It's Kinda Funny, Right? (Until Someone Falls!)

As regular Hudseen readers likely know, there is now a special handicap parking space in front of Hudson City Hall on Warren Street, one that is not in line with the parking spaces in front of or behind it.  Columbia County also has one similar special handicap space in front a downtown buildings of theirs, allowing for an interesting and telling comparison between the two spaces and, more importantly, the adjacent sidewalks.

At some point a while ago, our Columbia County government created a "van accessible" handicap parking space in front of their office building at 401 State Street.  So, how did they go about the task?  They posted the necessary pair of signs and created a simple curb cut/ramp for disabled and wheelchair access, leaving the sidewalk alone. Though they probably could have done a better job with the curb ramp, which is a bit bumpy, they got the job done.  It probably works.

What did our city government have done this year in front of 520 Warren to create their required van accessible handicap parking space, a task that took months while the sidewalk was off-limits and all pedestrians were forced into the street?  The necessary signs were posted, a long and wide wheelchair ramp was created, and half of the 10-foot-wide sidewalk was removed to create one entirely new parking space in place of the removed sidewalk and 2 metered spaces. No traditional curb cut was made.

City Hall now has the narrowest stretch of sidewalk along all of Warren Street, with hundreds of pedestrians a day (and night!) regularly forced to step along a curb 5 inches above the street.  Was this the city's only option for the van-accessible handicap space?  Or was this considered the most desirable option?

The sidewalk in front of City Hall
is now abnormal.  You had better
stay focused! 

"I'm not going to let you fall, dear!"

I'm no lawyer, but if I were Hudson's city attorney I would definitely have had a talk by now with the mayor and anyone else at City Hall who would listen:  "This new parking space and the sidewalk are not acceptable, it never should have been done this way, and we need to do something now before someone falls and sues us for being so negligent and careless!  Do you hear me, Kamal?  I'm not going to say it again.   Put down your facebook phone and do something so that the new sidewalk in front of your improved City Hall is no longer an immediate hazard to pedestrians.  Can you do that?  We can't have such a narrow sidewalk, and the narrowest sidewalk on the entire street, without something that prevents pedestrians from so easily falling off of it.  What we have is not at all smart.  It's called a liability, and eventually, perhaps tomorrow, it will bite us in the ass. 

And whose idea was this anyway?  It wasn't yours was it, Kamal?"