In 1997, Samuel Harps was wearing sunglasses.

His future looking bright, he took them off and laid them on the table. He and an actor friend, Tony Ortiz, were at SUNY Rockland Community College showing one of Harps’ plays when a gentleman approached them, “I would like to donate to your organization, what is its name?” he asked.  Harps quickly looked around, saw the shades on the surface and said, “The name of our company is Shades.  Ortiz said “yes…yes…Shades, we are a Multi-Cultural organization.”

Shades Repertory Theater, where Harps is the artistic Director, resides in the lower level of the Central Presbyterian Church on the corner of New Main Street and Hudson Avenue in the Village of Haverstraw, New York. With Tiffany stained glass windows and American Chestnut (now nearly extinct) ceilings, the church itself is a proud and substantial entity as you enter the village. Believed to be built around 1905, the church’s windows seem to have been purchased shortly before Louis Comfort Tiffany himself built an 84 room home in Laurelton a few miles from Oyster Bay, Long Island http://www.morsemuseum.org/louis-comfort-tiffany/laurelton-hall.

Originally from Norfolk, Virginia, Harps attended Junior High School in Germany. “I was an army brat,” he explained.  “I came back to the states, to Virginia, and attended High School and College there.” Harps worked as a journalist but his passion was writing plays. In 1988 he sent a play to New York and attained a prestigious internship at New York’s New Dramatist where he studied under playwrights August Wilson and Charles Oyamo Gordon. He was later accepted into the Negro Ensemble Company’s playwright program, where he developed his play, “Don’t Explain”, which was first staged at New York’s famed Nuyorican Poet’s Café. The explosive drama on the tragic death, on stage, of trumpeter Lee Morgan at a Lower East Side club called Slugs. The play received seven ADELCO awards including best play and playwright.

Living in Manhattan for seven years, Harps had never heard of Rockland County until he fell in love.  In love with a woman from Nyack whose parents still lived in the Village. “I got lost at the end of Broadway by Hook Mountain and I thought what a perfect spot and a perfect area only 40 minutes from Manhattan. He began as the drama teacher at Pomona Junior High School and worked summers at the Rockland Youth Theater. Then, he received a call came from the pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church, Elnado Moran.  Moran’s dream was to have a Youth Theater at the church and asked Harp to head up his vision. And so the Haverstraw Youth Theater was born and Shades Repertory Theater fell into place at the Church as well.

In 2002, Harp had two sets of sisters as his first students.  One set of siblings was white and one African American. He asked them what they wanted to portray and they were very interested in subject matters that pertained to their age. “They wanted to do an improvisational play about what it would be like to have a child,” Harps recalls. “So we came upon an idea and used the WHAT IF? type drama. We still use that with the kids today.”

The Haverstraw Youth Theater is a free non-profit organization and Harps prides himself on having children from all backgrounds and all levels of talent. “There is so much pressure in the schools with theater now,” said Harps. “We take the kids who may not have made the school show cuts.”

For four years Ginsburg Development Companies, the Developer of the Harbors at Haverstraw, donated $20,000 a year to the Youth Theater. “I was kind of surprised when Martin Ginsburg started showing up at our town meetings,” Harps recalls. “But he assisted our cause before we became a non-profit.”  The Youth Theater is home to many professional actors who mentor the children and there is a broad base of local alumni that assist in many aspects of production.

Shades also runs feature films in conjunction with the SOLS FILM FESTIVAL and Rivertown Films. “We really like to keep it light and homey here,” explained Harps.  “We set up tables, couches, chairs and guests arrive from all over the tri-state area.” In addition, there are often artist showings and receptions in this large, open space.

“It just seemed to happen organically,” ended Harps, who seemed genuinely happy in this standout Church on a corner in Haverstraw. I guess he will still need his sunglasses around.  The future is very bright at the Haverstraw Youth Theater and Shades Repertory Theater for many years to come.

Goings on at the Youth Theater and Shades Repertory Theater:

1. Artist Reception “The People of the Appalachian Mountains” Photography by Noel Fernandez Artist discussion wine and cheese; March 10 at 4:30pm to 7:00pm Suggested donation: $15.
2. Workshop Performance “The Informer” written by Joseph P. McDonald March 12^th at 8pm $6
3. William Shakespeare Scenes from his best known works April 12, 13, 14 all at 8pm. Ticket Price-TBA
4. Spring One Act Festival “The Pitch” by Carol Mark; “Vincent’s Visit” by Judith Weinshall; Bottled Up by Pat O’Connor Liberman and “Nothing” by Joelle Almodovar March 29, 30 and 31^st at 8pm $12 in advance or $15 at the door
5. “Welcome to Haverstraw Village”, a film by Samuel Harps. An intimate look at one of Rockland’s most historic and diverse communities April 20^th at 8pm. Wine and Cheese reception catered by Union Restaurant and Antoine McGuires.
6. Youth Theater “The Tree on Lombard Street”; April 27, 28 at 8pm Price: TBA
7. Playwriting From Beginning to End 8 week course
8. Writing for Screen 8 week course

 Haverstraw Youth Theater and Shades Repertory Theater;

64 New Main Street; 845-675-8044

“Every day we’re faced with choices: Buy from Home Depot or the guy that owns the hardware store in the Village? Get a cup of coffee from Starbucks or the local coffee shop? In these difficult economic times, to me it makes more sense to shop, buy, and dine at our local businesses. Buying local strengthens our local economy, creates jobs and makes our community unique.  Buying local supports you and your family: When you buy from an independent, locally owned business, more of your dollar stays within the community and is used to make purchases from other local businesses. It’s a virtuous cycle! Buying local keeps your community unique: Where we shop, where we eat and have fun makes North Rockland our home, and it makes it a better place to live. When you buy local, you invest in your community. Local businesses are owned by your neighbors, people who live in your town, and who are more invested in your community’s well-being and its future. So yes, I buy local whenever possible. I may pay a little more and sometimes get frustrated with inconvenient hours or unavailable items, but it’s important to me to support business in my community. I really enjoy running into neighbors and friends when shopping here. Chance encounters add something special to my day. I especially like the fact that I know the owner of a business or restaurant by his or her first name. It’s worth it to me to pay a little bit more and help out my neighborhood businesses, especially in these trying times.” — Taryn Raia Herbert, North Rockland Community Member

What is absent from the current conversation and in calls for including transit on the new span are suggestions for either expanding existing rail service, speeding up existing service, creating new rail service west-of-Hudson, or expanding existing ferry service, most notably the Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry. The ferry has been operating since 2000, whisking hundreds of passengers each day across the wide Haverstraw Bay to the Ossining MetroNorth railroad station. There, passengers switch to a Grand Central-bound train. The entire trip to Grand Central Terminal on 42nd Street in Manhattan, including the ferry ride, clocks in at under one hour. This is the fastest way to midtown from the northern half of Rockland County and parts of southeastern Orange County.

One of the cheapest and quickly-implemented options for expanded transit from Rockland is expanding the Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry route to accommodate midday, late-night, and weekend riders. Better bus connections from Ossining to White Plains and other job centers in Westchester County may prove a boost to ridership on the ferry service. Outside of morning and evening rush hours, the ferry could run every 90 minutes to meet an express train to Grand Central. This would not only boost property values in Haverstraw and Ossining, but would solve part of the problem that a transit-less Tappan Zee Bridge would create.

I, personally, have dreamed for the opportunity to reach Haverstraw from New York and vice versa during late-night hours and on weekends. An afternoon or evening run on Sundays would benefit the hundreds of student-age and young adult travelers that visit Rockland parents on weekends. Those Rocklanders looking for a day in the City would likely opt to take the ferry service as it cuts out costly tolls, gasoline costs, parking costs, and the headache of battling traffic. I have noted previously on HaverstrawLife that there is a market for attracting NYC and Westchester residents to Haverstraw’s emerging culinary, cultural, recreation, and arts scene. Limited ferry service has been an impediment to this opportunity. NYC residents are always looking for unique day trips into the Hudson Valley. With expanded ferry service, Haverstraw could become one of the major hiking meccas within close proximity of Manhattan. The opportunities here are limitless. Just expand the ferry service, and do it soon.

Contact your New York State representatives to demand better cross-Hudson ferry service from Rockland County:

Nanuet, NY 10954
Phone:845-623-3627

The Piermont Photography Meetup Group is presenting “ILLUMINATING IMAGES” this Saturday, February 11, at the Central Presbyterian Church (Haverstraw Youth Theater) with a wine and appetizer reception from 4:00pm-6:30pm. 64 New Main Street, Village of Haverstraw. On display are wonderful works by Wayne Bizzinger, Paul Brizzi, Ely Dennis, Peter Giraudin, Barb Levitt, Stefanie Livanos, Diedre Marangi, Peggy Opalek, Curt Schlenker, Murray Shor, Olga Luz Tirado, Fredi White and Nancy Zallo.

For further information about the Piermont Photography Meetup Group, email Wayne at at mcduke@mcduke.com.

For further information about the Haverstraw Youth Theater and Shades Repertory Theater, both housed in the Presbyterian Church, contact the Artistic Director, Samuel Harps at 845-675-8044.

Immediately following the reception “Miracle at St. Anna” will be shown partnered with SOL Film Festival and Shades Reperatory Theater.

Reception is $10.  Film is $5.

Batson discusses the motifs and historical elements of both the painting and the film: the growth and decline of Victorian America, issues of highways’ isolating effects, and the economic implications of America’s love affair with their automobiles. The author and artist even had a chance to interview the owners of the beloved house on Route 9W in the Village of Haverstraw. Read the article at Nyack Sketch Log here.

Do Cars Belong Downtown? Haverstraw in 1940.

Jane Jacobs was one of the first writers to document the effects of cars on urban fabric. By “urban,” I mean “old-fashioned” or traditional towns and downtowns. Densely populated cities and villages throughout the United States were beginning to take steps to incorporate automobiles into the built environment. Planners and politicians began to see parking garages, wider streets, more lanes, and asphalt parking lots as essential infrastructure in all places. The more successful and desirable a city or village was, the more parking was required. Ultimately, though, this mindset led to the demolition of millions of acres of the nations’ most precious neighborhoods. Really? Yes, “cars erode cities” and our desire to be in downtowns.  

The first way to understand how automobiles are ‘erosive’ and corrosive to American downtowns and historic, traditional neighborhoods is by analyzing the present condition of such a neighborhood. Take the Village of Haverstraw, for instance. The Village is pocked by a number of vacant lots that have been converted to surface parking lots. How attractive is a vacant lot or a parking lot for that matter? Each and every one of these lots was once stores and apartments and offices, built within mostly three- or four-story structures from the late 1800s. These structures had decoration along their roof line, called the cornice, and above windows. They were mostly made of brick. Since the Village government believed that parking was “required and essential” for the downtown’s economic success, these parking lots soon became “public parking lots” some owned and maintained by the government itself and some zoned to remain parking for the foreseeable future. Instead of returning these parcels to economic use, which subsequently generates increased tax revenues for the local government, the Village instead maintains these parcels as asphalt. No economic development there and no taxes paid to support the government’s activities. Paid parking (garages and on-street meters) often only generates enough revenue to pay meter-maids or to pay for new asphalt and maintenance. This is what we call a “loss leader.”

Another way to understand the destructive nature of cars on downtowns is the psychology that cars create amongst ‘motorists’ or those that regularly use cars to get around. As Americans became more and more reliant on cars to live their daily lives, they unknowingly gravitated toward shopping centers that were most convenient for their vehicle. The closer these motorists could park to the entrance of the store, the better. Downtowns became “inconvenient” and therefore began to decline as places for commerce. This mentality is aided entirely by zoning requirements that force real estate developers to include a certain number of parking spots IN FRONT of their stores.

This basic zoning requirement eliminates the traditional function of retail: drawing shoppers off the sidewalk and into lively and attractive storefronts. So, the arterial road (Route 9W in this case) becomes the “sidewalk” and the only way to attract drivers to stores is by posting massive signs and providing plenty of convenient parking as near as possible to the “stores.” Enter the strip mall. The strip mall is the physical incarnation of suburban zoning laws. Everyone hates them, but they are required; anything other than a strip mall would be considered illegal. You can’t blame the developers; you have to blame your elected officials.

Roads take up lots of valuable space. Asphalt takes up nearly half of the surface of Manhattan. That seems unbelievable, right? Well, it takes up even more space in Haverstraw. Asphalt is a suck on the economy: it requires taxes for maintenance, and doesn’t generate any income (unless you toll your asphalt, or charge high rates for parking). Asphalt also sends pollutants from rubber tires and oil leaks and trash into storm water catch basins and into our rivers and lakes. In Haverstraw, you’ll soon be drinking that water. Instead of rainwater soaking into the ground, getting naturally filtered along the way, the water builds and builds and sometimes causes flooding and damage to homes and business.

We seem to think that we want more and more roads so that more and more people can get to businesses, shopping, and to work. We also want more and more parking so these people can store their cars once they get there. Basically, this is a destructive cycle of thinking. As we attempt to add more and more roads and more and more parking, we destroy what made the attractive place attractive and desirable in the first place. How does that make any sense? We must learn to restrain ourselves, I think. But, you might ask: “Well, then where would everyone park? Wouldn’t local businesses suffer?” Let me explain why that’s a delusion.

If we could change our politicians’ minds to change the defunct zoning code, we could begin to make a dent on the delusion I just mentioned. The parking and roads delusion is precisely a delusion for some simple reasons. For example, if we can take all of those asphalt surfaces, where currently no one lives and no one does business, and convert that area to stores, offices, businesses, dwellings, and entertainment, then all the people and businesses needed to create a bustling economy would be located within walking distance – no cars needed. We would shift where the shopping, eating, beer-drinking, doctor-seeing, movie-watching population lives.

This doesn’t mean you have to move where you live. If those of us who haven’t decide to move downtown and who remain reliant on cars to get around want to come downtown for a visit, we could park in areas on the outskirts of the downtown (that are less valuable) and walk in, take a taxi, get dropped off by a friend, or perhaps, take public transportation. The walk would be healthy. It might be exciting. Because we’d be moving slower and out from behind a windshield, we would see things that we have noticed in a long time like the architectural details on that Victorian house, or a cardinal in a flowering tree, or we might say “Hi!” to an old friend or even strike up a conversation with a future friend. Plus, you can talk or text on your phone without worrying about getting a traffic violation or killing someone’s grandma or daughter.

This transformation of travel modes, local economic growth, zoning changes is happening right now in most parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and in downtowns in northern New Jersey, Westchester and southwestern Connecticut. Actually, it’s happening in most downtowns across the country. It’s even happening in places where there wasn’t a traditional downtown – a new downtown is being created from scratch.

So basically what I’ve described is not a “transformation” so-to-speak. It’s more like getting into a time machine and heading back to our grandparents’ daily life when they were in their childhood years. Take note: this was before cars really started to dominate our lives. It was before cars started to erode cities and villages like Haverstraw. It’s called rediscovering your roots, finding community, making our downtowns better places to live and do business, and stopping cars from eroding and corroding our villages and cities. Go ahead! Park on the outskirts of town; what’s the use of spending so much time finding the most “convenient” parking spot? Walk on that sidewalk! Peak into that storefront! Stop in and grab a coffee and say “Hi!” to a neighbor. You’re not really a slave to your car as you might think.

I’ll expand more on this later . . .

Railbus

Passenger trains last rumbled through the Village of Haverstraw in the early 1950s. Since then, the area has become more and more reliant on autombiles. The only transportation options other than car are buses to other parts of Rockland County and to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan or the ferry service to Ossining, where MetroNorth trains are available to Grand Central Terminal. Politicians have made numerous calls for reinstated passenger rail service on the West Shore Line over the past 60 years. One option that they haven’t considered is employing a railbus, otherwise known as a ‘railcar’ system on the West Shore line into Secaucus, New Jersey.

A railbus is described exactly as it sounds: a self-propelled bus-like vehicle that sits upon steel rail wheels. The railbus service, which could possibly be operated by a private entity, could whisk passengers from Haverstraw Village to the Secaucus Rail Junction within 35 minutes, even considering time spent making stops in other towns along the way. The railbus could offer connections to New York City when the ferry service isn’t running (weekends, midday, and late night). This could be done cheaply and with little infrastructure investment by the public sector. The only foreseeable problem is that the Federal Railroad Administration forbids these types of vehicles from operating on active freight and passenger railroad tracks. This is the only nation in the world that imposes such regressive restrictions on railbus or DMU service. It is an outdated policy and it must change.

While considering the wildly expensive Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project and avid calls for including mass transit in those plans (the Governor of NY is ignoring calls for transit), it seems that a railbus option or expanding the existing ferry service should be on the table. Perhaps railbus service might revolutionize travel between Haverstraw, other areas of Rockland, northern New Jersey, and Manhattan?