City of Kingston Selected to Receive $10 Million For This

Congratulations to the City of Kingston and it's residents. You were selected to receive $10 million in funding and investments as the Mid-Hudson Valley winner of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI). The proposal that Kingston submitted included ways to could positively revitalize the downtown neighborhoods along with the potential to bring businesses back to Kingston which would be good for long term growth.  Here are just a few of the items that the City of Kingston and other applicants were judged on. From Governor Cuomo's website:

• The downtown should be compact, with well-defined boundaries;

• The municipality, or the downtown's catchment area, should be of sufficient size to support a vibrant, year-round downtown;

• The downtown is able to capitalize on prior or catalyze future private and public investment in the neighborhood and its surrounding areas;

• There should be recent or impending job growth within, or in close proximity to the downtown that can attract workers to the downtown, support redevelopment and make growth sustainable;

• The downtown must be an attractive and livable community for diverse populations of all ages, including existing residents, millennials and skilled workers;

• The municipality should already embrace or have the ability to create and implement policies that increase livability and quality of life, including the use of local land banks, modern zoning codes and parking standards, complete streets plans, energy efficient projects, green jobs, and transit-oriented development;

• The municipality should have conducted an open and robust community engagement process resulting in a vision for downtown revitalization and a preliminary list of projects and initiatives that may be included in a DRI strategic investment plan; and

• The municipality has identified trans-formative projects that will be ready for implementation with an infusion of DRI funds within the first one to two years.

So over the next few weeks, head to Kingston and check it out. Then continue to go there often so you can see the changes that will be taking place. Do you have suggestions on how your town could use money to help revitalize it?