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September 2017
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boatingonthehudson.com
I
don’t like the way the Hudson
River is characterized in the media.
Should we disparage the river as a
dirty toxic dump? I don’t think so.
I grew up in New Baltimore, about
a mile uphill from the Hudson. My
dad and I used to take a walk to the
river every March, and watch the
icebergs flow south after the wind
had warmed the air. Standing on the
riverbank with my father meant the arrival of spring every year.
My father had a friend from high school, who bought an old
building that was once an ice house, and then a spot where the
Frangella brothers grew mushrooms. His friend cemented the
floor and painted the walls and sold hamburgers and soft-serve
ice cream in the old warehouse down
in Coeymans. It was called The Muddy
Rudder and it was in the building where
Yanni’s Too is today. The business only
lasted a couple of years. My dad and I
took walks down Main Street in Ravena
on school nights, and then he’d drive me
to his friend’s ice cream spot. While they
talked, I strolled to the dock at Coeymans
Landing, and looked over the dark water.
I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old
then, in love for the first time, wanting to
leave my home town. I’d watch a barge
drone downriver, or hear a train across
the river rushing through the woods,
and imagine I was a stowaway on the
ship or a hobo on the train.
Now I’m an adult, I’ve hitch hiked, visited other states and
countries, lived in a city. I miss spending time by the river with
my father.
President Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” helped
get him elected. I’ve worked in politics and sales and I just
knew that the candidate was a salesman who came up with a
slogan that he thought regular people would buy. Of course
it worked, and I don’t blame him for being a better advertiser
than his competitor for office. However, I really believe in
making America great again, and I believe it can only happen
if we resurrect our small town communities and markets, and
I resent that he used the phrase so flippantly without a real
plan—like if my partner in a card game just threw out a trump
card instead of using it when it would be most effective. After
the last election, it’s going to be harder to get people to help
make their communities great again, because they will feel it’s
just a dog and pony show to get some millionaire elected.
I want to pursue my ideas to make our small towns in upstate
New York great again. I really think we could do it, if only we
focused on fixing up our local Main Streets and riverfronts. I’ve
got plenty of ideas, but before any of them could happen, we’ve
got to get over our discouragement and start to have pride
in where we live again. That means not disparaging our local
communities, and not disparaging the Hudson River.
The Hudson River is the greatest river in the world! New
York City is the greatest city in the world because it sits at the
entrance of the Hudson River. New York State is the Empire
State because the Hudson, in conjunction with the Erie Canal,
filled the need that allowed transportation of goods from the
interior of the United States to New York City. The Hudson River
was the subject of the paintings of the first artists in America
after the Revolution (you can visit Thomas Cole’s and Frederick
Church’s houses near Catskill). The Hudson Valley is the setting
of the first novels in the history of American literature, where
James Fennimore Cooper’s characters scouted andWashington
Irving’s horsemen lost their heads, or slept for 100 years. It is the
site of battles that preserved our liberty. It is the river where the
environmental movement began. And yet, my entire life, I’ve
heard the river disparaged as dirty, disgusting, and toxic. Just
as, my entire life, I’ve heard my hometown disparaged. I’m sick
of it. The sooner we start to appreciate what the river has to
offer, the better.
My friend Jake is a schoolteacher. He is
running for Town Council in New Baltimore.
I’m nervous for him, because he goes to all
the meetings, he’s very smart, very friendly,
has a lot of ideas. But for decades now,
people have won office on the idea that
“we’re going to hell in a hand basket,” and
I’m afraid he won’t be able to reach enough
people who think,“But I want to make things
better.” Cynics are the worst sort of people.
They think they’re very smart. I think they’re
social parasites, since their negativity puts a
check on positive action.
I have a vision of the future. In this future,
people like to visit small towns, because
there are interesting things to do there.
In the towns straddling the river, in my vision, there are
thriving riverfront communities. There are municipal beaches
where people can swim, as in Ulster Landing. There are tidal
boardwalks for people to stroll from one hamlet to another.
There are water taxis to ferry people fromone center of nightlife
in, say, Athens, across the river to another in Hudson. A Swiss
company proposed to build a gondola from the train station
in Rensselaer across to the Empire Plaza in Albany a year ago—
what a great idea! It seems to me that if people appreciated
what the river has to offer, they would congregate there, and
if people congregate in an area, it becomes a profitable place
to site a business, and if multiple businesses congregate in one
area, it becomes thriving and draws more people, and those
businesses subsidize the tax base, which make buildings in the
whole municipality more attractive, and people walk around
and see their thriving community, and feel better about the
way things are going, and are nicer to one another, and become
more active citizens. And then they raise their children to be
respectable and happy, and they save money, and there are
more jobs for teenagers and retired people and entrepreneurs.
But first we have to get over this idea that society is going
downhill and our greatest historical resources, like the Hudson,
are somehow bad. The Hudson River is a grand, ancient
avenue of communication and transportation and beauty and
ephemeral peace. Let us focus on that! It seems like a good
place to start.
Let’s Make
The Hudson
Great Again
by
Dallas Trombley