Key to the former IBM complex’s allegedly bright future is a deal with the state Department of Environment Conservation to break up the difficult-to-market whole into stand-alone entities, thus allowing more effective cleanup of the 14-acre plume of industrial pollution Big Blue — a.k.a. Big Goo — left behind. (IBM is required to pay for remediation.)
One positive note is that these days Ginsberg looks like a modern businessman in tailored suit and tie, not the Westchester huckster with the turtleneck, gold chain and horrible cologne who bought the 500-acre site for just over $3 million in 1998. And this time he really sounds serious about growing his business.
Again, results count more than rhetoric.
Here and there
With progress comes some pain, which is why “viewshed” protests from eastern shore-liners in Rhinecliff were a factor in holding up development of the AVR housing project at Kingston Point on the Hudson River for years. Not so in Saugerties, where the final touches are being put on what I like to call “Hotel Maurice” on Partition Street in Saugerties. Even now, the clear view people had of the falls and the cliffs on the other side of the Esopus across a weed-choked vacant lot are almost entirely obscured by three- story Diamond Mills buildings. Does anybody protest? Not when U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey had (and no longer has) a piece of the action. Well after all permits were in hand, Hinchey sold his share (the land) to his partners.
And speaking of Hinchey and Saugerties development, when will the Army Reserve officially dedicate its new $14-million complex on Old Kings Highway just south of the village? It’s been finished for months. I tried getting an answer from Saugerties supervisor-for-life Greg Helsmoortel, but haven’t heard back. Meanwhile, weeds are growing around the old Reserve Center in Kingston as the school district and the city jockey for future possession.
And finally, congratulations to Democrats Rob Parete and Nichole Tucker, married at the Lazy Swan in Saugerties Aug. 26. The pair met when Nichole, a schoolteacher, ran for county legislator from Saugerties two years ago. The groom has been a legislator for eight years. They will reside in Accord.
Be sure to report the whole story – according to Mr. Cahill’s blog, Ms. Turco-Levin was proposing a ban on possession of all handguns (NYS law “firearms”) long guns and shotguns, not to mention BB guns, in the city of Kingston. We all know how far that’ll go.
And yes, gun ownership must be safe and responsible before anything else. That said, it’s also a Constitutional right, affirmed by Supreme Court precedent (in striking down Washington DC’s gun ban) and not a cause for alarm for a law-abiding citizen. The urban population’s concern with gun crime needs to be solved a different way (for example by cultural change) than by banning guns for all. Since then only criminals will have guns, as the old saw has it.
It would behoove all, including Andi, if she were to make a simple statement outlining her current position on the issue. Failing that, it will remain a football in the Mayoral race which will hit spectators and players rather than sailing through the goalposts.