Hudson in 1985

The City of Hudson was incorporated on April 22, 1785. On April 7 of that year, The Gazette, the newspaper from which the Register-Star traces its roots, began publication.

The bicentennial issue of the Register-Star, published on April 8, 1985, celebrating its own 200th anniversary not the city's, can now to viewed in its entirety online, on the Hudson Area Library's page at nyheritage.org. 

This historic issue of the Register-Star is definitely worth perusing. (Yes, that's a congratulatory letter from Ronald Reagan, then President of the United States, reproduced on the front page.) The first section provides a snapshot of life in Hudson and the surrounding area in 1985. The later sections (this paper was 34 pages long) provide a fascinating history of journalism in Hudson. Click here to start exploring.

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Public Art in Hudson: Following Up

Earlier today, Gossips published pictures taken by a reader of work by sculptor Jon Isherwood being unloaded at the Columbia County Courthouse: "Public Art in Hudson." I was wrong in believing there was only one sculpture; there are two. But I was correct in speculating that the sculpture was from the exhibition Broadway Blooms: Jon Isherwood on Broadway. 

The sculpture now installed in Courthouse Square along Union Street near East Court Street is called "Given and Received." In Broadway Blooms, it was exhibited at Broadway and 96th Street.

Photo: Broadway Mall Association

The sculpture now installed in the square along West Court Street is called "As Always Yours." In the exhibition on the Upper West Side, it was installed at Broadway and 117th Street.

Photo: Broadway Mall Association

The sculptures are part of the public art being exhibited during this year's The Hudson Eye, THE2022, which officially begins on August 26 and continues through September 5. For more information about the festival and to download the THE2022 brochure, click here.

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Special Meeting Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 27, the Planning Board is holding a special meeting at 6:35 p.m. The purpose of the meeting is to review and select a consulting engineer with which to enter into a master service agreement. The meeting will take place virtually. Click here to join the meeting.

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been 19 new cases of COVID-19. The number of active cases being reported today is 10 fewer than yesterday, from which it can be inferred that, since yesterday, 29 county residents have recovered from the virus. There are 2 fewer county residents hospitalized with COVID-19 today than yesterday, but the number in the ICU remains the same. There has not been a death from COVID-19 reported in Columbia County since yesterday, July 25.

A year ago today, the CCDOH reported 10 new cases of COVID-19 after a two-day weekend. The total number of cases was 4,313, and the number of active cases was 22. There were 16 county residents in mandatory quarantine, 1 was hospitalized, and 0 were in the ICU. The total number of deaths in Columbia County attributed to COVID-19 at this time last year was 96.

Public Art in Hudson

Earlier today, a reader sent me a picture of a Jon Isherwood sculpture being unloaded at courthouse square, along with a picture of Isherwood himself at the site along West Court Street.

Gossips' guess is that this is one of the Isherwood sculptures from Broadway Blooms: Jon Isherwood on Broadway, a public art exhibition installed on the Upper West Side, in the malls on Broadway between 72nd Street and 157th Street. That exhibition was in place until July 15.

Photo: West Side Rag

How one of the sculptures found its way to Hudson is yet to be learned.

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Gratitude to Peter Meyer for providing the photographs

Yesterday's HCDPA Meeting

Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency (HCDPA) held a special meeting yesterday, the principal purpose of which was to authorize a contract with BFJ Planning to serve as consultants for the Housing Trust Fund. Before the vote was taken to authorize the contract, Mayor Kamal Johnson called it a "very important contract," explaining that BFJ "offered services to the City that Michelle [Housing Justice Director] cannot provide." Although Johnson spoke of seven tasks, only four appear to be defined in the contract. They are:

Task 1  BFJ will assist the Housing Justice Director in analyzing the financial feasibility of an inclusionary zoning or set-aside policy by looking at the baseline feasibility of multifamily development under the Section 325-28.2G Affordable Housing Bonus [in the city code].

Task 2  BFJ will look at the City's existing Vacant Buildings law and make suggestions on potential changes based upon best practices from other municipalities around the country. Potential fees from the vacancy law could be used to provide revenue for the Hudson Housing Trust Fund.

Task 3  Community Land Trusts provide an instrument for creating long-term affordability for affordable housing ownership opportunities. BFJ will provide an outline for a governance structures [sic] based upon best practices for community land trust that could help the City to create permanently affordable housing that could be used in the analysis of the five multifamily rental sites identified as part of the 2021 Affordable Housing Development Plan. 

Task 4  BFJ will look at potential for any temporary affordable housing overlays in the interim while the City pursues a new comprehensive plan and zoning code update. 

According to the contract, the fee for these services is $11,000, which will come from the $1 million Anti-Displacement Learning Network grant.

After the vote was taken to authorize the contract, Christine Chale, HCDPA legal counsel, said there have been discussions with the Hudson Housing Authority about an agreement that would allow HHA to purchase property owned by HCDPA. Chale reported that an agreement has been drafted and that agreement would be an agenda item for HCDPA's August 9 meeting.  

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Happening This Weekend

This Saturday, July 30, the Hudson Festival Orchestra (HFO) presents Hudson in Concert: A Community Celebration.

The free event takes place from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Henry Hudson Riverfront Park. Gwen Gould, founder and artistic director of HFO, says of the event, "I believe that music and culture can bridge divides and build community. I envision this as an annual musical event bringing area residents together through a live musical celebration of our shared American and diverse cultural heritages in a glorious natural setting on the Hudson River!"

The program for the afternoon and evening is in two parts. At 4:00 p.m., there will be "Opening Acts" in the gazebo, which will include: 

• Trio Candela playing lively traditional Latin music from around world
• Bangladeshi Songs sung by Haroon and Valina Rashid
• Tony Kieraldo, pianist and composer, performing his Hudson Ragtime Piano Suite

At 7:00 p.m., the Hudson Festival Orchestra takes center stage, performing under a large tent on the lawn. A full professional orchestra of fifty-five players and several guest artists will perform such cultural favorites as American hoedown, gospel, Latin music, Cuban danzon, Argentine tango, ragtime, Indian classical music, and more. Concert goers are invited to bring a drum or hand instrument and join a rousing community drum circle led by Kuumba Dance & Drum Academy/Operation Unite to provide a dramatic introduction to the orchestra's opening selection: Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man."

During the intermission, children are invited to join "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" parade, following a larger-than-life teddy bear (a brave volunteer in a bear costume) to a picnic blanket where there will be treats for all.

To express solidarity with Ukraine, the second half of the concert will begin with the Ukrainian National Anthem. Click here to see the entire program for Saturday's Hudson in Concert event.  

The Hudson Festival Orchestra is supported in part by CREATE Council on the Arts, Alexander & Marjorie Hover Foundation, Bank of Greene County Charitable Foundation, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Broadway Cares, Churchtown Dairy, Columbia County Tourism, Columbia Memorial Hospital, Francis Greenburger Charitable Fund, HRBT Foundation, Hudson Business Coalition, Hudson Hall, J. M. Kaplan Fund, The Spark of Hudson, and corporate and individual donors from across the region.

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. There has been another death from COVID-19, bringing the total deaths to 150. Since Friday, there have been 31 new cases of the disease. The number of active cases being reported today is 2 fewer than on Friday, from which it can be inferred that, since Friday, 32 county residents have recovered from the virus. There is 1 fewer county resident hospitalized with COVID-19 today than on Friday, but the number in the ICU remains the same.

A year ago, July 25 was a Sunday, and the CCDOH did not report COVID numbers. On the previous Friday, July 23, the CCDOH reported 5 new cases of COVID-19. The total number of cases was 4,303, and the number of active cases was 15. There were 24 county residents in mandatory quarantine, 1 was hospitalized, and 0 were in the ICU. The total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Columbia County at this time last year was 96.

New Development at the Alger House

Part of the proposal for the restoration of the Charles Alger House, at 59 Allen Street, was stuccoing the house, to create an Ashlar stone effect as appears in this engraving of the house, found on an 1858 map of Columbia County. 

Today, I noticed that, behind the netting that enshrouds the house, the stuccoing has been going forward.

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Amend Your Calendars

Last week, Gossips announced that NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation was going to do a Zoom presentation of the plans for the renovation of the Hudson State Boat Launch on Wednesday, August 3. That presentation has been rescheduled. The new date is Thursday, August 11. Gossips will provide the link to the meeting as soon as it is available.

Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

The weather forecast for the week promises a minor relief from the beastly heat and a fair amount of rain. In terms of meetings in the final days of July, there's not much happening.

• On Monday, July 25, the Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency (HCDPA) holds a special meeting at 12:30 p.m. The agenda for the meeting can be found here. The principal business of the meeting is to approve paying the bills and authorize a contract with BFJ Planning, the group that did Hudson's LWRP (Local Waterfront Revitalization Program) more than a decade ago, to do consulting for the Housing Trust Fund. The meeting takes place virtually. Click here to access the meeting.
• At 5:00 p.m. on Monday, July 25, the ad hoc Sidewalks Committee holds its monthly meeting. The meeting is a hybrid--taking place in person at City Hall and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
• On Tuesday, July 26, Peter Frank, Kate Treacy, Hillary France, and Lucas Krump are hosting a meet and greet for Josh Riley, congressional candidate in the newly drawn NY-19. The event takes place from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at WYLDE Hudson, 35 South Third Street. To attend, RSVP to katethedem@gmail.com.

• On Wednesday, July 27, from 5:00 p.m. until sunset, it's Waterfront Wednesdays. This week, the sloop Clearwater will be in Hudson. Performing are Ujima Drum Circle at 5:30 p.m., Kyle Marshall Choreography at 7:00 p.m., and Heard World Jazz Band at 8:00 p.m. Also this Wednesday, the team from the Hudson Valley Collaborative and eDesign Dynamics will at the waterfront to exhibit their latest design for waterfront park and gather input.

And that's it for the week.

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An Early Proposed "Formula Structure"

This morning, I went down to the train station to check out the progress on the reconstruction of the red barn that is to become The Caboose, which will house a wine shop, a makers' market, and an event space.   

Visiting the site this morning, I recalled that back in 2006 or 2007 CSX sought site plan approval from the Planning Board, then known as the Planning Commission, to construct a building--a crew shack--near the railroad tracks, visible from South Front Street. What CSX proposed was a blue and white metal building, a formula building, its trademark building. In a review that went on for several months, the Planning Commission succeeded in getting CSX to build what exists today: an unassuming brick building with a hip roof, that in a minor way echoes, in materials and design, the historic train station across the street. 

Hudsonians should be grateful to that Planning Commission of yesteryear. Had it not been for its vision and persistence, there would be today, midway between The Wick Hotel and the culinary native garden of The Caboose, a blue and white metal building possibly sporting the blue and white CSX logo. 

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Down at the Dog Park

Since June 1, the large dog section of the Hudson Dog Park has been closed for improvements and repairs.  

On Thursday, despite the heat, dogs and their humans gathered to celebrate the reopening of the park, with doggie ice cream and sparkling cider.

The improvements to the park include the installation of a pergola to provide welcome shade and shelter, new metal benches in the pergola, and repurposing a dozen of the concrete blocks used to convert parking spaces into outdoor dining areas on Warren Street as seating in parts of the dog park where there is natural shade in the late afternoon and evening.

The repairs involved reseeding vast areas of the park where the grass had been worn away by happy pups romping and playing.

The project was financed by a $5,000 "Bark for Your Park®" grant from PetSafe®, which the Hudson Dog Park won last fall in a national competition. That $5,000 was matched by a generous anonymous donor, making a total of $10,000 to realize the project. Gratitude goes to the City of Hudson for allowing twelve of the concrete blocks, not needed this year on Warren Street, to be repurposed at the dog park and to the Department of Public Works for installing them there.

The Hudson Dog Park, located at 121 North Second Street, is a public-private partnership. It is situated on land owned by the City of Hudson, but it was built with $14,000 raised by the community. The Department of Public Works mows the lawn, hauls away the trash, and plows the driveway and parking lot in winter, but all other expenses for maintaining and improving the dog park are paid for by contributions from users and supporters of the dog park. Last year, $2,500 was raised to bring water to the dog park. 

To learn more about the Hudson Dog Park, visit the dog park's website: hudsondogparkny.org.

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COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been 13 new cases of COVID-19. The number of active cases being reported today is 11 more than yesterday, from which it can be inferred that, since yesterday, 2 county residents have recovered from the virus. There is 1 more county resident hospitalized with COVID-19 today than yesterday, and the number in the ICU remains the same. There has not been a death from COVID-19 reported in Columbia County since July 5.

A year ago today, the CCDOH reported 2 new cases of COVID-19. The total number of cases was 4,298, and the number of active cases was 12. There were 21 county residents in mandatory quarantine, 1 was hospitalized, and 0 were in the ICU. The total number of deaths in Columbia County attributed to COVID-19 at this time last year was 96.

Wealth in Hudson

Yesterday, a reader alerted me to an article in MoneyPop titled "These Small Towns Have a Lot of Millionaires Living Within Their Borders." Notwithstanding Hudson is a small city not a town, we made the list, with a "total millionaire density of 7.2%." 

The paragraphs about Hudson begin with this statement: "In Hudson, New York, there are 25,243 households and 1,810 of them have a millionaire family living inside." Huh? Hudson's population is fewer than 6,000. Every man, woman, and child in Hudson would have to maintain at least four households for there to be 25,243.

In truth, Hudson has only 2,606 households, and the article provides no information about how many of those households are millionaire families. What MoneyPop is calling Hudson is actually all of Columbia County.

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been 8 new cases of COVID-19. The number of active cases being reported today is the same as yesterday, from which it can be inferred that, since yesterday, 8 county residents have recovered from the virus. There is 1 more county resident hospitalized with COVID-19 today than yesterday, but the number in the ICU remains the same. There has not been a death from COVID-19 reported in Columbia County since July 5.

A year ago today, the CCDOH reported 1 new case of COVID-19. The total number of cases was 4,296, and the number of active cases was 13. There were 15 county residents in mandatory quarantine, 1 was hospitalized, and 0 were in the ICU. The total number of deaths in Columbia County attributed to COVID-19 at this time last year was 96.

Monkeypox Has Arrived in Columbia County

A couple of hours ago, the Columbia County Department of Health issued this press release.

Now What?

Yesterday, Gossips published a post about the law prohibiting "formula retail uses," in other words, chain businesses, in Hudson. A formula retail use is defined in the law as "a type of retail sales or service activity or retail sales or service establishment that has four or more other retail sales establishments in operation."

Since publishing that post, Gossips learned that Westerlind opened its fourth location in Kingston last weekend. Its other locations are in Manhattan, Great Barrington, and Millertown. Here are notices about the opening in Kingston that were posted on Instagram.

With its Kingston location, Westerlind becomes, by the definition given in our city code, a formula retail use, which is prohibited in Hudson. Yet its logo appears on 417 Warren Street with the message "Coming Soon." 

It will be interesting to see what the City does about this. Perhaps, it will be nothing. For at least fifty years, Hudson has had this law on the books:

§ 188-27 Fortune-telling prohibited.

No person shall use or pretend to use or have any skill in physiognomy, palmistry or like crafty science, or pretend to tell destinies or fortunes.

The law notwithstanding, a business claiming to do exactly what the law prohibits has been operating at 134 Warren Street since the beginning of 2021.

Photo: Trixie's List

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COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been 22 new cases of COVID-19. The number of active cases being reported today is 11 more than yesterday, from which it can be inferred that, since yesterday, 11 county residents have recovered from the virus. The number of county residents hospitalized and in the ICU has not changed since yesterday. There has not been a death from COVID-19 reported in Columbia County since July 5.   

A year ago today, the CCDOH reported 6 new cases of COVID-19. The total number of cases was 4,295, and the number of active cases was 14. There were 9 county residents in mandatory quarantine, 1 was hospitalized, and 0 were in the ICU. The total number of deaths in Columbia County attributed to COVID-19 at this time last year was 96.

Update on the Parking Study

In May, Gossips reported there had been three responses to the RPI for a Parking Improvement Feasibility Study, only one of which had a price tag that was within the City's means. Last month, the Common Council passed a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with Fishbeck, a Michigan firm headquartered in Grand Rapids, which was the group whose price--$35,000--matched the City's budget.  

Yesterday, the Hudson Business Coalition (HBCi) reported that, last week, representatives from HBCi and its member businesses had participated in stakeholder interviews with a consultant from Fishbeck. The report explains: "We provided input on the needs, challenges, and opportunities regarding parking and intra-city transport that are most relevant to Hudson business owners, as well as residents and visitors." The entire report from HBCi can be found here.

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