We had The Great Depression. Then the “lite” version, aka The Great Recession. This looks to be bigger than both. We might call it The Great Resetting (or The Great Reset to save a little energy.) It will be interesting to see how we restart the economic engines of the world. What changes, voluntary and… Continue Reading
The Survival Garden
Victory gardens came about during World War II, following an idea by George Washington Carver. In March 1917, Charles Lathrop Pack organized the US National War Garden Commission and launched the war garden campaign. To support the home garden effort, a United States School Garden Army was launched through the Bureau of Education. Again in… Continue Reading
_________ in the Time of COVID-19
I’ve already seen one headline, “Love in the Time of COVID-19.” It just doesn’t have the flow of Love in the Time of Cholera, the 1985 novel by Gabriel García Márquez. (Nor is it as exotic as Spanish Influenza.) But don’t expect that to stop reporters, bloggers, and other writers from using the formulation, in… Continue Reading
Plagues and Economies
You know Covid-19, aka the coronavirus, is serious when authorities in Italy cancel top level soccer matches. (If you have season tickets for the New York Mets or have booked a flight for the Tokyo Olympics, you might look into force majeure.) In South Korea, cases have grown exponentially over the past few days,… Continue Reading
Season of Soap
My family is long past the mega gifting holiday scenario, so I decided to buy soap for everyone this year. Conveniently, my local soap shop, SallyeAnder, at 1 East Main Street in Beacon, is a couple hundred yards from my back door. My son Mack and I headed over the Sunday before Christmas and spent… Continue Reading
Bike Ride in Newburgh Tomorrow Night
There is a “Critical Mass” bicycle ride planned for 7:00 p.m., Friday, August 31, starting at Downing Park’s Shelter House cafe in Newburgh. A friend from my days in New York City, George Bliss, who helped me deliver my cycling magazine (by cargo bicycle, of course) is credited with being the first to use… Continue Reading
Bike Your Park a Success! Bonus Slide Show: Suckerfish Falls
Yesterday was a sunny Sunday, and my son Mack and I took advantage of the newly re-opened Denning’s Point bridge to bike the Beacon Loop Trail for the first time since the repair construction started. One of our favorite spots is Suckerfish Falls, just upstream of the South Avenue bridge and the old hat… Continue Reading
Weekend Slide Show: Beacon Spirit!
A few shots of the Spirit of Beacon Day parade, a couple down at Madame Brett Park, some misc. building shots, and my favorite water fountain ever. Click a photo to enter the slide show. Advance by clicking the arrow. Exit using the small x in the upper left corner.
Bike Your Park Day in Beacon!
This Saturday, September 30, is Bike Your Park Day, a day when lots of folks around the world will ride their bicycles to a park. Here in Beacon, Wigwam will host a ride that visits not one, not two, but four parks. And all in the space of a leisurely 5 or 6 miles,… Continue Reading
Beacon Set to Develop Another 40 Acres
We are also losing potential small businesses and light industry to Newburgh and other Hudson River cities, as most of our old industrial space is no longer available, slated to be developed into hundreds of residential “units.” At the former prison site, there is the potential for a number of local enterprises to operate… Continue Reading
Weekend Photo Dump: Marlboro, Seargent, & Madame Brett
Here are some photos from the past week. To start the slide show, click on a photo. Then, to move through, click the arrow. To exit, click the tiny x in the upper left corner.
Arrested Development
And this year’s Emmy Award nominees for Best Drama series are: Better Call Beacon The Beacon The Beacon’s Tale House of Beacon Stranger Beacon This is Beacon Beaconworld And the winner is…The Beacon’s Tale! Credited with single-handedly blazing a new tv genre, this urban planning procedural drama focuses on a small former river mill… Continue Reading
A Beautiful Blizzard in Beacon
I like a good blizzard. For one thing, it works nicely as a traffic-calming device. A big storm can also serve as a bit of relief from all the troubles we are facing, whether personal, or in the community, or the country, or the world. It’s a calling card from the planet, a reminder… Continue Reading
New Farm Market Pop-up on Main Street
Common Ground Farm, which this season took over running the Beacon Farmers Market currently located at the ferry dock across from the train station down at the riverfront, has recently opened a pop-up stand on Main Street next to Hudson Beach Glass. The farm’s mission is to provide food access and education to the entire… Continue Reading
“Long Term” Barge Anchorage Off Beacon’s Dennings Point?
The United States Coast Guard is proposing rules to establish 10 new anchorages in the Hudson River between Yonkers and Kingston. One of the sites proposed is directly off Dennings Point, with three others just south of the Newburgh Beacon Bridge. Currently there is one allowed anchorage on this stretch of the Hudson. These anchorages… Continue Reading
Beacon Sign Policy Makes No Sense
The Beacon Farmers Market, currently held every Sunday down at the waterfront near the ferry dock, is allowed to put signage up on city property advertising its existence. The Beacon Flea Market, held every Sunday in the parking lot on Henry Street, directly behind the Mobil gas station, is not allowed any signage other than… Continue Reading
Memorial Weekend Traffic Report
On holiday weekends like this, traffic in the real world gets crazy, but it tends to go way down here on Wigwam. So we’ll herald the unofficial opening of the summer season with another photo gallery. After the long weekend, we’ll plunge back into the fun stuff; parking, for instance, and development. Meanwhile, please enjoy… Continue Reading
Can Engineering Ingenuity Help Prevent Future Droughts in Beacon?
Beacon experienced severe drought conditions last year. The city faces drought conditions more frequently than neighboring municipalities because one of its main water sources sits way above it, in a reservoir at the top of Mt. Beacon. To recharge, it relies on precipitation, gaining water when it rains or snows directly into the reservoir, or… Continue Reading
Newburgh Beacon Bridge Walkway Closed Today (Wednesday)
Sorry for the late notice. The walkway was closed most of the day Tuesday as well. If you cross before 8am and return after about 4:30, you should be okay. The bridge authority has had signs up for a few days, though the wind blew them down on Tuesday. They also sent us a press… Continue Reading
Spring Interlude: Creek, River, Town
Spring has been breaking out big time in the past week, and it’s been a while since we did a Wigwam slide show. I’ve photographed most of these places many times. This time of year the light can change dramatically minute to minute, and the foliage day to day. Click on a thumbnail to start.… Continue Reading
Requiem For a Beacon Mill
After 202 years, one of the oldest standing mills in Dutchess County, built in 1814 at the corner of Main and East Main on the Fishkill Creek, is being demolished with little fanfare over the course of a beautiful week in April, 2016. I just hope someone is planning to save a few bits… Continue Reading
Bridge Closed Today & Other April Updates
“Я вижу Землю . Это так красиво.” (“I see Earth. It is so beautiful.”) Yuri Gagarin, April 12th, 1961 April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four. Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar. Sweet April Showers/ Do Spring May Flowers Thomas Tusser, 1597, A Hundred… Continue Reading
Planning Board Gives Green Light to New Gas Station on Main Street
Earlier this week Beacon’s planning board issued a Certificate of Appropriateness for a new gas station on the western end of town at the intersection of Main Street and Cross Street. Because the station will be in an historic district, the certificate was a required first step. The final site plan approval process “will… Continue Reading
Beacon Farmers Are Back To Work
Not that they ever completely stopped, but now the real action begins for our local farmers. We stopped in at Stony Kill at 79 Farmstead Lane off 9D, two miles north of the I-84 exit, to visit the Common Ground Farm fields and ran into farm manager Susan Paykin, who was in the greenhouse… Continue Reading
Beacon’s Public Works
It’s been fifteen years since the Beacon High School building was completed, and twenty since that great public works edifice, the Municipal Building, was dedicated in 1996. Now, rising smack in the midst of several hundred acres of former prime farmland, comes the latest structure paid for by the citizens of Beacon (we won’t count… Continue Reading