Kingston Citizens

By Rebecca Martin

The weekend brought out shoppers in droves, and I couldn’t help but ask myself where all the holiday money was coming from. With jobs scarce and credit cards maxed, what gives? Didn’t I just read something about a double dip recession? You’d think whatever we had left, we’d be socking away.

To make matters worse is that the bulk of the shoppers were at the mall. Corporate chains devour our local dollars and continue to obliterate our communities unique main street (and yes, even main street carries the majority of its items made in China.  I will get into that at some other time). Even the most aware are in search of a bargain during the holiday season. For that, I say bah humbug. What’s it going to take to turn this ship around?

Raising a young child and struggling with our odd urge to consume as a society, I developed a recourse to my sons wanting with a catch phrase that seemed to say it all.   “Don’t be greedy. Be grateful”.   Saying this over and over again for the past several years is paying off.  At five years old it’s all I have to say to him when he wants something that he really doesn’t need. He’s even saying it back to me when the same applies in reverse.

So, in the spirit of not being greedy but grateful, consider this:

1. 12.4 % of New York State Residents struggle with hunger.
Local Support:
The Queens Galley

2. Nearly 2.7 Million New Yorkers live in Poverty. That’s approximately 14.2% of the population.
Local Support:
Family of Woodstock

3. Nationwide, millions of dogs and cats are abandoned in rural and urban areas.
Local Support:
SPCA of Kingston

4. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older (about 1 in 4 adults) suffer from a mental disorder.  This translates to about 57.7 million people. In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the US and Canada.
Local Support:
Chiz’s Heart Street

5.  Of the almost 3.5 million violent crimes committed against family members, 49% of these were crimes against spouses.
Local Support:
Family Domestic Violence Services

6. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers. Adolescence who are rejected by their families are 8.4 times more likely to report having an attempted suicide attempt, and for every completed suicide attempt, it is estimated that 100-200 are made.
Local Support:
The Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center

7. Residents of many US Cities lack adequate access to parks and open space near their homes. Community gardens increase residents sense of community ownership and stewardship, provide a focus for neighborhood activities, expose inner city youth to nature, connect people from diverse cultures, reduce crime by cleaning up vacant lots and build community leaders.
Local Support:
The Kingston Land Trust

8. Buy a subscription to our local paper.

9. Support the O + Festival by making a donation.

Others:
Catskill Animal Sanctuary
Woodstock Animal Sanctuary
Office for the Aging

If you don’t find something here that is important to you, take a moment and ask yourself what is. You’re bound to find an organization doing great things locally that could use a hand. Google it – and better yet, share it with us in the comment section of this post.

This is an interesting development.

Sometime back, I learned of what  I believe to be a $1.3 million dollar amount  (in state/federal funding that has grown since) slated to be used to restore and upgrade the current Pike Plan located in Uptown, Kingston.  This sort of ‘canopy’ was popular in and around the 1970′s, when Main Streets were looking for ways to compete with the fairly new “mall mentality”.

Today, Kingston’s Pike Plan is seen by many as nothing more than an idea that didn’t stand the test of time and is now backfiring. Its canopy covers both sides of Wall Street’s sidewalks between John and North Front, and creates a dark and decayed feeling that many feel is hurting what business we have in the Uptown area.

Those in support of the development say that the Pike Plan is ‘historic’ and worth preserving.  The Uptown area where it is located is deemed historic, it is true. But there is nothing historic about the Pike Plan.  Furthermore, I have been told that the canopy is one of the last (if not the last) left in the Country.   That might seem like a good thing, except the reasons they were torn down to begin with was mainly due to their being a deterrent to foot traffic and to business in general.

I learned that the ever impressive KURA (the Kingston Uptown Resident Association) has serious reservations of this project moving forward.  The letter was written to the Mayor by Gerard T. Soldner, President of KURA.  His findings are significant.

I wish those who are so keen on this project might have had the same enthusiasm for saving what was truly historic – the old Trolley Barn on Broadway and W. Chester Street. Their lack of vision now provides residents with another drug store chain. The third within a one mile radius.

Are those at the helm  following the money, or are they doing what’s right by the uptown  residents, businesses and citizens of Kingston overall?

I’m not so certain. But what do I know?

**
Since this was posted, we made a few changes to it by adding a ‘visual’ of the letter written by KURA. We expect to also include the petition of businesses and building owners concerned with the current Pike Plan effort.

Some additional reading in no particular order. More to come:

- Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters – Ulster Publishing
- Pike Plot, The Hudson Valley Chronic
- KUBAs Pike Plan Meeting – Neighborhood Watch
- RUPCO: More than a Roof Overhead

By Rebecca Martin

Come on city officials. It’s one thing to have a lack of ideas on how to create jobs in the area, specificially in the city of Kingston. It’s a whole other ball of wax to be potentially chasing away the lucrative film industry from coming to set up shop here. Good grief.

Lets get real about our budget woes. It’s a tricky, inflated pandoras box not because of the growing costs of city services. It’s due to unrealistic contracts and pensions. So collecting a few thousand dollars from a film production company who stands to pour tens of thousands into our local economy (not to mention a good amount of free press) doesn’t make any sense what-so-ever.

In today’s Daily Freeman, the always sensible Ward 9 Alderman Hayes Clement is quoted as saying, “By all means, continue to charge, as the city has, for all direct costs associated with film shoots, such as police or other municipal workers. But beyond that, we should be looking at local film producation as an opportunity to market Kingston and develop a new local industry, not as an opportunity to generate fees for City Hall”.

You can count on me being at the front of the line to speak in support of welcoming film production to Kingston. I’m sure there will be dozens of others who will be happy to speak in favor as well.

That IBM chip on our shoulder has got to soften. Those days are over, and Kingson better get with the program to reinvent itself if it wishes to be successful and competitive. We sit in an opportune position right smack dab in the middle of New York City and Albany. It’s a bedroom community waiting to happen if I’ve ever seen one.

By Rebecca Martin

This morning, KingstonCitizens.org was mentioned in Nancy Donskoj’s Main Street Manager blog. It was nice that some of the other blog efforts were being shared with her base. Thanks to all who do so much to help with outreach and community building mentioned here or not.

The piece got me thinking about KC.org in general and  how it all began, transitions, where we are now and where I believe we are heading.

KingstonCitizens.org  was an extension of a concept that came out of the Ward 9 community group that formed many years ago.  Our group met face to face each month which helped us to get to know one another and the strength of our voices and ideas.  A google group (now a Yahoo! Group) for online and ongoing communications allowed our dialouge to continue until we met again. This was an immediate tool that helped foster transparency, as our ideas were shared with a growing group of neighbors in the company of our Alderman. An Alderman, remember, is meant to reflect the collective voices (and not just those who live to their left and right) of his/her constituents when they sit on the common council to vote on their behalf. The idea was to enable citizens to become better informed to aid in that process so to make the greatest impact. Besides witnessing the new excitement and sense of possibility in my new friends and community members,  it was also a very large experiment to see if government actually did what it professed to do. What I learned from a front row seat was that at times it did, though more often it did not. It was evidence that citizens needed to take on a reasonably consistent and a more responsible role in what was happening around them.  That is if there was ever going to be a time for what was completely outdated and out of whack to come back to a current and balanced place again.

I like getting to the bottom of things no matter how difficult or uncomfortable that may be.  It’s a personality trait that embodies Mt. Everest highs and Dante’s Inferno lows.  But I don’t mind.  There is no end to unraveling a lifetime of experiences to get back to an authentic place and in learning from the cues to be more trusting, accepting and simple.

But I digress. Back on point.

The online Ward 9 Community group was a useful tool, so with the help of Beth Bengston-Gillis, Mark Greene and Arthur Zaczkiewicz, KingstonCitizens.org was launched on July 4th, 2007.  Back then, it was an HTML site. Remember those?  It was created years before we had heard of Wordpress or Ning and whatever else has come along since. Mark Greene had designed the most beautiful logo and ‘portal’  that allowed citizens to connect to any of the  nine online Yahoo! groups representing each of our nine wards. In that way, we were able to provide a current and organized place for citizens to gather, discuss and take productive action in their immediate neighborhoods.  Their updated Alderman and ward-centric information was posted at each of the group pages as it still is today.

A year or so later with the discovery of Wordpress, we joined the ranks when veteran journalist and my partner in the effort at that time Arthur Zaczkiewicz decided to write a blog as an extension of KingstonCitizens.org and to help fill in some of the blanks that indeed needed filling.

Today, our blog remains a useful tool for all Kingston citizens, public officials and local papers alike. It has never been our aim to ‘break stories’ or to participate in taking a stance on any political platform. We intend to find ways to nurture those who came on board long ago while collecting newly energized citizen voices to share their views and ideas with us all to keep the forward momentum.    We wish to grow our effort as a citizen journalism site and we would love it if you would join us.   All you really need to bring to the table is your willingness to share in the same spirit as is KC.org.

I’ll be happy to get your on your way.

Contact me at rebbytunes at earthlink.net