Why Safe Harbors Is a Bad Idea - Revised

July 22 UPDATE:
A few days have passed with this issue clearly a hotbed. I wanted to pass along some information which will help you understand why the City of Kingston is over-saturated with low income and subsidized housing. Let's look at the 2010 numbers for Ulster County for rentals. For the entire County, nearly 42% of all subsidized rentals are in the City of Kingston. Another fact is nearly 52% of all homes are rental properties in the City of Kingston which is well above the national average. In addition, studies have shown that owner occupied neighborhoods tend to be more stable and have less crime. I would be interested to study the rate of rentals in midtown compared to owner occupied homes. If you are interested in reading this report on Rentals in Ulster County here is the link:

http://www.co.ulster.ny.us/planning/ucpb/house/rental/rent2010.pdf

Where Safe Harbors may very well be a success in Newburgh I do not believe it is the right thing for our Broadway corridor. There are talks of a BID (Business Improvement District) which would allow the possibilities for public/private partnerships to re-energize this entire corridor in the future. Agreeing to a project like this now is foolish planning. Where the Kings Inn is an eyesore now, it will be coming down in the fall, the asbestos will be long gone and we will have a clean site ready to go.


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July 20: I have to go on record to say that the Safe Harbors proposal for the Kings Inn site is a BAD IDEA.
The City of Kingston has suffered from an overwhelming percentage of affordable housing which needs to be addressed. We have a golden opportunity to recapture a valuable location along our Broadway business corridor. That's right, business corridor, not another housing project. The lack of vision, and taking the easy way out instead of solid economic growth can no longer continue.

I hope that my fellow Council members recognize this and urge the Kings Inn Committee and the Mayor that this is not acceptable.