Best Hope For An Old Park   Barker Park Troy It’s mostly concrete now, noticeable only for its wildly profuse flower stands and a small playground. But, oh, the stories this rectangular little park could ...

Best Therapy   Bette Meci Middletown Laughter is no joke for Bette Meci of Orange County. She leads groups throughout the Hudson Valley that promote the therapeutic power of laughter to help reduce stress, improve ...

Best Open House   Lamont-Doherty Earth Ob­ser­va­tory Palisades, Rockland County Expect lots of mind-opening moments if you attend Open House Day at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) on October 9. A dozen tents crammed ...

Best Band   Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams Cold Spring, Putnam County In July the lease on the house they were renting in Ossining ended, leaving Joziah Longo and Tink Lloyd, the ...

Best New Building   Monika A. and Charles A. Heimbold Jr. Visual Arts Center Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, Westchester County Susan T. Rodriguez, of Polshek Partnership Architects in Manhattan, gave this writer an assignment: find ...

Best of the Valley   The votes are in, and here are the winners — some 200 in all — in our 18th annual poll   by Anitra Brown, Lynn Hazlewood, Marilyn Mark, Ann Morrow, ...