Ned Sullivan's blog

Proposed Storm King power plant.

Why old factories, empty storefronts and derelict warehouses are the key to the future of cities... and why they too often sit vacant.

In New York's City of Poughkeepsie -- headquarters of Scenic Hudson, the organization I head -- a former department store that sat empty for decades recently was transformed into apartments and offices. A dozen miles down the Hudson River, in the City of Beacon, the thrilling art museum Dia:Beacon, which wows visitors from around the world, fills a former Nabisco box-printing factory.

Why am I writing about old buildings? Because they're excellent examples of adaptive reuse -- rejuvenating existing structures for new purposes -- and in addition to revitalizing downtowns, such projects benefit the environment. They relieve development pressure on forests that offer recreation and sequester carbon, and on working farms supplying fresh local produce. They also lower the natural resources consumed by construction -- 35 billion board feet of lumber annually alone.

This once-derilect box factory is now the site of one of the world's foremost contemporary art museums.

photo: James Bleecker

The New York Times recently reported how Manhattan residents satisfy their growing appetite for fresh produce with weekly visits to greenmarkets stocked primarily by farms in the Hudson Valley, to the north of the city. As more and more urbanites have purchased weekend homes in the valley's tranquil communities, they've brought along their yen for just-picked fruits and vegetables, which in turn has led to an exponential rise in local farmers' markets.

One of the farmers quoted in the article was Ken Migliorelli, one of the first Hudson Valley farmers to begin trucking his produce to New York City's greenmarkets. Scenic Hudson, the organization I head, purchased a conservation easement on one of Mr. Migliorelli's farms, allowing him to expand his operations. While noting that three-quarters of his income derives from farmers' markets, he added that "our upstate operations are now a bigger part of our business." This is a win for everyone, particularly in times when climate change reduction strategies include lessening the "carbon miles" -- more than 1,200 miles for the average American meal -- our food has to travel.

Photo: Robert Rodriguez, Jr.

One gorgeous Saturday last month, I kayaked across the Hudson River's wide Newburgh Bay, as a volunteer escorting 200 swimmers taking part in a fund raiser for the River Pool at Beacon.

Media nationwide reported on the May 15 ceremony near the small upstate New York village of Fort Edward marking the start of General Electric's cleanup of PCBs it had dumped in the Hudson River. One speaker at the event rightly called it "a historic day for a historic river."