2012: how the New York Times reports the Hudson Valley

Paved, but Still Alive

“Interboro took a different approach. It chose the Dutchess County Mall in Fishkill, N.Y.”

What You Get for … $350,000

“KINGSTON, N.Y. WHAT: A three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath colonial. HOW MUCH: $345,000.”

Trackside Developments Catch On

“In Poughkeepsie, Metro-North and the city have formally agreed to work together on a plan for three acres of housing and business clustered around the railroad depot.”

To Pay New York Pension Fund, Cities Borrow From It First

“In Poughkeepsie, which is contributing $3.6 million into the state pension system this year and borrowing nearly $800,000, Mayor John C. Tkazyik, a Republican, said rising pension costs and new federal accounting requirements for retiree health coverage could have dire consequences.”

How Graffiti Goats Became a Symbol of … Something

“But as an object lesson of how fast images can spread in the digital world and how quickly they can come to stand for many different things, even if they began as standing for nothing, consider the blank white planter, the red goat and a tattoo artist with not much to do on the streets of Kingston.”

Muddying of Beloved Creek Is Last Straw for Neighbors of a City Reservoir

“Last year, the releases from the Ashokan Reservoir turned the Lower Esopus a muddy brown, forcing the shutdown of local beaches, undermining boating, fishing and tourism, and marring the sparkling vistas that many people in Ulster County have come to see as their birthright.”

Property Tax Appeals Benefit Big Companies

“In a case in Poughkeepsie, I.B.M. protested the 2008 and 2009 annual assessments of its 3.8 million-square-foot plant along South Road.”

On Outer Reaches of the Harlem Line, a Conductor Who Offers Full Service

“Mr. Curley has worked on Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem line since the early 1980s, but three years ago, he moved to the northernmost 29-mile stretch of the trip.”

A Musical Son of the South Is Mourned in Woodstock

“Mr. Helm, known for his boisterous drumming and weathered voice, came to Woodstock in the late 1960s at the time that Bob Dylan and his other bandmates were turning it into an unlikely musical Mecca. He died of cancer last week at 71.”

New York Has Some Prisons to Sell You

“In the Hudson Valley, local officials have taken the lead in trying to find a new use for the former Mid-Orange Correctional Facility in Warwick.”

Biblical Name, ‘Utopian’ Quality

“These days, Goshen’s farmers send lots of vegetables to market, and agriculture is the largest industry in town.”

In Catskill, N.Y., an Affordable Gem

“The little hillside house of Nick Vogelson and Patrick Crowley, two young men at the beginning of their careers, is a charming blue-trimmed getaway, and only a little over two hours from Manhattan.”

Beneath the Cobwebs, Regional Treasure

“She placed an advertisement in the Woodstock Times soliciting work by Mr. Ludins in private collections.”

Once a Month, a City’s Art and Music Spill Out After Dark

“Second Saturday, like Beacon, seems to hang its hat on the idea that art, as muse, recreation, status signifier and economic development strategy is one of the few things that have a permanent growth market.”

From the Ground Up: An Adventure Begins

“Then, we would begin the monumental task of actually building the house on 50 wooded acres outside Woodstock, N.Y., that her family purchased in the early 1980s.”

Skilled Work, Without the Worker

“From this warehouse in Newburgh, C & S, the nation’s largest grocery wholesaler, supplies a major supermarket chain.”

A Slice of Broadway in the Hudson Valley

“What sounds like a Finnish musical revue is actually a new cabaret series at Helsinki Hudson, a restaurant and music space in Hudson, N.Y., that’s become a popular nightspot for the Hudson Valley’s growing population of artists.”

In Small Town Hit by a Storm, Hope, Despair and a Mudfest

“In Prattsville, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo labeled the place hardest hit by Tropical Storm Irene, and in other towns dotted across the remote Catskill Mountains landscape, everyone has a flood story: the generations-old business that washed away; the new trailer that was split in half; the family dog that disappeared; the museum whose collection was practically erased.”

What You Get for … $430,000

“KINGSTON, N.Y. WHAT: A four-bedroom Colonial with three and a half bathrooms. HOW MUCH: $430,000.”

Their Own Museum

“Her great-grandparents bought the farmhouse during the Depression, moving here from Brooklyn in an early expression of the back-to-the-land movement. Their children did not stay, migrating back to cities and suburbs.”

After Graduating From College, It’s Time to Plow, Plant and Harvest

“They had been in the fields here at Hearty Roots Community Farm in the Hudson Valley since 7 a.m. They all said they could not imagine doing any other job.”

Fracking Suspense Cuts Into Second-Home Sales

“The Marcellus Shale spans more than two dozen New York counties, from Chautauqua and Erie in the west to Green and Albany in the east.”

G.O.P. Congresswoman in Fight to Retain a Hudson Valley Seat

“The district, redrawn since 2010, includes parts of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam and Westchester Counties, with affluent suburban towns and working-class cities like Newburgh and Poughkeepsie.”

Deep Powder Without Deep Pockets

“No car? No problem. Gray Line New York and CitySights NY, the double-decker bus and motor coach companies, are offering ski package transportation deals to Hunter and Windham mountains.”