A group of Hudson River enthusiasts claims Amtrak’s plan to limit access to the river through a series of fences and gates is built on false pretenses. Amtrak’s proposal is meant “to keep pedestrians and vehicles out of harm’s way,” according to the plan, but the committee said government documents reveal there have been no…
Selha “Cece” Graham turns her head to the next person strolling up Warren Street as she stands in front of the Rolling Grocer 19 trailer near the now-vacant Hudson Police Station. “Mr. Hernandez!” she calls ebulliently to the elderly man with a boom box. “How are you doin today?” Graham seems to know every single…
The trailhead to Poet’s Ledge is easier to find than you might think — just follow the highest concentration of barriers unfriendly residents have erected to make it hard to find. My friend Megan (of Nerding Out at the New York Ren Faire fame) and I drove up Route 23A in Greene County to Palenville…
Prescott Haymes pours the hemp cocktail into my waiting glass while proudly elucidating about the drink’s origins in the way only a devoted farmer can. “For this infusion, we used pineapple, cucumber, mint — all fresh — and then, obviously, cannabis,” he said. The opaque green concoction goes down smooth and balanced, the farm-fresh taste…
The four candidates battling to see who will represent the northern Hudson Valley and Catskills in Congress faced off over the economy Sept. 20 during the 19th District’s first debate at an Ulster County Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Kingston. The candidates are sitting Republican Congressman John Faso; Democrat Antonio Delgado, a lawyer and former…
Audrey Brand delicately curves her paintbrush along the looping grain of the wood as a trio of European women pause on their way through Gardiner Liquid Mercantile in Ulster County. Brand greets them, stepping back from her easel as they apologize for interrupting her work. “No, you’re supposed to watch,” she says. “You can have…
“I won’t be driving to Wappingers Falls later — I’m gonna be schwasted.” The 20-something white dude wearing a baseball cap toed forward in the line entering the Hudson River Craft Beer Fest while pontificating about the various brews he would drink and how each brew would get him further schwasted. Although it was ten…
“Is that a balloon?” Lizzie Carr cranes her neck to stare at the buoyant plastic orb as it bumps the underside of the Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie. “Are you serious?” She says with a touch of incredulous wonder. “That’s so apt, isn’t it?” “Maybe a happy child will find it,” I respond. “Re-purpose it.” But…
Antonio Delgado repeatedly attacked Congressman John Faso’s record to thunderous applause at a town hall event held in Cairo, Greene County Friday night. The democratic nominee flayed Faso, the Republican he is trying to unseat, for his vote to overturn Obamacare, and said Faso was not fulfilling his responsibilities as a congressman, calling him “dishonest”…
There are few things I hate in this world, but one of them is lawns. Not necessarily YOUR lawn. I respect the American ideal of property rights, and therefore believe you have the legal precedent to do whatever goddamn stupid thing you want to do with your lawn. You all seem to have the same…
Rep. John Faso has twice declined to debate democratic candidate Antonio Delgado because Green Party candidate Steve Greenfield would not be included in the debates. Faso, a first-term Republican congressman, is defending his seat from Delgado in a tight race to see who will represent the northern Hudson Valley and Catskills. Steve Greenfield has not…
I was desperately trying to snap photos from the sidelines of the Columbia County Fair Demolition Derby when a giant “OOoohh!” rippled across the crowd, a contradictory noise of concern and excitement delivered en masse by thousands of rapt spectators. “What happened?” My girlfriend pointed to the other side of the rectangular track. One of…
The comment period for a set of proposals seeking to erect storm surge defenses in New York City Harbor that environmental groups have warned could have catastrophic effects on the Hudson River has been extended by 30 days. The extension comes after a slew of Hudson Valley politicians submitted letters requesting the period be extended…
Prattsville, a small town straddling the Schoharie Creek in northwestern Greene County, is home to Pratt’s Rock, a site once called “New York’s Mount Rushmore” by Ripley’s Believe It or Not. It was here the town’s founder and namesake, Zadock Pratt, employed a series of itinerant stonemasons to carve his life story in a cliff…
Twin Mountain, one of the Catskills’ 35 peaks over 3500 feet, squats between Indian Head Mountain and Sugarloaf Mountain down a road closed during the winter months. Thankfully, it was August, so I did not have to walk an additional five miles to access the trailhead off Dale Lane. It was to be a solitary…
We had some cracking good weather in Columbia County this week, which is another way of saying we had very bad weather. Call me a masochist, but I might have a perverse love of destructive weather events. I had to add “might” in there because the claim seems like the famous last words uttered 20…
Joe Diamond receives a small shard of blue and white from one of his undergraduate students and flips it over in his dirt-creased hand, rubbing it with his thumb to remove the centuries-old soil. “Majolica, 17th century,” he says with the unassailable confidence of an art appraiser showing a piece. “This stuff is like 1630…
Hudson Mayor Rick Rector vetoed a proposed law Thursday that would have imposed fees on the owners of vacant properties. The law, which was passed by the city’s Common Council July 17, was meant to address dilapidated properties and properties that were being “warehoused” — purposefully kept unoccupied — by their owners in the city,…
I’m not sure if you’ve ever played badminton, but it doesn’t matter, because you’ve been playing it all wrong. See, you’ve been playing it as a lawn game, like croquet or…I dunno, tanning. MY crew, we play it Columbia County-style. We play it as a sport. My crew lays their heads in the sparsely populated…
The rock formation was visible to the side of the trail as we crested a hill near Overlook Mountain in Woodstock: a craggy boulder sitting in the topsoil with a rock wall sinuously trailing behind it like a tail. The tail was wider at the ground and peaked at the top and extended a good…
