News Flash: For Just $25, You Can Now Block A Sidewalk In Hudson For As Long As You LIke

The old DPW Sidewalk Permit

Until very recently, a DPW Sidewalk Permit, giving permission to contractors and homeowners to block a sidewalk, was printed on a 4-inch by 4-inch piece of paper that appeared to have been designed in the early 20th century (the word "carriageway" is used twice, and the permit refers to itself as a "barricading permit"!).  The DPW clerk always filled in the line for the duration of the Barricading/Sidewalk Permit as "2 weeks."  That was the deal (at least in this century):  You paid DPW $25 for a 2-week Sidewalk Permit to block all or most of a sidewalk.  If you needed more than 2 weeks, you were supposed to go to DPW and pay another $25 for another Sidewalk Permit.  And so on, until the job was done and the sidewalk was passable.

Now, the DPW Sidewalk Permit is on an 8 x 11 sheet of paper with the city's logo at the top, a day I thought would never come .  Inexplicably, the word "carriageway" is no longer to be seen (so sad!), and there is no expiration date nor duration of the permit printed, or able to be written, anywhere on the newly designed permit.  Curious about that change, yesterday I went to City Hall and asked the DPW Clerk if the permits still lasted two weeks. (Robert Perry was not around.  Ha!) Samantha said that they did not.  

"Do they even have an expiration date anymore?" I asked. 

"No, they do not," was her response.

The new DPW Sidewalk Permit

"So, the permits can last indefinitely?" I asked.

"No," Samantha responded, "they are just like our Street Permits.  When the job is done, the permit is done.  If they need more time to block the sidewalk after the job is done, they need to get a new permit."

The DPW Street Permit allows a contractor to excavate our streets.  This can involve blocking some traffic, but rarely for more than a day or two and almost never the entire street is blocked.  Comparing the two permits is completely misguided. 

HPD has a Parking Permit that allows contractors and homeowners to place a dumpster or machinery in parking spaces for 2 weeks.  That, too, will cost you $25.  Should work continue after 2 weeks, you need to renew that permit for another 2 weeks, which will cost you $10.  There is always an expiration date written at the bottom of each HPD Parking Permit. I have seen dumpsters and other things occupying metered and non-metered parking spaces for months, even over a year. 

In Ithaca, NY, a city that knows a thing or two about sidewalks, they don't mess around with the blockage of sidewalks which force pedestrians into the street.  In Ithaca's residential areas, it will cost you $100 a week to block a sidewalk.  In commercial zoned areas it will cost you $200 a week.  The penalty for work without a permit is $250.

In Hudson, however, each department seems to make their own permit rules as they see fit, no matter how little sense they make or how little revenue the permits bring to the city.  There is also no penalty in Hudson for failing to be issued a DPW Street Permit, DPW Sidewalk Permit, or HPD Parking Permit.

HPD offers plenty of information on their webpage for those interested in being issued a HPD Parking Permit, including a blank copy and instructions for the permit.  It even guides those people interested in a DPW Sidewalk Permit to the DPW webpage.  Unsurprisingly, there is no information anywhere on the DPW page regarding their own Sidewalk Permits or Street Permits.  The permits aren't even mentioned.  ANYWHERE.  It is as if the 2 DPW permits do not exist at all and that DPW doesn't really care if contractors and homeowners get them when they are supposed to.  You know, before anyone digs up our streets or blocks the sidewalk.  Importantly, all 3 permits prevent the city from being sued should something go wrong.