How and Where Do They Find These People? Is Arkansas Next? (And Other Tales Of Staffing Woes)

 

It was three Tuesdays ago while I was waiting in the parking lot of the Police & Court building for City Court Judge John Connor to arrive that I noticed a new-looking black Audi with MASSACHUSETTS license plates pull into the lot and park.  A well-dressed, middle-aged woman with a briefcase got out of the car and proceeded to enter the building.  She looked very lawyerly to me; certainly not a defendant.  Sure enough, 10 minutes later inside the courtroom, there was the same lawyerly woman sitting up front in the only chair at the table reserved for the Columbia County Assistant DA, the attorney representing "the people of New York State."  I wondered what road she drove on that morning to enter New York from Massachusetts.

Was This Sign Approved By The HPC and The Owner Issued A Sign Permit By Code Enforcement??

Would a generic, ahistoric, inappropriate sign like this be approved for every restaurant in town?

Don't Be Fooled By The News, Rumors, Or The Vacant Storefronts! Business Is Up All Over Hudson! Way Up! Higher and Higher! Too High To Come Down! Rejoice, People! Rejoice!!!

Business is even booming on Green Street! Along the truck route and on the way out of town, no less!

Rob Perry and Colarusso Have Some Explaining (And Work) To Do!

Cracked concrete can now be easily seen all over the 14-month-old Ferry Street Bridge, particularly on the sidewalks but also on the street surfaces and the island between them.  The island surrounds the bridge's truss.  Yesterday, for the first time, I noticed two additional common warning signs of poorly mixed, poured and/or cured concrete: scaling and pitting.  Perhaps the best time to inspect the bridge is on a day when recent rain has had a chance to evaporate, as was the case yesterday.  This way you can see where water remains in cracks, pits, and scaled areas, sticking around to further damage the concrete surfaces.  And, boy, were there a lot of wet areas remaining on the bridge late yesterday afternoon!  

Concrete is supposed to be impervious to water, not take or soak it in.  Once the water gets inside the concrete, it doesn't leave easily.  And when that water freezes you've got a bona fide compounding mess on your hands.  An expensive, time-consuming, ugly, and embarrassing mess.  All of it preventable if the job is done correctly from the start and someone from DPW is paying attention, of course!

Well, Lookee Here, If It Isn't Our Violator-In-Chief!

Given that the NY State primary election was held 9 weeks ago and the general election isn't for another 8 weeks, you'd be hard-pressed to find a political sign of any kind on any property in the city.  At this point, any that remain are nothing but useless clutter, visual pollution, and, for good reason, code violations. However, besides the few election signs for Abdus Miah from 4 years ago along lower Columbia Street, there is one conspicuous and noteworthy green and white election sign that has been in front of a drab and joyless (and flowerless) house on North 6th Street for quite a while.  That sign says a whole lot about the owner of the house as well as how screwed up things are at City Hall.

How Low Has The City of Hudson Sunk?

Does 26 inches sound about right?  (I came across this long unmaintained sidewalk tree in the 500 block of Columbia about one week ago.)

No, Bob! Not Good Boy! Bad Boy! Bad Boy, Bob! Very Bad Boy! Bob!

 

The latest iteration of the coffee shop at 35 South 3rd Street seems to have no problem with leaving their black A-frame sign at 3rd & Warren overnight.  It's such a wonderful addition to the city, isn't it? Of course, the sign doesn't include the hours of operation, but what does Bob care?  On Sunday night at 6 pm when I came across that sign for the first time, Bob had been closed for an hour.