Will Hudson City Hall Ever Get Its Act Together?

 

Yesterday at 12:45 pm, with the farmers market winding down and the Pride Parade soon to begin, just 3 of the 120 parking spaces in the City Hall parking lot were unoccupied.  All 3 of them were handicap only spaces.

Sing It With Me: PLASTIC, PLASTIC, PLASTIC! YOU'RE REALLY SO FANTASTIC! OH, PLASTIC, PLASTIC, PLASTIC! HELP US WITH YOUR MAGIC!

Late yesterday afternoon, no more than 4 hours after I had called HPD about the several downed temporary orange NO PARKING signs on North 7th Street that had been blown over in the strong winds, they were gone.  Removed.  Reconsidered.  Repurposed.  By DPW, no doubt, who had to return to the scene. 

"How Does This F'n Thing Work, Sonny?"

While I didn't hear what was said this morning between the parking enforcer and the elderly guy with his phone they were both looking at, I'm pretty sure at least two things were going on.  It's been happening a lot this year since parking was supposedly simplified.

They Treat Us Like We're and One Big, Dumb Bottomless Piggy Bank!

6 months and two days ago, at the beginning of a long, cold and snowy winter, HUDseen posted an article about the floating dock in Oakdale Lake that had not been removed to the beach.  At the time, the dock was already surrounded by thin ice.  Soon, ice thick enough to walk on covered the lake and stuck around for about two straight months.  Plenty of snow was soon piled high on the ice and on the dock.  For months.  Here is some of what I wrote about the dock 6 months ago:  "It simply shouldn't be out there right now.  Only a wasteful slob, wasteful slobs or a wasteful City Hall would allow this to happen."  

The Youth Department's floating dock is primarily made of plastic, and it is no more than two years old.  I have no idea who paid for it. 

Where Has Claire Cousin Disappeared To?

Monday night's monthly Informal Common Council meeting was the 3rd consecutive gathering in which 5th ward member Claire Cousin has been absent.  She's only been in attendance at this year's first two meetings.  2 for 5 is a 40% attendance rate.

I seem to remember talk about Claire Cousins not showing up to meetings when she was representing Hudson's first ward as a member of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors a few years ago.

It Still Baffles My Mind!

As difficult as it is to believe and to write, here goes. A 30-room hotel, bar and restaurant with no off-street parking capabilities is coming to the corner of 4th & Warren.  

Hudson Residents Were Sold A Bill Of Goods. Ossining Residents Were Not.

I spent a bit of time in downtown Ossining this past Saturday, a village I am quite familiar with. While Ossining has about five times the population of Hudson, its downtown commercial district is not quite as large as ours and it certainly isn't the visitor's destination that Hudson's downtown is (but at least they still have at least one pizza joint that sells by the slice!). And they, too, are going through some growing pains -- two public parking garages are in the works. One thing I was glad to see unchanged in Ossining was their old parking meters. There they were, still ready to take quarters, still doing their quiet but efficient work. No kiosks or scannable signs were anywhere to be seen, thank goodness. Then I noticed the stickers on the back of the meters. And that's when I realized all over again that Hudson got it all wrong when we decided to chuck our meters in the trash.