In Celebration of Fifteen Years of Beacon Bits

I moved north from Nyack to Beacon, the heart of the Hudson Valley, in January 2011. I’d been visiting for two years and felt the buzz in town. I immediately joined Beacon Arts, Beacon Sloop Club and the Beacon Incline Railway Restoration Society and always attended Second Saturday events. 

I began blogging Beacon Bites: A Bite of the Hudson Valley in June 2011 to celebrate  community life in Beacon. My blog started months before A Little Beacon Blog and years before The Beacon Beacon; it was non-monetized and served as a vehicle for my return to writing creative nonfiction, different from my work focus on scientific-academic papers.

My blog stands as one witness to what emerged from 2011 through 2020, before the post-pandemic boom on Main Street. A review of my posts suggests what caught my attention and what has thrived with ongoing interest and the never-ending influx of new people.

I’d be honored if you read some of the 151 posts as “food for thought” -- and perhaps those that may still appear in the future; you never know when I'll be inspired to put up another post. I still have been writing elsewhere, and await publication of my memoir, but I believe I will always come back to the comfort of 'home,' which is what Beacon Bits signified for me fifteen years ago and still does today.

Food for thought:  So many people have so much to say about Beacon these days. There will always be another blogger, and perhaps even another local newspaper -- although our local Highlands Current is award-winning and going strong and never did put Beacon Free Press out of business. So much is happening here in town and in the surrounding Hudson Valley, and there will always be enough room for various viewpoints. 

The community today is more vibrant than 15 years ago. It is ever changing. I looked at my first post, which mentioned 4 places of business; 3 of which are still going strong (i.e., Hudson Beach Glass, Artisan Wine, All You Knead.) 

We can all ask, what does it take to thrive in Beacon? I'd like to think it is heart and soul, creativity, service, and always meeting the needs of people who choose to live here. If 1 in 4 new venues will succeed, those are pretty good odds. Time to ponder what the next 'survivor' on Main Street will be in 15 years time? I'd like to bet on Håkan, Noble Pies, Stanza, and still to be expolored, More-ish, Gather, and Wild.

(Sorry, a  photo of the 3 businesses taken today is missing due to google conflict for upload.)