Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 2004
Source: Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY)
Copyright: 2004 Daily Freeman
Contact:  http://www.dailyfreeman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3269
Author: Jonathan Ment
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

SEN. CLINTON GIVES, RECEIVES PRAISE AT PATTERN CONFERENCE

NEW PALTZ - U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton received a standing ovation as she 
approached the podium to make the opening remarks at Mid-Hudson Pattern for 
Progress' 40th anniversary conference on Wednesday.

Outside, a handful of demonstrators voiced their opinions on medical 
marijuana and U.S. involvement in Iraq.

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, who introduced the senator in the Studley 
Theater on the SUNY New Paltz campus, received his own accolades in the 
form of applause, hoots and hollers.

"We ... were very excited when we learned she was considering a run for the 
senate," Hinchey, D-Hurley, said of Clinton. "She campaigned in places in 
upstate New York where they had not seen a ... senator, let alone a 
candidate, in decades.

"It's exciting to me that, for 40 years, there's been this kind of 
accomplishment," Clinton, D-N.Y., said of Pattern, a public policy research 
and planning institute. "Perhaps the best years for Pattern lie ahead."

Clinton said progress in Kingston, Poughkeepsie and other Hudson River 
cities has not been easy, but the results are clearly visible.

PRAISING the region as "the most beautiful place in the entire country," 
Clinton said open space and farmland must be preserved while incentives are 
provided for the right kinds of business to locate here. And, she said, 
"it's important to harness the resources we already have, the human capital."

Clinton said she remembers visiting Hudson, in Columbia County, in 1999 - 
when she was first lady and a Senate candidate - just as the renaissance 
there was starting to take hold; and Beacon, before the Dia Art 
Foundation's new museum, Dia:Beacon, was even a concept.

Stewart International Airport didn't have low-cost carriers like the 
recently arrived Independence Air, and the region was just beginning to 
recognize the Hudson River for its historic significance and ability to 
attract visitors and commercial interests.

Of brownfields, polluted former industrial sites that now are vacant, 
Clinton said they need to be turned into something positive for the future.

Sprawl and traffic congestion, meanwhile, may not have been on the agenda 
40 years ago, but they are today, the senator said, noting that more 
housing is needed so people who want to remain in this area or return after 
college can afford to.

CLINTON said New York's agricultural traditions, such as apple growing and 
the wine industry, can be part of the economic future. She said there are 
efforts to create a farm-to-fork initiative that would encourage 
restaurants and other large consumers in New York City to look north for 
their agricultural needs, rather than to New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Describing a creative economic development effort she's worked on in the 
Adirondacks, Clinton said the Hudson Valley needs to take existing small 
business and connect them to the global marketplace.

In the state's North Country, Clinton said, a cooperative was formed, and 
through a special initiative with online auction and merchandise sales 
sites, one- and two-employee companies making things like soap or 
fly-fishing rods have been able to sell their wares internationally.

THE demonstrators outside the theater had left by the time Clinton's 
20-minute address ended, but a waist-high model of a human head labeled 
"depleted uranium" remained seated by the entrance as the senator was 
driven from the rear of the building in a short motorcade of black SUVs.

The Pattern conference, "Change Challenge Charter: An Agenda For Our 
Future," continues today at SUNY New Paltz with keynote speaker Michael 
Gallis, who will put the Hudson Valley in a global context leading into a 
discussion titles "The World in a Hudson Valley Context."

Following the session, smaller group caucuses will work on issues of 
environment, the economy, respectful social and political culture, and a 
dynamic cultural society.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake