Rents, taxes a challenge, but overall picture improving
The recent demise of Don Vito’s Pizzeria, located at 85 Broadway, was a blow to fans of the crisp-crusted, authentically Italian pizza. It was also an unfortunate reminder of all the dozens of interesting retail businesses and eateries that have briefly flourished in Kingston over the years and then bitten the dust. It was rumored...
Two architecturally notable Kingston residences fading fast
Two side-by-side examples of the work of prominent Kingston architect Myron S. Teller stand empty today. The once-stately residences in Kingston’s East Chestnut Street historic district face an uncertain future. The condition of the houses at 11 and 17 East Chestnut has raised the concerns of neighbors, the Friends of Historic Kingston and the city’s...
The text of Mayor Shayne Gallo’s 2013 State of the City address
Editor’s note: This is the copy the mayor read from; he did deviate from the text on a few occasions when he actually gave the speech on Tuesday, March 5 at City Hall. I am proud to say Kingston’s on the move. In the 2012 State of the City, I explained how we are all...
Wurts Street Bridge: A span with no future?
It will take more than a paint job to restore the rust-encrusted, bumpy old Rondout Creek bridge between Kingston and Port Ewen, state officials say. Despite its dilapidated look, the bridge, built in 1921 and inspected every other year, is structurally sound, say officials from the state Department of Transportation. But it was last painted...
Accused killer no stranger to violence, prison
A parolee with a long history of violent crime is under arrest for the murder of a woman found dead in her Ponckhockie house last week. On Sunday, Feb. 10 around 2 p.m., Audelis Cruz, 49, was arrested as he stood on a subway platform on 96th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Cruz’s arrest ended...
KPD calling Third Avenue death a homicide
Police in Kingston are investigating what they’re now calling “an active homicide investigation” of a woman found dead in her home last Sunday. The body of Anita Jacobs-Royer, 45, was found in her home at 53 Third Avenue in the city’s Ponckhockie neighborhood around 5 p.m. on Feb. 3. Police responded to the residence following...
Already broke, Rosita’s now getting sued by city
City officials are going to court to shut down a financially troubled waterfront nightspot, claiming the owner has ignored provisions in a 13-year-old special use permit. Since 2000, when Bill Melkesetian opened the Mexican-themed restaurant and bar on the Strand, Rosita’s has been an anchor of the city’s revitalized waterfront nightlife district. But the restaurant...
Mark Hogancamp creates own world, in one-sixth scale
Life hadn’t been easy for Mark Hogancamp. Married and divorced, a Navy vet, he sketched superheroes and designed showrooms for a local lighting company while struggling with alcoholism and homelessness. Twelve years ago, he suffered a near-fatal beating at a Kingston bar that left him disabled. The loss of his Medicaid-covered rehabilitation therapy a year...
Mariner’s to host benefit for flood-damaged churches
Mariner’s Harbor got hit pretty hard by Sandy, but is coming through to help two nearby houses of worship which also got hit. The Rondout restaurant is holding a fundraiser for the flood-devastated Riverview Baptist and New Central churches on Monday, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. Episcopal spiritualist Martin L. Smith wrote that while it’s...
Seeing isn’t always believing
“Scenes Believing,” the current exhibition at the Kingston Museum of Contemporary Arts, is an exquisite show of work by four artists whose diversity of style and medium cast fresh aspersions on the power of art’s illusions and the rippling resonances of meaning that derive from the juxtaposition of unlike images. Each artist presents a convincing...
Downtown, 110 years ago
In this image from the Hudson River Maritime Museum archives, we see a postcard, circa 1905-1910, depicting “Lower Broadway, Kingston, N.Y”. On the left, now stands Mariner’s Harbor, which formerly housed the offices of the Daily Freeman. Down the street, we see The Mansion House, which now houses Savona’s restaurant on the street level. Buildings...
Surge protection: City officials, workers scrap with Sandy
Kingston dodged the worst destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy. But the 24 hours between Monday morning, when the city set up its first-ever emergency operations center and Tuesday afternoon, when emergency crews stood down, offered plenty of drama — including a hazardous water rescue from a flooded sewage treatment plant and an alderman thrust into...