By Jeffrey Page

Big changes are coming to Warwick.

Almost directly across the road from one supermarket on Route 94 will be a second supermarket, and there will be other new businesses along 94 just outside the Village of Warwick. Add to this the existing retail shops, car dealers, garden shops, machine rentals, etc. and you can understand three major concerns.

One is traffic. A second is the effect of new development on the downtown commercial area of the village. A third is the changing nature of the town and village. Some people say enough is enough. Others are OK with it.

Last month, a man began his letter to the editor of The Warwick Advertiser with a provocative thought: “I wonder how different Warwick would be if the residents back in, say, 1960 had decided ‘no more development.’”

He ended with a rhetorical question, and his answer to it. “Would Warwick be a better place? I don’t think so.”

And so, a modest proposal: Replace the word “Warwick” with the word “Wallkill” and read the letter again. Make other changes if you wish. Here’s how it sounded when I tried it:

I wonder how different Wallkill would be if the residents back in, say, 1960 had decided “no more development.”

Would Wallkill be a better place? I think it would.

Then I called Glenn Doty, who was the managing editor of The Times Herald-Record when I got a job there in 1972. Glenn grew up in Warwick, lived much of his adult life in Middletown, and today lives in Walden.

I asked him to imagine it was 1960 again and that he was driving south on Route 211 from Scotchtown, through the Town of Wallkill, and into Middletown. What was it like? What did he see?

“It was farm country,” Glenn said. “You’d pass several farms on your way into the city of Middletown. And when there wasn’t a farm, you’d see acres of vacant land.”

The area had yet to be discovered by developers, a group of people who salivate at the very thought of vacant land. Route 211 was a country road, not the endless strand of malls, stores, restaurants, burger places and traffic-light-after-traffic-light it would become.

“It was quiet,” Glenn said. “There wasn’t much traffic at all.”

He recalled the first rumblings of development. It was a decision by Ed Lloyd to open a large – by early 1960s standards – supermarket on 211 about halfway between Wisner Avenue and the site of the present Orange Plaza.

“Ed Lloyd was running a grocery store in Middletown at the time and decided to expand out into Wallkill,” Glenn said. “Everybody thought he was crazy.”

As they say, crazy like a fox.

Aprés Lloyd, le dèluge. In came Orange Plaza. In came the Caldor mall. In came the burger places. In came the sit-down restaurants. In came Sears and Sullivan’s, J.C. Penney and Green’s, Thom McAn and Steinbach’s. Later, in came the Galleria, which put Orange Plaza out of business for 10 years or so until it reopened. (Lloyd also opened a supermarket in Warwick; it eventually became the Shop Rite that exists today on Route 94.)

With the massive commercial development, in came more and more traffic until 211 couldn’t handle it anymore. And in came the traffic lights. And in came the traffic jams. Then, in came the expansion of Route 211, which used to be a two-lane road. And with the widening, in came even more traffic.

As Wallkill’s commercial base expanded under the slightly purplish haze of carbon monoxide, the central business district of Middletown suffered terribly. (Now, it’s finally coming back, however slowly.) Not only did Wallkill’s development injure the city, it even caused much of its own rural character to vanish.

In the future, when someone suggests that Route 94, Kings Highway, Route 17A and County Route 1 be widened to make travel to Warwick easier to reach, remember Route 211 – in 1960 and now.

And when it is further suggested that town and village officials make it easier for developers to build a couple of swell malls – let’s say another few Gallerias – remember the Town of Wallkill – in 1960 and now.

* * *

A Clarification: In a rush to file last week’s blog, I noted – without attribution – that threats against President Obama’s safety were running 400 percent greater than against the previous few presidents. Without citing a source, this could have left the impression that it was an official Secret Service statistic. In fact, it comes from a book about the Secret Service and was disputed by Mark Sullivan, the director of the Secret Service, in testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee.

Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey@zestoforange.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

It’s hard to think of global warming when our region is blanketed in new-fallen snow and looks like a winter wonderland. But right now, delegates from around the world are converging on Copenhagen to hash out a global climate treaty that will affect all of us, and our future generations.

Climate change activists are not hopeful, as there is still much disagreement between industrialized and developing nations that centers around four main points according to Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):The authors of the IPCC reports sponsored by the UN, released a special report called The Copenhagen Diagnosis to draw delegate’s attention to seven main points:

1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?
 
2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?
 
3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?
 
4. How is that money going to be managed?

“If Copenhagen can deliver on those four points I’d be happy,” said Yvo de Boer in recent interviews.

The last global treaty; the Kyoto Protocol was ratified in 1997 and will expire in 2012. It set binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions for 184 countries. The most notable exception is the United States, and Yvo de Boer told the press he is “really happy” to see the U.S. back in negotiations.

1. Greenhouse gas emissions are surging: Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels in 2008 were 40% higher than those in 1990. Stabilizing global emissions at these levels is too low, and may lead to global warming of 2 ^{degrees or more, crossing the catastrophic threshold.Temperatures have increased at a rate of 0.19 (C) per decade for two and a half decades. There have been natural, short-term fluctuations, but no change in the underlying warming trend.Satellite and ice measurements now show beyond doubt that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice-caps are losing mass at an increasing rate. Melting of glaciers and ice-sheets has also accelerated since 1990. Summer-time melting of Arctic sea-ice has accelerated far beyond the climate models. This area of sea-ice melt during 2007-2009 was about 40% greater than the average prediction from previous IPCC models. Satellites show global average sea-level rise (3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years) to be 80% above past IPCC predictions, due to the more rapid melting of glaciers, ice caps and ice-sheets.  Sea-levels are expected to continue to rise for at least a century after global temperature have been stabilized, and could rise several meters over the next few centuries. The most vulnerable elements of our biosphere such as continental ice-sheets and rainforest could be pushed towards abrupt or irreversible change if warming continues at its current rate. The risk of passing a tipping point increases the longer that we wait. It’s time to evoke the Precautionary Principle, meaning that we cannot delay action hoping for scientific certainty or we may run out of options.: If global warming is to be limited to a maximum of 2 degrees above pre-industrial values—considered the catastrophic threshold, global emissions need to peak between 2015 and 2020 and then decline rapidly.}

2. Recent global temperatures show human-based warming:

3. Melting of glaciers and global ice is accelerating:

4. Rapid loss of Arctic sea-ice:

5. Sea-levels are rising faster than predicted:

6.  By delaying action, we risk irreversible damage:

7. Peak carbon must be now

First Snow, Mohonk Mountain Road

By Carrie Jacobson

As Saturday afternoon waxed into Saturday evening, the first snow of the year spun down from the sky and fell, flakes huge and sticky in the 33-degree dusk, and then, overnight, piled on limbs and lawns and the soft branches of fir trees.

In the morning, clouds and sky and snow and fields laced together in a swirl of white, and I painted wildly, working quickly in the cold and the wind, to capture what the sunlight would destroy.

I know that, soon enough, I will be tired of snow and winter and the broad reaches of white – but now, I am hungry for them, for the way they uncomplicate everything, and tie it all together.

This farm stands near the Mohonk Mountain House, just past a tremendous curve in the road. Horses grazed in the fields, finding grass beneath the morning’s snow. Only a few cars passed. The morning sparkled.

For information on price, size and delivery options, email carrieBjacobson@gmail.com.

By Jeffrey Page

A wonderful Yiddish expression goes like this: Pish nisht af mein fus, un dertzail mir az si regant. Translation: Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining. In other words, spare me the fairy tales and get to real life.

With that in mind, let us turn to a few people who have been relieving themselves on the legs of America lately.

Start with the inimitable Dana Perino, who served as President Bush’s last White House press secretary. Recently, 11 months into President Obama’s term, Perino was on television being interviewed by Sean Hannity.

Hannity lobbed her some softball questions about why the Obama administration refuses to call terrorists “terrorists.” “I don’t say this to be political,” Perino said. “But we should call it what it is.”

Remember those words: We should call it what it is.

Perino then went on to inform viewers about the differences between Bush’s and Obama’s leadership in times of crisis. “We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term,” Perino said. We should call that what it is, too. It’s garbage.

Perino recalled the Bush glory days and the inferred illusion that no enemy would dare attack the United States with George W. Bush in command. Just one problem. They did attack and he was in command. America was attacked eight months into Bush’s watch on that day he read “The Pet Goat” to some school kids in Florida and froze when an aide whispered what had happened in New York.

So much for Perino’s not wanting to be political. But did Hannity jump in and correct her misstatement? Not that I saw.

Speaking of Hannity, I recall his report a while back about Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook’s refusal to accept Army orders deploying him to Afghanistan on the nutty ground that Obama is not a native born U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible to be president, therefore ineligible to be commander-in-chief, and therefore ineligible to order Cook or any other soldier to do anything.

Hannity noted Cook’s argument with seriousness. “President Obama has not proven that he’s a U.S. citizen.” I wondered who was the last president of the United States who was asked to prove his citizenship.

In the last few days we have been reading of the two White House gatecrashers, Tareq and Michaele Salahi. They say they were invited. The Secret Service says they were not on any list of invitees to the state dinner honoring Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister. Eventually this will be resolved.

For now, however, there’s the question of the genius at the Secret Service who reassured a worried nation that President Obama was never in any danger posed by the Salahis because this fun couple from Virginia had passed through metal detectors on their way in to the festivities.

In fact, an official White House photo shows the president extending his right hand to Michaele Sahali. She is grasping it with both her hands as her happy husband looks on. Had Obama and Sahali been any closer they could have done the foxtrot. Not in any danger?

The fact is that if the Secret Service agents working the metal detectors that night were as inattentive and unfocused as the ones handling the guest list, President Obama was in extremely serious peril.

Let us be specific. The current rate of death threats directed against President Obama is 400 percent higher than it was when he assumed office in January. A bumper sticker available on the internet says “Obama lied, our economy died” (a highly charged accusation and another that gives Bush a pass since the economy tanked before Obama ever took office). And, there are the inevitable anti-Obama materials that are illustrated with apes.

Not in any danger?

I need a shower – and plenty of soap.

Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey@zestoforange.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

It seems as if after Thanksgiving, the major news in our country is shopping and whether retail sales will top last year’s sales. And spend we will! We spend an average of $856 per person on the holidays, according to the American Research Group.

Unfortunately, most of our hard-earned dollars will go straight to China because more than 70 percent of the goods on store shelves are from there. If we multiply that by the current U.S. population, that’s about $180 billion leaving home for the holidays.

A recent economic study conducted in Austin, Texas, found that if each household in Travis County (population 921,006) simply redirected $100 of planned holiday spending from chain stores (carrying cheap imports) to the stores of local merchants, the local economic impact would reach approximately $10 million. Imagine how $10 million would boost your community’s economy.

On average, we spend between 20 and 40 hours shopping for holiday gifts and waiting in long lines. You easily could make most of your holiday gifts in that time and have the added bonus of time shared as a family. If you are buying gifts or giving money, you are cheating your loved ones. Instead, give gifts of time. Offer to change your elderly relatives’ light bulbs to compact fluorescents, or give them coupons good for a free day’s worth of caulking and winterizing. Those are things they could really use, and time spent together will benefit all of you.

Holidays should be about time well spent, not money. In the land where we have plenty of food, noise and gizmos, those are the things we cherish.
Here are a few ideas for adding more joy to your household and community this holiday season:

— Spend less time shopping, and make gingerbread men with your children one afternoon. Put the gingerbread men on decorative plates, and drop in on each neighbor to spread cheer.

— Pump money into the local economy by making donations to the food bank. That money will help families in your neighborhood more surely than money spent at a national chain store.

— Ask young children to pick out toys to buy and donate them to one of the Toys for Tots programs.

— Have a family meeting to decide on a spending limit, and figure out what imaginative gifts you can make together.

— This time of year is craft fair season and most churches and community groups offer at least one. Craft fairs are great opportunities to support local producers directly and keep your holiday spending local.

— On Christmas Day, once the gifts are opened, don’t let it be anticlimactic. Instead, spread birdseed and crumbled cookies outside for the wild things. Take a plate of food to a neighborhood shut-in or someone who has to work.

— Do something wonderful for someone else — anonymously.

Shawn@zestoforange.com

By Carrie Jacobson

And so, December starts, and in this month of long, dark nights, we feel our age in the early sunsets, and our losses in the lateness of the dawns. We fight back, celebrating and decorating with light. We cook and clean and shop, we plan and order and wrap to fend off the fears, keep the sadness at bay. And if we are lucky, we tuck our faith – in God, in nature, in family, in art, in laughter, in humanity – close around us, and feel thankful for its warmth.

You can find some warmth and friendship and art at the Wallkill River School in Montgomery this weekend. My work and Shawn Dell Joyce’s will be included in the members’ show, which opens with a reception on Saturday, from 5-8 p.m. You’re invited; please come!

All weekend, as well, the Starving Artists sale will offer framed and unframed pieces of our work, along with the work of many other local artists, at discount prices. The school in on Route 17K in Montgomery. Check the website to the right of this column for directions and more information.

For more information on this painting, including size, price and delivery options, contact carrieBjacobson@gmail.com