We’ve
all been reading about the increasing opportunities for family fun throughout
the Hudson Valley, mostly in state parks and other rural areas. We’ve also
noted how the City of Newburgh is planning recreation activities for the summer
season that will comply with social distancing recommendations, including a Slow
Streets/Play Streets model to help people safely engage in recreational
activities outdoors in the city.
What’s
happening in other Hudson Valley cities? While formal announcements have not
yet been made in Kingston, Middletown or Poughkeepsie, community groups,
information sites, and business associations have been safely building the
number of urban opportunities for getting the family out and about.
Kingston
Mayor Steve Noble has introduced an outdoor dining
season, where restaurants and retail businesses can utilize streets and
sidewalks for dining, on Saturdays in Uptown. A growing number of spots also
have outdoor seating in parking lots and along sidewalks around the city.
Even better, Kingston Beach on the Hudson is open, with crowd
limitations and masks required except when swimming, and most of the City’s
parks are open, again with social distancing rules and masks required. There’s
even a constantly updating calendar of events – from Catskill Mountain Railroad
open-air rides to flea markets and free outdoor movies in the area – at http://kingstonhappenings.org/.
In Poughkeepsie, parks are also opening, along with a number of
restaurants with outdoor seating. The city has set up two initiatives to help
people through this time, PKGOForward and https://www.pkisopen.com/. Parks and playgrounds are open, with the same advisories as
you’ll find throughout the state. They’re still working towards a working
calendar.
Middletown
recently opened its city offices, and is also urging everyone to utilize parks
and playgrounds with sparing care. Some restaurants are open with outdoor
seating. By and large, they’ve been relying on Orange County for information,
which to date has stressed the safe reopenings of farmers’ markets and farms.
In
Hudson, the city has put together a Shared Streets initiative for keeping
restaurants open on their main Warren Street through town, and are starting to
build a calendar of virtual and safely distanced events for the coming month.
The
City of Beacon set up a working group of governmental officials and local
business owners to safely open a number of their Main Street restaurants on to
the street, and have also been monitoring the public’s use of the city’s parks
and playgrounds.
In
Newburgh, the City’s been using the closings to do a great deal of maintenance
work, but also looking around the globe for interesting ideas for supporting
outdoor activities in a creative way. Downing Park is closed to vehicles and
most basketball hoops are gone for the time being, although the water features
at Audrey Carey Park are open, as are restaurants in the Liberty Street area,
which is carless on many evenings.
Additional
City-wide activities being explored include outdoor exercise classes, socially
distanced entertainment, and family-friendly events, including drive-in movies
for everyone including people who do not have cars.
Everywhere,
governments and community leaders are stressing that people order takeout and
eat picnic-style, or at home, whenever possible, to socially distance, and to
wear masks when outside the home. Keep abreast of changes through municipal
Facebook pages… things are changing weekly.