There’s an old rule of thumb in the newspaper business that we don’t correct corrections. Which is to say, I have made every effort to correctly correct a previous piece on the development of property adjacent to Cornell Park on Kingston’s steepest street.

For the record, the long-demolished Thomas Cornell mansion property at the corner of Wurts and Spring streets in Rondout lies immediately adjacent to city-owned Cornell Park, one of the jewels of the city’s extensive parks system.

It is a misconception, a city hall spokesperson emailed, that the mayor “is giving up park land.” I had done some ill-advised speculation on that subject in my original piece.

The mansion property is privately owned, separate and distinct from the park. In fact, it has been on the market for at least five years according to reliable reports. One might assume, as I did, that the two properties are of a piece. They would be wrong, as I was. For that I apologize to my readers.

That said, the Cornell homestead piece combined history – Cornell was a 19th century Kingston titan – with breaking news, a hallmark of Kingston Wire reporting. Wire editor Dan Barton decided to hold it for further scrutiny after hearing from a reader. The Wire values input from its readers.

In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter how well researched or written a news article may be, if it’s not factually accurate, it’s not worth printing.

What follows is the edited version.

Newcomers to Kingston, even “native Kingstonians,” probably don’t know who Thomas Cornell was. Dead since 1890, Cornell was Mr. Big in this town. It seemed he owned almost everything – a bank, the water company, railroads, the newspaper, a trolley company, probably most of the politicians of his era. With all this he found time to serve two terms in Congress.

Two city streets are named after him. Cornell Street and Thomas Street, parallel to each other in Midtown off Broadway. What was once the site of the Kingston Coal Company – he owned that too – is now a large municipal parking lot.

His stately mansion stood at the top of Wurts and Spring streets in Rondout. Long gone, like Cornell, the expansive property was named Cornell Park in his honor early in the 20th century. Across Wurts Street large, well-maintained single-family homes look out on the park.

Not counting the magnificent Dietz Stadium, Kingston has at least six other fairly large neighborhood parks. A parcel that abuts Cornell Park could soon fall under development.

When I first read a good story in HV1 by Rokosz Most about a recent meeting between the developers pitching this project and the people already residing in the neighborhood, I had two thoughts: If they’re going after land adjacent to city parks, what’s next? Dietz Stadium? And how did I miss this one?

The HV1 story detailed an Eighth Ward neighborhood meeting hosted by Mayor Steve Noble and ward Alderwoman Ruth Katz. Held some two weeks ago, according to the article, about 50 people from the neighborhood attended, along with a spokesperson for developers. They weren’t writing checks to reserve a condo at the multi-storied buildings developers plan to construct.

One of the more interesting aspects of this would-be development is that the property changed hands several times over the past five years. At one point, an owner offered to sell the 15 acres to the city.

Getting wind of this project, a group of neighbors tried to raise the money (an undisclosed amount) to buy the parcel and deed it to the city. City Hall expressed little interest.

It would seem, reading between the lines, that the mayor is at least open to new construction in that neighborhood. Asked if the city would approve a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes), something demanded by almost all developers these days, he offered only an evasion. Other projects get them, he said in essence.

Developers know this will be a long slog. Their marketing surveys no doubt found there are plenty of people willing to fork over multiple hundreds of thousands for a condo with views of the Lordly Hudson.

As for raising the cash to buy out developers, why not drop a dime on our state legislators? State Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Saugerties, and Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, D-Esopus, have proven adept at sweeping up state funding for hometown projects, especially Hinchey. Noble doesn’t have much of a relationship with Shrestha, but he speaks well of Hinchey.

It’s doable.

Developers are no doubt aware of the uptown Kingstonian’s travails. Even with the mayor on their side, 10 years after the initial announcement of its $50 million project, all they have to show for it is the demolition of a former diner and just-announced plans to demolish the brick warehouse Uptown where much of the project is to be cited.

Let’s go full circle.

Come to think of it, I know what Tom Cornell would say to all this: What the hell are you doing next to my park?