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…
Six proposals are on the table to protect New York City and its surroundings from catastrophic flooding, including two plans to separate the city’s harbor — and therefore the Hudson River — from the Atlantic Ocean with a combination of seawalls and gated storm surge barriers. Hudson River environmental groups have attacked these two plans,…
The manager of the Minnewaska State Park Preserve was extremely cagey during his interview about Shaft 2A, but towards the end of our conversation, he revealed why. “I’m a little concerned,” Eric Humphery said in a tone suggesting he was making a severe understatement. He was worried the coverage from The Other Hudson Valley would…
Moose are now occasionally spotted in the Hudson Valley as their population expands west and south from the obscure corners of northern New England that the massive quadruped was forced into by the region’s development. The moose’s historical range stretches down from Canada through New York and into Pennsylvania, but deforestation almost completely extirpated the…
Emma Roberts was babysitting one of her granddaughters when she got a call saying her daughter’s house was being raided by the police. During an interview more than two weeks after the June 5 raid, Roberts is still upset and cries as she talks about the night, pausing a couple times to apologize for her…
Monty, 71 Monty Diamond was born in 1946, but he didn’t come out of the closet until 1980. He warns me his experience of being gay might not be typical — he considers himself an odd duck and thinks the interview might not produce what I expect. People’s stories are never typical. Monty attended The…
“Anything not strapped down will fly.” Alexa Kissinger, Gareth Rhodes’ girlfriend, twisted her head around from the front seat of the campaign Winnebago to warn me as I attempted to fasten myself against one of the vehicle’s threadbare benches. The Winnebago was bought by Rhodes off Craigslist, and it looked like it was bought off…
I slowed down to pass Dave Clegg as he biked the last stretch of Route 9 into the Village of Kinderhook a couple minutes after noon this Friday. “Hey, DAVE!” I bawled out of my window, narrowly avoiding striking the congressional candidate. In retrospect, this sounds like something a motorist would shout before throwing an…
A Super-PAC has entered the 19th District democratic primary in support of Pat Ryan, enlisting a firm to call voters and test negative information about one of his opponents, Antonio Delgado, and gauge their reactions. With Honor Inc., a recently-formed Super-PAC that supports both Republican and Democratic candidates who are veterans, paid Global Strategies Group…
Scaling Blackhead Mountain and Black Dome Mountain not only allowed me to cross the third and fourth highest peaks in the Catskills off my list, it marked one of the few hikes in recent memory where I did not get lost. I set off early one weekday morning with my friend Ellen, who is making…
Brian Flynn spoke about legalizing pot, rehabilitating prisoners and punishing opioid dealers during an in-depth interview on a criminal justice system he called “corrupt.” The Greene County resident is competing against six other Democrats in the 19th District Primary to see who will take on Republican Congressman John Faso in November’s mid-term elections. The racial…
Brian Flynn’s former business associate at his manufacturing company is being sued in civil court for fraud and civil conspiracy stemming from his involvement in a company he helped lead before being recruited to work with Flynn. Douglas Constable, who was CEO of AccuMED while Brian Flynn was the manufacturing company’s President, was formerly the…
This article is part 3 in a series examining how the democratic primary candidates in New York’s 19th Congressional District have served the public — not since they announced their runs, but in their lives as a whole. Dave Clegg, Brian Flynn and Gareth Rhodes were examined in the first article, which can be found…
