SPEND Mr. Reinhardt Power of goes to movement TIME Saugerties WISELY with Kingston After Dark Almanac Weekly NIGHT LIFE > 12 SCHOOLS > 4 WOMEN’S HISTORY > 11 THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2019 VOLUME 14; ISSUE 12 ULSTER PUBLISHING, INC. WWW.HUDSONVALLEYONE.COM KINGSTON TIMES ONE DOLLAR FIFTY CENTS In her own right Lacey Delgado’s no carpetbagger BY JESSE J. SMITH DRAWING BY PATRICK PELLICANO Lacey Delgado. Planet Wings Park hen Anthony Delgado secured the “Everybody has a right to their own memories,” Democratic Party Wnomination to take on incumbent Re- declares dissident Midtown artists group publican John Faso for his 19th Congres- sional District seat, some political insiders n announcing plans to realign The feeling is apparently especially strong nary judgments, has fond memories of expressed concern. The Harvard educated a dangerous Broadway intersection in Midtown’s artistic community, in patronizing Planet Wings for breakfast lawyer was a charismatic candidate who early this month, Kingston mayor which there’s strong dissent to practically practically every early afternoon. “It had had displayed his political chops in a Steve Noble made reference to “the anything that smacks of establishment killer hot sauce,” he said. “I used to call tumultuous seven-way primary. But he I historic nature of this property,” site thinking. it The Poor Man’s Sriracha. Better than was a Schenectady native, born outside of the central post office demolished in It’s not as though they didn’t like the Texas Pete.” the district. He’d moved to Rhinebeck 1970. “Built in 1908, the post office was old post office, but “Everybody has a right He and his friends considered several from Montclair New Jersey shortly before an architectural marvel,” wrote Noble. “Its to their own memories,” alternative fast-food incarnations for launching his campaign after spending subsequent demolition to make way for one of the dissident Midtown artists commemoration, he said. The Jack in the the previous decade and a half pursuing a fast-food restaurant continues to haunt declared. Box got little support, the ice-cream joint a career as a rapper in Los Angles and a the city known for its historic character. “The old post office is so yesterday,” none. Dunkin’ Donuts was criticized for corporate litigator. The “Carpetbagger” The property most recently housed a opined another middle-aged artist who letting its 2017 plan to take over the site label had helped sink previous Democratic Planet Wings.” declined to give his name because “I fell through. efforts to take the 19th district seat and The mayor urged the acquisition of don’t want the Code Enforcement Nazis Finally, the group commissioned Pat- some feared it would stick this time too. the property for public use and an effort bursting into my studio.” rick Pellicano to do a rough sketch of what But for Lacey Delgado, the candidate’s wife “to design the space in a way that honors This artist, whose several years of they had in mind for a commemoration. and frequent companion on the campaign this lost historic gem.” washing dishes in Kingston’s trendier The mayor was unavailable for imme- trail, the “outsider” label rang hollow and Common council majority leader eateries has given him a taste for culi- diate comment. (continued on page 2) Reynolds Scott-Childress backed the mayor’s proposal, saying reconfiguration of the complex and difficult intersection 34 would occupy a newly constructed was crucial to improving the safety of building on the 15-acre site. A portion Midtown drivers, pedestrians and bicy- Rupco prevails of the apartments would be set aside for clists. In his email, Noble said 29 crashes vulnerable populations, including the were reported at the intersection over the formerly homeless, those with substance past five years, including seven in which Judge overturns city abuse and other behavioral health issues, injuries were reported disabled veterans and the frail elderly. Scott-Childress also said the neigh- planning board’s vote BY JESSE J. SMITH The project proposes on-site support borhood needed more green space, and services including nursing staff to pro- that “the small park there will be an extra State Supreme Court citing density, zoning, environmental and vide the support needed for residents to boon to area residents.” ruling will put Rupco’s pro- infrastructure issues. live independently. Rupco CEO Kevin Kingstonians old enough to have fond posal to build 66 units of Landmark Place would create 66 O’Connor has said that the project would memories of the old post office torn down A affordable senior housing studio and one-bedroom apartments for provide badly needed permanent sup- a half-century ago overwhelmingly favor at the site of the former low-income adults over the age of 55. The (continued on page 7) a symbolic tribute to it in the small park Kingston Alms House back before the development would be located at the site that will be created there. But some in city’s planning board. The decision by of the former Kingston Alms House at the younger generations don’t share the judge Richard Mott comes six months 300 Flatbush Avenue. nostalgic feeling for a landmark whose after the board voted to deny site-plan ap- Some 32 units would be located in grandeur they never directly experienced. proval for the proposed Landmark Place, the former Alms House itself. Another 2 THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2019 KINGSTON TIMES In her own right Continued from Page 1 the couple’s move to the Hudson Valley felt less like an opportunity and more like homecoming. “For us, it was always about coming back home and about [the Hudson Valley] being both of our homes,” says Lacey Delgado sipping a latte on a lunch break in Rhinebeck’s Bread Alone bakery. “That’s not a political narrative, it’s actually our narrative. That’s the reality of our story and the reality of our lives.” Lacey Delgado’s narrative runs squarely through Ulster County and along fault lines of race and com- munity that have informed her work as a filmmaker and her interest in using the arts to make an impact on issues she cares about. Delgado tells her story in her 2014 film Little White Lie which aired on the PBS documentary film series “Independent Lens.” Born Lacey Schwartz in 1977 she grew up the child of CPA father and a business-owner mother who had migrated first to Accord in Ulster County, then to Woodstock from Brooklyn in the early 70’s. The film details her upbringing in a close knit Jewish family and the questions about her identity that began to gnaw at her as a youth. Growing up, Delgado said, people The Delgado family. frequently assumed that she was black or questioned her racial identity with the query “What are you?” Delgado would explain that she was white, Jewish She was, she said, a bookish kid who grew up near the shared status as law students with ambitions in the and owed her bronze complexion and curly hair to Woodstock Golf Club and absorbed the artsy-rural arts and a desire to make an impact on the world. a Sicilian grandfather. When she went to college at atmosphere of the town. “We both dealt with law school in similar ways,” Georgetown University she was invited — based on “I didn’t realize until I went away to college how recalls Delgado. “We were using the arts to find our a picture — to join the Black Students’ Association much Woodstock had had an impact on me and how way through the issues that we cared about.” and began identifying as a black woman. But it was much a different world it was from a lot of people who After graduation , the couple parted ways for not until midway through her freshman year that had grown up in a more conventional space,” recalls eight years. Antonio Delgado moved to Los Angeles she confronted her mother and learned the truth, Delgado of her Woodstock to pursue a career as a rapper that she was conceived through a long-running affair upbringing. “It’s just a dif- and hip-hop executive. Lacey between her mother and an African American man ferent way of thinking about ‘For us, it was always about took up residence in New York that she’d met while working at a New York City Park a lot of things.” City where she worked on film just before her marriage. In Little White Lie Delgado At Kingston High School coming back home and and TV projects while mak- uses home movies, footage from therapy sessions she Delgado began to focus on [ ] ing ends meet as a teacher recorded in college and interviews to tell the story of a career in the law after she about the Hudson Valley in city schools and a D.J. In her upbringing, including the dissolution of her par- became a “die hard” member being both of our homes... 2011, they reconnected and ent’s marriage when she was a teen and the painful of the mock trial team headed married in a ceremony at the emergence of a family secret that had been hiding in by legendary KHS teacher, That’s the reality of our story Katterskill Inn and Farm in plain sight her entire life. the late Emil “Butch” Zullo. Catskill. The couple lived in “For my own health I needed to go through that Zullo’s Mock trial teams won a and the reality of our lives...’ New York City and Montclair process,” said Delgado of her decision to tell such a string of state championships, while Antonio took up legal deeply intimate story on film.