Editorial: Vote Yes On Open Space Referendum

In November of 1909 the naturalist John Muir sent an open letter to the American people encouraging them to contact their members of Congress and encouraging them to preserve the Hetch-Hetchy Valley, “…unmarred as places of rest and recreation for the use of all the people…” At the time of Muir’s writing the City of San Francisco was, “…attempting to get possession of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley as a reservoir site, thus defrauding ninety millions of people for the sake of saving San Francisco dollars.”

The defrauding that John Muir was speaking of in this letter had nothing to do with money and everything to do with the open space that was the Hetch-Hetchy Valley; a pristine wilderness and virtual twin to the neighboring Yosemite Valley, one of the most beloved parks in our country’s National Park System.  Unfortunately, John Muir’s call fell on deaf ears in Congress and today the beauty of Hetch-Hetchy is buried beneath a reservoir and is a monument to how irrevocable and irrecoverable a natural resource is once it’s lost.

It’s unfair to compare the Hiddenbrooke to either the Hetch-Hetchy or Yosemite Valleys, but the story does illustrate an important truth: once a pristine landscape is developed there’s no way to return it to its former glory. It’s lost forever. And, in the event that some future generation decides to return a lost treasure to its original state, the cost to recover that treasure is far greater than what it would have cost to save it in the first place. What John Muir understood that most of his contemporaries did not is that once an area of open space is lost to development and modernization, it is lost forever

The residents of Beacon have a unique opportunity come November 7^th. An opportunity to preserve a uniquely beautiful piece of property. An opportunity to personally enjoy a near wilderness within walking distance of their homes. An opportunity to save for the future one of the last unspoiled landscapes inside the Beacon City limits. An opportunity to open that piece of property to public use and personal enjoyment from now until many years into the future.

Vote YES on the Hiddenbrooke referendum on Tuesday.

Comments

[Woodsy]

Well said, and thanks.
Here's the famous quote on the subject, from the late humorist Will Rogers - "Buy land. They ain't making any more of the stuff."

[beaconfan]

completely agreed. the advantages of preserving this land will far outweigh any tax benefits from developing the area. get out and vote!

[B. Eakins]

Comparing Hiddenbrooke to a pristine wilderness is at best tenuous and at worst fraudulent. Hiddenbrooke has been settled and has served multiple uses in the last hundred years. It has been logged, farmed, "improved" and built upon. It is not without its charm but pristine it is not. The vote is not about leaving Hiddenbrooke tax exempt, it is about a spending an as yet undetermined large amount of public money to remove the land from private ownership.(The land will not suddenly regress to a pristine state, not with the nuns still living there.) Beacon does not lack for parks of open land. Vote NO.

[TM Conroy]

I moved to Beacon earlier this year from New Jersey, the most densely populated and overly developed state with hardly any open space left, so I would suggest that those who here want this deal to fail might think of moving to NJ.

[Mother Earth]

TM Conroy,
I would suggest those who think development is evil and that all land should be owned by the government should move to Alaska.

Vote NO on using taxpayer money to forward a minority elitist agenda.

[Mother Earth?]

I would suggest those who think development is good and that all land should be turned into a mall parking lot should move to northern New Jersey.

Vote YES on using taxpayer money to forward a majority populist agenda: quality of life.

[lie]

OPEN SPACE COST MORE!

Why is Beacon demanding at least a 9% tax increase and Fishkill is having a 1% (First in 7 years) increase. Answer Fishkill keeps developing and building a great tax base. Beacon is giving tax free breaks to tree hugger institutes and buying land! We need mor tax base, VOTE NO. Give that million to the Police and Fire where it is needed!!!!

[yes]

i agree that a growing tax base is needed in beacon but should come from new business development on main street, not from new home construction at hiddenbrooke. in the long run, there's far more money in luring businesses to fill those still empty storefronts on main street. vote YES

[billp]

the area is a nice large open pice of land (SO WHAT IT HAS A FEW BUILDINGS) it would make a nice park of some sort as would the settlement camp. save the area now and lets not regreat it in 20 years that they where not saved in both area the buldings can be used and updated rented for meetings or weding parties both have grounds that would make for one hell of a outdoor wedding or gathering and festivals and the money bought in would of set the tax loss madison bauck vill has a year week long outdoor antique and collectors show that bring people fom all over the us and canada and it is all done on farm fields and some venors pay about175. aday for a spot beacon could do the same thing and is a hop skip and jump from rich westchestor. think of what could be done beacon could cash in on its past even by building a musium type vilage and charge groupes to get in and of set lost tax even more running cost could come from a educational grant

[yeahbaby]

You think you hate us elitist NYers now? Just wait until those rich Westchester folks come up here in droves to buy up those huge ugly McMansions that you want so badly. Your taxes will increase regardless, simply because the newcomers want quality of life, not a place with no sidewalks, a broken down Main Street and no outdoor space.

[yeahbaby]

You think you hate us elitist NYers now? Just wait until those rich Westchester folks come up here in droves to buy up those huge ugly McMansions that you want so badly. Your taxes will increase regardless, simply because the newcomers want quality of life, not a place with no sidewalks, a broken down Main Street and no outdoor space.

[billp]

dont hate ya but with the open land and what can be done with it i see a way to make cash of them.

[Serapheem]

Also originally from NJ and I was hoping that the referendum failed simply because I've had enough of my $ being taken from me. There are more important things that need attention before we at gouged to buy land to do nothing with it.

[TM Conroy]

"There are more important things that need attention before we at gouged to buy land to do nothing with it."

Hello fellow ex-NJer! I'd like to ask you, why would you think that something always needs to be "done" with existing land. Why not let it just sit, as a place of natural beauty?

[Colden Grey]

Ah, if you all only could know what Beacon was before all the migrants from Westchester, NYC, and NJ moved it...

[billp]

beacon was a nice small town it may have had stores closed but the pepole where closer then and you new who your friends where