About Gwendolyn Craig

Gwen is an award-winning journalist covering environmental policy for the Explorer since January 2020. She also takes photos and videos for the Explorer's magazine and website. She is a current member of the Legislative Correspondents Association of New York. Gwen has worked at various news outlets since 2015. Prior to moving to upstate New York, she worked for a D.C. Metro-area public relations firm, producing digital content for clients including the World Health Organization, the Low Income Investment Fund and Rights and Resources Initiative. She has a master's degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She has bachelor's degrees in English and journalism, with a concentration in ecology and evolutionary biology, from the University of Connecticut. Gwen is also a part-time figure skating coach. Contact her at (518) 524-2902 or gwen@adirondackexplorer.org. Sign up for Gwen’s newsletter here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jake says

    Do we have a way of knowing, as we should have, where the “3/4 negative comments” come from? Are they, as with the North Carolina residents comments, from local residents or outsiders?

    Hey Burkett from NC, how and where do I get to weigh in on developments in your area? Is this a local issue there or do you have an Uber agency such as the APA?

    If you don’t live or own property in Jay, this isn’t any of your business. It’s a local issue.

    And OBTW, I live just a few miles down the road from the proposed site. It isn’t anything near wilderness or wild. It’s been logged, farmed, built upon for hundreds of years. Got that Rebecca from Crown Point?

  2. Pete says

    To be fair, comments from people who are not New York residents should be thrown out. Otherwise there will be ‘environmentalists’ from all over the country weighing in and opposing it, since they oppose any development.

  3. LeRoy Hogan says

    In the Catskills, the rich and famous have the resources to dictate their policies on the rest of us including NYS. Don’t let ADKS fall into the same problem.

    • Allyson says

      I live here and think this is a terrible idea. I moved here from the Catskills as a kid and saw what happened in Windham and Hunter . Locals are already being priced out of here that’s the whole purpose of lake placid ” vacation rental regulations” can’t imagine what building a bunch of luxury homes would do. There’s enough hotels. And Windham Mt did this . The town next to it which I lived in is now a ghost town. When I say not one person left from when I lived there I mean not one. They slowly got pushed further out they’d move a town further away and then following year another. I don’t even visit anymore bc it’s so depressing. They came in, ruined the landscape, sucked the money out, priced all locals out on these same promises, and guess what no one’s left not even the ppl who bought those luxury homes on the side of Windham Mt. Stayed. Maybe 30 percent will come up here n there. Not enough to sustain any buissnes.
      . Do not believe these promises of prosperity. Need only look to lake placid to see what happened to locals there as an example. Also what happened to the ADK being preserved? Assuming the possible “natural energy source” is just so ppl don’t question its effect on the climate and I’m sure a nice grant from tax payers will set this project up nice n cheap bc of this claim. Shouldn’t we be planting trees instead of clearing another 300 acres of the ADK park. These ppl don’t realize that they come to places like this bc they love the wilderness up here and the feel of the town, then try and do this. You left where u were for a reason don’t come and ruin our home now. Only 1% can afford these luxuries, isn’t what’s been built for them enough? I know the ppl making 15$ an HR to clean up after them are tired of it. Who’s going to work in this place when the locals are priced out just like lake placid. Oh that’s right they’ll have housing for Jayones. Everyone says lake placid changed after the 80 Olympics and they stopped caring about the locals. Now all hotel owners sit on their town board. I pray everyone sees thru this.

  4. Todd Eastman says

    What will be the number of permanent full time jobs coming from this proposed development?

    Will Jay grant tax exemptions to the developer?

    If an out of state resident is proposing this project, whats wrong with out of state commenters who are likely stakeholders as they vacation up in the area and subsidize the local economy during their visits?

  5. Ed says

    I’ve lived in Ray Brook . But from Florida. New yorkers are doing it to are state in record numbers. So what comes around goes around.

  6. Allyson Glaser says

    I saw this happen glad someone else knows about it. I grew up down there and moved up here in my teenage years. No one I grew up with is left. Saw the town die bc of this. I hope everyone knows what this will actually do not the false claims .

  7. John A Bottiroli says

    This proposal has GOOD and BAD parts-
    Maybe it is time to let the developer expand on his proposal, taking into account concerns of the local population, and the APA input.

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