Governor Cuomo released renderings of his proposed mega bridge. The bridge will be twice as wide as the existing Tappan Zee Bridge, even though traffic over the span has been declining since 2004 (a nationwide phenomenon). Oddly enough, it is to be the widest highway bridge in the world. The video rendering, below, appears to include a “ghost train” at around 1:33, which is an insult to Rockland as the County continues to stagnate economically due to its lack of infrastructure and connections to major job markets. Cuomo eliminated planning for rail over the span roughly one year ago. Someone explain to me how this project isn’t a massive taxpayer gift to the highway lobby? Dear New York State, may we please enter the 21st Century? We’re already in its second decade! Slick back your hair, put on a poodle dress and feast your eyes on this 1950s-era Eisenhower masterpiece . . .
In other news, the Chair Factory site just north of Emeline Park in the Village of Haverstraw is to become a major staging area for Tappan Zee Bridge construction activities. Iron workers will fabricate massive bridge sections at the site and then float these components by barge to the Tappan Zee. Some State officials expect the Village to be flooded with iron workers and others working on the bridge project. The staging area will effectively tie up future development on the Chair Factor site (originally intended to become Phase III of Ginsburg Development’s waterfront revitalization project) until at least 2019. The original Tappan Zee Bridge components were fabricated in dry dock at the former clay pit that now is home to a deep water harbor, Haverstraw Marina. Both bridges, new and old, was and will be born in Haverstraw.
Which town looks more like Brooklyn? Top Row (Haverstraw) or Bottom Row (Irvington)? Photo creds: Ken Karlewics and Cat Alley
Hot off the presses, this New York Times article “Creating Hipsturbia in the Suburbs of New York” touches a whole slew of nerves and advances shallow ideas regarding demographic shifts in the Hudson Valley. The article confidently declares that Westchester Hudson River villages of Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown, Irvington and the like are becoming enclaves of that same Bohemian lifestyle that brought downtrodden Brooklyn back to life. No mention of Beacon, New York here. The article is the latest in a raft of publications and posts since 2010 that avow the too-cool aspects of the Hudson Valley. This edition is particularly sad because it fully ignores these towns’ history, while somehow comparing the “transformation” of these places to Brooklyn’s revival. The villages mentioned in the article are some of the whitest, wealthiest, and most educated zip codes in North America . . . and they were that way well before the word “hipster” existed. This is nothing like Brookyn’s transformation – in fact, it is astroturf.
