I’m vaccinated— ring the bell!
The bell rang but I didn’t hear it. I’d been vaccinated — the first shot — and I was verklempt. Maybe I’d survive.
Op-ed
Snow removal for sidewalks
With the right equipment, the same people who plow the middle part of the road can also plow the edge parts called sidewalks.
Full text: Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan’s State of the County speech
Delivered February 16, 2021. Hi, this is County Executive Pat Ryan. Thank you for joining me for the 2021 State
While I Waited — A COVID-19 Christmas Story
While I waited in my car in the mall parking lot, I tried not to think about COVID. I thought about my friends, my dogs, my ex-girlfriends, dumplings (pan sautéed, not steamed), the new standing desk I got myself for Christmas, online dating, the most recent episode of the sci-fi show I was binging, whether or not the chocolate-dipped strawberries I ordered would arrive before Christmas. But my mind kept returning to COVID, like a baseball player who realizes he tried to steal a base a bit too late and then decides to double back. It was Thursday, Christmas Eve, and I had been exposed on Monday; still no symptoms of the virus.
Point of view: Cyclists speak for the trees
“Several letters in the August 12 edition of Hudson Valley One and several people cited in an accompanying article make unfounded accusations. While I feel an absolute sympathy for people who see the project as an intrusion on their lives and property and feel their voices need to be heard, I believe their wilder assertions cannot go unchallenged,” writes William Weinstein of New Paltz.
Letters: Viewpoints on Ulster DA recount
Two letters to the editor weigh in on the ongoing recount of the contest between Dave Clegg and Michael Kavanagh.
I’m done choosing silence
In this op-ed, Ulster County comptroller-elect March Gallagher acknowledges she was one of the unnamed women in the investigation of county legislator Hector Rodriguez for inappropriate behavior, and that she did not speak out until now because she needed Rodriguez’s vote on the budget for her office. “More than a few of my advisors have cautioned me that I risk my reputation by admitting I traded acquiescence for the comptroller’s budget,” she writes. “That, actually, is the whole point. For too long women have had to make horrible tradeoffs in silence. By speaking out I hope to effect change.”
Kingston alderwoman: Law enforcement, do your job
Here’s the issue with DA Carnright’s statement that cops are handcuffed in trying to make Midtown Kingston safer. Blacks really do experience enough casual, reflexive racism from law enforcement officers to make them understandably fearful that racism permeates the criminal justice system.
Building on the past: the Stockade District’s tipping point
How and where a building gets built, how it comes to be used, how it supports a community and contributes to the “sense of place” matters. If a building cannot rise to the occasion then perhaps it is best it not rise at all.
DA hopeful Kavanagh: Bail reform creates threats to communities
A candidate for Ulster County district attorney argues that changes to the law would release more dangerous individuals into the community and make the opioid problem worse.