Now Albany Is Our Inspiration! Are you as PROUD as Captain Miller Is?

During last night's SAFETY Committee meeting  -- where there was plenty of talk about issues having nothing to do with safety --  the head of our law enforcement department, HPD Chief Mishanda Franklin, revealed two interesting things about the remaining ten parking kiosks that still have yet to make their way onto sidewalks 16 months after they were delivered to the city in early February of last year.  Actually, she announced three things of note. 

Need To Dump A Body? How About Just A Couch or Two?

Since I first came across the city's most ideal midnight dumping area a few weeks ago, several discarded items have been added to it.  Given the fact that there are no signs or video cameras anywhere nearby, it seems that Joe Ferris, Rob Perry, Mishanda Franklin, Nick Fox and the whole cast of characters supposedly governing the city are perfectly fine with you, me and everyone else living in and around Hudson dumping trash in that quiet no man's land on the 2nd Street extension.  Go ahead, it's city property!  Drop a couch or broken chair or two (or large bags of fresh garbage!) down there some night instead of taking it to the transfer station to pay for it to be disposed of properly.  You know Rob Perry won't mind, and neither will Joe Ferris.  

The Police Don't See What I Do. Perhaps They Don't Want To!

 

There are plenty of benefits to riding a bicycle rather than driving a 4-wheeled vehicle that weighs thousands of pounds and can kill a pedestrian or bicyclist in an instant, particularly if it's being driven by someone who is distracted by their phone.  One of the benefits for me that's not on most cyclist's list is my ability to see just how pervasive the problem of distracted driving really is. Unlike the perspective from a sidewalk or from a vehicle, the insight into drivers' habits a rider is able to get from the seat of a bicycle is unmatched.  The distracted drivers that I see far too commonly here in Hudson -- with little to no effort made on my part -- is appalling to me.  But it does serve as a reminder:  wear your helmet at all times and assume everyone driving a vehicle is distracted in one way or the other!  And give 'em shit when they're stopped at a light!

Let's Try This One More Time, Shall We?

 

LUIZZI's BACK, BABAY!

The decorative stupidity that arrived on all 4 corners of 2nd & Warren last year as part of the DRI project were ripped out of the ground this morning by Luizzi, the contractor who installed the ugly and dangerous paver stones there in the first place.  Pedestrians in all directions were being forced off of closed sidewalks and into the street, just as last year about this time.

Who Is Mi$$ing Those Parking Meters Now? Tax Paying Residents Are! Planet Earth Is, Too!

Prior to this year, DPW made regular use of the sturdy and ancient metal poles supporting our parking meters when they needed to post temporary NO PARKING signs in preparation of planned events and reacting to unplanned events such as snow emergencies.  Think of the meter poles as FREE, PERMANENT, READY AT ANY TIME and WELL-SPACED sign supports that made DPW's job a bit easier and cheaper.  Think of the meter poles as dual purpose infrastructure and a big help to DPW.  With the parking meters and their poles gone, though, what can DPW attach their temporary orange wooden NO PARKING signs to?  Plastic, of course!  Cheap and ugly plastic to the rescue once again!  More plastic destined for our landfills full of the awful toxic shit that never degrades! 

Hudson, We Have Problems

 

If you stand to the side of the pedestrian crosswalk at the Warren Street end of Park Place on a busy day and observe pedestrian-vehicle activity (interactions?), it usually doesn't take long to witness a scary WTF moment.  Early yesterday afternoon, such a moment occurred directly in front of me no more than 3 minutes after arriving to the intersection to have a look at the insanity that is that intersection.  And it was a unique WTF moment, having nothing to do with a vehicle turning off of Warren, the prevailing hazard (often unseen) for pedestrians in this crosswalk.  

I watched as a pedestrian essentially got chased out of the crosswalk by a driver on Warren who decided it would be a good idea to turn their vehicle around in the intersection, needing a portion of the city's most dangerous crosswalk to do so.  It didn't seem to matter one bit to the driver that there was a pedestrian well into the crosswalk headed toward their moving multi-ton vehicle.  Pedestrian right of way in a painted crosswalk?  In Hudson?  At Park & Warren?  Are you kidding me?

Hudson, Where Progress Comes In The Form Of "I Don't Think So."

On Wednesday night at 8:30, I came across 4 illegally parked cars surrounding the Pocketbook businesses complex. Four! Two were about to be issued tickets by a HPD officer on the east side of 6th Street across from the business complex, where it is extremely rare to see parked cars with no one in them.  It's safe to say that the drivers and passengers of those two cars were not visiting friends in one of the nearby houses.