Then And Now!

The lead photo was taken on March 17th, 170 days ago, give or take one or two.

Broken City, Flailing City, Failing City (Better Late Than Never)

 

(Non-existent editor's note and apology:  This piece was written over 4 weeks ago but never got published.  I forgot all about it.  Hey, there's a lot to keep an eye on these days, and I've only got two eyes.)

I took the first three pictures late yesterday morning.  The lead picture is particularly notable because this is at least the third instance in the past 4 or 5 months where HPD's plastic paid parking signs have fallen off the repurposed parking meter pole in front of lovely 720 Columbia.  As of today,  HUDseen has featured all three instances, though it's entirely possible I missed one or two.  First, it was the original sign, installed in early February.  Then, one sign became two back-to-back signs, their tops secured with a pair of binder clips designed for holding sheets of paper together.  Now it has been another pair to fail, these two being "held together" with a screw or two.  

Welcome To The DisgraCity!

Yesterday at noon, I came across yet another pair of broken scannable parking signs barely hanging on to the meter pole on the south side of the 700 block of Columbia nearest Park Place.  This is the third, possibly fourth, such instance at this pole since signs went on poles in early February of this year.  

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!