As part of the Keep Rockland Beautiful-sponsored Great American Cleanup 2013, we will meet for a few hours in the Village (Downtown and the Greenway) to do some spring cleaning. Bring plants to plant, gloves, and a trash picking attitude.
When? April 14, 2013 at 10:00AM | Where? The Four-faced Clock @ New Main Street & Maple Avenue
Check out the pics from 2012 and 2013 below (thanks to Alex Guarino and Tom McGuire for taking them – that’s why they’re not in the pictures!):
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.
“Welcome to hipsturbia,” indeed. (more…)
After reading a New York Times article on the resurgence of the Rockaways among twenty- and thirty-somethings as a mecca of weekend vacationing/staycationing, my mind started to tick. Of course the ticking revolved around Haverstraw, however, this may be a lesson for most still grungy rivertowns in the Hudson River Valley. Hipsters proudly proclaim that the Boardwalk is the new Bedford Avenue, and that Williamsburg has become so “Chuck E. Cheesed out” that these hip, young millenials are looking for adventure further and further out. Various staple restaurants in Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and the East Village (L Train fare) have opened everything from taco trucks to Vegan cupcake and grass-fed burger joints just steps from the surf. What was once a Requiem for a Dream-like hellhole, is now the epitome of cool summer.
Haverstraw has already been there and done that in the weekend/summer scene. During the earlier part of the twentieth century, the Village was a major stop on the Vaudeville circuit and major silent film actors and actresses made their country bungalows all along nearby South Mountain Road (see Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, and more). Nyack Beach State Park was an absolute haven in its heyday. Haverstraw has a to-die-for waterfront on the wide Hudson River, boasts an ethno-chic downtown, high peaks for hiking, awesome 70′s-era old man bar, and of course, a burgeoning arts and restaurant scene. So, why not summer in Haverstraw? Really.
A trip across the widest part of the Hudson River from Haverstraw, New York to the Ossining, New York MetroNorth train station. At the train station in Ossining, you can catch a train into Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan or points north. The whole trip to Grand Central, including the ferry ride, takes about 1 hour.
It is possible to work in Rockland County and use the ferry to get there from Westchester, NYC, or points north. Check the ferry schedule, which conveniently lists reverse directions and when the ferry departs or arrives at Ossining or Haverstraw. More and more commuters are using the ferry to “reverse commute.” The ferry can also be used to get to White Plains, believe it or not. Once you arrive in Ossining, wait for the 11, 13, or 14 Bee Line Bus directly to White Plains: map here.
