2009: how the New York Times reports the Hudson Valley

Winter Weekends: A Dozen Easy Getaways

“At the Mohonk Preserve west of the Hudson near New Paltz, N.Y., you can hike year round — or ski, conditions permitting — on more than 65 miles of carriage roads and trails.”

For Some, It’s About More Than Surviving Hard Times

“You didn’t need to know the organizations — Mid-Hudson Addiction Recovery Centers, Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation, Rural and Migrant Ministry, Mid Hudson Animal Aid, Semper Fi Parents of the Hudson Valley, Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, Harriet Tubman Academic Skills Program — to know what they were about.”

Catching Cold, and Loving It

“Enthusiasts have been dusting off the iceboats from Red Bank, N.J., to Rhinebeck, N.Y., to Orient Point at the eastern tip of Long Island’s North Fork.”

What You Get for … $500,000

“West Shokan, N.Y. WHAT: A three-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath house on 8.2 acres in the Catskills. HOW MUCH: $489,000.”

Traffic Jams: Extracting Music From a Bridge

“Joseph Bertolozzi, a composer based in Beacon, N.Y., has spent five years working to extract sounds from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Mid-Hudson Bridge, near Poughkeepsie, and produce a piece of music using the samples.”

Everybody Into the Rental Pool

“‘There’s one house down in Woodstock— the guy had a bunch of great reviews and then someone raked him over the coals,’ Mr. Miller said. ‘A lot of people go by the reviews, and I have really good reviews.'”

A Town Reborn Faces a New Threat

“As in so many other abandoned small towns and former industrial capitals, art galleries and knickknack emporiums over the last decade reinvented the charming exposed-brick storefronts along Main Street, supported both by locals and by tourists visiting Dia:Beacon, a progressive museum that opened in the former Nabisco factory in 2003.”

Beacon: A City Reborn as a Haven for Art

“In the years since, Beacon has solidified its reputation as a destination for art in much the way that Hudson, N.Y., transformed itself into a mecca for antiques.”

Art Dealer Is Charged With Stealing $88 Million

“Mr. Salander was arrested at his home in upstate Millbrook on Thursday morning, and arraigned before Justice Michael J. Obus in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon. He wore a gray, hooded sweatshirt splattered with red paint, and looked unshaven.”

By Existing, a Fledgling Hockey League Declares Victory

“Rather than postpone the season, a replacement was cobbled together: the Hudson Valley Bears, who played their home games in Poughkeepsie and Newburgh, N.Y.”

Lives Streamlined for a New Era

“They considered moving with their 8-month-old baby to their weekend home in Millbrook, N.Y., but neither wanted to commute for two hours in each direction.”

A 21st-Century Makeover for a 19th-Century Wonder

“The rebirth of the Poughkeepsie bridge did not really get going until 2007, when the Dyson Foundation, a local philanthropic group, donated $2.1 million to pay for an assessment of just how damaging time and neglect had been.”

4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues

“The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, were arrested around 9 p.m. after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center, officials said.”

Summer House Horrors: On a Private Lake in Maine, No One Can Hear You Scream

“Take the case of the ‘very well-known author and playwright’ who rented a ‘very high-end summer house’ several years ago through Mitch Rapoport, a real estate agent and office manager of FreeStyle Realty in Woodstock, N.Y.”

Economic Downturn Forces Groups to Get Creative

“Another kind of joint effort — one enjoying greater participation this year, its sixth — is Art Along the Hudson, a cooperative media campaign to promote the visual and performing arts in seven cities lining the river.”

Elevator for Grain, Reinvented for Art

“And, at least on occasion in the summer, to camp out and turn Wassaic — a sleepy town of 1,200 that is the end of the line on Metro-North’s Harlem branch (the town’s name is taken from an American Indian word sometimes translated to mean ‘land of difficult access’) — into a well-mannered art happening.”

Sustainable Dining Minus the Attitude

“Try the grass-fed beef at Knickerbocker Meats in Chelsea. Or order some of the crazy beef ground with bacon from the excellent Fleisher’s in Kingston, N.Y., which is now delivering to New York City.”

50 Miles and 40 Years From Yasgur’s Farm, Woodstock Tries to Move On

“Woodstock is a little like the Middle East, one of those places where everyone has his own view of reality.”

In Hudson Valley, Farmers’ Markets Offer Local Food and Local Chat

“Increasingly, however, farmers’ markets have also become an important part of the social and economic fabric in Dutchess and Columbia Counties, where second-home owners — many of them from New York City — have helped bring an appreciation for locally grown food back to the source.”

With Peace and Love, but More Sophisticated

“There was a culinary openness to Woodstock, too. I grew up there, and though I was a little girl when the festival took place, I remember the macrobiotic cafe that a friend’s dad used to love, the health food stores among the head shops, and Joshua’s, the then-unusual Middle Eastern restaurant that opened in the 1970s and remains today.”

For a Very Old House, Some Very New Ideas

“And so, soon after closing on the house in this town a few miles north of New Paltz, he began to bring it into the modern era.”

Hitching Rides Up Henry Hudson’s River

“We marched on, too, for a Coors Light with the commodore of the Cold Spring Boat Club, and then, back in Newburgh, to a wine-tasting at a waterside restaurant, where my scruffiness from more than 24 hours on the river did not keep me from sampling the cabernet and shiraz.”

Regatta Evokes Poughkeepsie’s Rowing Heyday

“Columbia, Cornell and Penn teamed in 1894 to form an association with the intention of establishing the regatta. They picked this straight section of the river.”

Vision of a Riverfront Lined With Ferry Docks

“Now the state is backing an effort to create more docks along the Hudson River, from New York City as far north as Lake Champlain.”

City Brushes Up Definition of Artist

“Conceding that ‘the universe is indeed limited’ for residential developers downtown, officials are now pursuing various publicity measures, including posting ads on Craigslist and joining a marketing effort called Art Along the Hudson, which also focuses on Beacon, Catskill, Kingston, New Paltz, Newburgh and Poughkeepsie.”

Carving a Name for Themselves

“Fleisher’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats, based in Kingston, N.Y., offers new, expanded Manhattan delivery and a chance to order Julie Powell’s new book ‘Cleaving.’ It’s all about how she tried to sort out her sordid love life while breaking down carcasses at Fleisher’s.”