Is Hudson Run By Fools Who Want To Kill Us? Or Are They All Just Blind?

For readers who are unaware, one of the city's speediest and most dangerous stretches of road is Glenwood Boulevard/North 6th Street (from Parkwood to Washington, likely close to a half mile in distance), and it is most definitely more dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists than it is for drivers.  

Glenwood (I'm going to leave 6th street out of it for now) has got it all: a pair of steep hills, one with a sharp bend, long straightaways, two park entrances, driveways, and zero police enforcement of the speed limit.  A few years ago, complaints from nearby residents forced the city to install a speed radar sign designed to slow down traffic headed into town, found at the end of the long straightaway prior to the hill and bend leading down to the lakes.  Or, more accurately, the sign was designed to tell drivers how fast they were moving.  Most of them, at least. You see, not only is there no speed limit sign near that digital sign, but a few weeks ago I noticed that if drivers approach the sign going 30 miles per hour or faster, it won't display their speed until their speeding car is beyond the sign.  In other words, the fucking thing is useless.  Think Mishanda Franklin cares that that sign is no help?

May I Demonstrate What is Truly PROBLEMATIC at City Hall?! (It Won't Be Brief!)

If there was one thing that Tom Depietro and I agreed on, it was this:  Margaret Morris repeats herself to the level of annoyance. And he called her out on it at least twice at meetings -- it drove him nuts, as it should have.  Morris' habit of repeating her thoughts, ideas and comments -- sometimes within the same sentence, sometimes within seconds or minutes, sometimes within weeks or months -- is bizarre, concerning and it makes it difficult to pay attention to what she has to say.  And now that she is the president of the Common Council, her repetitiveness really is on full display (but, of course, no one can criticize her for it).  Morris is a time waster and progress killer, and I'm starting to see the annoyance on the faces of council members, particularly Henry Haddad, when she speaks (especially when she goes on and on).  Morris is also a huge interrupter, as Depietro was.   That habit, too, is concerning and annoying.  And rude; it seems to go along with the job.

1 Down, 15 To Go! Who's Got The Paint Remover?

It took all of two weeks for the $10,000 parking kiosk on Warren near 8th to be tagged, possibly by a mouse.  I can't help but wonder how long it will take someone from the city to remove that graffiti -- if they even bother to, that is. (Who, if anyone, has been assigned to handle kiosk graffiti removal?)  And which paint will fade away soonest, the white circle that Parking Captain David Miller sprayed on the sidewalk in preparation of his kiosk or the new white graffiti on his kiosk?  Only time will tell.  

Thank Goodness For Door Dash!

 

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.