Mayor James Sottile wants to cash in on Kingston’s newfound status as a filmmaking hot spot, but the director of a nonprofit group which works to bring film crews to the area said that red-tape and permit fees will cause the city’s nascent movie boom to fade to black. Over the past few years, Kingston has developed into a popular location for filmmakers drawn to the city’s quaint streets as well as the presence of high-end pre- and post-production facilities and local talent. This summer act...
full story

A pair of Kingston High School capital projects hit potential milestones last week, with the future of one coming into clearer focus and the other perhaps falling further out of focus than at any time in recent memory.   The Kingston City School District’s Master Plan Facilities Committee voted unanimously last Wednesday to endorse an $86 million renovation and reconstruction plan, dubbed the “Second Century Capital Project,” for the high school’s Broadway campus. The plan, a hybrid which co...
full story

Over the first half of its 2010 season, Kingston’s Summer Sizzle Basketball League has fought Mother Nature and won. Given the league’s continued existence in spite of everything from driving rain to scorching heat (“Our first games earned us our league name with the heat index,” said coordinator Charlene LaDay-Hill), what chance does a funding gap have of felling what’s become a summer recreation staple? Whether it’s the simplicity of a game which requires nothing more than a ball and a hoo...
full story

Imagine the site of the King’s Inn, the eyesore motel fallen into decrepitude after being operated as housing for social services recipients, rebuilt as an attractive edifice with retro-historic features. The ground floor would be a bustling public market space lined with stores, and the top two or three floors would be occupied by apartments, as would a separate building in the back of the property, which would be linked by a courtyard planted with gardens and perhaps adorned with sculptures...
full story