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Hudson-Fulton-Champlain celebration finally on fast track
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By FRED Le BRUN
First published: Sunday, February 3, 2008
After years of slow and uncertain progress, organizing and especially promoting and marketing, the state's Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial celebration is finally on a fast train.
None too soon, since the party begins in 11 months.
The state commission overseeing the celebration has new, energized leadership, which is heartening. Gov. Eliot Spitzer has earmarked $15 million for various related projects in his proposed budget, which speaks louder than words and adds weight to the state's involvement. Still, out of necessity this is a train running on a different set of tracks than it was even a few months ago, going in a different direction.
Commission executive director Tara Sullivan and director Bob Bullock have redefined what the 400th is going to be all about -- in large measure because time is short and so is big new money for exotic projects.
"... the passage of time since the creation of legislation for a Commission in 2002 leaves the state largely unprepared for much of what had been envisioned in either the legislation or the development of a strategic plan for the group's work ... Given the absence of organized fundraising and the lack of appropriate recruitment of private sector involvement in a statewide celebration, plans for the Quadricentennial, at this late stage, must be re-envisioned," states a new strategic plan for the celebration.
So instead of originating a raft of ideas, finding funding for them and then implementing them, the commission primarily will harness the energies unleashed and projects already under way from New York City to Rouses Point. It will brand, market, organize and enrich with small grants where appropriate. Fortunately, there is much good work in progress.
The new focus will be on the environment, education, economy and energy.
Plus, the state is identifying several signature legacy projects, such as the $23 million, 50-foot-wide hiking and biking park to be created on an abandoned railroad bridge over the Hudson at Poughkeepsie. There's $8 million in this year's budget for that. The park will open sometime in 2009.
While the mission has become arguably more realistic and doable given the restraints, Sullivan said a fistful of fabulous, showy additions have been conceptualized and could occur should some big private benefactors come calling soon.
The thrust of the 400th also has changed as to who or what we're celebrating. This redirection will raise an eyebrow or two.
"This can't be just about three white men," Sullivan said during a recent interview. The new theme is "Explore New York's 400 years of progress," and will use 1609 as the beginning of Europe's influence on our history, rather than a date to commemorate. Champlain and Hudson first explored New York in 1609. Fulton first sailed his steamboat up the Hudson in 1807, and his accomplishment been grafted on to the celebration with thin logic. I suppose the common denominator is firsts. Fulton was the first great entrepreneur in New York.
On the one hand, the new mission statement makes practical sense, expanding the field of vision to all New York history, starting in 1609. In 1909, organizers of the tricentennial came up with a variation on the same theme, and used the international attention of the occasion to showcase the technology of that fertile and pivotal time. The Wright Brothers, the Model-T and Edison's electric light bulb, were as prominent in the celebration as a Dutch-made working replica of the Half Moon.
With this far broader approach, reason Sullivan and Bullock, many more people and communities throughout the state can be drawn into the celebration than if this were only about the explorers Champlain and Hudson, and to a far lesser degree, the entrepreneur Fulton.
All true and defensible. But on the other hand, I offer one of my favorite Adlai Stevenson observations that "we can become so liberal that our brains fall out."
There is the distinct danger that when we begin to celebrate everything, a sort of giant "I Love New York" event, we celebrate nothing in particular.
So while signs are promising that we will indeed have a great celebration next year in recognition of the 400 years of European-related history in New York, and even some native history before, I do hope the light of the occasion doesn't fail to illuminate and even feature that trio of white guys who, after all, brought us to the dance.
Fred LeBrun can be reached at 454-5453 or by e-mail at flebrun@timesunion.com.
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