It’s an exciting but disconcertingly unsettled time here in the hinterlands between the vast and troubled rust belt to our north and west and the bustling problem-plagued metropolis to the south. All eyes are glued to the screen watching the soap opera that national politics, where one person’s narcissistic claptrap is another’s revealed wisdom. What is a poor soul to do?

After years of playing second fiddle to the suburban areas around them, some — but not all — of the Hudson Valley’s urban centers are to some degree thriving again, though not by doing what they used to do.