Secret Gardener Vicki Raabin's Streetscape Project

What's being said more and more about Beacon NY is that the citizens are making it great. While that's a pretty good political slogan, it's ringing true. As one walks by the pleasantries and stops to smell the roses, one may notice they are admiring sunflowers, lavender, basil and other herbs in addition to the potted and hanging floral arrangements that adorn Main Street. What you are witnessing is an "urban streetscape project" by one of Main Street's most known citizens, Miss Vicki Raabin. She is one of several, independently driven, "secret gardeners" that keep the streets looking nice.

Several garden plots started and maintained by Miss Vicki Raabin outside of stores
including Play, Towne Crier, The Pandorica, and across the street from
Poppy's next to Beacon Bread Company. 

In May of 2014, Miss Vicki, most commonly known as the local music teacher and music venue organizer, decided to put some action to her critical thoughts as she walked Main Street and grew dissatisfied with the sidewalk trees. "I got tired of seeing all of the gravel around the trees. My feeling is, if you're complaining about something, you need to step up and do something about it. It bothered me and I felt we could do better." 

Miss Vicki Raabin feeding and watering her plants in her urban streetscape project along Main Street.

Raabin started the project a few years ago with small tulip beds. But this year, she committed to herself to "take over small spaces and make them viable again." Working closely with several local businesses on Main Street, Raabin has received strong support from a growing number of storefronts with beds near their buildings, including Tito Santana Taqueria, Towne Crier, Bank Square, Mountain Tops, Beacon Bread Company, and Key Food.

Donations from the businesses have come in an unusual form: egg shells and water from Towne Cryer; coffee grounds from Bank Square and Beacon Bread Company; bags of mulch from Key Foods, more water from Kamel Jamel, owner of Tito's who fostered a partnership with Green Teen by way of putting in the Common Greens Garden at Tito Santana which has a water collection system. Local residents have given Raabin shubbery when splitting plants in their own gardens which is helpful for acquiring butterfly bushes, creeping thyme, lavender and maybe hostas for next year.

One of many planters designed and maintained
by the Tioronda Garden Club.

Miss Vicki isn't the only one making Main Street beautiful. The potted plants you walk past at major street corners, and all of the hanging petunia baskets are put together by the Tioronda Garden Club, which fundraises for its yearly budget with individual donations and events, like a Wine and Cheese night. In fact, the Tioronda Garden Club gave Raabin some of their flox to act as ground cover for tree plots, as flox is a hearty plant that spreads easily over the years and looks beautiful with masonry.

Hanging baskets on Main Street are put together by the
Tioronda Garden Club and watered by Mayor Casale.

As for the watering of all of these flowers and plantings, you'll see Miss Vicki pulling her red wagon from the Visitor's Center at beginning of Main Street all the way to Towne Crier where she gets another water fill and picks up egg shells to be used as plant food. But who waters those hanging baskets? Years ago, the hanging plants were on the chopping block down at 1 Municipal Plaza during Mayor Gold's tenure. Then council member, Randy Casale volunteered to do the watering, since the Tioronda Garden Club supplied the hanging baskets through their fundraising efforts. He woke up to drive the cherry picker truck in the early mornings when it was still dark. 

As for now Mayor Casale, he still wakes up early to water.  "I do it because it I believe the beautiful flowers that are put together by the hard work of all the volunteers of the Tioronda Garden Club makes our Main Street vibrant and attractive. This is also a way for me to mentally relax. I would like to thank all our volunteers who help to keep our city the city that it is."

Gardening certainly is relaxing. And right now, it's helping Beacon to stay original and special as a train town along the beautiful Hudson River. Secret gardening is offering ways for citizens to dig in, literally into the earth of Beacon to keep it vibrant and ever-changing.

Rite Aid Gets Upgrade - And Sliding Front Doors!

Rite Aid, in the middle of Main Street, across the street from the wine store and Yanarella Dance Studio and the Dance Bag, has gotten an upgrade. Such an upgrade in fact, that this Rite Aid is unrecognizable from its former self, and is now on par with suburban drug stores that offer sliding front doors, wide open isles, and plenty of walking room. According to a post at Wigam, Rite Aid leased the space next door, a formerly empty auto parts store, and the space behind it near the parking lot for more storage.

No matter what your preference in local business, a fancy Rite Aid is certainly better to look at and walk through. Rite Aid was one of the more challenging stores to get into with a wheelchair or single or double wide stroller. The clunky, crowded, two-door system made getting in to grab something quickly quite a challenge. Not to mention the poles in the middle of the office supply isle, making shopping with a stroller or wheel chair down that isle impossible. Now, the front doors slide open and there is a lot more breathing room.

To spread the wealth, my primary pharmacy remains with Vogel, where I've learned first hand that prescriptions can be transferred within moments of a phone call between pharmacists at different pharmacies in different states.

Stocking the shelves continues, with new surprises on the shelves weekly. The school supply isle leaves room for more, as Walgreens still corners the market on most eye-candy-ish school or office supplies (at the drug store level...Target is the most fun), but as you can see, there are plenty of items to shop for, from diapers to batteries to makeup. Just as there were before, only now you won't be so claustrophobic when you run to the drug store for a bottle of laundry detergent.

Yes, you could pick up breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert at Rite Aid if you so desired. You will find the regular, big name brand items like Ben & Jerry's and Blue Moon. You won't find local names or craft beers, but there are plenty of other options to find unique brands like at The Hop, Beacon Pantry, KeyFood (artisan brands have really increased on the shelves here), and even the convenience store in the Beacon Dental plaza who carries a large beer selection and occasionally organic milk.

 Price-wise, Rite Aid has never been cheap, and prices itself on convenience. This Suave shampoo (the Aveda version), which is on prominent display at the front door, is $4.29, which is $3 more  than it is at Hannaford on Rt. 9. But - the convenience is nice.

The fun isles, for toys, costumes, and greeting cards remain, and have more choices in them, including greeting cards. A lot of greeting cards actually, and now party packaging supplies.

All in all, we're stepping up in the world! It's a pleasure to walk through and shop in the new Rite Aid!

Beacon Architect Aryeh Siegel Featured in Upstate House

One of the most exciting aspects of living in Beacon, NY is that we are living during a historical era. When my family moved here, our neighbors across the street had moved here twenty years prior, also from Manhattan, to raise their family. They moved during the height of drug times, when Main Street was boarded up. The first investment they made to their home was installing a giant chain link fence around their entire property to keep people from sitting on the front stoop of their home to do "business".

Today, Beacon is the playground to many architects who are changing the face and experience of this city, while taking delight in "existing structural elements that can be incorporated into new uses." Such statement was spoken by Aryeh Siegel in an interview with Peter Aaron for Upstate House magazine. The article proclaims Siegel to be Beacon's architect laureate thanks in part to the number of game-changing projects he has been involved with crafting and reinventing, including Dia:Beacon, the Roundhouse at Beacon Falls, the Towne Crier Cafe, the Beacon Dog Park, the Beacon Cultural Community Center, and a growing list of other residential and mix-ed use sites.

If you haven't yet, do pick up this issue for the interview and the other great articles in Upstate House to see how this architect views Beacon.