The people that have been recently nailing and screwing their plastic business signs to National Grid's utility poles all around town use a ladder for one reason only: to keep their signs out of the reach of anyone wanting to easily pull them down. And anyone can remove signs on poles without being arrested; they are no one's property once they are on the poles. Unfortunately, the only solution to this new problem -- which appeared suddenly this year -- lies with Hudson City Hall.
Last night at 6:00, I came across a parked car completely blocking the new sidewalk that the Pocketbook people forced on the city to make way for their drop-off drive-thru area. The driver of that car (with an Arkansas plate) won't be the first guest of the hotel, wellness center, restaurant, bar, etc. to have no idea that the concrete area is a sidewalk meant for pedestrians and not a place to park their car, mainly because there is no curb between the brick drive-thru and the concrete sidewalk. What a disgraceful, disrespectful mess the Pocketbook has created for the neighborhood (with the blessings of the Planning Board)!
Late yesterday afternoon, several hours after HUDseen reported on the broken single-sided paid parking sign in front of 720 Columbia, I noticed that it had been replaced with a double-sided sign.
During the inaugural Safety Committee meeting on February 2nd, after Police Chief Franklin finished her 45 second monthly HPD report that had nothing to do with safety, second in command Captain David Miller gave his parking update, which he called a "breakdown' and which also had nothing to do with safety. He did say this: "Parking revenue for December of 2025 was one thousand, or [correcting himself] a hundred and one thousand four hundred and thirteen dollars and forty-seven cents." ($101,413.47. "Over $101,000" would have sufficed, Captain!) Miller then went on to say that the total amount of parking revenue from December 2024 was $83,630, though he gave no sense of what types of parking tickets those revenue numbers included. He also failed to talk about expenditures, such as the cost of parking signs, though perhaps there aren't any signs being bought to replace old and unreadable ones. And, as HUDseen readers may recall, this was the meeting when Miller announced to the SAFETY Committee that parking was "running great."
HUDseen readers will be forgiven for thinking these first two pictures are the same ones featured in an article from exactly two weeks ago about a broken plastic parking sign on a meter pole in front of 720 Columbia Street. But be reassured they are not. I took these pictures yesterday when I came across the second broken sign on that same pole in front of 720 Columbia -- within just two weeks!!!! Yes, the original broken sign was replaced by DPW sometime last week no more than two weeks after it was installed by DPW, and the new plastic sign was also rendered useless within one week. All we get is ugly, publicly displayed garbage showing that HPD top brass have no idea what they are doing in terms of making their new and expanded "improved" paid parking system a success. It's an embarrassing disgrace, and our new mayor should intervene before things get truly out of hand and more money continues to be wasted on these plastic signs and who knows what else they are spending and wasting our precious tax revenue on.
As all readers likely know by now, former Hudson mayor Tiffany Martin is now the aide to our new mayor, Joe Ferris. As the mayor's aide, Hamilton has been forced to take on the title of ADA Coordinator to, for one thing, make sure the city complies with the U.S. Justice Department's 2019 "settlement agreement" forcing the city to make our ridiculously dangerous sidewalks and curb ramps ADA compliant. And, just like her predecessor, Justin Weaver, the ADA Coordinator is required to be a member (and an important one!) of the Public Works Board, the group of five members tasked with complying with the DOJ's directive and implementing the new and ambitious city-wide sidewalk repair program known as the Sidewalk Improvement District (SID). A lot is riding on the efforts of the Public Works Board. A whole lot. Everyone has to be on board, so to speak, including, and especially, the city's ADA Coordinator. C-O-O-R-D-I-N-A-T-O-R!
The people that have been recently nailing and screwing their plastic business signs to National Grid's utility poles all around town ...
