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Hudson is not a tale of two cities. It is a tale of three. The affluent, who treat Hudson as a laboratory for experiments they never have to endure. The dependent class, carried by the state safety net and everyone else's taxes. And the working middle, squeezed between them, who pay the property taxes, either directly or through their rent.
Hudson Common Sense (HCS) contends for that third city: the working middle who pay the most and have nowhere else to go. We publish what the local press will not: who decides, who benefits, who pays.
We are engaged in three contests.
The housing industrial complex: developers, nonprofits, and consultants who make a living off the housing problem without ever solving it. The fix begins with frequent, city-wide reassessments so every parcel pays its fair share, not the share its owner negotiated a decade ago. Zoning reform follows: legalize Missing Middle Housing, the row houses, duplexes, and small apartment buildings Hudson built itself with, before consultants discovered us.
The youth industrial complex: the Hudson City School District (HCSD), the City of Hudson Youth Center, and allied groups that create jobs for adults rather than opportunities for children. Hudson's deeper problem is that it does not have enough businesses. Honor belongs to those who create their own jobs, and above all to those who create jobs for others. It does not belong to those who clock into public-sector roles that did not exist when the city and county held twice the population they hold today.
And Hudson's Tammany: a part-time political class with a full-time pose, from Hudson City Hall to the Columbia County complex on State Street, most of them unopposed at the ballot and unanswerable between elections. They grandstand on Gaza and climate while the assessment roll rots and the potholes spread. The real decisions, meanwhile, are made by activists, grant officers, and nonprofit boards no voter ever chose. Like the original Tammany, this one feasts on the working middle and calls the meal public service. Charter reform is the remedy: fewer offices, clearer lines of authority, contested elections, and accountability voters can actually exercise.
**Liberty. Merit. Rēs Pūblica!** We champion the taxpayers, renters, and businesses who carry their own weight, and Hudson along with it. We write for one reader: the Hudsonian with reason. We ask one kind of question: the uncommon one.
HCS is, in part, a love letter to The Economist, founded in 1843 to join "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress."
These are our values. Our operating principles, the rules we hold ourselves to, are three:
Government decisions should be based on evidence and public interest, not party loyalty or personalities. On rare occasions, when evidence compels it, we endorse individuals and positions, not parties. We assess candidates, budget votes, planning decisions, and ballot measures on their merits. We will never tell you to vote blue no matter who, or red no matter what. We are evidence-driven, not team-driven.
See our brief post defining “Apolitical” and related but distinct American political terms.
City services must deliver the greatest benefit with the least waste of taxpayer money, time, and effort. Every public dollar is extracted from a Hudson household; every hour wasted in process is an hour the taxpayer paid for. We measure government not by what it announces but by what it delivers per dollar spent.
Every resident is subject to the same rules and entitled to the same protections. One bar, one set of fines, one assessment formula. When two Hudson households with identical homes pay different tax bills because of who they know, the city has stopped governing under law and started dispensing favor. Equal protection is not a slogan; it is the test of whether Hudson is a republic or a club.
These principles serve one constituency: the Hudson taxpayer.
*A note on authorship: Like The Economist, we publish without individual bylines. Our voice is institutional, our standards collective. Ideas matter more than authors, and continuity matters more than personalities.
Hudson today runs on hypocrisy, dressing self‑interest as virtue. Housing is treated as blood sport. City Hall runs theatre instead of government, rewarding insiders and punishing outsiders. Tax codes protect patronage. Local myths thrive while facts are ignored. Bad nonprofits harvest grief for grants. The rich pay, the poor collect, and the middle class is forced out and forgotten.
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Hudson has drifted from e pluribus unum to e pluribus plura out of many, more. It will recover when common sense and common purpose outweigh petty quarrels.
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We champion the business owners, the homeowners, and the renters who pay the taxes that keep Hudson running. They open shops on Warren Street, fix the roofs, hire the staff, sponsor the little league, and bring the visitors whose dollars cross-subsidize everyone else. They are not the problem; they are the solution waiting for permission.
HCS fights to get local government off the backs of Hudson families. Lower taxes, so working parents keep more of what they earn. Predictable Planning Board decisions, so a homeowner can add a porch without hiring a lawyer. Top-quartile public schools, so families do not have to leave to give their children a fair shot. A government so efficient it makes Zurich jealous. Pluralism, not diversity for its own sake. Ambition, not the ostrich's posture toward the future. Hudson should stand for more than vice and nostalgia. It can lead in design, culture, and place legacy, and run a government that delivers per dollar spent. We hold no one back. We hold up the rules that apply to everyone equally. The Blue Ribbon Schools program is not a fantasy; it is a target. So is a balanced budget. So is a Hudson where families stay, because it is worth staying in.
Our work proceeds through three instruments:
🗣️ Commentary: We write Editorials, commission Guest Op-Eds, and publish knowledge guides. Sharp opinion on issues that matter.
🎯 Critique: We challenge avoidable failures and satirize hypocrisy in The Shallot (inspired by The Onion).
⚖️ Courts: When persuasion fails, we pursue (or support) litigation as a last resort to protect residents’ rights and ensure equality.
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“The courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, in order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority.” ~ Alexander Hamilton
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Get the latest Hudson Common Sense Briefing straight to your inbox every last Sunday of the month.
Each (monthly-ish) issue includes updates on local governance, analysis, and civic insights from Common Sense. We respect your privacy, your time, and your inbox, so outside of election season you will only receive one newsletter from us per month.
We send a monthly email, this is not a typical “reply-all” group email, so you will not get responses from other subscribers, and no one will ever be able to see your membership status.
Click the link below to sign up: ⏬
If the link doesn’t work, send us a quick note and we’ll add you manually.
Email us at: [email protected]
Curious what the briefings look like? Here are examples of past issues:
Election ‘25: Voter Guide / Why we endorsed Joe Ferris / Our First Foil Files
Briefing: Hudson's Housing Choice, Mayoral Mediums, Grant Snafus & New Website
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To avoid confusion and ensure utter clarity, we use different designs for different types of publications and content. Read the full story of our Brand Evolution here.
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At Hudson Common Sense, we treat reasoned disagreement not as dissent but as democratic maintenance. Like a good market, ideas thrive on competition. We seek out arguments we oppose, not out of masochism, but conviction: that truth is iterative and critique is civic duty. Publishing our fiercest detractors is not charity. It is how we stay honest. The same invitation extends to whoever currently occupies the mayor's office and, as too often, eyes Albany more than Warren Street: facts before posts, work before podiums.
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Two example profiles of our Common Sense “Profile Boxes,” with their respective “Profile Portraits”, demonstrated best by our Editors’ most beloved (fictional) Parks & Recreation characters, Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson.
We also don’t mind being on the receiving end of satire or critique, just pick a lane. Take note that we are experienced in the Memes of Production and the Art of Peace.