Homesick for Saugerties (Albany, Union, Newburgh: real estate, condo, crime)

[Raven and Bear]

Anyone here from Saugerties? I am so homesick for it, even after being away twenty years. I remember the big mural on the side of the building in town, the bakery, the short ride to Woodstock, the lighthouse and the old cemetary, the diner, the tree-lined streets and antique shops. Is it still the same or been gentrified? Are there still fields with wildflowers growing not far out of town? I would love to pack up and move back there but how's the economy?

[norm]

We used to have a vacation house in East Jewett and we would get off of the thruway at the Saugerties exit. We visited Saugerties many times to browse the shops. It was one of our favorite towns. I haven't been there in about 8 years but at that time it sounds like the way you describe it.

[Pam& Bill]

I miss Dallas Hot Weiners, they opened a second location in Saugerties after the first one in uptown Kingston. Saugerties is a great town packed with lots of charm.
I was from across the river in Germantown.
Pam

[Raven and Bear]

I used to work at a restaurant in Woodstock. It's still there. Used to be owned by Albert Grossman. It was a very cool place to work for someone in their twenties. I would live in Saugerties or Woodstock again, but Kingston had some iffy sections, but a lot of charm, too. Is Deanie's Restaurant in Woodstock still in operation? How about the mid-eastern restaurant that used to be in the center of town? Are rents sky-high there now? Inquiring minds that miss the Hudson Valley want to know!

[Ritzy326]

Moving to Saugerties in about a month. Is there much crime there? How are the winters? snowy? how cold?

[ss58yy]

Originally Posted by Ritzy326

Moving to Saugerties in about a month. Is there much crime there? How are the winters? snowy? how cold?

Winters: Compared to NYC, the winters are colder and snowier. Compared to places further north and west, they are milder.

I'd guess that below-zero days are not all that common most winters, and perhaps -5F to -15F is about the coldest you'd see in a typical year. (This is based on my 30 years in Kingston and Rhinebeck, perhaps 10 miles south of Saugerties.) Snowfall is not excessive -- in my front yard about 10 miles south and east of Saugerties, the accumulated snow reached eye level only 2 or 3 times in 20 winters, and the ground is often bare (no snow) in the winter.

[Logan11]

I spent my first 35+ years in Saugerties and recently relocated to west of Albany - where I live in a small town, but within 25 minutes of suburban Albany.

You will find some definite changes and more congestion than circa 1987, but it retains the overall small town look. To someone from NYC I'm sure it seems like smalltown America. To someone that grew up there it is a very different crowd than say the 1970s..when it truly was a typical quiet upstate NY small town. Now its a hybrid/kind of in transition. But the changes have improved the appearance of the place overall.

Post 9/11 brought an influx of weekenders and some permanent new residents from greater NYC. Real estate prices rose very significantly with the median price of a home now in excess of $250k. The village itself gentrified quite a bit with a number of cafes and small restaurants now. There is a pretty healthy arts scene that has spread in from Woodstock. There are still many antique shops. A large horse show complex was built on the old Sawyerkill Golf Course north of the village and this feeds a healthy weekender crowd during the May-Sept. period. The mural is still there ..it had fallen into a state of disrepair and then they restored/repainted it a couple years ago and it looked great as of last Fall. The sports complex at Cantines Field has been expanded significantly and that has to be a large selling point for someone moving there with a family. It now houses an indoor skating arena, large playground, soccer fields, etc.

A lot of new subdivisions and developments (mostly smaller scale as in under 20 houses) popped up in the wooded sections of town during the real estate boom from 2001-2006. It's a bit deceptive because you still get a semi rural feel when you ride many town roads, but the hills have filled with many new houses. So that might be a good thing..that it has retained some country feel. I think the larger tracts of land and nicest country homes are being snapped up by NYC weekenders with some bucks while many native Saugertesians are living on the 1 acre lots..unless they were savvy enough to cash in on the boom via selling real estate, land development, or some other service industry.

As mentioned earlier, the town looks to be in a better state of repair than 20 years because there is a real incentive to paint your house, add vinyl siding etc. when you see real appreciation in home values. Contrast this to some destitute areas of central/western NY where people purposely don't even paint their houses just to keep their tax assessments down. Speaking of taxes, they are quite high in Saugerties, but that is a function of the regressive form of property taxes that NY uses to fund local government and schools. (Example: We were assessed 400k and paid 8.5k a year in property taxes). Actually the best job in Saugerties is working as a teacher....the new contract guarantees 49k for new teachers with a masters and an upper cap of 84k....could be off slightly on those #s...but you get the idea.

I got out because we were able to get a very nice price for the house/property and buy much more up here. I still get down there every
month or two visiting friends and have a few remaining pieces of property there ...so the ties remain.

Other Changes:

You mentioned Deanies ....long gone. It was called Margarets for awhile and as of a few years ago was no longer a restaurant. I'm not real up on Woodstock though. The Grand Union is defunct (still empty) , but the rest of the plaza is filled. Jamesway is gone ..space filled with smaller shops. All the big box retail is now on 9W in Ulster and thus Saugerties lost its department stores (remember the old Ben Franklin, Grants etc.). A nice Price Chopper supermarket was built on Ulster Ave. in the spot where the old Berzal auto dealership was. Most of this retail space though has been filled with smaller shops, health clubs etc. so you dont see vacant malls..exept the aforementioned G.U. Of course there are now two Dunkin Donuts..but you see a D&D every 5 miles all across America now so why not Saugerties. The Howard Johnsons remains and there is a Comfort Inn just north of it now. The Cloverleaf Motel was razed in facor of a Hessmart. Smith's hardware and Lachmans Bakery remain... Seamon Park is the same...

The Winston Farm had its 15 minutes of fame in 1994 and now is quiet. The town was in a tizzy for awhile when it appeared that an indian tribe wanted it for a casino (and the owners had agreed to sell), but that seems to have been beaten back. It can only be a matter of time, however, before that land is developed in some fashion.

[Logan11]

Oh regarding the weather...

average high in January 34, average low 15 (estimates)
annual snowfall around 50-55 inches or so.

Coldest I ever saw was -26F in 1982, -24 in 1994. Noramlly you get a handful of below zero days..0 to -15 ...with those super subzero seasons being the rarities.

Often just far enough inland to share in upstate NY snowfalls...as opposed to downstate NY, but nothing to compare to northern/western NY. Saugerties gets downsloped off the Cstskills so only flurries make it there from the lakes and its a fairly sunny place in the Winter so that eats up the snowpack faster than further upstate where it is a lot cloudier...hence it's hard to keep it snow covered for months on end. You are white for a few weeks..lose it for awhile and then get some back. But you need only drive 15 minutes and up 2k in elevation and you have snowcover all Winter.

[Logan11]

OH ..Snyders Farm remains on the west edge of the village (one of the few old style farms still functioning) and kids still go sledding on that hill every winter. The trail out to the lighthouse is still very nice and yes there are still numerous diners....the Main Street diner, a large modern looking Starway Diner at Exit 20/Northbound where the old Taco Johnnys used to be, a diner occupying the space that used to be the HoJos restaurant and the Barclay Heights Diner. The old Dairy Queen is empty, but there is Baskin Robbins now in the village.

[Raven and Bear]

Logan11, thank you so much for posting all of that insightful info about Saugerties. I am in Alaska now, but thinking of moving back to upstate NY, which will always be true home to me. I'd like my kids to experience four real seasons, go to MLB baseball games now and then, go trick or treating in their costumes as opposed to bundles of arctic gear and in the snow, smell woodsmoke in the air during those first crisp days of Autum, maybe see the sloop Clearwater on the Hudson, if it is still around, visit some of the big historic mansions along the Hudson, go to a football game at West Point...you get the idea.

I have to say I'm sorry to hear it has become gentrified, but happy to hear that the gentrification has also prevented it from becoming a decaying upstate NY town. When I lived in Saugerties in the 80's, Catskill, Cementon, Ellensburg, etc., were examples of that. Newburgh was just starting to be bought up by condo-owners and the gentrification crowd. I probably couldn't afford to buy the small modest home on our tree-lined street in Saugerties now, and that's sad. Also shocking to hear about the taxes. And the changes at Cantines Field! My house was not far from there. I used to walk over there to play catch with my nieces and nephews. It was all dirt and grass. Back then, you could still buy a very nice historic home for a reasonable price. But I guess all of America has changed in 20 years. I have painted such a nostalgia-fueled rosy picture of Saugerties for my kids, they are drooling to move there and live in a small town where they can safely ride their bikes and know their neighbors. Sounds like the boat has sailed for Saugerties still being the humble little town it was and I may have to start researching other upstate NY areas--that have jobs, that is. I guess it really is true that you can't go home again.

I was especially sad to hear that Deanie's closed. I knew who the chef was back then; his son was my fiance. One night **** Jagger and the gang was at a table near us. I waited on a lot of celebs at The Bear Cafe and was used to seeing them in Deanie's as well. In fact, there was an older waitress named Margaret, who was a fixture there, and I wonder if she bought out the place or it was named after her in it's transition to Margaret's. How did the Winston Farm have its 15 minutes of fame?

Anyhoo, thank you for your info. You've helped me snap out of it and realize that the march of gentrification, like a swarm of ants or something, doesn't always leave much behind for blue-collar types like me. Now where should I start looking???

Still homesick in AK.