Jan 14, 2025 Maria (M) and Claudia (C)
M: Claudia, what do you love about Rosendale?
C: Good morning Maria! I love so much about Rosendale! I love the character of the center of town and all of the people who express themselves fully and freely. That there’s a certain respect that people are allowed to be themselves here in Rosendale that I really appreciate.
I love that it is small and I can talk with my representatives and I see them regularly around town. I love that the neighbors are friendly and helpful and that it’s peaceful and quiet and safe here. I love that there’s no traffic very much – there is a little by my house at the intersection, but it’s very generally easy to navigate, easy to find people, easy to do business, and it’s beautiful – I love the landscape!
M: Love that! What are your wishes for Rosendale?
C: I would like to see Rosendale maintain its artistic nature. The creativity and even the eccentricity of Main Street makes the town fascinating in a way that ordinary businesses would not.
I would like to see more people be involved. I would like, of course, to see better public transportation that loops people through town so that Main Street gets more traffic. I would like for people to have the time to participate. Unfortunately we’re at a place in our culture where people are so harried by taking care of their daily needs that they don’t have time for public engagement.
M: What do you think would happen if people do get more engaged?
C: What I’ve noticed is that in the past many of the improvements that were implemented [here] were done solely by volunteers, for instance, the rec center, the youth center building was completely constructed by two volunteers.
M: Wow – I did not know that – interesting. So are you saying that you see that many of the virtues that we have here are volunteer led.
C: Absolutely. I believe the cemetery is cared for by five volunteers. Our little parks are planted by volunteers. I know you’ve explored some of the community groups that do good work. There are many of them. Our food pantry is very active and well organized and all these people just are doing uh really important work that improves where we live, yeah, so more is better even than that!
M: What are your ideas for Rosendale? What kind of ideas do you have that you would love to see happen?
C: That’s very hard because it’s easy to jump to the fact that we need more economic vitality, but then whenever I examine that I realize that money often brings a host of problems, and especially if the money comes from outside the town. So perhaps generating more exchange within the town, stronger relationships between businesses and more local business activity among community members, maybe that could revitalize our economic scene. It’s a very hard problem to solve because whenever big money comes in from outside it has a tendency to ruin a place.
M: We always talk about tourist money here and I was shocked to read that the median income of people who work here in the tourist industry is only $30,000, which is difficult for a family to live on here if not impossible, and so I’ve wondered why are we chasing tourist dollars so much if it doesn’t even provide a living income to people?
C: It depends who the person is. I’m sure some people make more than that.
M: Oh sure, that’s an average, but half make more, half make even less.
C: A lot of families live at subsidence level, that they cannot get ahead. And many people are in debt and lose their house because there’s something like – they need a new roof. I’ve heard those stories, that there is economic struggle for sure.
M: I know your area of expertise is gardening. Any thoughts about uh Rosendale and gardening?
C: We have so many great gardeners in Rosendale – there is a little Facebook group that Rachel Callan put together, I think there are over a hundred members, and it seemed like it was very easy to collect those people that gardeners naturally gravitate towards one another. So yes it would be nice if we had a more easily recognizable community network and that we could identify people who grew excess food, or who wanted to trade food, or who are interested in coaching others on growing food, and all these things would make our town more resilient. Especially looking at all of the challenges ahead, whether it’s the drought we had last year which was extended and severe, or if we get too much rain, or if the seasonal temperatures are strange, it would be really great to share information so that we could prepare for these challenging circumstances.
M: And you think it’s possible to create an organization that can help us do that?
C: I don’t know – I’m not really fond of organizations. I really like people talking to each other and that’s how I’ve approached it. If I see a garden sometimes I stop and knock on the person’s door, which is kind of bold, or usually they’re out in their yard, so I’ll just talk to them when I see them, and they’re usually happy to talk about their garden – it’s just the way gardeners are. So we could, I don’t know how we could have … we could do like a little bike tours of gardens that are close together or some kind of open garden day where people could go around and see the different styles and the different things people grow, and how they approach the equation of gardening. Because it really is complicated there’s not one way to do it and everybody does it a little different.
M: I know you’ve started successful seed swaps and plant swaps which I think have been terrific. I’ve gotten plants and seeds and grown them successfully! It seems like you’re right, gardening is something that we can really learn from each other because we’re all in similar climate, and we’ve got similar problems especially with the stone that is everywhere here, the rocks, and difficulties with soil and Tilson’s all sand that kind of thing it makes a lot of sense that local gardeners can learn a lot from each other. Any other ideas that you have from serious to a flight of fancy or any other things that you feel Rosendale needs that we don’t have or that we have and we don’t need?
C: I guess I would like more venues where you can stop in and hang out – we have a few, which I am extremely thankful for, that there are places. I’m not sure what piece is missing, whether it is the creative element where maybe a venue serves food during the day and then they are a performance space at night… Someplace where people can express and exchange ideas. I guess we have a new cafe that might fill that bill. We might get the old Rosendale Cafe come back and rise like a phoenix and be a community center again. I missed that era of the town, but I heard it was really great and you could dance – and some more dancing would be very nice.
M: I love dancing. Dancing is so good!
C: For things for us to express our joy, and also exchange ideas about important policy issues. you know the two can go together, that we have to mix cultures a little bit to stay buoyant and to enrich our thinking.
M: yeah. Any other thoughts you have that you’d like to share?
C: I would say thank you for doing this project. It’s a lovely undertaking and it’s important that people focus on forward thinking and communicating, and being good neighbors. All these things improve our town and make it even better.
M: great thank you so much!
C: You’re welcome!
