The canopies are down

Snow with and without canopies.

I live in the Kingston Stockade District. The Pike Plan canopies were up for 50 years, and underwent a rehab around 2011 that was not the greatest quality. The lack of commitment to repair meant that some parts were held up with temporary jacks while others were in perfect shape. The design was not one single long wrap around, but had details roughly corresponding to the store fronts they were attached to. In fact they could have been painted to match the schemes of the buildings they were attached to, had more signage built on them, etc. But nobody was in charge of this kind of urban planning. 

This part of Kingston was hit hard as shopping centers like Kingston Plaza, just down the hill, with canopies (!) and huge anchor stores like Ames and Grand Union were sucking the life out of it. It only got worse as just to the north of Kingston, Rt. 9W developed an impressive number of customer-attracting shopping centers. Most of them are doing OK except for the Hudson Valley Mall, where I take the kids to instead of Headless Horseman for Halloween because it's so ghostly.

Everyone complains about parking in Kingston, but nobody wants to walk up the hill from Kingston Plaza, or park out of the range of the meters, or walk or bike. I found an article from 1926 complaining about parking in uptown, so it's nothing new. There are two or three "ghost" parking lots attached to undeveloped properties that I would have just eminent-domained if I had my druthers.

 Is there more light uptown? Does it look wider? It does! Will it bring back the kind of brick & mortar shops of the past? I don't see that happening. That's the economy not the canopies. 50 years of uptown publicity featuring the canopies is now outdated. There's a plaque on Wall & John St on the Kinsley Hotel extolling the Pike Plan that will need an apology underneath it.

As it is, with longtime quality venue BSP closed, the sidewalk basically rolls up here around 4:30pm.

 Historic photos do show awnings that used to be up, and they will be sporadically returned. We'll see!
It'll be a while before the big scar of housing plastic that runs where the canopies were attached is gone, surfaces reunited, paint jobs jobbed etc. Some money is allocated to help with that, but it's not going to be enough  for more than a start on repairs. Obviously Bender should shell out some cash to put up awnings, but charity is not one of his strong suits, although, he is responsible for housing the Kingston Library while their building is being renovated. There was a meeting about what the future might bring in terms of sttreetscape, there needs to be more of them.