07/29/2009 (6:10 am)
The little town that could (*depending on your definition of “couldâ€)
When we first bought our house in Rosendale, we were in the middle of a legal battle with our landlord in the East Village. For eight months, we were “weekenders,†schlepping back and forth, unsure whether we’d ultimately reside in the house on Main Street, or rent it out while we remained in Manhattan. In the end, we lost our cheap, incredible, spacious loft – 100 square feet larger than our house! – and it went to hipster French filmmaker Michel Gondry for A LOT OF MONEY. Like, $6,600 a month.
A few of the times I traveled to the city for our appointments in housing court, I wore either my Rosendale Café t-shirt, or the one that reads “Rosendale Rocks.†Without fail, every time, people stopped me on the street. “I love Rosendale!†they’d say, then rattle off a few businesses they frequented – the 60-year-old family-run indie movie theater, the Rosendale Café, the bike shop, the cheese shop that doubles as a second-hand store…
I am greeted with the same reaction when I tell people in Woodstock, New Paltz, Saugerties, Rhinebeck, and other local towns that I live here. “Rosendale is GREAT!†they exclaim.
While I tend to agree, there’s something funny about that: namely, we’re talking about a town that can barely keep a handful of storefronts open at a time, that can’t support a grocery store, that has scarce and poorly advertised parking for those who might want to come shop and eat and watch movies. We’ve got The Shopping Mall that Time Forgot, aka Fann’s Plaza, with an abandoned supermarket and Fotomat booth, and only a few shops operating. Our video store just went out of business, and our hardware store will be history by Friday.
Yet the buzz about Rosendale is strong, and has been for years. I first heard it in 2000 when I spent a year in Rhinebeck, and the talk has been loud since way before that. This dispite the fact that the town barely thrives. Again and again, it comes close to taking off, but then slips back into…what? Actually, a fun place to live if you’re into artsy, progressive community with quirky, colorful characters, and if you’re not necessarily mainstream in your tastes and lifestyle.
Rosendale has got more than a few things to recommend it by – that movie theater, a few good restaurants, a Sunday farmer’s market, a weekend crafts market, a rail trail, and festivals (including one devoted to pickles) that bring people from miles around. But Beacon or Cold Spring it’s not.
Everyone here seems to have a different theory as to why the town keeps getting stuck, and an idea of how they’d like it to grow and develop. Some would like it to remain just as it is. Others would like it to become Beacon, Cold Spring, or Hudson. Or, Woodstock. In the coming weeks, I’ll be asking various people about their visions for this town, and their opinions about the way it should grow. Feel free to add your voice to the conversation in the comments.
4 Comments »
Comment by Sniper
If owners of properties like Fann’s plaza kept up with the times, then Rosendale would have been the center of commerce for at least half of New Paltz all the way to the edge of the city of Kingston. Stone Ridge would not have been able to support a strip mall if Rosnedale lived up to its potential. Now Rosendale will have to wait until ‘good’ owners update places like Fann’s Plaza, and Rosendale will have to wait until the other area shopping centers fall behind the times.
Comment by sari
I hope we don’t have to wait too long…
Comment by MarkerB
I believe safety is a factor in Rosendale not getting the tourism of Woodstock and Rhinebeck. The sidewalks are too narrow, and vehicles travel too fast. It just doesn’t feel comfortable walking down the north side of the street, and I don’t even have any children in tow. A few inches from me is an onslaught of emergency vehicles and 18-wheelers zipping by at high speeds.
While all three towns have state roads running through them, only Rosendale has this speeding problem. Yet, somehow we have the highest police-car per capita of all the towns. It doesn’t add up.
We also have the ugliest strip mall area of all those town. Our sweet little town’s entrance is marred by crappy mall-ettes featuring a whopping four gas stations, one which is now a monstrous parking lot for huge fuel tanker trucks. “Business Development” seems to promote the concept of making money, and yet it mostly delivers an end to small tourist/culture businesses.
Comment by ALB
What I don’t understand is why people feel compelled to transform Rosendale into a tourist destination for people, WHY they want what many describe as over-development. Yes, it would be nice if Rosendalians were capable of supporting their own grocery store, but it has been tried multiple times. Rosendale is loved because it is small, because it is rusty and quaint. Building and having it “take off” would literally kill the reason why people love it. I am afraid that those with a vision of Rosendale would not be able to balance things out. Rosendale should work on keeping the stores it has, but not necessarily opening lots more.
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