One look at the King’s Inn and a reasonable person asks, “Does no one care what this neighborhood looks like?” It turns out a lot of people care. The 20 architects who have volunteered for the Business Alliance of Kingston’s July 16 design charrette have formed 10 teams, comprising local residents and business owners and a slew of newfangled green building professionals, a number of whom received their training at our own leading green-tech institution, SUNY Ulster. Some of the professionals are local, some are not, but you don’t need to be from Kingston to recognize the S.O.S signal the King’s Inn is sending out.
Will we find the answer to this blight over bagels, coffee, sketch pads and easels? Not sure, but when The Business Alliance conducted five focus groups this spring – tapping the wisdom of more than 100 residents, building owners, restaurateurs, artists and business owners – we heard over and again that “someone should do something, NOW.” When we pressed for specifics, we heard that Kingstonians want to embrace their evolving image as friendly to the arts, and as an incubator for a re-purposed economy fueled by solar and green tech companies. Anything to encourage more artists and other professionals to move here would be a good thing, they said. Artists certainly include creative people like the Digital Corridor advocates and the cluster of New Media people bustling around in 721 Media Center in the Ellenbogens’ lovely space. They’re here already, we just need to encourage and improve the environment that drew them here so that others will follow.
We’ve been told it’s premature to host a design charrette when there’s no developer in sight. We can’t dress up the King’s Inn when potential investors come looking; it looks awful. What we can do is demonstrate the tremendous human capital that’s invested in Kingston, even if our real estate hasn’t caught up yet. Developers need to see market potential for an investment, and on Friday we’re going to illustrate that we’re here, we welcome others here, and we want this place to work again. We recognize the serious financial strain the city is under, but more drug stores and dollar stores are not the answer; let’s look at some new, fresh ideas for what could work.
Pat Courtney Strong
President, Business Alliance of Kingston
