A City Seemingly Hitting The Skids!

For the nearly 2 years that the offices of our Code Enforcement Department have been located on Washington Street, there has never been any indication on site what their hours of business are.   No signs on the doors, no helpful info on the sign by the street.  

On the Code Enforcement Department's page of the city's website, however, the hours of operation have always been clear:  8:30 - 5:00.  That's what the page indicates even today.  

FALSE INFORMATION!

Two Months? How About Just Two Days!!!! (Things Are "Going Great!")

 

Confirming Captain David Miller's recent claim that the city's new paid parking "change" is "going great," it appears that the two parking experts at HPD ordered the wrong scannable paid parking signs.  They are made of plastic, not metal.  Pictured here is one of two signs installed by DPW last week on Columbia Street that are no longer properly secured and are going to have to be thrown away and replaced.  Make no doubt about it, more are on the way soon.  I took the pictures yesterday. 

Every Fucking Winter After Every Snowfall At Two CSX Sidewalk Crossings! Sometimes For Weeks! This Has Got To End Before Someone Is Killed!

 

If this wouldn't be acceptable for one day along the sidewalks at the CSX crossings on both sides of Warren Street, then why, for at least the past several years, does Hudson City Hall find it acceptable on Columbia and on State every fucking winter after every snowfall?

Guess What, Jack? The Cracks Are Back!

Ten months ago, on April 8th, HUDseen published an article critical of the city's efforts with its new parking payment program, and it wasn't the first one.  It was titled The Cracks are Starting To Show With The City's Ambitious and Sprawling Parking Kiosk Project: "We Need To Take A Step Back." (You can read it here: Cracks)  That quote was made by the head of the erstwhile Parking Study Committee, Jennifer Belton, who was concerned that things were not going as planned with the kiosks and other parking matters.  We were paying a parking consultant to help us, and the year-old-committee had just seen the involvement of Police Chief Mishanda Franklin.  A few months later, on July 22nd, the committee's work, studying, "parking plan" and recommendations were done and Jen Belton handed off all of her and her consultant's hard work to, as she said, "the Parking Bureau."  While Mishanda and her clerk and new Parking Bureau Supervisor, Doreen Danforth, did attend the last few meetings, Captain David Miller did not.  He was likely dealing with law enforcement issues, the stuff we pay him to do to keep us safe and keep the criminals and bad drivers off our streets, sidewalks and out of our houses.  Well, at least he should have been.

Thank Goodness HPD Is Part of The Common Council's New SAFETY Committee! They're Going To Have To Justify The Unjustifiable, Defend The Indefensible and Explain The Inexplicable!

All the new scannable paid parking signs that DPW attached to the top of meter poles on side streets and Columbia Street this week are facing parking spaces in the street, not the sidewalk. NOT ONE OF THE SIGNS IS FACING THE SIDEWALK THEY ARE FOUND ON.  FACING THE SIDEWALKS ARE THE BLANK BACKS OF PARKING SIGNS MEANT TO ALLOW DRIVERS TO EASILY AND QUICKLY PAY FOR THEIR PARKING SPACES.  

Walking On Floor Framing Beams and Steel Re-Bar, Walking Up Steps, Stepping Off the Back of a Garbage Truck and Other Ways City Workers Hurt Themselves Last Year.

If I were the King of Hudson, one of the changes to Common Council meetings I would institute would be a requirement that each department head reveal any injuries that occurred in their department the previous month.  And since most injuries to municipal workers occur in public works departments, Rob Perry would have an extra task every month: to announce to the council how many days his department has gone without an injury and how many days away from work any injured workers had.

With that in mind, let's have a look at the nine accidents involving city workers in 2025 that the city reported to OSHA on Form 300, titled Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses.  

24 Hours Later. Well Looky Looky!

 

Yesterday, a few minutes after I notified Code Enforcement in-person of all the snow still on the sidewalk around the corner in front of 60-68 North 6th Street, I noticed something interesting.  Two city employees, having come from the Code office, approached the first mound of snow in front of 60-68 North 6th.  They stopped and spoke for a few seconds, though I was too far away to hear their conversation.  They then turned around, walked back to Washington Street and took a right to return to where they had just come from.  The two people were a plainclothes Hudson Police Department Lieutenant Nicolas Pierro (likely not on duty) and a long-time part-time Code Enforcement officer, possibly Peter Merante, the same person I had just notified of the sidewalk code violation.  Nearly all of the snow on the sidewalk -- that had been there for 10 days just a literal stone's throw from the Code Enforcement Office -- was gone by this morning.  (I would have done a more complete job, but not everyone is as perfect as I am!)