Beacon Streets

What's happening in Beacon New York

[stoweboyd]

Letter to the Editor, Highlands Current, 18 January 2022

Beacon Streets 

In “The Slowdown Everyone Wants” (Jan. 21), I noted that Beacon’s Main Street Access Committee, which I chair, has pushed for a speed limit of 20 mph on Main Street and the two blocks on either side of Main. 

The worldwide “20’s Plenty for Us” campaign (20splenty.org) — endorsed by the United Nations — is making great strides. For example, Wales is on course to implement a 20 mph (30 km/h) baseline for residential roads, and Portland, Oregon, has moved to 20 mph in residential areas. In that case, getting drivers to follow the new speed limits hasn’t been easy. A study found that, on average, drivers reduced their speed only by 1.4 mph, and police found it hard to enforce the law. But the number of cars driving more than 30 mph went down by about a third. 

It may take years to make a dent in drivers’ behavior. And it may require traffic cameras at every intersection. 

The design of the streets, which were created for the efficient flow of cars, not pedestrians, may need an upgrade, as well. The sidewalk bump-outs on Main Street in Beacon are part of that needed redesign, but we need more traffic-calming such as raised crosswalks at intersections and extended signal timing to allow pedestrians to cross at busy intersections with all cars in all directions stopped. 

It’s important to remember the difference between 20 mph and 25 mph: Studies have found the average 30-year-old pedestrian struck by a driver traveling 20 miles per hour has about a 93 percent chance of survival; at 25 miles per hour, those odds plummet to 75 percent, and they only get worse from there. 

There is one last factor in street safety that can’t be counteracted by speed regulations or redesigns: The shift from sedans and compact cars to SUVs and trucks has been linked by the Governors Highway Safety Association to increased fatalities. In 2019, 8,800 pedestrians were killed in the U.S., a 45 percent increase from a decade earlier. Working to get those tank-sized behemoths off residential streets with regulations will take a long time. Lowering speed limits is just the first step in a multistep process to make the streets safer, but a necessary first step. 

Stowe Boyd, Beacon

[stoweboyd]

Can American Cars Be Made Safer for Pedestrians?

Can American Cars Be Made Safer for Pedestrians? | Jake Blumgart looks into the dangers inherent in huge SUVs and trucks:

Between 2009 and 2019, total driving miles increased by 10 percent while pedestrian deaths in the U.S. jumped by 50 percent. It’s since only grown worse, with more pedestrians dying in 2020 than 2019 despite a decline in vehicle miles driven. But even before the pandemic-related surge in reckless driving, American roads have been getting more dangerous for non-drivers in part because of the very vehicle type that struck Daniels down.

Numerous studies and investigations have shown that SUVs and other light trucks are far deadlier for those outside the vehicle than sedans. This isn’t a novel finding: Almost 20 years ago, researchers showed that SUVs were more than twice as likely to kill pedestrians as a normal sedan.

How American cars/SUVs/vans and trucks got heavier. https://t.co/Gl8nkbR9C0 pic.twitter.com/v9LYGCXnT7

— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze)

January 18, 2022

For decades, American vehicles have been growing heavier and taller, but the trend has accelerated over the last decade. In 2016, Fiat Chrysler announced they would abandon the sedan market, while in 2020 Ford decided to no longer sell them in the U.S. either. SUVs and trucks have outsold normal passenger vehicles every year since 2018. As Vice News recently showed, American cars are getting almost as big as World War II tanks.

American cars are getting almost as big as World War II tanks.

Unlike the European Union or Japan, the U.S. has no regulations that require automakers to consider the safety of anyone but the consumer. Tucked away in last year’s infrastructure law, however, is a provision that could require a rating system that includes the safety of those outside the vehicle. It also calls for the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to promulgate new, and unspecified, regulations to tweak hoods and bumpers to be safer for pedestrians.

This rare moment of reform at the federal level also gives local and state authorities an opportunity to reflect on what they can do to stem pedestrian crashes. New York City, let alone Ontario County, can’t regulate car companies. But there are changes that can be made to the streets of cities and towns that can stem the carnage.

Otherwise, it will be left to personal responsibility. As more Americans drive vehicles akin to zippy Sherman tanks, transportation experts say that in too many cases that will not be enough._

A rare bit of good news:

Unlike the European Union or Japan, the U.S. has no regulations that require automakers to consider the safety of anyone but the consumer. Tucked away in last year’s infrastructure law, however, is a provision that could require a rating system that includes the safety of those outside the vehicle. It also calls for the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to promulgate new, and unspecified, regulations to tweak hoods and bumpers to be safer for pedestrians.

And the daily realities? Drivers of these ‘tanks’ can’t see pedestrians in crosswalks:

As passenger vehicles have become taller and larger, it also becomes harder for drivers to see people in front of their vehicles. Children, those using wheelchairs, and even average size adults can be obscured by a towering hood.

Jed Weeks, a bicycle advocate in Baltimore, captured an adult man being hit by a slowly turning pickup truck that appeared to have been unable to see him as he used a crosswalk.

If the hood is too tall on your truck to see a 6 foot tall man in a crosswalk, it shouldn’t be allowed on the road. A week ago this intersection would have allowed the truck to turn at 4x this speed, and this man would be dead instead of walking away unharmed. pic.twitter.com/W5OqShqJOy

— Jed Weeks (@jedweeks) December 3, 2021

Weeks says the driver wasn’t doing anything wrong, but the design of his vehicle made it hard to see what was directly in front of the truck. In this case, the driver was hauling construction equipment and a giant truck was useful for his work. But increasingly, this kind of vehicle is crowding out other, safer vehicles and many people who aren’t in construction or agriculture are using them.

“A lot of these medium to heavy duty pickup trucks are being purchased by people that are not fully using their capabilities and are just driving alone to work,” says Weeks. “That design is obviously super dangerous if those vehicles are increasingly used in urban and suburban areas as commuter vehicles instead of being used as work trucks.”

We need to legislate these monster vehicles out of existance.

[beaconstreets]

Parking Lot Signs Being Installed

I’m glad to say that new parking lot signs are being rolled out across Beacon.

The Main Street Access Committee developed a uniform model for these signs, which includes establishing a standard design for parking lot signs, naming the various parking lots, and affixing information panels as well. A special shout out to Theresa Kraft and Paulette Myers-Rich for their design efforts.

I bet these new signs will be appearing at all parking lots all over town.

---

Theresa also tells me that that the resurfacing and restriping of Main Street has been postponed to the spring, alas. We’ve been waiting for better crosswalks for a long, long time, and although we have new bumpouts along Main, the cross walks haven’t been painted, which is dangerous.

[beaconstreets]

Yes In My Backyard: My first article for Chronogram’s The River

I am now working with Chronogram’s The River as an investigative reporter.

In Yes In My Backyard, I explore the affordable housing crisis in New York and elsewhere, and how accessory dwelling units could help:

The lack of affordable housing is a huge threat to American society and economy. Conservative estimates suggest the country needs nearly seven million single-family housing units due to a 20-year period of underbuilding, and a gap economists estimate costs the economy at least 2 percent of the US GDP each year. Those who are most likely to bear the consequences are low- and moderate-income folks, who wind up in poorer neighborhoods with fewer social services, lower quality education, and higher crime, and subject to higher pollution, longer commutes, and other health risks.

As the flooding of basement apartments in New York City this summer demonstrated, affordable housing is also a climate equity issue. Many basement apartments in the city are illegal—they don’t meet the requirements for light, air, sanitation, and exits—and lack features that would make them safer as a result.

Basement apartments are one form of accessory dwelling unit (ADUs), which also include “granny flats,” in-law apartments, converted garages, casitas, and other forms of infill housing added to single-family properties. ADUs can be an affordable rental option, since they are generally small and often repurpose existing space. Their construction can be done at lower cost than other housing options, since the owner already has title to the land. That makes it quicker to develop ADUs compared to other forms of affordable housing, like multifamily homes underwritten by government or philanthropic funding, or inclusive zoning, where a developer agrees to rent a certain percentage of units in a new development at affordable rates. Owners may have a financial motivation to create an ADU for rental income, or as housing for a family member, once zoning barriers are removed.

The Hudson Valley region forms a microcosm within the national housing crisis: all the pressures affecting affordable housing elsewhere are present here. We’ve seen the influx of new residents moving from urban centers because of the pandemic, for example, and the rising prices that started even before COVID-19 have only accelerated.

The same barriers to countering the housing crisis exist here, as well. In other parts of the country, state legislatures, such as Oregon, have passed new laws that directly attack residential zoning, which more than any other factor has slowed the building of new housing where people want to live and work. Bills have been introduced in the New York State Senate and Assembly that propose a top-down overhaul of zoning regulations, in essence standardizing zoning ordinances across the state that relate to ADUs and removing many of the prerogatives of municipal zoning boards that historically have blocked higher density developments in general, and ADUs specifically.

But so far, New York has refused to act.

Anyone interested in housing policy, zoning issues, and the history of real estate inequity will find this of interest.

One pull quote:

The residential caste system is maintained today by zoning regulations, rather than the explicit conspiracy of redlining between banks, real estate businesses, and governments. But the effect is the same.

[beaconstreets]

Bar Owners To The Rescue

It's a failure of government when businesses have to set and administer public policy.

I have griped for years about the lack of public toilets in the U.S. As Emily Stewart recently pointed out, in Corporations aren’t going to save America, companies have stepped in to wallpaper over this public policy failure:

Starbucks is sort of America’s bathroom. In cities like New York, where public restrooms are hard to come by, it’s the de facto spot to stop and pee. Mike Bloomberg, who tried to set up a network of public toilets when he was mayor, once reportedly shrugged that perhaps “there’s enough Starbucks” to address the city’s bathroom needs anyway.

But Starbucks is an imperfect public toilet because providing a public toilet is not the point of Starbucks. It has tried in the past to limit its facilities to employees, or, at the very least, to require people using those facilities to buy something first. That proved to be a problematic system after employees at a Philadelphia Starbucks in 2018 called the police on two Black men who asked to use the bathroom while waiting for a business associate. And so, the coffee giant has begrudgingly accepted its fate as many passersbys’ emergency loo.

The solution is far from ideal. But in many places in the US, there aren’t many immediate alternatives. The government has failed to meet a very basic biological need, and so a private company fills part of the gap.

Or, the government has failed to make effective public policy, and Starbucks grudgingly steps in. (Note: I live in Beacon NY, which has no Starbucks, just numerous small, independent restaurants with ‘no public bathrooms’ on their entrance windows.)

But we seem resigned to the Starbucks solution in this case, and maybe in the case of a resurgence of COVID, too. Health networks and hospitals are requiring health care workers to get vaccinated (or be subject to frequent testing). Many teachers’ unions are in favor of a similar policy in schools.

President Biden has begun to require that federal employees in many agencies get vaccinated or frequently tested, but strangely, not the military, who are commonly vaccinated for a wide variety of diseases when stationed overseas. He seems averse to mandating vaccination, although the federal and state governments clearly have the power to do so, as ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1905 (Jacobson versus Massachusetts) and 1924 (Zucht v. King):

Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote [in 1905] about the police power of states to regulate for the protection of public health: “The good and welfare of the Commonwealth, of which the legislature is primarily the judge, is the basis on which the police power rests in Massachusetts,” Harlan said “upon the principle of self-defense, of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”

[…]

When a separate question of vaccinations—state laws requiring children to be vaccinated before attending public school—came up in 1922 in Zucht v. King, Justice Louis Brandeis and a unanimous court held that Jacobson “settled that it is within the police power of a state to provide for compulsory vaccination” and the case and others “also settled that a state may, consistently with the federal Constitution, delegate to a municipality authority to determine under what conditions health regulations shall become operative.”

But states have not stepped up to mandate vaccinations, nor to require those adults who refuse vaccination to be quarantined.

The San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance — a group representing 500 bars in San Francisco — are moving toward a Starbucks solution, taking the public good into their own hands. Members of the alliance will soon require customers to prove they are vaccinated or test negative for COVID for entry. As reported by Taylor Bisacky,

So, this is only the latest example of businesses making policy decisions — or instituting public good — that you might reasonably expect governments to undertake. In our situation in the U.S. today, governments are either split by partisan animosity so great that the public good is pushed aside for political purposes, or are simply unwilling to act on the authority that the Supreme Court has ruled on, time and again.

In fact, elected officials seem blind to their own authority, claiming that individuals have the right to refuse to be vaccinated. The Supreme Court does not agree. And neither does the SF Bar Owners Alliance.

Let’s hope that more bars, restaurants, movie theaters, pharmacies, stores, beauty salons, health clubs, and, yes, Starbucks, demand that would-be patrons vaxx up or stay home. Companies can also require employees to get vaccinated to enter the office.

If we wait for the States to take action, it could be too late to save the anti-vaxxers and vax-hesitant from themselves, and too late for the unvaccinated school-age kids to be afforded the protections that we should be providing them.

reposted from Work Futures.

[beaconstreets]

Hudson Valley, NY

Time rates our region as among the 100 best worldwide.

Time magazine has compiled a list of the World’s Greatest Places 2021:

To compile this list, TIME solicited nominations of places—including countries, regions, cities and towns—from our international network of correspondents and contributors, with an eye toward those offering new and exciting experiences.

Specifically, they say this:

The Hudson Valley, known for its country charm and succulent agriculture, is fast becoming one of the most popular locales in New York—thanks in part to an influx of city dwellers relocating during the pandemic, as well as the opening of Legoland in Goshen. Travelers will also have their choice of new hotels: Hutton Brickyards in Kingston, with luxury cabins close to the Hudson River, and The Maker, a hotel, restaurant, lounge and café in Hudson that celebrates all things artisanal. Farther south, the revitalized Blue Hill at Stone Barns has a new chefs-in-residence program, bringing in more talents to shake up its famed kitchen.

| Diandra Barnwell

[beaconstreets]

Beacon Needs More Parks

It's a long way from Main Street to Memorial Park.

I confess I’ve had a dream for some time that we could have more green space along Main Street and the downtown of Beacon. That’s one of the reasons I joined the Main Street Access Committee (also known as the Main Street initiative) over a year ago.

It’s a well-known fact in urban planning that pedestrians do not find areas with front-facing parking lots attractive or welcoming. We should aspire to transition as many of these as possible to green spaces or buildings.

I am happy to hear that the redevelopment proposed for the corner of Cross Street and Main Street — which has the mural of Mother Hudson River beaming down on it — would retain the green space there, at least in part.

However, there are a number of parking lots directly on Main Street that could be — should be? — repurposed to provide green space. For the moment, I shelve all discussion of park amenities — plants, benches, tables, fountains, public toilets — which are critical, but not in scope today. Likewise, I make no real attempt to attack the cost considerations. Let’s lay out the dream first, and then set up the scaffolding to make it real, secondly.

I also avoid the necessary discussion about removing parking in order to gain the benefits of parks. Tabled for this post.

Beacon County Building (The DMV)

There is a verge between the enormous parking lot on the corner of South Elm and Main Street that serves as a tiny green space. But imagine if the Main St verge was enlarged, and the (really badly designed) entrance to the parking lot was closed off. We could have a really large green space at the corner of Elm.

There have been many treatments of this concept in the past ten years, but nothing concrete has emerged.

Note that the land is owned by Dutchess County, at present, and the County might be strongly in favor of such a development, so long as parking spaces could be made up by redesigning the remainder of the lot, which should be possible: it’s not well-designed, to say the least.

Also note: this is the site of the Beacon Farm Market on Sundays, so the park would be a great adjunct to that.

Key Food Parking Lot

I believe that the tiny green space in front of Key Food has been largely a failure. Perhaps because it isn’t very green, just a stand of trees in bark mulch. Perhaps it could be redesigned to incorporate some of the sidewalk and more of the parking lot and be made actually green, with grass, plants, etc.

Cafe Amarcord Parking Lot

Another parking lot directly facing Main Street runs from Cafe Amarcord (276 Main Street) to the Edward Jones offices (284 Main Street). Imagine if the parking area immediately adjacent to Main was opened up as a park area. Amarcord could retain (and perhaps expand) its dining area as part of a deal with the City.

I have included the area up to Church Street to point out that the lot there extends along that stand of trees all the way to Church, which is largely unused today.

Beacon Central Park

There is a potential hidden gem in plain sight in downtown Beacon. The area between North Cedar, Church Street, and North Chestnut, across from the Rite-Aid parking lot. This area is slightly less than half the block, and the siting is complex.

Along North Cedar, the land is owned by Cervone Auto Repair. The property has been on the market several times in recent years; current status unknown. Along North Chestnut, the corner property is an undeveloped lot. Sandwiched in between there are a long narrow driveway and parking area for a residential building on Main Street. (A new L-shaped driveway could be configured to North Cedar, to retain access.)

This mix of properties could be pulled together into a medium-sized park, on a scale that is hard to imagine anywhere else in the area.

It would take considerable funding to pull this park into being, even considering eminent domain, but if either one of the two corner lots were to be turned into a new apartment building, the option for a park here could be lost forever.

:::

I will return to green spaces in subsequent posts, especially on the East End of Beacon.

:::

Elsewhere

Kaya Laterman, in What Happens When Your Waiter Can’t Afford Rent, deep dives into the housing crisis in Ulster county arising from high demand due to the influx of people moving to the area and little to no new affordable housing being created:

Throughout Ulster County, community meetings are filled with locals calling for a fix. After months of debate, the Town of Woodstock this week approved a nine-month moratorium on the creation of new lodging, including short-term rentals, which pits a neighbor trying to earn extra money against others being priced out of the community.

“Housing is the No. 1 issue,” said Mr. Ryan, adding that he and other officials are trying to fast-track affordable housing programs. The Kingston City Land Bank has been fixing up long-vacant housing, there are plans to transform an empty county jail into units for seniors and others, and a tiny-home initiative is also underway. Zoning codes are being reviewed in many towns and villages, and Mr. Ryan said there was a push for quick authorization to build accessory dwelling units, like small cottages or basement apartments.

All of these issues are taking place in Beacon and other communities in the area. Strangely, Laterman does not mention the bill recently advanced in the NY legislature (now in the Judiciary Committee), that would legalize Accessory Dwelling Units across the state. I wrote about this in How To Keep Beacon Real Estate Affordable, the other day.

[beaconstreets]

How To Keep Beacon Real Estate Affordable

Perhaps 'Granny Flats' are the answer.

A Granny Flat - source: San Diego Times

In Beacon, NY: No Ceilings, Brian PJ Cronin and David MacIntyre manage to condense the 100-year history and the past 10 years of explosive real estate growth of Beacon into a single article in Upstate House.

I'll leave aside the obligatory Revolutionary War mentions about Mount Beacon -- 'At 1,611 feet, it’s not the tallest mountain in the state by a longshot, but as the site where George Washington’s troops would set signal fires during the Revolutionary War, it was the most culturally significant mountain for Colonial-era New Yorkers' -- and also the authors' nod to the art and music scenes in Beacon, and instead let's jump right to real estate.

“Beacon’s a really cool city and it just keeps getting cooler,” says Charlotte Guernsey, a Beacon resident who opened Gate House Realty in 2001.

The unparalleled growth has not been without its consequences. With the attention has come gentrification, with many long-time residents, senior citizens, and marginalized groups being priced out of town. New housing is being built at a furious clip, but much of it has ended up driving real estate prices up while also angering locals who feel that the taller buildings and questionable architectural decisions detract from the small-town feel that made the city so livable in the first place.

[...]

Beacon’s real estate market had been booming for 10 years, and the pandemic has shifted it into overdrive. Guernsey remembers the first time, in 2005, when the city’s inventory of detached, single-family homes, dropped from its usual level of around a 100 or so to around 50. “We were beside ourselves,” she recalls. As of press time it was 23, and every agent in her office is working with between six and 12 buyers. “ Lots of buyers and not much to sell,” Guernsey says. “That’s it in a nutshell.”

[...]

As of press time, a three-bedroom, two-bath, 2,000-square-foot condo built in 1973 was listed at $259,000. Detached houses were starting around $320,000. Most of the highest-priced listings in town are actually new condos being built in some of those controversial new developments. If you want more than one bedroom, that’s probably going to cost you at least $750,000, topping out at $1.3 million for a two-bedroom, two-bath, 2,641-square-foot.

The pandemic bump in Beacon house prices seems to be around $100,000, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal, rising 21.3% since June 2020.

And, in Dutchess, the average sales price of a single-family detached home increased by nearly $100,000 in the last year, according to Mid-Hudson Multiple Listing Service, which covers most, but not all, of the county's listings.

A lot of the folks in my neighborhood who have lived here longer than the past ten years seem to be cashing in at this local peak. If you bought a place for $140,000 in 2009 and can sell it for over $400,000 today, it certainly looks like a good idea, especially if your dream is to retire in South Carolina or Maine. But the end result is quickening gentrification, making it harder and harder for people working in the local economy to afford Beacon.

Back in January, Jeff Simms wrote Reporter’s Notebook: Does Beacon Have Enough Affordable Housing?, and summarized discussions of the past few years at the Beacon City Council about affordable housing in Beacon:

Nearly two years ago, I wrote about the ongoing City Council discussion regarding affordable housing in Beacon. At the time, the first apartments built as part of the city’s workforce housing program were becoming available, but at prices (beginning at around $1,500 per month) some found startling.

Later that year, the council talked about utilizing the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, a state law that allows counties to create boards to enforce rent stabilization. However, some of the steps required, including a citywide housing survey, were pushed to a back burner when the COVID-19 shutdown hit several months later.

In the two years since, the city has heard consistently from residents that what’s been done isn’t enough. The discussion will be revisited again soon, and I expect there will be a significant push to get something done, ongoing pandemic or not.

Council Member Dan Aymar-Blair said during a meeting this month that “we made a lot of progress bringing new development into balance last year, but we haven’t fulfilled our obligation to the public to truly get development under control until we get the prices under control.”

He went on to cite several segments of the city’s population he believes are being priced out: senior citizens who can’t afford to downsize, college students who can’t move home with their degrees and working class, mostly non-white, residents who simply can’t make ends meet.

The numbers back him up.

source: rentcafe.com

Rent has risen only 6% in Beacon on average, but 92% of all rentals are above $1000 per month, and 45% are above $1500 per month.

In the final analysis, Beacon is not an affordable place to rent for households making less than $6000 per month, or $72,000 per year (using the rule of thumb that housing should be no more than 25% of your income). And buying a home is now unaffordable for anyone who is not ready to make an all-cash offer on a $400,000 home, which rules out all but the wealthy.

One approach to solving some aspects of this affordability issue is that provided by Accessory Dwelling Units, or ‘granny flats’. At present — based on interactions with the Beacon Building Department — there seems to be a hiatus on granting building applications for ADUs, although the City code includes a definition of ADUs, that seems to allow them.

However, two New York legislators — Assembly Member Harvey Epstein of Manhattan and state Sen. Pete Harckham of Westchester— have introduced legislation to make ADUs legal statewide, and to limit local municipalities’ restrictions on ADUs, or outlawing them altogether. As Eric Kober reports, this legislation would

legalize accessory dwelling units statewide. These are second units on lots currently occupied by single-family homes -- for example, in a basement or a converted garage. These units can provide housing for relatives, such as a homeowner’s aging parents or their adult children. They can also provide housing for household employees, like home care aides. However, their greatest potential is as investment units, providing income to the homeowner and relatively affordable rental.

The law would overrule local zoning restrictions that often are designed to exclude ADUs and would lay out a standard statewide process to develop and use ADUs.

This legislation is supported by ‘a coalition of housing advocacy groups’, (unnamed) and provides a way to make cities like Beacon more affordable for young people, people on a fixed income, and those who can’t keep up with the steep rise of suburban New York City housing prices.

We’ll have to see what the legislature does, but such a law could open up a lot of lower-cost rentals in Beacon, and across the state.

[beaconstreets]

A Few Updates, Near and Far

Main Street, Fishkill, La Guardia

The ‘bump-out’ project on Main Street is proceeding quickly. The work at the corner of Main street and Veteran’s Place is going quickly, for example:

A few folks have asked me about the bump-outs. Here are some common questions:

Why have bump-outs in the first place? Bump-outs extend the sidewalks so that crosswalks can be shorter, which makes crossing safer for pedestrians. Also, bump-outs make drivers perceive the street as narrower — although the travel lanes remain the same size as before — and this leads them to drive slower. Note that the bump-outs will mean all the redone crosswalks will be ADA-compliant, too.

What about snowplows? Won’t it be more difficult to plow in the winter? Parking lanes are already difficult to plow since cars can be parked there, and the plows have to work around them. The City of Stamford CT has stated (Stamford Neighborhood Traffic Calming Final Report) that snow removal around traffic-calming solutions like bump-outs is not a major issue:

Traffic calming treatments have been utilized by many municipalities that experience considerable snowfall during winter months. While there have been some reports of minor damage to curbing or additional time required for removal, the devices have not prevented public works staff from removing snow and preventing unsafe conditions

:::

Former IBM Facilities Repurposed

C.J. Hughes researched former IBM facilities across New York, and wrote a great deal about repurposed properties in our area:

In East Fishkill, the Dutchess County town where IBM once had more than 600 acres along Interstate 84, the good bones seem particularly attractive to food-related businesses. Since National Resources bought a 300-acre plot in 2017 and renamed it iPark 84, space has been leased to companies that make cookies, cocktail syrups and crepes.

Joining them this fall in a 3,000-square-foot berth will be Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, a milk provider based nearby. (IBM is also an iPark tenant, and Global Foundries, the semiconductor manufacturer that purchased most of IBM’s chipmaking assets in 2014, owns a 160-acre piece.)

To create a buzzy scene, National Resources is constructing a barnlike wing off one of its manufacturing buildings so all the food items produced there can be offered to the public in a grocery setting, Ms. Ward said.

The complex, which cost $300 million to purchase and redevelop, is 90 percent leased, she said. Housing and hotels are also being considered for the site, she added.

Sloop Brewing moved into a former IBM campus in Fishkill, N.Y., that was renamed iPark 84. The former IBM campuses are lined with warehouses, well served by utilities and near major highways. 

Credit...Will Ellis for The New York Times

Adam Watson, left, and Justin Taylor, the co-founders of Sloop Brewing, in the brewery’s new home. The brewery moved to iPark in part for its thick floors, tall ceilings and easy wastewater disposal. 

Credit...Will Ellis for The New York Times

“A revitalization is happening here, and it’s necessary,” said Adam Watson, a co-founder of Sloop Brewing, which moved to iPark in part for its thick floors, tall ceilings and easy wastewater disposal. There’s also a bar, whose transparent surface is embedded with circuit boards discovered in a renovation.

I need to get over to Sloop, soon.

:::

Getting to La Guardia

It’s going to get easier to get to La Guardia… in a few years. Via the NY Times:

By 2025, travelers who use La Guardia Airport may no longer have to fight New York City's notorious traffic to get there.

A plan to build a $2.1 billion AirTrain to La Guardia cleared its biggest remaining hurdle with approval from the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday.

Preliminary work to construct the elevated rail link could begin before the end of summer, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

The decision is a notable victory for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has championed the project as an integral piece of his plan to transform La Guardia from an object of constant derision to a “world-class” travel hub. The airport is in the midst of a complete overhaul, including the replacement of the main terminals and gates.

The NY Times article did not include a map. Here’s one:

New LGA Airtrain

Local activists, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents part of Queens and Brooklyn, object to the plan:

The approval flies in the face of criticism from neighborhood activists and elected officials. In a May 26 letter, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez asked the F.A.A. to refrain from approving the project in light of information unearthed by Riverkeeper. She argued that the documents showed that not all alternatives, including a subway link or ferry boats, had been thoroughly investigated.

“This project would be built in the heart of one of the most heavily impacted communities by COVID-19, with many community members opposing the development,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “It is critical that this project be held to the highest ethical and efficacy standards — and it is clear that has not been the case to date.”

In a response to Riverkeeper on Tuesday, Steve Dickson, administrator of the F.A.A., said alternatives that could have had more benefits were ruled out because the main purpose of the project was to improve access to the airport. “It is not a regional transit project,” he wrote.

Neither Riverkeeper nor Ms. Ocasio-Cortez responded to requests for comment. Senator Jessica Ramos, a Democrat who represents neighborhoods near La Guardia, called the decision a “slap in the face’’ to residents who will be affected by the project.

I agree with Dickson. Better access to LGA is not a project that should be viewed as a local Queens issue: it has major impact for millions who live in the Metro NYC area as well as visitors.

Personally, I am looking forward to avoiding the Q70 bus from the MetroNorth 125th street station. Of course, we’ll have to go to Grand Central to catch the 7 line to Willetts Point, but that’s still much easier than what we have to do now to get to LGA.

[beaconstreets]

Main Street Needs Something

Maybe a Main Street Association to take on increased cleaning, planting, and garbage removal?

Walking down Main Street in Beacon leads to some unwelcome sights.

Garbage overflowing the trash cans:

Main Street is beginning to look like an abandoned lot, with all the weeds and grass growing in the tree beds and cracks in the brickwork:

In front of the old Citizen Bank, the landlord is letting the planted area in front go wild:

And we are also suffering from excess stickers and posters on poles, so people can’t read the signs:

Maybe Beacon needs a Main Street Association — under a charter with the City and supported by fees from Main Street landlords — that would manage the street upkeep, and institute a more regular and more comprehensive approach. How much worse can it get? (Note: I did not include photos of dog waste, but I could have.)

In an upcoming post, I will summarize what would be involved in a Main Street Association — a Business Improvement District in New York regulations — and why it might lead to a better Main Street for Beacon.

[beaconstreets]

Second-Saturday Park

A once-a-month repurposing of Main Street as a pedestrian-only park.

source: New York Times

In The Simplest Tool for Improving Cities Is Also Free, Sara Hendren makes the case for rethinking and reusing social amenities, starting with the story of Riverbend Park in Cambridge Massachusetts:

For decades, a stretch of Memorial Drive here that runs along the Charles River has been closed to automobiles on Sundays for the warmer half of the year. In the absence of cars on a four-lane thoroughfare beside the water, all kinds of other street uses blossom: skateboards, bicycles, hoverboards, strollers, wheelchairs and walkers, people on feet and on wheels now moving slowly enough to witness the late spring goslings, the ever-present sea gulls or the rarer magic and grace of a heron feeding along the water’s edge. A towering line of stately, centenarian sycamores forms an unbroken canopy over several blocks.

This section of Memorial Drive is formally called “Riverbend Park” during its weekend closures, but it’s not a park in any physical, structural sense. It’s an open public space transformed into a park without any construction. State park employees arrive in trucks in the morning and again in the evening at junctures in the road, placing gates, cones, and signs that cut off traffic. By dusk, the gates disappear, and traffic returns. That’s it — a park that is “found” from what’s already there.

It happens in cities everywhere: design, or redesign, created by time. A weekend clock turns an open street into something else entirely — a time structure organized outside commuter efficiency or traffic flows. Urban planners sometimes call it “temporal zoning.”

In 2020 and 2021, in response to the need for outdoor recreation during the pandemic, the city of Cambridge added Saturday hours for Riverbend Park, doubling its recreational time. Two luxurious weekend days of an open street from April to November — a provisional state of the built environment, like hundreds of other pandemic-led pilot projects happening right now all over the world. Each of these urban innovations carries with it a question: Can this last? Should it?

As cities across the world open up, urban planners and architects — and the rest of us — are looking around, asking whether our streets and buildings will be, or should be, the same again. But whatever we decide, there’s one transformational tool for building the cities that’s right in front of us, calling for more sustained attention: the design of time. We can creatively reorganize our collective hours and days in ways that help more people enjoy our cities and institutions. Time might be our most valuable resource for building the environments we want.

Here, in Beacon, we should employ that idea of 'temporal zoning' in the most obvious place: Main Street. I propose that we create Second-Saturday Park on Main Street each on the second Saturday of every month from April to November, closing the street to cars and trucks (except for a 10 mph bus service).

The basic idea would be this:

Close Main Street to vehicular traffic at the west end at South Ave, directing incoming traffic from 9D off Main, with signs directing visitors to the parking lot at the Dutchess County Center (DMV), and the parking lots on Henry.

Close Main Street at the east end of town by directing incoming traffic from Rte 52 away from Main St at the intersection of Blackburn and Herbert streets and on East Main Street at Fountain Square.

Major cross streets would remain in use, such as Rte 52 (Fishkill Ave/Teller), but vehicles would not be able to turn onto Main St in either direction.

Other streets would be blocked where they enter Main Street by police barriers.

Yes, the surrounding neighborhoods would experience higher levels of traffic and parking, but that could be offset by the benefits of experiencing a Main Street with no cars or trucks, an open space for people to talk and congregate, an opportunity to set up food stalls, hold an art fair, experience live music, ride bikes, and enjoy all the amenities that Beacon offers.

There are a million details -- porta-potties, businesses informing their suppliers to skip deliveries on that day, deciding who gets to do what in the Second-Saturday Park, volunteers to help visitors -- but these are on a scale that's similar to what the City has done in the past for parades, and the antique auto show.

In the past, I would have said that this is the sort of activity that Beacon Arts should take on since that group started the idea of Second Saturday. But Beacon Arts has been very quiet in the last year. A visit to the website to check on the events calendar leads to this:

Following the lead of Riverbend Park in Cambridge, perhaps the starting point would be forming a working group of people that would like to see Second-Saturday Park happen, and start with that. Or perhaps the Mayor and City Council could form a committee to see this comes together?

It seems fitting to begin to consider a new temporal zoning of Main Street as a once-a-month park after a year where Main Street was sadly underused. And, of course, the parklettes and alternative use of sidewalks for restaurants and stores have shown us that the Main Street of tomorrow doesn't have to be the same as in the beforetime.

We can move ahead and make Beacon a better place to live and work, with more to offer than before.

[beaconstreets]

Opening and Closing in Beacon

And the surrounding area.

Looks like the 20,000-pound wood-fired oven at the future Mud Club at 305 Main Street (next door to Royal Crepes) has been installed, and they are laying down a new floor. The Mud Club in Woodstock (same owner) does wood-fired bagels and sourdough pizza, so I expect we’ll be seeing the same in Beacon soon.

A few months ago there was a for sale sign in the window, but they’ve reconsidered.

:::

I was passing by the old Joes Irish Pub at 455 Main in Beacon, now closed, and saw a man who I think is Joseph Condon, the owner of the building and the former dive bar. We chatted and he said that the Himalayan dumpling shop, Momos, now located in the Hudson Valley Food Court, will be moving in.

:::

101.5 WPDH reports on almost 40 Hudson Valley restaurants and brewpubs that are closed or closing. (They missed Joe’s closing.) Here's a few that are most local to Beacon.

Il Barilotto in Fishkill was put up for sale in late June 2020, and is now closed.

Mamma Musetti's Italian Cafe closed its location on Main Street in Wappingers on February 26.

The Vinyl Room in the Village of Wappinger Falls closed February 28

Stephano's Ristorante in Wappingers Falls closed at the end of December 2020.

Stewart's Shops on Route 9D in Wappingers Falls closed on Noember 8, 2020.

Cousins Ale House in Wappingers Falls in late July 2020.

Cena 2000 and Waterfront Lounge and Grill on the Newburgh waterfroun are closed.

Union Square in Newburgh closed in June 2020.

Dunkin' in Beacon closed November 1 2020.

Michael's in Wappinger's Falls closed in August 2020.

[beaconstreets]

Six Beacon buildings join the Historic Overlap District

The Salvation Army doesn't want the headaches, though.

In Beacon Adds Six Properties to Historic District, Jeff Simms of the Highlands Current provides the addresses of the six buildings mentioned in the title, and in some cases their historic uses, but doesn't identify what businesses the buildings house today. That’s odd since that’s how most people think about Main Street properties.

Share Beacon Streets

Here are the buildings in question:

269 Main -- now Alp's Sweet Shop on the corner of South Walnut, and long ago, the Beacon News.

232 Main -- now Homespun Foods.

314 Main -- now The Last Outpost Store on the corner of North Chestnut.

Gilda Dress Shop is now The Last Outpost (source: Highlands Current)

315 Main -- now Glazed Over Donuts on the corner of South Cedar.

403 Main -- now Malouf Chiropractor on the corner of Teller.

158 North Ave (9D) -- now Giannetta Salon and Spa.

The Salvation Army building at 372 Main has been identified as a possible addition to the historic overlay district, but the owner -- again, The Salvation Army -- is objecting, which will require a supermajority of the City Council to overrule. Simms points out this would complicate proposed construction next door at 364 Main, now the Citizen Bank building:

If it is added to the district, the decision on the special-use permit required to build a fourth story next door at 364 Main St. would shift to the City Council, rather than the Planning Board.

Maybe that’s a good reason for a supermajority in favor of the motion.

[beaconstreets]

Beacon Streets: Back To The Beginning

And all about the 'bump-outs' on Main.

[Updated 30 July 2021]

I launched Beacon Streets as a blog in early 2012, after moving to the area in late 2010. The Beacon Streets blog was quite active until 2015 when major disruption in my work led me to concentrate on other things. I am now restarting Beacon Streets, and writing quite actively in recent months.

One added feature to the blog is that readers can sign up to receive new posts in their email, as a newsletter: Sign up.

To recap the past years, here’s a summary:

Over the years, I was involved in the Fishkill Creek Recreation and Heritage Trail committee, leading to the master plan for that activity, and (working with Mark Wildonger of the Trail committee), I was involved in getting a state grant to have bike sharrows painted along Main Street under the auspices of the Beacon Arts association.

In 2020, I returned to working on Beacon’s infrastructure. In particular, I was invited to serve on the Beacon Main Street Access ad hoc committee in 2020, an advisory committee to the City Council and Mayor Lee Kyriakou. I became co-chair (with Sara Pasti), however, Sara moved from Beacon in late 2020 (alas!), and in late 2020 I assumed the role of chair.

We have a great group of contributors, and we’ve made a series of recommendations to the city, some of which have been shared in City Council workshops.

In upcoming posts, I will recap some of the recommendations that have been made, and the status of the City’s adoption of some of those proposals.

I want to note that this blog is made up of my personal thoughts and observations, and the posts here do not represent the official policy of Beacon NY. Yes, I am chair and a member of this advisory committee, but we are just private citizens offering advice to the Council and the Mayor as an ad hoc group.

Main Street Bump-Outs

The long-awaited sidewalk extensions on Main Street are under construction. These are called ‘bump-outs’ since they involve building larger sidewalks on both sides of the street that can reach as far as the outer edge of parking spots.

Here’s construction at the intersection of Main Street and Cross Street (in front of Hudson Beach Glass):

It’s well known that bump-outs have a traffic calming effect, because drivers perceive the traffic lanes as being smaller, although they are not.

The reduced length of pedestrian crosswalks also contributes to increased safety.

There are bump-outs being built along Main Street at South Street, Cross Street, Willow, Digger Phelps, Elm, Walnut, Brett, Cedar, Chestnut, Eliza, and Veterans Place.

Here’s an engineering plan for the intersection at Cedar and Main. Note that crosswalks will be repainted to align with the new bump-outs.

I remember the first conversation I had with Randy Casale about these bump-outs in 2014. See An Open Letter To The Beacon City Council About Main Street Traffic Calming, which included this illustration.

In that open letter, I also called for a lowered maximum speed on Main Street, now set to 30 mph. That speed reduction hasn’t moved forward, at least not yet.

About that topic, more soon.

[beaconstreets]

Social Distancing Requirements

And can we stop riding bikes on the sidewalks during a pandemic, please?

In Rules for Using the Sidewalk During the Coronavirus, Eleanor Barkhorn on the new rules of social distancing:

And when walking in a group (only people in your household, please!), be ready to shift to single file quickly. It’s lovely that this moment of schools and offices being closed allows us to spend more time with the people we live with — including going on walks together. But our habits for walking in groups need to change. It’s impossible to stay six feet away from a group walking side by side on a sidewalk or even a broader walking path. The only way to stay safe is for the group to walk in single file when someone is approaching.

Don’t ride your bike on the sidewalk. This is an often-ignored law in many cities, but at this moment it becomes essential to follow. There is simply no way to stay six feet away from a cyclist sharing a sidewalk — bikes take up a lot more space than pedestrians, runners or even people on scooters. Cyclists must ride in bike lanes, or stay on wider paths.

I think Beacon needs to put up more signs telling people to not ride bikes on the sidewalks, especially now.

[beaconstreets]

305 Main Street For Sale Again

305 Main Street in Beacon is for sale again, apparently for $499,000.

The planning board and the City Council had recently approved the plan for a tapas bar on the location. I fear that the coronavirus recession is already making an impact.

The sign suggests contacting [email protected]. The Mud Club is a Woodstock NY bagel shop.

[beaconstreets]

Main St Initiative Committee

Mayor Kyriakou announces formation a new ad hoc committee for Main St use

Main Street Beacon NY

At the February 24 meeting of the Beacon City Council, Mayor Lee Kyriakou announced the formation of a new ad hoc (non-permanent) committee to, in his words,

Develop a holistic plan for sustainable Main St parking, traffic, public transportation, pedestrian and no-vehicular use. It means all the pieces.

Not explicitly listed, but part of the charter is green space, like pocket parks, as well.

I’m glad to say I am a member of the committee, as noted in the March 4 edition of the Beacon Free Press. However, the article did not mention my earlier involvement in related Beacon initiatives. I was a member of the Fishkill Creek Heritage and Recreational Trail committee and worked actively in the development and promotion of the master plan for the development of the trail, which is now in force. I also led, with my friend Mark Wildonger, a grant application and IndieGogo campaign to raise funds to have the bicycle sharrows painted on Main Street (see Main Street Sharrows Project Funding Approved!). That initiative was run in collaboration with BeaconArts. (Note that we had to raise funds when then-Mayor Randy Casale rejected our request to have the City paint the sharrows.)

All members of the committee:

Sara Pasti is a former City Council member, and former co-chair of the Comprehensive Planning Committee, will be serving as co-chair of the Main St Initiative. Another co-chair is planned.

Andrew Burke is a lifelong resident of Beacon

Stowe Boyd, writer, futurist, activist

Emily Burke of Utensils

J.C. Calderon of Calderon Architecture & Design

Kelly Campbell is a real estate associate broker with Century 21 Alliance Realty in Wappingers Falls

Harvey Kaplan is co-owner of Max’s

Joshua Kogan is a civil engineer

Theresa Kraft does design and construction

Maria Lago is an artist and owner of Maria Lago Studio 502

Paulette Myers-Rich of Traffic Street Press

Hank Osborne

Ron Ray has been a resident for 30 years

Scott Tillett of Beahive

The committee’s first meeting will be 18 March 2020 7 pm.