Cold Spring ‘Hammered’ By Tourism

By Holly Crocco

The first weekend of September was a couple of sunny, warm days – ideal for the throngs of visitors who descended on Cold Spring to enjoy a late summer (or early fall) hike and enjoy views of the Hudson River and the Hudson Highlands.

It was not ideal for those who live and work in the village.

“I mean, let’s just be honest, we got slammed this weekend,” said Mayor Kathleen Foley during the Sept. 9 Cold Spring Village Board meeting. “We were overwhelmed with visitors arriving by train and by car.”

She has requested a passenger count by car from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to help get a better count of people coming into the village.

During the weekend, two mountain rescues were made and one car accident took place, in addition to calls for vandalism and trespassing. Vehicle and pedestrian congestion even necessitated turning Fair Street to one-way, northbound.

“New York State Parks were not dispatched for the mountain calls directly, and their radios do not have interoperability with Putnam 911 dispatch,” said Foley. “It is unconscionable. Right now, 911 dispatch is supposed to call the park manager, who then calls the state police. This is bananas. And as long as we’ve been in office, we’ve been talking about fixing this.”

One State Parks police officer apparently saw a post on Facebook about one of the mountain rescues, and responded to the scene.

Foley said the village did receive a response from Putnam County Bureau of Emergency Services Commissioner Jim Oster, who is working on addressing the situation.

“The police department was dispatched for hikers entering private properties and for vandalism,” she said. “Lines for food were 50 or more people deep and restaurants ran out of food. Cold Spring is being crushed by overtourism. Our community cannot handle more people. We’re beyond our physical capacity, our financial capacity, and our human resources capacity.”

The mayor said this situation is exactly why the village and town filed an Article 78 lawsuit regarding the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail with State Parks, challenging the environmental review of new trail system planned through the village.

“We can’t live with the consequences of a new attraction to the village,” she said. “And we cannot continue to bear the costs of tourism ourselves.”

Trustee Andrew Hall said too much tourism is, in fact, bad for business.

“I understand from a couple of establishments that they were really hammered, and some folks said to me that they just can’t handle any more,” he said. “They were running out of product and it wasn’t a good customer experience. And for employees, it was really difficult because they have certain shifts and they just didn’t get a break at all. So all around it’s a very undesirable situation.”

Trustee John Bardes said that at one point he was stopped in traffic on Lunn Terrace at Main Street, and there was a line of people waiting for the public restrooms that stretched across the street, people walking around cars, and vehicles blowing their horns and yelling out.

“The pedestrians would not stop walking across the walkway, and then while the cars were stopped, I had people walking behind me, walking behind the cars waiting – it was insane,” he said. “It was a really dangerous situation.”

Foley agreed that it was not a good weekend for the village.

“There’s a tipping point, and we’re there,” she said.