KINGSTON – Mayor Shayne Gallo of Kingston is seeking a second term in office. He made the official announcement late Monday afternoon in Midtown, at the site of the former King’s Inn welfare motel. Nearly 200 supporters showed up.
Gallo chose the blighted vacant lot to highlight revitalization currently underway along the Broadway corridor, which includes plans for business, education, arts and technology development, dubbed the “B.E.A.T. Initiative.”
“Four years ago, when I stood here across the street, there were
an average of eight to 10 people clocking or selling drugs; you don’t
see them over there right now, because of the hard work of [Police] Chief
Tinti,” Gallo said. “Also too, you saw a number of prostitutes
gracing the neighborhood, etcetera, and I am proud to say with the contributions
of Chief Tinti and the hard work of the men and women of the Kingston
Police Department that’s not the case anymore. What you have here
is a dramatically different landscape.”
Vacant storefronts are now thriving with over $2 million in private sector investment, $4 million from Governor Cuomo, and $250,000 from Central Hudson, Gallo said.
Gallo picked the site of a former welfare motel for the announcement, highlighting his
revitalization initiative
As for the former King’s Inn site, once the city’s worst eyesore, Gallo spoke of new investors to develop the site, with secondary proposals lined up, in case the deal falls through. Since demolition several years ago, the vacant lot has been used for farmer’s market and overflow UPAC parking.
The mayor’s 15-minute rundown of his first-term achievements was punctuated by Midtown revitalization, but also Uptown and Downtown areas, including interest in developing a new parking garage for the Stockade district, with motel and commercial space, currently in disuse and nicknamed by Gallo as “the crater.”
“Four years ago, I held up a mirror during the campaign, and I saw a community in that mirror,” Gallo said, “I saw our assets and I saw our history, how proud we were as our state’s first capitol,” he recalled. “Let’s continue to work together to make this a model city. History is just our beginning.”
