News & Events Closing State Parks Won't Solve Budget Crisis

Several times I've written about Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park, which sits atop the former Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge (pictured, pre-reconstruction) spanning New York's Hudson River. Since opening last October, nearly half a million people have enjoyed the spectacular views, shattering projected visitation figures and boosting local businesses. Yet to help close an $8.2-billion deficit, Gov. David Paterson has proposed closing the park three months a year and opening it only five days a week the rest of the time. It's one of nearly 80 state parks and historic sites slated for closure or cutbacks to save $6.3 million.

Another potential victim is Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers, the magnificent 18th-century home of one of New York's earliest and most prominent landowning families, which now sits in the heart of the state's fourth largest city. Long a source of civic pride and a center for community meetings, the mansion connects hundreds of local schoolchildren each year with the Hudson Valley's past. And it figures in ambitious plans to revitalize the city's long-depressed downtown by uncovering portions of an historic Hudson River tributary that flows past the house – a project decades in the making led by the mayor and supported by state, civic, business and environmental leaders....