What Is Our DPW Superintendent Paid To Not Pay Attention To?

Reprinted below is a portion of a Register-Star article from one month ago (June 3rd) regarding the Luizzi DRI mess that was, regardless of what the article offers or Rob Perry says, of the city's own making.  Rob Perry's own making, really.  He was the one who was supposed to be paying attention to what Luizzi was leaving us. Heather Campbell wasn't giving regular DRI updates during her Treasury reports to the council last year, was she?  No!  It was our $125,000 DPW Superintendent who was the one giving DRI updates during nearly all of last year's DPW reports at informal Common Council meetings.  He was the one city official who everyone assumed was paying attention to the $3 million "streetscape" portion of the DRI project that Luizzi had been awarded thanks to a $10 million grant from the State of New York.  Perry was the only official who could have stopped Luizzi from leaving us with shit work and "trip hazards."  He was the only one who could have told Luizzi's project manager early in the project (like the first f'n day!), "This is not what we agreed to.  Stop your work, remove what you have done, and start over.  Do it properly or don't do it all.  Understand?"  It's called project oversight, and Perry wasn't interested in doing any of it.  Our DPW Superintendent was the only one who could have avoided this mess, the only one who could have nipped it in the bud before it was too late.  But he didn't, and he's never taken responsibility for fucking up.  Perry sure loves to explain how a hired contractor made numerous mistakes while he wasn't paying attention, though!

Park & Warren, Where There Are No Pedestrian Safety Issues At All! (And These Pictures Prove It!)

 

On Saturday morning, after no more than 5 minutes of observing pedestrians crossing the Warren Street end of Park Place, I took four revealing pictures within the span of about ten seconds.  It's frightening how many close calls there are everyday at this turn in the city's eastern truck route; the dangers for pedestrians there have become normalized by City Hall.  Someday, if I'm (un)lucky, I just might get a picture of a pedestrian or three in the crosswalk being struck by a turning car or truck, perhaps being run over and killed or just paralyzed for life.  I can't think of a pedestrian crosswalk that would be more appropriately featured in a handbook on traffic safety in a chapter titled "How To Kill and Injure Pedestrians Without Trying."

It Could Be Worse!

Imagine if no one visited Hudson.

When A Hudson Hub Request Goes No Further Than "Thank You For The Info."

For anyone wanting to let City Hall know about a problem they see or hear, there are numerous categories to choose from to make a "request" on the Hudson Hub app, from "Fences" and "Noise" to "Traffic signal."   The idea is, presumably, that if a city department agrees that your request is a problem, they'll take care of it.  But it's not always that straight forward.  Often, help is not on the way.

Gettin' It Done The Morris Way!

Last night's monthly meeting of the Services Committee wasn't as notable for committee members who did show up (2) as it was for those members who did not show up, neither in person nor virtually (3).  Like not at all. 

What A Difference Three Weeks Makes! What A Difference Rich Volo's CAC Makes!

At the April meeting of the Conservation Advisory Council, I asked chairperson Rich Volo what, if anything, the council does about homeowners who fail to maintain their sidewalk trees, particularly in terms of weeds and litter at bases that go ignored for months or year after year.  Here is exactly what Rich responded with:  "It's the responsibility of the owner to maintain their tree."

The Trouble With Trees and Utility Poles! And Wind!

National Grid was busy dealing with three downed trees in the city on Tuesday night and much of Wednesday after the storm blew through town.  One of the three trees that combined to knock out power to all, or nearly all, of the city was located on the west side of the entrance to 810 Union.  The entire tree toppled in the wind, bringing down a utility pole just beyond the east side of the entrance, with the top of the tree reaching all the way across the adjacent parking lot entrance of the ophthalmology office.  Unsurprisingly, it didn't seem to have much of a root structure at all.