It’s not a city. It’s not even a town. But the tiny hamlet of Verplanck seemed massive to me as a kid growing up in Westchester County, about an hour from New York City.
c. Ragette Real Estate
Verplanck is surrounded by larger towns and cities, with Montrose on one side and the city of Peekskill on the other. It’s suffered greatly from this proximity, as it’s often overlooked when reforms take place. Soon, it will be tested even more with the closure of the largest business in town, which isn’t a local business, or even a chain store. It’s Indian Point, a nuclear power plant that provides much of NYC’s energy. The state voted yes on a plan to close it a few years ago, and the surrounding area has had to begin dealing with repercussions from the dependency on the power plant.
Indian Point Energy Center, a three minute drive from my house. When I was on the rowing team, if you got too close, armed men in boats would come out and usher you away.
c. Holtec International
The power plant provides more than a thousand jobs to local residents, lowers taxes to an affordable rate in the most heavily taxed county in the country, and accounts for a third of the school’s budget, around 20 million dollars. With the plant shut down, the local economy will plummet. The few small lunch spots on Main Street will lose business, poorer residents will be pushed from town, along with the growing immigrant population, and education will worsen. And considering the size of the affected area, it’s unlikely to get much federal funding for support in the transition.
However, closing the power plant also allows for much development in this forgotten area. Plans are being established to develop the riverfront, adding a rowing center, a restaurant, and walking and cycling paths. An art center has already opened up, and the old land Indian Point was built on, as well as the water-filled quarry, are being sighted as a possible adventure park. It will be a return to the days of the old amusement park that occupied the land from 1923 to 1959. Smaller projects, such as building sidewalks throughout town, will make a previously dangerous walk easy and foster a sense of community. And with New York City easily accessible by train, a new generation is coming to live in this improved Verplanck.
Kinosaito Art Center, Verplanck, New York
c. Hudson Valley Magazine
Yet, it’s impossible to overlook the tragic fact that these improvements will come at the expense of gentrification. Many of the people who grew up besides me will find themselves pushed out. Watching the evolution of Verplanck from a collapsing hamlet to a promising little town has been interesting, to say the least, and with every city I enter, I find myself asking where that push and pull between the rich and the poor is. Verplanck was my key to learning that behind every “perfect” city, there is the inequity that allowed it to be built and continue on this way. The hamlet reflects the river it’s built next to – slow tides over the decades of alternating prosperity and economic depressions are constantly transforming it from a bustling city to a decrepit one and back again.