We talked about what a civil war would look like in the places we know. Our neighborhood is black-majority, with few businesses. The folks at the liquor store down the street would likely just open their doors. Jerry’s on a nearby corner, which has been there for 60-plus years, would just board up.
The big problems would be further uptown along the city’s old commercial Central Avenue, which has welcomed box stores and mini-malls over the past half-century. Troy and Schenectady face downtown trouble where gentrification’s taken hold.
Kingston, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh have tinderboxes where gentrifying areas sit next to long-decaying neighborhoods that have been forgotten, labeled as gang-ridden. Hudson and Beacon have built dream communities along long main streets filled with increasingly upscale businesses, plus loads of fancy restaurants. Ellenville’s long had a sense of divide to it.
The more quaint outlying communities, wealthy and liberal, get blocked off from outside disturbance.
I remember how centralized and grounded I felt living in a dead-end valley near Phoenicia, high in the northern Catskills, or on an island in Alaska.
The hostas in our back yard have taken. We’ve got some clumping bamboo coming to set up a shield.
Guess it’s good to simply have one’s stand where one is and as one is.
Thank you for reading Hudson Valley One. We rely on your support to continue providing local, substantive news. Please check out our 
