Dear Diary

Wednesday, August 30, 2023 -- I decided to buy the newspaper at Citgo yesterday.  The NY Times is so expensive now ($4) that I only buy it once a week.  It was such a pleasant early evening that I thought I'd stop by the park and read a bit of the gloom and doom before returning home.  What a mistake that was, I should have headed straight back home!  

As I made my way into the park (after crossing Columbia Street without the aid of the crossing signals, which have been broken for months), I noticed one of the "regulars" (and former member of the Michael Madison gang) sitting at the bench still surrounded by the hundreds of cigarette butts I counted a few weeks ago.  As I approached him, I noticed he was smoking a cigarette and had a can of some beverage in a brown bag next to him.  After I passed, I reminded him that no smoking was allowed in the park.  He could only say, "I know."  He knows the rule, but more importantly he knows that the police don't care about the rule.  I should have kept my mouth shut, because things only worsened, and he eventually shouted at me "if you take my picture I will fuck you up."  I didn't even have my phone in my hand! Such a pleasant fellow.  

Just one of the four tables in the park was available, the one in the corner that is popular with the "regulars" and is too close to the noisy intersection for me.  Oh, well, I'll take it today. I come here fairly regularly!  The table I passed on the way was occupied by 4 people of dubious character, 2 of whom were drinking straight out of large cans of beer -- cans on the table, cans at the lips, so conspicuous that I could read the labels (Natural Ice).  Picnic time in the park!  Why even bother trying to hide the beer?  They obviously don't care if the cops or anyone sees them drinking in public, and they likely know that the cops don't care anyway. I didn't notice any of them smoking anything, but it wouldn't have surprised me to see or smell it.

Smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol (bagged or not) in a public park in the middle of downtown?  What's the big deal?  What's the next acceptable behavior, pooping on the lawn?  This is what Hudson has become, it seems:  A playland for the globetrotting rich, while rules in THE downtown public park are being broken regularly and the locals having to live with the consequences.  Who is in charge here, anyone?  3 people drinking alcohol in THE downtown public park, with no sight of cops anywhere (I do see them driving PAST the park a whole lot, of course!).  A city with its priorities all screwed up and no one paying attention.  Does City Hall or the police care?  Obviously not.

The table I sat at was surrounded by dirt, cigarette butts and a tree too close, next to the live electric outlet/cell phone charging station designed to keep the "regulars" in the park for as long as they please.  Just as I sat down, a woman at the table 20 feet away began yelling at me, something about "looking in her bag."  I'd never seen her or anyone else at the table before, and I hadn't made eye contact with any of them.  She actually stood up and pointed at me, "What's your problem, motherfucker?  Stay out of my bag!"  I wasn't anywhere near any bag, and I tried my best to ignore her, but she wouldn't stop.  "Mam, if you have a problem, please call the police," I said to her, though that didn't help much, and she didn't call the police on me.  Her cohorts finally told her to calm down and sit down, and she complied.  One of the men at the table then walked my way, and I braced for a confrontation.  He said nothing, grabbed his cell phone from the outlet/charging station and returned to his place at the table.

By this time, the pleasant fellow from the other side of the park had arrived and began goading the others into "not taking any shit" from me, and something about how I better not take any pictures of anyone in the park. That got the woman to point her finger at me again and threaten me some more.

When things quieted down, I tried my best to read the newspaper, but the mood was gone.  Why be in a public park where I might get stabbed in the neck for no reason and the police wouldn't care?  They'd probably chalk it up to the "homeless and mental illness problem that every city is dealing with."  Sure, Police Chief, but what about the problem of all the people breaking the rules in the park that all of your officers don't seem to care about, that you seem to even encourage by lack of proper enforcement of the POSTED rules in the park?  What is it going to take to get you to enforce the rules being so blatantly flouted?  How do you explain that PROBLEM?  (Wait a minute, the police chief has been home on maternity leave since she was appointed to the position months ago!  She can't be reached for comment!)

Why should I even go back to that park?  I thought things would be better there with Michael Madison in jail, but I was wrong.  The city does its best to ensure that the park is an ugly, unwelcoming and hostile place -- it's so weird, where does this come from?  If they let people do as they please in the park, what do they expect?  Why would anyone want to bring their children there to play among the litter, cigarette butts, and drunks smoking cigarettes taking over the park, the tables falling apart from rotted wood and covered in graffiti, the cracked paths full of dirt and debris?  Obviously, City Hall doesn't care, so they have no decent expectations of the place. "Let FOPS deal with it," they (DPW, HPD, the mayor) probably say.  Lotta good that's doing us! 

The park is just an annoyance to them and most of the cops don't live in Hudson anyway.  It's like no one is responsible for the place!  I've never seen Kamal Johnson in the park, he's probably too scared to be there!  The last time I saw a cop in that park who wasn't arresting Michael Madison after I called HPD, it was years ago when 2 cops on bicycles rode through the park and past the NO BICYCLING signs.  So helpful.  So supportive of a city worth living in!

Note to self:  Bill, next time you want some semi-quiet time in a public park, stay away STAY AWAY from the 7th Street Park.  Go elsewhere!  But next time you want to have a beer outdoors in a public park and not be ticketed for it or have to appear in front of a judge for it, HEAD OVER TO CITGO AND THEN TO THE 7TH STREET PARK!  But do not, NOT EVER!!!, smoke a cigarette there or anywhere else, no matter how bleak things are or how many smokers or cigarette butts you are surrounded by!  There is no hope in them things, only death and misery.  And litter.