The two "temporary" (there's that word again!) A-frame signs that we've been so fortunate to have grace the northwest corner of 6th & Warren 24/7 for the past several months are associated with two businesses at the complex three blocks to the north. Yesterday's wind was not nice to those signs, even the still-standing metal one that weighs at least 40 pounds. Upright or not, the signs are a clear code violation.
According to the automated email response I got ten days ago from the Hudson Parking Bureau (with no personal name associated with it), today should be the day that the "temporary" closure of the Hudson Police Department's new Parking Bureau ends. (They're working out the kinks!) The apparently not-so-important bureau was closed all 5 days last week, plus the previous Friday, with the vacation possibly beginning the day before, on Thursday the 17th. (Someone was there on Wednesday the 16th.) The sign that has been on the window of the bureau's office for the past 10 or 11 days does not give any indication as to why the offices was closed or when it might reopen. Who the heck is in charge over there? Our four police detectives?
It happened within 6 or 7 weeks of Galvan's contractor creating the new sidewalks surrounding their hotel project at 4th & Warren and letting us little people walk on them. It happened within 25 days of HUDseen writing about the obscenely dangerous situation at the northern end of our new sidewalk on 4th Street. And it happened within 3 days of an email from me to mayor Ferris asking why the end of that sidewalk was still such a dangerous obscenity available for anyone to fall off of after so many weeks. "It" is the dumbest shit imaginable. (If I were to print Ferris' email reply to me, you might think I had made it up. Maybe another day if I have time.)
Because Galvan's contractor, Bishop Beaudry, created a 6-inch cliff at the end of the sidewalk that no one from the city noticed (and ultimately had to be told about), several weeks later Galvan and Beaudry were told by the city to tape it off, remove what they had installed that was wrong, start the fuck over, and try to get it right this time. So, on Thursday or Friday, someone (likely Beaudry) ripped out several square feet of very new thick concrete sidewalk that was laughably and frighteningly non-ADA compliant and nonsensical. (Concrete dust is like the worst fucking thing in the world for human lungs!) How on earth does this nonsense keep happening, and how much time and money does City Hall waste reacting -- if and when they are made aware! -- to all the bullshit from Galvan? Of course, the hotel project is on hold (STOP WORK!) while the city tries to figure out how to right several architectural errors (oversights?) that Walter Chatham and Galvan "mistakenly" made with the building. The Code Enforcement Department's STOP WORK order was issued weeks before the sidewalk cliff was made off limits, which happened days after either Joe Ferris or Nick Fox told Galvan there was a problem with the end of their contractor's sidewalk. Is it possible that Nick Fox inspected the building while completely ignoring the sidewalk he had to have walked on? It sure seems like he did!
 |
| I took this picture well after the STOP WORK order was issued for the building! |
Meanwhile, one block to the east, the replacement of one of the city's worst sections of sidewalk is imminent. That would be Galvan's sidewalk on South 5th Street alongside their vacant lot at the southwest corner, where white spray paint appeared about a week ago, likely from the contractor hired by the city to replace all of 6 portions of sidewalk. (SIX! Hooray!) Because Galvan decided never to replace that disrespectful obscene lawsuit grassy mess of theirs (and the city never forced them to), city taxpayers, via the initial efforts of the Public Works Board's Sidewalk Improvement District project, will foot the bill for them instead.
The inane message from City Hall has been clear for years or decades, and it is still alive and well today and will be for years or decades to come. DON'T BOTHER REPLACING YOUR DANGEROUS SIDEWALK WITH YOUR OWN MONEY. AT SOME POINT CITY TAXPAYERS WILL PITCH IN AND DO IT FOR YOU! IT MIGHT TAKE 30 YEARS OR MORE, BUT IT WILL HAPPEN! THERE'S NO RUSH!!!!!
Why does nothing make any sense around here?
A hop, skip, and a jump from where danger has lurked for far too long at 5th & Warren, this brief section of "sidewalk" is being ignored by the Public Works Board. Ignored by Galvan and ignored by City Hall, the city's two biggest ignoramuses. If you walk there, ignore it at your own peril. But remember, Galvan doesn't give a hoot if you fall and land on your head or elbow. They'll find a way to sue you if you sue them. That's what swell neighbors do here in Hudson!
If, like me, you've been wondering who is supervising the city's ambitious new paid parking system since HPD flipped the switch early this year, there's no need to wonder anymore. Just as I assumed all along, the person who we are all counting on to make the parking system a smashing long-term success is the second-in-command at HPD, Captain David Miller, the same fella I've been somewhat facetiously referring to lately as Parking Captain (or PC) Miller. I'm afraid it's not a joke anymore. But, really, in the grand scheme, it is a joke. It's got to be!
Tiff, Gary, and the gang at the PWB require a 9-inch cliff minimum before they act.
Of course you can! And then what? The parents sue the City of Hudson and Galvan? Sure, why not!
Depending on what street your car commits the heinous crime of being in the way of the DPW street sweeper early in the morning, HPD will issue you and your car one of two overnight parking tickets. On State, Warren, Allen, and many north-south streets where there are no posted overnight parking rules, HPD officers issue $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets. (No signs = $15.) However, on streets such as Prospect (see pictures), Washington, Union, and others with posted special overnight parking rules that typically don't apply every night of the week (referred to as, I believe, local street rules), HPD officers issue $25 NO PARKING ZONE tickets. (Yes signs = $25.) Even though your car is parked on the "wrong side," you will not be issued a $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket where local street rules apply. You've committed the same crime of parking on the wrong side of the street, but a different ticket with a higher fee applies. And to add the confusion, if HPD finds that someone has parked their car during the day or night alongside a yellow curb and/or in front of a NO PARKING ANY TIME sign, they issue the same $25 NO PARKING ZONE ticket. Different crime, but same ticket and same fee. This makes all the sense in the world, doesn't it?
The two " temporary " (there's that word again!) A-frame signs that we've been so fortunate to have grace the northwest co...
