[Leica] Recession/Crisis in the Hudson Valley

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Valley

The Hudson Valley seems to describe what's north of Westchester - not NYC.
Upstate that's known as.  Seems like you are including both.
Not too much Ichabod Crane stuff going on around here.
No Last of the Mohicans.
I go running through Riverside Park with two tomahawks they call the swat
team. Those guys have progressed past tomahawks.


Mark William Rabiner



> From: Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin at optonline.net>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:03:13 -0400
> To: <lug at leica-users.org>
> Cc: Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin at optonline.net>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Recession/Crisis in the Hudson Valley
> 
> 
> On Apr 14, 2009, at 5:14 PM, Bruce wrote:
> 
>> but what has replaced this decline? or has youth just moved away, and
>> whereto?
> 
> 
> The population in most of the communities has remained stable or
> slightly declined for several decades. Young people see no future in
> staying near home unless there is a family business they can inherit.
> Towns near NYC have become bedroom communities for commuters. They
> have no industrial base. There are several large tech companies  in
> the region, most notably IBM, but they offer employment to the
> intellectual few. And even they have outsourced many jobs to Asia.
> Towns further away from big cities have simply declined. Property in
> upstate NY is comparatively cheap. Cities as far west as Rochester
> are suffering the fallout from Kodak layoffs and the bankruptcy of
> Global Crossing. Most of my son's 1985 and daughter's 1990 high
> school classes moved away. Following college a substantial number
> went into New York's financial industry to be in the center of the
> action - and you know where that got most of us. After a stint in the
> Navy during the first Iraq war, my son got an MBA from the Univ. of
> Indiana business school and ended up running a portion of Sony/
> Ericsson's US television operation, based in Atlanta. My daughter
> ended up a TV writer/producer for an ABC affiliate station in a major
> market. My next door neighbor's kid is a Microsoft millionaire and
> 3000 miles from home. The average distance from us of members of our
> immediate family is 400 miles. And that is an improvement. For a
> while it was over 2000 miles.
> 
> The tragedy is that the Hudson Valley is an incomparably beautiful
> area. The river cuts through the Appalachian mountain range and
> presents vistas equal to the best of the Norwegian fjords. My
> Norwegian wife certifies that this is a fact. It has been called the
> most picturesque waterway in America and nurtured the first purely
> native art movement, the "Hudson River" school. I've cruised down the
> Rhine and the Hudson and the Hudson is far prettier - but it has only
> one castle and that made of concrete. It does have the summer homes
> of the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Roosevelts on the shore to make
> up for being castle impaired. European photographers, if you doubt my
> assertion, take a trip on the Hudson and see for yourself.
> 
> In fact, as soon as I finish editing the 20,000 or so photos I've
> spent the past year scanning into iPhoto, many of the Hudson Valley,
> I'll start posting them.
> 
> Larry Z
> 
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