On March 4, tensions flared at a Beacon City Council meeting as 68 speakers debated over adopting a resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The room was split. While many there supported the resolution, a sizable group opposed it.
Chaos erupted when audience members objected to a man who compared resolution supporters to “people terrorizing their own citizens.” After the interruption, Mayor Lee Kyriacou reset the man’s three-minute time limit, prompting Neesee Lee—a Wallkill resident of Palestinian descent—to refuse her own limit, accusing Kyriacou of allowing racist remarks. After her time expired, Lee began to shout, and city administrator Chris White unplugged her microphone. Ultimately, after over three hours of public comments, the measure passed 5-0, with Kyriacou and Ward Two councilmember Jeff Domanski abstaining.
“The meeting was very emotional,” says White. “Some of our speakers simply wouldn’t acknowledge that there were time limits or rules. The council, at first, was not going to pass a resolution because they felt it’s not a local issue. After public comments, the majority passed it, mostly so we could get back to city business.”
According to Katie Hellmuth, founder of A Little Beacon Blog, who came out in support of the resolution, the meeting “brought out a lot of people who are normally quiet and afraid to speak, and they spoke. They brought local wounds to the podium. That’s why the ceasefire resolution became localized; everyone opened up about what it means for their lives here. They were sharing their experiences of racism in Beacon, which people don’t like to acknowledge.”
Hellmuth has lost roughly 2,500 followers on her blog’s Instagram since she began posting political content about Palestine. “When I started covering that, it was mostly reposting news, but I’ve also included my personal feelings. A Little Beacon Blog was always meant to be its own thing—it’s not just for Katie Hellmuth. But for this issue, I did step out. Someone said to me, ‘You broke through the fourth wall,’ because it was so hard to report on. I’m one of the only publications in the Hudson Valley who is publishing about it. It’d be nice if others did too.”
Development and Affordability
For journalist, editor, and podcaster Zach Rodgers, who produces the “Beaconites!” podcast, strain over the ceasefire represents a larger trend in Beacon. “Every so often there’s a progressive movement that will take hold on a specific issue,” says Rodgers. “The anger and the conflict does take a toll. I think we’ve seen it happen with some other issues, including Black Lives Matter—there was a reckoning at City Council during that. There’s this kind of interesting tension here between progressive elements and pragmatic considerations. It’s led to some big blowups.”
Rodgers has lived in Beacon since 2007. Through his podcast, he’s interviewed over 100 local figures, and he’s seen the city’s changes. “Beacon used to have poor-city problems, and now it has rich-city problems,” says Rodgers. “To me, one way to think about it is this: Since I moved here, once every two years there’s been an article about this cool town in the Hudson Valley that’s gritty, culturally interesting, creative, and affordable. This February, the New York Times put out an article about towns you can’t afford to live in. It’s kind of the opposite of what used to run about the city. Beacon retains a lot of its character, but it’s starting to lose diversity, including economic diversity and the cultural diversity that used to define this place.”
Last year, Jeff Simms, the Beacon editor for the Highlands Current, analyzed US census data to consider how changes in the city over the past two decades have impacted those with lower incomes. He found that approximately 30 percent of households in the city earned less than $50,000, whereas in 2000, around 75 percent of households earned less than $50,000 (adjusted for inflation).
As economic diversity shrinks, development and affordability have become pressing concerns for many. One of the larger housing projects currently underway in Beacon is the Edgewater apartment complex, which overlooks Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park.
By the end of 2025, Edgewater plans to have constructed a total of 246 rental apartment units at their seven-building apartment complex. And according to the City Administrator Chris White, the city is applying to the state to become a “Pro-Housing Community,” a designation required by New York State to be eligible for certain State grant funding without additional revenue or legislation.
Still, the issue is on everyone’s mind. “Affordability is a huge challenge, and no one seems to have the answer,” says George Mansfield, who recently concluded 14 years on the City Council. “Beacon doesn’t have deep enough pockets to incentivize developers. There are things we can do, but they run the risk of having no development at all because the numbers don’t work for developers, or people get scared off by too many requirements.”
According to Mansfield, it’s possible that the city can control zoning regulations to encourage affordable housing developments or require developers to allocate 10 percent of their units for affordable housing.
Navigating Entrepreneurship
In February, the state’s Cannabis Control Board approved 109 marijuana licenses, making the LotusWorks art gallery and wellness studio the first Beacon business to receive a cannabis license. (In mid-April Beacon restaurateur Kamel Jamal, who owns Beacon Bread Company and Ziatun, was also awarded a dispensary license.) LotusWorks will start planting its own crop in spring 2025, but until then, it will get buds, rosins, distillates, joints, and edibles from other processors.
“Part of the reason we were able to receive our license approval is because we are a minority and woman-owned business and social equity applicants,” notes co-owner Aaron Sanders. “We worked very hard to have this opportunity, and the State of New York and the City of Beacon are helping to rectify the years of unjust treatment and the uneven playing field that I have faced throughout my life, not only as a legacy cultivator but as a person of color.”
LotusWorks is currently closed for renovations as it prepares to reopen as a dispensary. Prior to this, the business only offered services on Saturdays and Sundays, reflecting the importance of weekend tourism for many Beacon businesses. “I think Beacon’s now a daytrip town,” says Bob Nevelus, a retired police officer turned Culinary Institute of America grad who has owned the Beacon Falls Cafe since 2008. “A lot of locals don’t really support local businesses; they go to Route 9, go to chains. Thank God for all the new people. Some of the old-timers here call them ‘citiots,’ but I don’t know. Those ‘citiots’ keep us in business. I call them good customers.”
However, even with an influx of tourists, running a business in Beacon presents its own set of hurdles. The limited availability and high cost of commercial real estate can pose a challenge for entrepreneurs. That’s why spots like the Hudson Valley Food Hall, an indoor market that leases out individual stalls to multiple food vendors under one roof. are so valuable “Myself included, none of us could afford the overhead of this space on our own to run a full restaurant,” says owner Marko Guzijan, who grew up in Beacon. “But you can ask someone to come into the food hall, and for a fairly low rent, they can open up.” Some of the eateries that started out in the food hall, like Momo Valley and the Elixxr Cafe, have gone on to start their own brick-and-mortar locations.
The most recent additions to the hall include Old Dhaka Coffee, Moreish, and Five Pennies Creamery. Guzijan makes sure that vendors don’t compete by offering the same foods, and he argues that diversity is the key to the hall’s success. “We’ve got six different languages spoken by chefs in the food hall, and we come from nine or ten different countries,” says Guzijan. “If you line up these vendors, we’re like the United Nations of food halls.”
Looking Forward
The city is about to begin $40 million of capital improvements through state and federal funding, such as road, sidewalk, water, and wastewater projects, as well as the rehabilitation of Fishkill and Teller avenues. There’s also the ongoing construction of a $14.7 million, centralized fire station. The all-electric, energy-efficient station, heated and cooled by a geothermal system, is on schedule for completion by late summer.
Dia Beacon, often cited as a major catalyst for the city’s rejuvenation since its opening in 2003, has commissioned landscape architect Sara Zewde of Studio Zewde to transform the museum’s eight back acres into a public outdoor space. The project aims to create an environment featuring meadows, native plants, walking paths, and areas for picnicking. The design also addresses climate change challenges, such as stormwater management, with features like underground tanks to collect and filter water. The project is expected to open to the public in 2025.
Since 1977, the annual Spirit of Beacon Day has been organized by a volunteer committee, taking place every last Sunday of September as a city-wide celebration featuring festivities and a parade. Ali T. Muhammad, a Beacon native serving as this year’s chair, aims to enhance inclusivity and community engagement for this year’s event. “People don’t understand how diverse this community is,” says Muhammad. “It’s whiter [than it was], but it’s still diverse.”
His goals include incorporating more cultural foods, introducing hip-hop and R&B music, hosting a DJ cypher session—a freestyle showcase where multiple DJs take turns mixing and scratching tracks—creating a picture board for sharing memories, and honoring deceased community members. “We’re hoping to attract more people from the areas of Beacon who don’t occupy Main Street because they don’t feel comfortable or because there are so many tourists,” says Muhammad. “Can you imagine growing up here your entire life and not supporting this because it doesn’t feel like home?”
Reflecting on Beacon’s past and present, Muhammad notes that, “Gentrification does help clean up and improve communities—to a certain extent. The problem is that it often, if not always, leads to the displacement of the people who have lived there for years. Especially with inflation, recessions, and pandemics, people can be pushed out immediately. What happened in Beacon was both beautiful and a mistake.”
This article appears in May 2024.
