While cruising up the Hudson River from NYC on a rarely-punctual Amtrak last Monday, I was able to reflect on the positives of the city, an unusual moment for someone who generally squints angrily when people go on extended raves about the place. I’m a rabid Hudson Valley fan, and there is little room left…
A group of local citizens are pushing for New York to designate Tillson Lake as wetlands as part of their fight to save the spot from being “de-watered” as state Senator Jen Metzger and a storied environmental group threw their support behind the effort. The dam creating the Minnewaska State Park Preserve lake is in…
“You don’t have spikes?” The middle-aged man had planted himself in the center of the trail, hands clenched around his hiking poles at stomach level like he was really excited to be asking Morgan this. “Nah…” Morgan was not wearing spikes, the hiking boot attachment that gives one traction in the snow, and in fact…
Kevin Halcott was friends with Matthew Rojas for a year-and-a-half before he got a call from Rojas’ roommate telling him the 23-year-old had been arrested by ICE agents outside the New Paltz Town Courthouse. Halcott tells me this at a back table in Mudd Puddle, a local coffee spot squatting among two rows of eclectic…
Groups concerned with Amtrak’s proposal to gate off parts of the Hudson River proposed an alternative Saturday they hope will allow access to the river while ensuring pedestrian safety. Amtrak wants to construct a mile-and-a-half of fencing between its tracks, which hug the east side of the Hudson River, and the mainland to protect what…
Sometimes, it’s necessary in life to be objective. I find this extra-helpful when something ridiculously unpleasant is happening — you just picture yourself as an actor in some ribald comedy and laugh along with the audience. It’s how I got through most of my 20s. I was forced to apply this coping mechanism a couple…
The City of Hudson’s Tourism Board is looking for a ‘branding consultant’ to create a plan for marketing the city. The request for proposal (RFP) was sent out in mid-November and seeks a contract with a consultant to “assist the (Tourism) Board in developing a tourism branding and marketing strategy that encompasses strategic research and…
Temperatures are expected to rise in the Hudson Valley and Catskills more drastically than most of the U.S. due to climate change, with the region seeing temperatures four-to-five degrees higher by 2050 when compared to the late 20th century. These predictions come from the Fourth National Climate Assessment, a voluminous report produced by the National…
Jaqueline Ahl and Eric Roth take full advantage of their proximity to Tillson Lake in Gardiner, swimming the 25-acre lagoon in the warm months and hiking the trails curling around it. They also own a canoe. Gliding a few inches above the water gives them a unique perspective. “Part of it is…being able to be…
The “Blue Wave” hit the 19th District in the 2018 midterms — hard. Antonio Delgado’s victory in the midterms was helped by a surge of voter participation, with the number of voters turning out in some parts of the 19th District looking more like a presidential election. This increase in voting numbers went to the…
It has been a particularly intense midterm season. I should know, because I’ve been covering it since September 2017, before (self-props) anyone else was. Now, 13 months later, it is election day. I just left my local polling place after voting (no, I’m not going to tell you who for), and there was a 15-person…
About 150 activists braved the drizzle Friday to rage against the policies of Republicans John Faso and Donald Trump mere feet from Faso’s office. Protestors have been gathering at Rep. Faso’s offices in Kingston, Kinderhook and Delhi since Faso and Trump were elected two years ago, hoisting signs, playing music and leading chants about what…
Congressman John Faso and Democratic challenger Antonio Delgado traded barbs and attempted to call each other out for lying during NY-19’s final debate before the midterm elections next week. The debate, hosted by The Times-Herald Record and held on the SUNY Sullivan campus, was pierced by cheers, hisses, boos, clapping, derisive laughter and occasional yelling,…
Former Vice-President Joe Biden spoke about the importance of next month’s midterm elections in operatic terms and touched on the pipe bomb discovered addressed to him just the day before while endorsing Democratic congressional nominee Antonio Delgado in Kingston Friday. Delgado, running to unseat Republican John Faso, talked of hoping to bring the augustness and…
One of the “Crosswalk Four” arrested last week for allegedly spray-painting their own unsanctioned crosswalks in Hudson said the city’s system was “busted” for not addressing residents’ and politicians’ concerns about the intersection. Peter Spear, Hudson Fourth Ward Supervisor Linda Mussmann, Claudia Bruce, and Rev. Ed Cross, a former Hudson Ward Supervisor, were arrested Oct.…
Smoking isn’t really ‘in’ these days, for the same reasons that slathering one’s body with tanning oil at the beach isn’t ‘in’ — it’s smelly, it’s bad for your skin, it gives you cancer, and doctors have been making condescending remarks to us about it for decades. So less and less people are smoking, which…
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…
