From the publisher: You are our sunshine
Geddy Sveikauskas reflects on a tumultuous year.
All posts by Geddy Sveikauskas
Reapportionment could help Dems pick up more seats
The margins separated victory and defeat in two local state senate contests were so slim as to defy clear analysis about the electorate. Looking forward, New York Democrats could be planning ways to redraw the district maps to increase their chances.
For Ulster’s Democratic Party, what’s past is prologue
Twenty years after the passing of former Kingston Mayor Frank Koenig, an important figure in local Demoratic politics, Kelleigh McKenzie said she was seeking to restore the county Democratic committee as the link to the neighborhoods. The new grass-roots party structure she hopes to strengthen will be a return to politics at the granular level, with each of the county’s wards and election districts as its building blocks.
Why do some localities have greater Covid-19 problems than others?
Covid-19 cases pop up all over the place, sometimes where we least expect them. Tracking and quarantining follow. The seeming lack of a clear pattern in the location of confirmed cases is frustrating. How can we learn what we need to know if we don’t even know what to do, what’s best practice, and where it is succeeding?
Ulster County residential real estate prices are through the roof
Real estate prices in our area have increased at a higher rate than almost anywhere else.
Village Voices are on hold
As general editor of Village Voices, I have decided to call a moratorium of our blog posts and decide meanwhile whether to continue this daily feature. If anyone in the audience wants to contribute their two cents’ worth to that discussion, please email me at geddy@hudsonvalleyone.com.
Bearsville Center reopens this weekend
After more than a year and many, many hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on construction deconstruction, and reconstruction, the Bearsville Center will open to the public on a limited basis this weekend, according to owner Lizzie Vann. The vision, Vann has written, is “to reignite the Center amongst a thriving music community, supporting local and international music legends.”
It’s a seller’s market for Hudson Valley real estate
Anecdotal reports suggest a more dynamic future for Hudson Valley residential real estate than the data about the recent past has indicated. The next two months should test that hypothesis. Meanwhile, the rumor mill will rule.
Van DeWater wins GOP primary for NY-19
After trailing by 465 votes out of about 10,000 district-wide in the Election Day results for the GOP nomination to oppose first-term Democratic congressman Antonio Delgado of Rhinebeck this November, Kyle Van DeWater, an up-and-coming Dutchess County lawyer, a decorated Army veteran and a major in the Army Reserves, reversed the numbers with an overwhelming plurality in the absentee ballots against Ola Hawatmeh from Poughkeepsie.
Ulster County is shaken by new spate of Covid 19 cases
After a quiet June, 50 new cases were diagnosed in just three days at the beginning of this month. The unwelcome eruption in positive virus determinations led to swift expressions of concern in the social media. People were scared, and they had every right to be. The virus could easily get out of control. Perhaps it already had.