The Often Updated But Still Incomplete Vacant Buildings List

70-72 North Fifth Street, still vacant after at least ten years

As readers may know, the Hudson Code Enforcement Office is required to keep a vacant buildings registry and associated list of vacant buildings. The idea is to charge property owners an annual fee if their properties remain vacant -- $1,000 for the first year, $2,000 for the second year, and so on.  Either fix your house so someone can live in it or pay!  A deterrent, if you will, to property owners neglecting their properties and eventually having to knock them down. This fee system can be found in words in the city code, but it is rarely (or, more likely never) actually implemented in the real world. Equally concerning are the several vacant buildings in town that can't be found on the list.

In this and future articles, Hudseen will highlight one or two houses at a time that have been vacant for years -- most of them worsening eyesores -- that cannot be found on the CEO's vacant buildings list.  Vacant, uninhabited, decaying houses that the city is most definitely not doing anything about.  Vacant, uninhabited, decaying eyesores that the city finds acceptable for years and decades.  Vacant, decaying, uninhabited houses that people have to live next to, near or directly across from.  Vacant eyesores that people could be living in but property owners have decided not to invest in or sell and the city is perfectly fine with.  In a city that is desperate for housing, affordable and otherwise!

First up are 70 and 72 North 5th Street -- one property, two vacant houses, owned by Galvan since 2012.  (The property is known as 70-72 North 5th Street).

Apparently, the city doesn't care if the two houses on 
the left fall over from neglect or remain vacant forever

Why is Galvan building a 60-unit apartment building on North 7th Street while their two houses at 70-72 North 5th Street continue to rot?  Why did Galvan buy the houses if they don't want anyone living in them?  Why is our Code Enforcement Office perfectly accepting of Galvan doing nothing with these two houses that once housed people?  Why is 70-72 North 5th Street not to be found on the CEO's vacant building list and never has been?  If it were on the list, would it spur Galvan into action?  How would the Common Council ask Craig Haigh to explain why the houses at 70-72 North 5th Street are not on his vacant building list if he is never required to attend informal common council meetings like every other department head is required to do?  What good is a registry or list of vacant buildings if no annual fees are charged to property owners of registered vacant buildings and 2 houses that have been vacant for over ten years are nowhere to be found on the list?

Here is the latest updated vacant buildings list from our CEO.  Notice that it has been updated 12 times in the past 5 years, information that is of no help to anyone.  Actually, it is interesting to me that the list has been updated so often and that 70-72 North 5th Street is still nowhere to be found on it.