Some people say there are three neighborhoods in Kingston—Uptown, Midtown, and the Rondout. But with citywide concerns around jobs, displacement, and connectivity, among average Kingstonians it's not geographic divisions that are discussed. The Burning of Kingston happens this month—that annual re-enactment of the British attack on Kingston which celebrates the pluck of Colonial settlers—now with acknowledgement that the Stockade was built not only to thwart the British but also indigenous peoples. For Kingston, the truly unifying vibe is its distinct styles of longing.
Hiraeth (Welsh), the Nostalgia for Lost Places
There's a breakfast club somewhere in Kingston, still bemoaning the loss of the old Post Office that was demolished just over 50 years ago. When local politicians describe themselves as lifelong Kingstonians, or recall a parent's job loss after IBM left, these are the voters they're courting. The documentary film Lost Rondout: A Story of Urban Removal by Stephen Blauweiss and Lynn Woods, which chronicles the destruction of not only historic buildings in the neighborhood, but also the multicultural fabric of a working class community made vibrant by jobs in the shipping industry, is a must-see for understanding the grief exacted by 1960s urban renewal in the city.
The Hudson River Maritime Museum (HRMM) was born of the desire to preserve what was vanishing. Their collection of maritime artifacts was originally showcased, beginning in 1979, in a surviving historic building on the corner of Broadway and Abeel Street, where Rosie General now gathers and feeds people. The museum moved to its current home on the Rondout Creek in 1983 when it purchased the 1898 tugboat Mathilda. "There's a lot of nostalgia and mourning about losing these beautiful steamships that were going up and down the river for over a century," says Lisa Cline, executive director of the HRMM.
To make the nonprofit museum sustainable, beginning in the 2010s, HRMM focused on growing its campus and cultivating partnerships. It won a grant to buy and renovate an adjacent building now used for winterizing sloop Clearwater and extra event space. HRMM bought another adjacent property and developed the Wooden Boat Building School, which also spawned a Sailing School because people wanted to use the boats they built.
It provides a public dock, and the Rondout Rowing Club and the Kingston High School varsity crew team house their equipment at the museum. They host visiting vessels to bring history alive, like last summer's Amistad, a replica 19th-century ship which was overthrown by an uprising of enslaved people from Sierra Leone. Cline says HRMM is a series of schools, and that the cross-pollination of all the programs has really grown the museum.
One of the most popular programs is the solar-powered tour boat, Solaris, which HRMM built as a prototype, and functions as a floating classroom. "The Rondout Lighthouse is our most popular tour, and I understand why," Cline says. "It takes you out to an otherwise inaccessible house on an island where you go back in time to a whole different world; it's just a very evocative trip."
Saudade (Portuguese), the Longing for a Time that Can't be Re-Lived
Every generation of Kingstonians has its own nagging desire for a time that can't be re-created. In the 2010s, residents talked about the nuances between Old Kingston and New—between pre-Trump liberals and conservatives, between walkable cities and cultural relativism. It was the blow-ins versus the good old boys. In 2012, there was a dust-up between factions when a renovation to the Pike Plan canopies in Uptown Kingston was surreptitiously decorated by artistic graffiti, and the Red Goat's amorphous meaning is now the stuff of local legend. But gentrification touches everyone.
Abe Uchitelle, Majority Leader of the Ulster County Legislature, represents Kingston, and says that the track the city is now on was evident when he moved here from New Paltz after college in 2013. "That path brought a very vibrant community of businesses, artists, galleries, and shops, but also left in its wake a loss of beloved businesses, event spaces, and community members that are no longer here," Uchitelle says. "With Kingston's growth, there have also been a number of tragedies; we've lost some of what was special about this community—when it was in transition and, in many ways, struggling but also thriving."
There are always restaurants opening and closing to the pleasure and pain of residents, but when BSP (Backstage Studio Productions) closed during the pandemic, for many, it was an unrecoverable loss. Officially an arts and entertainment complex, BSP spanned half a city block from Wall and Crown Streets. There was a cavernous theater in the back for conventions and concerts with a Spiegeltent, the front venue with full bar and stage, a studio for Hudson Valley Circus Arts in between, and a fully equipped dance studio on the second floor. Their Halloween (in collaboration with Chronogram) and New Year's Eve parties were legendary, and BSP played a pivotal role in supporting the O+ Festival as one of its primary venues.
Trevor Dunworth moved to Kingston in 2011 and, with friends, brought a small production company to BSP, eventually transitioning to owning the business and managing its day-to-day operations. Mike Amari was the booking agent and brought in bands like Television, Big Thief, and Yo La Tengo. BSP made people realize they didn't need to leave Kingston for a great show—an indie rock venue just down the street. For New Kingstonians, they knew it when.
"There are a handful of local venues now keeping the spark alive," Dunworth says, "but none share nearly the same square footage as BSP, so the scene is more fragmented and spread out." He says Tubby's in Midtown comes closest to showcasing the same types of bands. Amari has brought his booking prowess and some of the Uptown scene to Opus 40, the outdoor sculpture park and arts center in Saugerties.
"People really miss it, and many express sadness or frustration with what has happened in Uptown since our closure. More and more, I meet people who moved here after 2020, and they only know about BSP through stories or hearsay," Dunworth says. "That said, I consider myself very fortunate to have been at the helm of that ship alongside so many amazing friends, and I will always be grateful that opportunity led me to Kingston when it did."
Fernweh (German), Farsickness or the Ache for Distant Places
Kingston is ever-enticing: urban in a small town; close to both outdoorsy activities and New York City; it's got historic architecture, the arts, local food, spirits, and beer, cultural diversity, and endless promise for that startup or business you've been dreaming about. With every wave of new settlers, the only constant is that another wave is coming.
During the pandemic, people came to flee. Remote work exploded, and the housing market in Kingston skyrocketed, exacerbating the pre-existing dilemmas of corporate landlords monopolizing rental properties and a lack of new housing.
Jenna Goldstein, the Tenant Organizer for the activist organization For the Many, runs a hotline for tenants. Typical calls are about sudden, massive rent increases and disputes around property repairs. Goldstein says Kingston residents are more than rent burdened, often paying 50 percent or more of their income in rent. "Housing affordability is definitely nonexistent right now. It's not fair to have people that are retired or on fixed incomes be pushed out of their homes because they can't make more money. It's a very flawed system."
While Kingston has worked to evaluate its vacancy rate, declare a Housing Emergency, and pass Good Cause Eviction laws, Goldstein says the average renter working three or four jobs to afford rent would also need a part-time law degree to understand the regulations. She's seeing lifelong Kingstonians being forced out. "A mortgage is rent control for a homeowner who happens to have money for a down payment. These tenants have paid well over $200,000 in rent in their lifetime, but they've got nothing to show for it. It's just another tax on working class people," Goldstein says. "By saying Kingston's up-and-coming, it tells people who have been here their whole lives that they're not welcome anymore."
Uchitelle has long used the term housing crisis. "As soon as the pandemic came, everybody saw that struggle in every community. But those of us representing Kingston, we saw it much earlier," he says. "Over the last few years, we've made significant progress, investing in creating new units of affordable housing. But this takes time, and we're at risk of losing members of our community while we wait for the effects of our housing investment to take shape. And that's why bringing forward an anti-displacement program is incredibly important."
In August, the legislature passed an expansion to a 2023 pilot program, which connected tenants facing eviction with attorneys and case managers to help ensure tenants become sustainable over the long-term. The new iteration dedicates American Rescue Plan Act funding to be used by Legal Services of the Hudson Valley to make one-time payments to landlords for rental arrears. "People are often facing eviction after falling into a hole because of a one-time issue—maybe a medical issue; in many cases, it was something that happened during the pandemic, and they've never been able to dig out," Uchitelle says. "So with this program, we're able to take a unique approach to keeping people in their homes and avoiding evictions."
Ulster County Legislative Chair Peter Criswell, who represents Kingston, established a new housing subcommittee this year. "The conversation on housing is so broad that we thought it was important to create a dedicated space to address the wide range of housing issues," he says. The subcommittee falls under the Legislature's Health Committee because Criswell believes housing impacts areas like mental health, and the Legislature's priority is to support constituents holistically.
Both legislators note that Kingston is a hub for transportation and services, and Criswell credits former Kingston Legislator Phil Erner with making the UCAT county bus service free. "I think that was a really important lesson for us to learn, and we've seen the ridership increase exponentially," Criswell says. "We need to keep engaging with the community to understand what they truly need. There's an assumption that everyone has a car, but that's simply not the case."
Sadly, Kingston is not always as cosmopolitan as people dream. Shops open on side streets hoping to attract walk-in traffic with sandwich boards on Broadway, but it's not a truly walkable city. For all the sidewalk upgrades and bike lanes, car culture in Kingston is dominant and buses run too infrequently to be a reliable alternative. Kingston is a collection of neighborhoods and hamlets looking for connection.
As school reopened last month, the renovated Dietz Stadium reopened too, where generations have played sports and graduated. The Andretta Pool there and Kingston Point Beach were awarded $3.5 million through Governor Kathy Hochul's NY SWIMS grant for improvements and climate adaptations to save the beach from rising sea levels. On any given day, people are swimming, playing volleyball, jet skiing, polar plunging, and staring wistfully at the no-longer-so-polluted Hudson River.
People used to call Kingston a ghost town, but even with fewer shuttered shops and for-rent signs, the vibe is still haunted. Tread lightly.
