Kingston faces enormous challenges, but has some remarkable resources, not least its residents, their talents, commitment and community involvement. Transition looks to inform and foster collaboration among these multiple initiatives, as well as create a space for personal growth as we work together to create a better place for all.
Conversations at our monthly meetings reflect ongoing concerns in the community. Housing continues to be a huge issue, growing larger daily as more and more people come to Kingston and the surrounding area, inflating property prices and turning tenants out of affordable housing. Chiz’s Heart Street has to move. We have been warned for a long time about the perils of gentrification and displacement, but we see it now happening here at supersonic speed. Transition participants have been sharing what is being done to help. The $1m anti displacement grant from Enterprise Community Partners may be used to create short term emergency housing for the homeless, as well as help fund the development of a new form-based zoning code that will require input from the community. RUPCO’s Landmark Place is now accepting applications; there is a proposal for mixed income and workforce housing above Golden Hill; and we now have the rule that all proposed housing developments must include a percentage of affordable housing.
Past meetings have also introduced the Kingston Equitable Internet Initiative, now in the process of its first Digital Stewards training program; Citizens for Local Power’s fight against Central Hudson’s rate raise; Tilda’s Kitchen’s Pay it Forward program; Seed Song Farm’s Farm Feed Your Neighbor program, among many more. Bring your idea or initiative to share, find collaborators and friends at our meeting on April 8th.
