This week, the Columbia County retail landscape will be dotted with stacks of the new environment issue of Our Town, the Claverack-based quarterly. Along with articles by Dave Gargill of Harper’s Magazine and Germantown filmmaker Barbara Ettinger, the issue includes a lengthy piece by Yours Truly, titled “The Bullet We Dodged,” on the occasion of the imminent fifth anniversary of the victory over St. Lawrence Cement.
Rather than delving much into the elaborate strategies, tactics, fundraising, day-to-day labor, organization, legal maneuvering, and other minutiae of this grinding battle, the piece focuses on the role of people power in our against-the-odds success. We were huge underdogs when this began, with most giving us less than a 1% chance of winning. Among those whose contributions are mentioned in the piece are:
Al Cook, Alan Hamilton, Alex Matthiessen, Alex Sagady, Alice Platt, Ally Anderson-Spivy, Andrea Smallwood, Ann Birckmayer, Annie Leibovitz, B. Docktor, Barbara Ettinger, Bob & Monica Mechling, Bonnie Sanders, Bridget Rockwell, Bud Mann, Carole Clark, Carole Osterink, Cassandra Danz, Chet Stark, Chloe Zerwick, Chris Pfister , Christopher Burge, Claire Oravec, Craig Fitt, Cyndy Hall, Cynthia Richardson, Dave Staats, David Kermani, David Rubel, Deb Novack, Deborah Bowen, Diana Jelinek, Dick Donovan, Dick Jenrette, Don & Marnie MacLean, Don Christensen , Elizabeth Nyland, Ellen Thurston, Ellsworth Kelly, Enid Futterman, Fran & Vinny DeGrazia, Frank Aultman, Gabe Miller, Gabi Hermann, George Wislocki, Hannah Hanani, Hannah Williamson, Hillary Hillman, Howard Brandston, Ian Nitschke, Ira Marks, Jay Rasku, Jeff Monkash, Jennifer Arenskjold, Jim Schermbeck, Joan Hintermeister, Jock Spivy, John Ashbery, John Davis, John Isaacs, Kate Kerin, Katy Hubener, Ken McCarthy, Laura Skutch, Lisa Durfee, Lynn Davis, Maiysha Kramer, Martha Lane, Martina Arfwidson, Marty Davidson, Mary Sanchez, Michael Brown, Michael Vertetis, Mitchell Gaynor, Moisha Blechman, Nancy Gordon, Neil Carman, Nicholas Blechman, Pamela Kline, Patrick Manning, Paul Swedenburg, Penny Wheat, Peter Jung, Philip Glass, Phyllis Herbert, Richard Blumenthal, Richard Katzman, Rudy Wurlitzer, Ruth Piwonka, Sally Drummond, Sarah Griffen, Steve Kaufman, Stu Kaufman, Sven Huseby, Tarquin Cardona , Thomas Teich, Tom Mabley, Travis Kline, and Warren Collins.
Though the piece runs well over 7,000 words, this list still barely scratches the surface of the contributions by the thousands of people who took the time to (and the risk of) getting involved, when faced with a fight-or-flight situation, and an adversary prepared to spend nearly $60 million on advertising, astroturfing, consultants, lobbyists, lawyers, payouts and public relations. Frankly it would have been cheaper for them to simply buy the whole City of Hudson, before the controversy spread across the whole Valley and far into New England.
And now five years later, all that herculean effort by so many people has now been put at risk by the likes of Linda Mussmann, Cheryl Roberts and Rick Scalera, with a dangerous plan to reindustrialize the Hudson Waterfront and give SLC’s parent company, Holcim, many of the very same waterfront goodies they were denied back on April 19th, 2005, by the New York State Secretary of State. You can also all about the new struggle at HudsonWaterfront.org.
