HUDSON — The Shared Streets Program will not be returning.
Common Council President Tom DePietro said the Hudson Business Coalition hasn’t approached the city about another year of the program.
“To the best of my knowledge, the business coalition hasn’t approached the city about renewing Shared Streets again for the summer,” DePietro said Thursday. “Apparently, the COVID-19-related origins of Shared Streets are no longer required for the city of Hudson’s restaurants.”
Mayor Kamal Johnson said the city passed the Shared Streets baton to the Hudson Business Coalition in 2022.
“We ran it the first two years — 2020 and 2021 — and then we elected not to do it the third year because the Hudson Business Coalition took it on,” Johnson said. “We felt like we needed someone to manage it. This year we haven’t heard anything from them about taking it all, so I’m guessing they’re not interested. They volunteered to take it on, and it fit well with them because they have direct relationships with business.”
The absence of Shared Streets should not have an adverse effect on Warren Street businesses this summer, Johnson said.
“I think that Hudson is in a good place right now,” he said. “We’re moving past the pandemic, and I see that it can be a bonus for some of the businesses, but it’s not a necessity anymore like it was during the height of the pandemic.”
The program was launched in 2020 in the beginning stages of the pandemic to help businesses attract and keep customers when social distancing was the norm. Businesses took over parking spaces and sidewalks in front of their establishments and blocked out areas for outdoor dining or sidewalk sales. The Hudson Department of Public Works bordered the spaces with cement blocks to protect diners.
Critics said the cement barriers narrowed Warren Street, making vehicular traffic dangerous to pedestrians, eliminated valuable parking spaces. Safety became an issue when the speed limit on Warren Street was slowed to 5 mph to keep diners and shoppers safe and allowed pedestrians to practice social distancing by walking in the streets, and drivers were expected to yield to them.
But businesses such as the Mexican restaurant La Mision on Warren Street thrived under the program.
“The Shared Street program helped us a lot over the years,” La Mision manager Joslyn Stone said. “It provided us with more space so people could sit a safe distance from each other. It really drew a crowd when people walked by and saw good food on the street.”
Stone said that since the program is not returning, it could have a negative effect on the business.
“It’s going to be fewer people that we can sit, less tables that we have, less people that we can serve, and less room for our guests,” Stone said. “So having the Shared Streets program helped.”
Word that the program isn’t returning garnered mixed reactions.
Joan Palmer of Columbiaville thinks the program has run its course.
“In a way, I’m glad it’s not returning,” Palmer said. “For the most part, COVID is over, and it’s time that the world returns to what it once was pre-2020.” Daniel Thomas-Rivera of Hudson is conflicted about the program. He recognized the positives that the program provided while acknowledging some of the things that he disliked about it.
“I’m 50-50 on the idea of the Shared Streets returning to the area; on the one hand, it gave us the opportunity to eat and enjoy the weather and to take advantage of extra seating if a restaurant had a long wait or it was full,” he said. “In 2020, the pedestrian traffic on Warren Street was too much. I’m sure the businesses didn’t mind, but it was just too many people.”
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