SamPratt.com

Time on his hands

In a Register-Star opinion piece last Winter, Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera dodged questions about the Waterfront by saying he does “not have the time” to discuss such issues in detail.

A more recent article in the same paper sheds some light on what Scalera does have time for... Namely, going out to Philmont to make special pleadings on behalf of a local property owner.

According to this June 18th report by Francesca Olsen, Philmont officials recently discussed alleged problems with The Mill on Summit Street, which is owned by Eleanor Ambos and subject to a stop work order from the Village:

“According to Philmont Mayor Clarence ‘Skip’ Speed, the building is more than 100 years old and has three floors and no sprinkler system. There’s only one entrance, with no fire exit or additional way out, which presents a fire hazard.

“The stop-work order, he said, actually prevents Ambos from having work done on the building. ‘We’re trying to figure out a way she can legally work on that building without getting in trouble,’ he said.”

But despite building inspector stating Dennis Callahan stating that “Nobody can be in this building. It’s just unsafe,” a member of the audience at the Village board meeting variously claimed that people are “staying at,” “going into” and “running a business in there.”

(Olsen cited as an example a blog post about a “Dance Meditation Summer Movement Monastery” scheduled to take place in part at the Mill in June. Similarly, this announcement appears to be for a wedding which took place there in 2008.)

Enter Scalera—the Mayor without enough time on his hands.

Speed was asked by the audience “why Hudson Mayor Richard Scalera had visited Philmont to discuss the building.” The article elaborates:

Scalera told the Register-Star he went to Philmont on behalf of Ambos to meet with Callahan, Speed and representatives from the engineering firm Crawford and Associates, who are involved in the building’s remediation.

“(Ambos) is having a difficult time understanding the code process on what she can do to turn that into a place for public assembly,” he said.

Scalera said he met with the Philmont officials to ask if they can help Ambos along with the permit process “so she can have public assembly out there.” [...] “This is just to benefit Philmont and Elanor [sic] Ambos to put the mill to good use,” Scalera said.

In 1998-1999, Scalera as Mayor pushed for (and obtained) a large HUD grant to assist Ambos with the purchase and renovation of the Pocketbook Factory in Hudson.  Ambos did in fact work to stabilize the building, but stopped far short of the grant’s purposes to create artist loft space, affordable housing and a HeadStart office. When Scalera’s hand-picked successor Cappy Pierro lost his bid for Mayor to Kenny Cranna, Hudson development officials became more serious about enforcing the terms of the grant—at which point Ambos returned the funds rather than follow the plan.

During another of Scalera’s off-terms in the political wilderness, it was often rumored that he was managing property for Ambos, who also owns the former Allen Street School and Elks Club buildings in Hudson, both of them seemingly unused.

Now, unless Ambos has some business before the City of Hudson or one of its agencies controlled by the Mayor, it may not be an issue if Scalera wants to moonlight for her or anyone else. But it does beg the question: How much of Scalera’s time is consumed by work outside City Hall? And for whom?

Just another weekday night in Hudson

Wednesday: MEN at the Cannonball Factory, organized by Dan Bunny. Thursday: Impromptu performance by Lolly and Chris at PM (above), instigated by Frank Faulkner.

Quotable Leopold

The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the pieces.

— ATTRIBUTED TO EARLY ENVIRONMENTALIST ALDO LEOPOLD (1887-1948)

Quake!

Some kind of minor quake just rolled through the area. Some buildings were actually evacuated in Albany; in the 600 block of Warren Street in Hudson, it felt like an unusually large and fast-moving train had rumbled through the park...

The Times-Union reports that this was felt all over Upstate and Western New York, with an epicenter near Cornwall on the Canadian border: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/28549/hey-did-you-just-feel-that/

The last such event in Hudson was c. 2002 or so, and was much more alarming. Windows, pictures and mirrors rattled on the walls; for a second I thought the contractor working on my two-story porch had knocked out its pillars.

A Tea Party of One?

“Columbia County Tea Party endorses Gibson” read a recent headline in the Register-Star, referring to the candidacy of Republican Chris Gibson of Kinderhook who is challenging Scott Murphy of Glens falls for Congress this fall.

But who (or what) is the Columbia County Tea Party, exactly?

A search of New York State’s Campaign Finance Disclosure site does not turn up anything resembling a Columbia County Tea Party in its records—no authorized or non-authorized committee, no political action committee, nor any constituted party. Here’s what you get when searching for “Columbia” anywhere in the name of groups in their database:

The Reg-Star article indicates that the news of the endorsement came from “Ed Fertik of the Claverack Tea Party,” another purported political group not listed in the State’s registry of groups making election expenditures:

 

This absence of State filing (along with a little Google searching), suggest that at this point both “parties” exist primarily in the vivid imagination of Mr. Fertik—who lately has been submitting fire-breathing letters-to-the-editor of the Reg-Star. He’s thus far denounced everything from “hippie violence” to "Obamunism" to Our Town, The Claverack Quarterly—claiming he’s going to publish a competing magazine called Our Town Too.

Links from similarly tenuous Tea Party sites reveal that Mr. Fertik began a personal blog back in August 2009, publishing a grand total of 7 posts in the past ten months. Recently he began describing this blog as the “official” site of his Tea Party efforts. Fertik writes that since he started political operations 7 weeks ago, he has been “averaging about four new sympathizers for each week of our existence.”

So by Fertik’s own math, that would suggest that this “endorsement” of Gibson has, optimistically, the backing of 28 “sympathizers” plus Mr. Fertik himself. One can’t help wondering how many of those 28 are even registered to vote, and how much “sympathy” one has to express to be counted among the Tea Party ranks.

Now, citizen engagement in the political process is a good thing. It should be encouraged, and to that extent Mr. Fertik may be commended for wanting to participate—no matter how incoherent or outlandish his political views might be.

He may, however, want to get up to speed on campaign finance disclosure rules if he’s serious about political action. If he wanted to join in a common cause, we probably could agree that the State rules made by the Republicans and Democrats make it far too onerous for new political groups to get off the ground.

At the same time, one also wonders what the press standard should be for calling oneself a full-fledged political party and having such “endorsements” treated like real news. It's tempting to start a Columbia County Tree Party, and see if it receives the same treatment...

Clouded vision

On the waterfront... Take a look at the Vision Statement for the Kingston waterfront plan as opposed to the one in the City of Hudson's draft plan.

First, here’s Kingston's  positive (and pithy) vision:

The Kingston waterfront will be an attractive, active, walkable, culturally vibrant district with strong linkages to the rest of the City of Kingston. Shops, restaurants, recreational opportunities, museums, and events will attract visitors and residents seven days per week all through the year. New development will be consistent with established character and will highlight the area's historic and natural resources. Trails, parks, marinas, and boat launches will maximize access to the waterways, creating high-quality recreational opportunities, and optimizing meaningful, permanent public access to the waterfront.

Now here's Hudson's draft version:

It is the City’s primary goal through the adoption of this LWRP, its enabling legislation and any ancillary agreements, to reconnect the Hudson River and the waterfront land to the City by restoring transportation and pedestrian links, reconnecting hydrology, encouraging compatible residential, commercial and industrial uses within the waterfront boundary area which build upon and support the revitalization efforts in the upland portions of the City, restoring and maintaining the City's historic connection to the river for shipping via the remaining deep water port, restoring and maintaining viewsheds to and from the waterfront and the river, and improving existing and ensuring additional public access to the River and the entire waterfront for water dependent and enhanced recreational and other purposes where ever possible. The open space and recreational resources and the City's unique historical, cultural and aesthetic resources are the underpinning of the City's current community character and local setting. Maintaining and expanding public access to and use of open space and recreational resources while also protecting the integrity of the City's historic, cultural and aesthetic resources which comprise the local setting is essential to achieving the City's primary planning goal. However, in adopting this LWRP the City also acknowledges its seafaring and industrial heritage and contribution to the local and regional economies and local setting by supporting the continued use of the one remaining deep water dock in the City as a viable port facility for the future. The City’s LWRP is intended to guide and support, through zoning changes and other agreements, development within the waterfront boundary area which supports and continues the regional shift away from water dependent industrial uses to a mix of compatible, higher economically valued mixed uses that include commercial, residential, tourism, retail, shipping and office uses, waterdependent and enhanced recreational uses, and the preservation of open space. Therefore, the City intends to rezone much of the land within the waterfront boundary area from industrial use to zoning which provides for a mix of commercial, residential, conservation, industrial and shipping activities, with added protections to ensure that any shipping or transportation activities occurring within the new Core Riverfront Zone are compatible with the over all long term planning objective. By meeting these objectives and achieving the LWRP's goal, the City will accomplish one of the primary recommendations of the Hudson Vision Plan (HVP) for the City's waterfront, “[t]o open the waterfront for boaters and the public and make it the center of civic activity. This will create a positive impetus for the entire downtown and, in the longer run, create new markets for retail uses.”

Sorry, but that's not a vision. It’s a rationalization.

New Alliance hires legal eagle

See the full Valley Alliance press release at the Save the South Bay site, which reads in part:

The Alliance announced Monday morning that it has raised the funds necessary to retain the well-respected land use attorney Warren Replansky of Pine Plains to analyze the City's Draft Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, or LWRP. [...] Replansky's extensive track record includes assisting municipalities and citizens throughout the region to properly enact and enforce land use planning laws.

Polished

Apologies accepted

http://www.apologizetobp.com

Goodwill Buddha

Greenport (NY).

Business is slow

And well it should be (at this BP station near Rhinebeck).

Hessel hand