Things Are Really Looking UP In The Neighborhood!

Galvan's ill-advised 4-floor 60ish-unit apartment building project on 7th Street is in full swing now, with tons of concrete being poured and structures rising by the week.  As of yesterday, the first of many steel beams were installed.  The construction company overseeing the project goes by the name of Baxter Building Company, headquartered in Poughkeepsie.  Baxter definitely has some employees on the site, but I don't know if they are actually doing any of the building themselves or if they are merely supervising subcontractors doing the physical work, a common practice for some construction contractors, especially those that look as though their fingernails have never been dirty.

A subcontractor (possibly the only one there presently) that does have a large presence at the site goes by the name of Brothers Excavating & Contracting, out of Craryville.  According to their website (and their trailer), among the many services they offer are these:  All phases of excavation; land clearing; forestry services; creating driveways and roads; septic installation; and, yes, snow removal.  Nothing is mentioned about the actual construction of buildings, but they sure are trucking in huge load after huge load of stones for the foundation. 

One more load of stones delivered

There are a few things I would love to know about this project which, if it comes to fruition, will be a nightmare for the neighborhood.  Keep in mind that this is just one of two proposed buildings of equal size and capacity directly across the street from one another on little 7th Street.  Even if the second building doesn't materialize, WHAT IS COMING OUR WAY IS NOTHING SHORT OF INSANITY and never should have been approved by the Planning Board!  (I guarantee that if the neighborhood were a wealthy one, residents would have hired a decent lawyer and somehow put a stop to Galvan's proposal.)

- How much in the way of concrete and stones does it take to build an apartment building of this size?  The number of cement mixers and loads of stones headed in and out of the site for the past 3 or 4 weeks has been staggering to hear and see!  Just look at the size and length of the articulated concrete pourer looming over the site. 

(As plenty of Hudson's longtime residents are well aware, concrete is the most environmentally damaging building material there is. It is ubiquitous and awful stuff in so many ways. If you don't know how bad concrete is for human health and the planet's health, just do a search of CONCRETE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT.  There is plenty to read and learn about.)

1 of 4 floors.  Or is it 5?

More stones, please!

More concrete, please!

- Will this be a green/low environmental impact building in any way?

- Shouldn't a building contractor sending hundreds -- if not thousands -- of heavy trucks through our city over the course of one or two years be required to pay the city a fee for the damage those trucks are causing to our streets and infrastructure below, not to mention the damage to our lungs and psyches?

- When will the city install a traffic light at the intersection of 7th & State that will be necessary once this much-too-large apartment building is completed?  How much will this cost the city? (Traffic lights require special poles and wires, of course.)  If it is done -- and it had better be done -- shouldn't Galvan be required to pay for it?  Shouldn't the Planning Board have seen this coming and made the traffic light a part of the approval, forcing Galvan to pay for it?  Did anyone from the Planning Board ever visit the intersection to have a look around and see what changes might be required near the site?

Just one stop sign at a 3-way intersection adjacent to
a 60-unit apartment building or two?

- Who will be living in these 60 apartments and at what breweries, coffee shops and hotels will they be working?

-  Last, and perhaps most troubling, where the hell will the hundreds of tenants in the 60 apartments be parking their cars and SUVs without clogging several neighborhood streets and angering and inconveniencing those of us already living in the area, pitting neighbors against one another?  Where will customers of the ground floor retail shops be parking their cars?  (There will be no parking allowed on that block of 7th Street when the apartment building(s) is completed.)

Already, the parking situation near the intersection of 7th & State is becoming problematic thanks to the two breweries that recently opened without any off-street parking for their customers. (Off-street does not include sidewalks!)  This past weekend, a busy one at both breweries where music events were held simultaneously, I came across a few vehicles blocking both sidewalks on either side of State Street in front of the Return Brewery.  I also noticed that there were more cars parked in the 600 block of State Street than I have ever seen.  There was not one parking space available on either side of that block when things were in full swing at the breweries on Saturday.  

Sure, go ahead, add a 4-floor 60-unit apartment building with retail shops to the neighborhood!  Fantastic idea!  And add another one across the street when you finally find the money for it!  But don't stop there -- build a 4-story parking garage while you're at it, please, we are going to need it! 

Sometime next year, Mayor Kamal Johnson and Galvan will get their ugly and out-of-scale 4-story 60-unit apartment building to save the city from ruin, but the neighborhood surrounding it will no longer be a viable place to live.  Of course, Kamal Johnson doesn't live anywhere near 7th & State and neither does anyone from Galvan.

(Last week, I spoke to a friend who I ran into at a bar.  He told me that he had wanted to go to the Return Brewery instead but that he couldn't find a parking space on State Street that was anywhere near the brewery, so he gave up and headed to the bar where he easily found a convenient parking space.)