they can without regard for role or title."

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Primary Prep: Supervisor Races

In the run-up to the Democratic Primary, which happens one week from today, September 12, Richard Moody has an article in today's Register-Star about the contended slots for supervisor: "Columbia County Democrats gear up for primaries." The two races of interest to Hudsonians are the races in the Third and Fourth wards.

In the Third Ward, John Friedman and Michael Chameides are vying for the Democratic slot on the November ballot. Friedman has served as Third Ward alderman for three terms; Chameides has chaired the Hudson City Democratic Committee since 2015.

In the Fourth Ward, Linda Mussmann is challenging incumbent Bill Hughes to be the Democrats' candidate for supervisor. Mussmann is the co-founder of Time & Space Limited and a four-time mayoral hopeful in the past. Hughes has held the position of Fourth Ward supervisor since 2008. Before that, he served two terms as alderman from the Fourth Ward.

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Hudson: Happening for Thirty Years

People tend to talk about Hudson and its status as a cool place to visit and a desirable place to live as if its transformation happened just recently--within the past ten years, maybe more, but certainly in the 21st century. This afternoon, while going through a box of papers, I came upon a photocopy of a feature article that appeared in the Albany Times Union on December 22, 1985, with the headline: "Hudson's where it's happening: Young professionals shaking up unlikely housing market." It had a photo montage (shown below) with this caption:

YUPPIE COUNTRY--Downstate money taking over Hudson may land in various sites including, at left, the church that Sedat Pakay may turn into a "no-alcohol disco." Center, Manhattan expatriates and Hudson real estate brokers Eric Valdina and Stephen Kingsley stroll down Warren street. Right, the home of John Ashbery.

  
The article is long, and I was hoping to be able to link to it in the Times Union Archive, but alas, the archive only goes back to March 1986. For that reason, I will transcribe parts of it.

Hudson? The Yuppies are taking over, of all places, Hudson?

"That's right," says real estate broker Irving Price, rocking back and forth on his heels, hands gently clasped about the chest, like a man hoping his incredible theorem will be challenged.

Call Hudson what you will--a [illegible], a blotch of urban decay, an old whaling town that later was best known for its bawdy houses and, more recently, not even that.

"Yes, you could have laughed off Hudson even three years ago," says Price. "But not today. Hudson's here, it's happening," he adds, tapping at a picture of a shabby duplex surrounded by ruin." A couple years ago you couldn't get $10,000 for a property like this. Today, it'll be a bargain at $40,000--if you can find anything like it on the market."

More typically what's in demand are Hudson's old brownstones and brick buildings in various stages of disrepair. Two years ago they would have fetched $40,000; today, they're going for $135,000--"and throw in another $10,000 if the view's good," adds Price. . . .

Everyone gains, the real estate brokers, expatriates, and businessmen say Hudson is on the edge of a boom as never before, longtime residents are watching their property values soar and, with the Yuppies here, so is business. The idea for a refinery down by the river has been dumped, the lighthouse has been restored and big things are planned for the waterfront. . . .

"Yeah, sure," mumbles John McCollough, as he chips away at ice on the sidewalk on shabby State Street. "It's great if you've got a house to sell and want to move out. But what happens to the little guy like me who was born here and lived in Hudson 49 years? They going to have a job for me? They going to pay my rent?"

McCollough says a third of the $620 he earns a month goes toward apartment rent. The building has been sold to a group of New York investors; soon it will be renovated McCollough adds, and he has been told he'll have to cough up $300 or move.

"Move where?" he asks. "Out to the sticks where the rent's cheap but there are no jobs?"

At Harold's Lounge, on the eastern end of Warren Street--the Fifth Avenue of Hudson [in 1993, Harold's Lounge was at 330 Warren Street]--bartender Hall VanWagner slowly shakes his head and sighs. "I'm fortunate. I have two jobs and can afford the rent," he says.

"All these (New York) City folk are tired of getting mugged, so they move here. They buy everything around and--whoosh--everything goes up

"Some of them just bought out the Jupiter store up the street. That's where a lot of Hudson people used to shop. It's cheap. Now they'll turn it into something fancy, and we'll have to truck on down to the Jamesway. Jamesway or to Albany.

"These City-type stores sure ain't for us," he says jerking a thumb in the direction of Willis & Geiger outfitters, where a safari jacket can set you back $175 and a hand-sewn grouse jacket costs close to $500.

"It's good news-bad news, I guess," pipes in an elderly patron. "This place was dying 'n' it was cheap. Now it's coming back. That's good. But we've got to pay the price."

Happy Labor Day

"Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" | Rockefeller Center, September 20, 1932

Hudson Loses an Illustrious Resident

The acclaimed poet John Ashbery died this morning at his home here in Hudson. Gossips has no words adequate to eulogize him, so I refer readers to his obituaries in the New York Times and The Guardian and extend my deepest sympathies to his husband, David Kermani.

Photo: The Poetry Foundation

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Relish Change

Gossips reported the opening of Relish in 2012 and, four months before it happened, announced the plans to close Relish as we knew it. So, it seems fitting to share this intel about the future of Relish. 

Relish En Route is expected to make its appearance here and about sometime in November.
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An Appeal for a Church Building

Back in July, Ed Cross, pastor of the Endless Love Temple and for two decades the Second Ward supervisor, appealed to the Common Council for help. The building where the church worships--a building the church does not own but has rented for the past eight years--had been seized by the City for nonpayment of taxes.

Cross wanted to work out a deal with the City, whereby the church would enter into an installment agreement to pay the $35,000 owed in back taxes and take ownership of the building. The law, which makes every effort to keep people from losing their property through tax foreclosure, does not permit a nonowner of a property to enter into such an agreement, and the owner of the property decided to give it to the church only after the time for redeeming it had already passed.

That was in mid-July. The building is expected to be sold at auction sometime in October. Now, with only about a month left before the auction, Dan Udell has stepped in to help by initiating a GoFundMe campaign to raise $4,000--the amount required to bid in the auction (10 percent of the amount owed in back taxes) plus expenses. Udell and his wife, Mary, will also be hosting a poolside party at their home in Taghkanic next Sunday, September 10, from 2 to 5 p.m., as a fundraiser for the church. Call 518 851-7044 for more information about that event.
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The Great War: August 28, 1917

A long holiday weekend provides a chance to catch up on our story of Hudson in World War I. 

Late summer 1917 saw the departure of many soldiers from Hudson: Company F, Hudson's own unit of the National Guard, left for Fort Niagara; Hudson's Home Depot unit went to Highland to guard the Ashokan pipeline; and Company H, the New York City unit that had been stationed in Hudson since April to guard the railroad, returned to New York en route to France. On August 28, 1917, the front page of the Hudson Evening Register announced that four young men from Hudson, who had been trained as officers, had gotten there assignments.

 

Three, and possibly four, Hudson young men who received commissions recently at officers' training camps assume duties connected with their ranks to-morrow.

First Lieutenant John Gillette, of the United States army, son of ex-Alderman and Mrs. John W. Gillette, of Union street, left Biddeford, Maine, last Friday for Oglethorpe, Georgia, having been assigned there to instruct recruits and drafted men of the United States army. Lieutenant Gillette, who is 24 years old, is a graduate of Williams college and a widely known preparatory school. Last summer he was at the training camp at Plattsburgh, and this summer was at Madison barracks.

Lieut. Gillette at the Georgia camp is an instructor in an officers' training camp. One other man besides himself was selected from his company at Madison barracks and both sent to Fort Oglethorpe as instructors. He left New York on Sunday.

Donald H. Van Deusen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Van Deusen, of Allen street, who was commissioned a first lieutenant in the United States field artillery, reports to-morrow at Camp Dix, Wrightstown, N. J. He is 26 years old and a graduate of the Hudson High school, and in 1913 was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge, Mass.

Francis Cochrane, son of Supreme Justice A. V. S. Cochrane and Mrs. Cochrane of 437 Allen street, left to-day to join the Forty-ninth United States infantry, stationed at Syracuse. He has been commissioned a second lieutenant. Lieutenant Cochrane is 25 years old and is a graduate of Hudson High school, the Hotchkiss school, and in 1914 was graduated from Yale.

Another Hudson young man, Harold E. Burke, commissioned a first lieutenant, will probably receive orders some time this afternoon to report for duty.

Hudson is a very small city geographically, but it is still interesting to note in what close proximity these young men lived to each other. (Although they were all a few years out of college, they all still lived with their families.) Donald Van Deusen and Francis Cochrane were next door neighbors. Van Deusen lived at 441 East Allen Street; Cochrane at 437 Allen Street.

441 East Allen Street

437 East Allen Street

John Gillette lived in the Italian villa at 601 Union Street, and Harold Burke lived just down the street at 545 Union Street.

601 Union Street

545 Union Street

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Health Care Forum on Tuesday

On Tuesday, September 5, Jeff Beals, one of the Democrats hoping to challenge John Faso in 2018, and Rob Bujan, managing partner in Group Health Solutions and a candidate for First Ward alderman, are collaborating to present a forum on health care. The forum, which is free and open to the public, takes place at the Red Dot Restaurant & Bar, 321 Warren Street, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Click here for more information and to RSVP. 

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Watch It for Yourself

Dan Udell's video of "Town Hall Talks" organized by Bill Hughes, Fourth Ward supervisor, can now be viewed on YouTube. Click here to watch and listen.

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Hughes on Housing

Bill Hughes' "Town Hall Talks" event last night was videotaped by Dan Udell, and Gossips will provide the link to that video as soon as it's available. In the meantime, this report will focus on what Hughes told the audience, in the last half hour of a two-hour meeting, about what's being done at the county level to address the issue of affordable housing, with, as he indicated, an emphasis on "low-income housing and homeless housing."

Hughes reported that the housing study commissioned by the Columbia County Department of Social Services (or maybe it was the Board of Supervisors Health & Human Services Committee, it wasn't clear) had been completed and was now "in the hands of the supervisors and the mayor" for review. Hughes didn't indicate who had done the study, but Gossips has since learned it was a firm called Novogradac & Company LLP, based in Austin, Texas. Hughes mentioned, in the context of talking about the study, KCG, which presumably is KCG Development, a  developer of affordable/workforce/senior housing based in Carmel, Indiana. KCG may be a developer Hughes considers a possibility for building whatever housing project is being conceptualized.

Hughes spoke of $2 billion earmarked for housing that was available though NYS Homes and Community Renewal and asserted, "DRI [Downtown Revitalization Initiative] winners, if they can put together good site plans, have a good chance to access that money." He spoke of the proposed DRI projects and affordable housing as "parallel tracks" and spoke of using "the leverage of the DRI to apply for some of the $2 billion." Hughes suggested that Governor Andrew Cuomo has a special fondness for Hudson, saying he "looks at Hudson" and alleging that the governor "sneaks into Hudson and stays at the hotels."

Hughes indicated that the next round of funding from the $2 billion was in December--just three months from now--and expressed the hope that a plan might be ready in time to apply but acknowledged that might not be possible. He also announced that the County was "in the RFP [request for proposal] stage of homeless housing," but he did not indicate where the homeless housing might be located. He spoke of 24-hour security and 24-hour counseling and getting "people ready to move into affordable housing," all of which was reminiscent of the three-tier plan proposed at the county level five years ago, at the center of which were two buildings owned by the Galvan Foundation at State and Seventh streets.

A comment from an audience member expressed the frustration many feel when the conversation is about affordable housing: "[The term] affordable housing makes no sense unless you indicate the income for which it is affordable." It was pretty clear from what Hughes was saying that when he said "affordable housing" he meant low-income housing and homeless housing, a term being used apparently without realizing what a bitter oxymoron it is.

On the subject of affordable housing, Gossips learned last week from Sheena Salvino, executive director of HCDPA (Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency) as well as HDC (Hudson Development Corporation), that a volunteer is putting together "a list of vacant land owned by the City and HCDPA so we can map and visualize this land." She also said that "Patterns for Progress has come aboard with HCDPA to help with a housing visioning process." On September 14, Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress is hosting a forum entitled Housing in Urban Centers: What It All Means in New Windsor. A pre-conference overview, which outlines "the significance of housing and urban revitalization in the Hudson Valley," can be viewed here. Salvino told Gossips that Darren Scott, Upstate East Director of Development at NYS Homes and Community Renewal, "is prepared to help us tie the larger housing projects that come out of the visioning process to their funding streams and work into DRI."
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