Urban Anomaly

Kingston

by Lynn Woods and photographs by Rob Penner, September 25, 2009

Located 90 miles from New York, Kingston is an urban anomaly in a rural region better known for its gentrified villages and sublime countryside. Everyone’s heard of Woodstock and the Catskill Mountains, but few outside Ulster County know about the small, industrial city on the Hudson. It’s the county seat, predominately working class, with a population of roughly 23,000. Driving down Broadway, the city’s main drag, you perceive a patchwork of tight little neighborhoods edged by a sprawling conflagration of gas stations and fast-food and drugstore chains—and maybe not much more.

If Kingston doesn’t always deliver a good first impression, it’s partly the fault of geography. Its attractions are spread out, scattered among three districts: Uptown, the oldest section of the city, which encompasses a two-block shopping arcade; the Rondout, a hilly waterfront district along the Rondout Creek; and Midtown, which contains the city’s industry and connects Uptown and the Rondout via the long central corridor of Broadway. Its neighborhoods are Balkanized by ravines, an arterial highway, and a railroad track slicing through the middle of town. One has to live here a while to discover the full range of assets: its 18th-century stone houses; the outdoor dining options in a row of photogenic 19th-century buildings fronting the Rondout Creek; leafy streets lined with Victorian, Queen Anne, and 1920s neocolonial houses; museums devoted to trolleys, the maritime history of the Hudson River, the Colonial era, and local history; monumental brick industrial buildings converted to artists’ lofts and small enterprises; a lively, well-supplied farmer’s market; and a delightfully landscaped park on the Hudson. There’s even a beach.

The city’s urban amenities—its neighborhood delis, weekly pick-up of recyclables, hour-and-a-half access to New York, and proximity to surrounding communities—are major draws. As car dependency becomes less fashionable, real estate prices remain comparatively high in surrounding areas, and people rediscover the value of community, Kingston has grown in appeal. A wave of newcomers is helping transform the city.

Take jazz singer Rebecca Martin, who moved to Kingston with her husband, bassist Larry Grenadier, in 2002. She got involved in the community after becoming frustrated with what she saw as the city’s lack of vision. “The planning and zoning is way outdated; people are holding fast to ways that just don’t work anymore,” she says. Martin formed a citizens’ action group for her ward, which has since been expanded citywide. Among her many initiatives is the Victory Gardens project (see “Backyard Triumph” in the May issue of Chronogram), which has spearheaded the planting of gardens at the city’s public schools.

A Liveable City
Kevin McEvoy, who with his wife Barbara Epstein divides his time between New York and an 18th-century stone house in Kingston, is the treasurer of the Kingston Land Trust, which is working with the developer of a large tract of land along the waterfront to create a trail system that would link the city’s parks. McEvoy, a history buff, has hosted walking tours of the city and volunteered as a docent at the Persen House, an 18th-century partially restored house and museum at the corner of John and Crown Streets that’s open to visitors for free. He and Epstein don’t have a car, so they walk and rely on the city’s bus service to get around. “The A bus gives you a grand tour of Kingston,” he says. “It runs every hour.”