HUDseen: Want To Know How Well A City Is Being Managed? Just Follow The Garbage!

Behind a Galvan property, next to their LOCKED dumpster

Seems to me that if you want to create the worst, most uncivil society, allowing people and businesses to do whatever they want with their garbage would be a good starting point. Let people leave garbage out for removal, either in bags (opened or closed) or loose, wherever and whenever they want while those in power do absolutely nothing to discourage that behavior. Don't even bother creating rules for where and when garbage is supposed to be left out for removal! And if rules regarding garbage must be created, do not enforce those rules. This will help create a landscape full of ugliness and disrespect, with violence, mental health issues and dysfunction the norm among residents. This is essentially what we are approaching in Hudson, if we are not there yet. It's simple: You cannot separate issues and code violations related to garbage from residents' quality of life and general satisfaction with their surroundings. You do not need to be a psychologist to understand this.

Here are pictures taken last week in front of 350 Columbia Street, where Code Enforcment Office, DPW, the Mayor's Office and the property owners do not care when the tenants of the building place their city bags and other trash at the curb. Last Tuesday morning during their rounds on the north side of the city, DPW removed several blue bags but left an air conditioner behind at 350 Columbia. By that afternoon, a blue bag had already been placed next to the air conditioner. On the sidewalk, next to a tree, 7 days prior to DPW's next scheduled garbage removal date!

Tuesday

Thursday

Friday, white bag appears

Saturday. What if City Hall allowed everyone to do this?

Monday

Open bag full of glassware spilling into street

Yesterday, over a week later, DPW removed all the bags, and the a/c unit was gone, too. A blatant code violation and serious quality of life issue for the entire week, and no one at City Hall gives a rat's ass. Moreover, DPW removed the garbage without hestitation, as if to say, "Go ahead, keep putting your trash out on the sidewalk whenever you want, let it accumulate, we'll get to it every Tuesday. Heavy appliances? Not a problem! And, yes, it is okay for you to let glass spill from an open bag that is not a city blue bag and we are not supposed to touch and you are not supposed to place at the curb! Thank you for buying our blue bags and using them so properly and respectfully! See you next week!"