SPEND On the ballot Integrity Toward the playoffs Dems drop unit TIME Stockade FC challenge to DA’s Offi ce ties Hartford to Barnett’s appoints panel WISELY keep unbeaten petitions to look into with streak alive Almanac some cases Weekly ELECTION 2019 > 3 CRIME > 4 SPORTS > 11 THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2019 VOLUME 14; ISSUE 25 ULSTER PUBLISHING, INC. WWW.HUDSONVALLEYONE.COM KINGSTON TIMES ONE DOLLAR FIFTY CENTS BUSINESS CITY GOVERNMENT weekend. The passage of the law follows a two- IT’S THE ECONOMY year campaign by housing activists in New Geddy Sveikauskas York City and Upstate who formed a coali- Reform for renters tion to lobby for reform both in Albany and in communities statewide. That coalition was instrumental in flipping several Sen- Tenants’ rights significantly expanded ate seats — including some in the Hudson Valley — thus breaking Republicans’ Movin’ by new state legislation BY JESSE J. SMITH decades-long hold on the chamber and clearing the way for a flood of progressive ajor changes to New tection Act will also open the door, for legislation. The renters’ rights bills faced York’s housing laws could the first time, to rent stabilization laws fierce opposition from commercial real on up offer additional protec- in upstate communities. The package of estate interests, traditionally one of New tions to renters in Ulster bills emerged from a deal between the York’s most powerful lobbies. wo Kingston projects County. The revamped state Assembly and Senate and was signed “It really was a matter of unifying M years in the making marked version of 1974’s Emergency Tenant Pro- into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the (continued on page 2) significant milestones this week, taking important and remember those who were buried T COMMUNITY steps toward their larger here “with gratitude and sorrow.” The ambitions. In doing so, they provided clues Rev. Evelyn Clarke poured a libation in about the new directions toward which acknowledgement of “those who made the Ulster County economy is evolving. the Middle Passage, who were sold on They are harbingers of change. the auction block, those who had their On Monday, architect Scott Dutton’s children snatched from their arms, who 68,944-square-foot Fuller building at 45 labored in grist and sawmills, who built Pine Grove Ave. hosted Mayor Steve No- the houses of stone that stand today as a ble’s announcement of the expansion of monument to them. … Rise up and live embedded business intelligence software in us and we will not fail to honor you,” analytics firm Exago. A longtime occupant Clarke intoned. of office space on the corner of Wall and Odell Winfield, director and board John streets, Connecticut-headquartered chair of the Library at the A.J. Wil- Exago is moving its Kingston jobs to the liams-Myers African Roots Center, said Fuller building. It will occupy 8,800 with streets and buildings named after square feet on the third floor of the totally slaveholders, African Americans needed renovated former historic needle-trades to reclaim their space. “We need to watch and hat-making plant, formerly one of over our ancestors … this is about a war Kingston’s largest factories employing against bad history,” he said. Historian hundreds of people. Exago, which cur- Ford, now 101, was seated in the front row rently employs 63 people between its two and briefly spoke, as did Steve Rosenberg, locations, said it will employ 40 in its new PHYLLIS McCABE executive director at The Scenic Hudson Kingston space and expects to add 25 more The women’s group “Good Gourd” performed music and a water ceremony to bless Land Trust, which contributed $40,000 the burial ground. in the next two years. to the fundraising effort; KLT Executive On Tuesday, developer Charles Blaich- Director Julia Farr; Tyrone Wilson, ex- man formally opened the Hotel Kinsley, ecutive director of Harambee; and Joe Kingston’s first boutique hotel, at the Sacred soil Diamond, an archaeologist and professor former bank building at 301 Wall St. in at SUNY New Paltz. the Stockade — directly across John Street Ceremony celebrates protection of In 1990, Ford and Diamond walked from the space Exago will now be vacating. down the street and realized 157 Pine, the The hotel portion of the Kinsley will be Pine Street burial ground BY LYNN WOODS very deep back yard of which extends back opening in the coming weeks and is now 225 feet, matched the site of “the coloured accepting reservations. The vision behind early 30 years after organizer Micah Blumenthal conducted burial ground” that Ford had noticed was the place is in diametric contrast to the city historian Edwin a prayerful mediation, encouraging the inscribed on an 1870 map of Kingston, now-numerous standard cookie-cutter Ford first identified an crowd to place one hand on the ground (continued on page 8) (continued on page 15) NAfrican-American burial ground on Pine Street and after repeated attempts by local historians to protect the site failed, it’s finally hap- FACES OF KINGSTON pened. The Kingston Land Trust (KLT), in Morgan Y. Evans partnership with Harambee, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and celebrating African-American history, has acquired the historic site at 157 Pine. Within a mere six months, it raised $140,000 to purchase Shawna-Marie and preserve the foreclosed property, which has a dilapidated house on the site. The deal closed on May 23, and last Elizabeth Brown Saturday morning, the now-recognized aces of Kingston is a old so it’s been about 24 years sacred ground was officially sanctified chance for all of us to know one now. At three years old my family by five gourd-shaking, turbaned women another better and celebrate the moved to Delaware for my father’s in white, who led a crowd of 100 people wonderful folks in our midst. job. We lived there for a while and to the shady, overgrown backyard in a F This week the delightful then moved to Auburn, N.Y. and “Community Gratitude” ceremony. 38-year-old Shawna-Marie Elizabeth then back to Kingston. Kingston Kingston resident, activist and arts Brown joins us to share her feelings and definitely has always been home, experiences. almost my entire family lives here. Morgan Y. Evans: How long have you MYE: What is your earliest fond lived in Kingston? memory of here? One of my earliest fond Shawna: I’ve been back in Kingston since I Shawna: MORGAN Y. EVANS was about 14 years (continued on page 7) Shawna-Marie Elizabeth Brown. 2 THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2019 KINGSTON TIMES Reform for renters Continued from Page 1 communities around the idea that tenants in every zip code deserve protection,” said Rebecca Garrard, chief housing organizer for the progressive group Citizen Action of New York and the Upstate coordinator of the Housing Justice Campaign. “This is a case where people power won out over lobbying dollars.” The new laws strengthen existing protections, or create new ones for renters statewide. The laws apply to all rental properties. The new provisions include: • Limiting security deposits to one month’s rent. The new law also requires landlords to provide a detailed explanation, in writing, if they choose not to return the deposit. • Stronger protections against “retaliatory evic- tion.” Tenants can challenge an eviction by demon- strating that the action was taken in retaliation for complaints about building conditions. Previously, the law only protected tenants who made a complaint to a government agency, like a municipal building department. The new law allows tenants to claim retaliation based on complaints to the landlord or PHYLLIS McCABE building superintendent. • Establishes a stay of eviction based on hardship. Courts may stay an eviction for up to one year if the Face of determination tenant can demonstrate that they cannot find similar housing in the neighborhood and that the eviction VICTORIA MCCARTHY OF MOUNT TREMPER, a member of Sport of Iron gym in Kingston, prepares to would produce some kind of hardship like limiting lift 308 pounds in the open division of the New York State Powerlifting Championships last weekend. Some their access to healthcare or requiring children to 150 men and women competed in the offi cial USA Powerlifting event. change school districts in the middle of the school year. The hardship provision applies to eviction for any purpose, including nonpayment of rent. Kingston Tenants Union. “When we testified about it ommon Council Majority Leader Rennie • Bans the use of “blacklists” of purportedly at the state Senate, I feel like that was a tipping point.” Scott-Childress (D-Ward 3) expressed cautious troublesome tenants. For the past decade, Kingston In Kingston, the Common Council passed a me- Csupport for rent regulation, but said he still Landlord Support has maintained such a list, using morializing resolution has questions about public records of evictions. signaling support for the [ ] what powers commu- • Makes unlawful evictions, such as when a land- reforms; Mayor Steve ‘ This bill does nothing to nities would actually lord clears out and apartment and changes the locks Noble hailed the passage contribute to the development of have to regulate rents. while a tenant is out, a misdemeanor crime punishable of the bill. It will now Scott-Childress added by fines of up to $10,000. be up lawmakers in the aff ordable housing. Nothing at all.’ that rent regulation • Requires landlords to provide 30 days notice various Ulster County had to be viewed in the to tenants if they plan to raise the rent by more than municipalities to decide — Mike Kelly, New York State context of a holistic 5 percent or do not plan to renew the lease.