Just Some Observations On A Cold and Lonely Night With More Snow On The Way

The large, partially boarded up house on 8th Street near Columbia Street and with the number 50 on it has been vacant for, I believe, at least one year, possibly two.  Craig Haigh at Code Enforcement deemed the building to be Vacant and Unsafe sometime early last year, the same day I saw DPW boarding up the lower windows on the north side of the house. The CEO's red warning sign was stapled to the house after at least one person was found to be squatting inside, having gained entry through a back door.  I imagine the interior was full of code violations and other scary stuff.  One wonders if the property owner was sent a bill for all the plywood and nails or screws we bought for them, as well as for all the work DPW did to secure their lovely house. Or if the owner even thanked the city for doing them the favor. Or if they paid the bill!  Of course, if nothing changes soon, at some point all the plywood will fall off and need to be replaced. Can you imagine living across the street or next to this place? Oh, wait, people actually do live on 8th Street, even across from 50 8th Street! OH JOY!

At least one window on the second floor is open to the elements and animals. I guess DPW didn't have an extension ladder at the time.

Once a nice house that was lived in.  

 

The name on the tax rolls indicates that the Susan L. Ihlenburg 2005 Trust has been doing their best to neglect their "3 family residence" (with zero families in it) eyesore since January 9th of 2006 when they (she?) bought it for a dollar from Robert J Ihlenburg. The neglect runs in the family! The address for the owner/trust is on Gahbauer Road in Hudson.

Anyone could still easily gain access to the house from the back just by pulling a few nails and prying the plywood back. The door is likely still missing or unlocked.  Additionally, anyone could have a nice quiet and wet sleep in the wide open garage in the back. Maybe take a shit and pee back there, too, where no one will see, hear or smell a thing. You'd think the city would require the property owner to fence off the so-called yard to the north so that no one can access the property from the sidewalk. Common sense here from Hudson City Hall? Pshaw!

Does an LLC shield the owner from a lawsuit 
should someone slip and fall on their sidewalk? 
How much of their liability is limited?

The adjacent house to the south of 50 -- with no number to be found -- is known as 42-44 8th Street and is owned by, appropriately, 42-44 8th Street LLC. According to the tax rolls, the "3 family residence" was bought in 2019 for $90,000. The address for the LLC is on First Avenue in New York City.  I can tell you without a doubt that no one has lived there since at least 2015 when I first noticed the vinyl-sided eyesore.  It's probably been vacant a lot longer.  Since 2011, a bank (Citimortgage, Inc.), a "development" company and a LLC have owned it. No one wants to actually live in it, they just think about flipping it or just outright ignoring it until the value somehow increases.  A year or two ago, I noticed a few dumpsters in front full of interior debris along with a small crew of workers busy inside the building.  That work did not last long, and things have been mostly quiet there for a while. Now there are spots of bare wood on the facade where vinyl once was.  I imagine that it was once an attractive house with families inside doing their thing, like raising children. The structure probably has really good bones, but neglect will see to changing that before too long.

This afternoon, I counted my steps from one end of the ice and snow along the sidewalk in front of the two properties -- it was exactly 40 strides. At about 3 feet per step, that's in the ballpark of 120 feet.  120 consecutive feet of slippery "sidewalk."  Welcome to 8th Street!  Welcome to Hudson! Welcome to CMH!

(True story:  The only time I've ever slipped and fallen on an icy sidewalk in Hudson was two winters ago -- yes, on 8th Street!  It was an angled, broken curb ramp full of ice that put me down in an instant, and it happened in front of the house adjacent to 42-44 to the south!  My elbow and forearm hit the concrete at about the same time my derriere did, and I was very lucky to not have broken my arm, elbow or my skull.  Or all three of them!)

Can you imagine 120 consecutive feet of Warren Street sidewalk full of ice for days or weeks?  How about 50 feet?

I don't know anything about the stately brick house at 115 Warren other than it has no number on it and it is surrounded by the numbers 117 to the east and 113 to the west, aka the DAR museum, mausoleum or whatever it is.  (Shouldn't the city make sure that all buildings have a displayed address in the front?  It sure seems like the civil and proper thing to do, and I imagine there was a time when this was always the case at every property in town.  It was a given -- if you owned a house, you displayed your address number for all to easily see.  Forget about addresses on the backs of houses for the fire fighters - another rule that is not enforced -- what about numbers on the front for the regular folk?!  And the postal carrier!).  I suppose someone might live at 115 Warren, but it sure don't look like it as there were no footprints in the snow covering the front steps and landing a few days after snow fell.

Unsurprisingly, the tax roll indicates that 115 Warren is not owned by a person but rather a "foundation."  Yup, the Kyle Fraser Foundation bought the "detached row building" 24 years ago for one dollar from someone by the name of Nancy O. Kyle.  The address for the foundation is in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.  I wonder if it snowed there recently when Florida got a rare treat of the white stuff.  If it did, I imagine that it melted within a day or two and never turned to ice.  No slippery sidewalks in Palm Beach Gardens for days or weeks, no siree!  

I did an online search of the Kyle Fraser Foundation, and it appears to be a legit 501(c)3 entity recognized by the IRS, though they do not have a website of their own. According to the ProPublica site, in 2023 the foundation had assets of $1.3 million and expenses of around $100,000 dollars, not one penny of which had anything to do with a snow shovel, salt or property management on Warren Street, no doubt. Another site gives the foundation's phone number as 561-776-4836. Go ahead, I dare you, give them a call and ask how the weather is down in Florida and if they are expecting any snow soon. Ask them if they consider themselves snowbirds.

This morning, here in cold Hudson at the CEO offices on Washington Street, I let Craig Haigh know about the ice in front of 115 Warren. One wonders if he has the same phone number of the foundation that is fairly easily found online. Or maybe he went to the house and knocked on the door to speak to someone about their code violation sidewalk. I hope Craig didn't slip and fall on the ice trying to get there or leaving after no one answered the door. Or both.

Hudson is increasingly becoming a city with far too many LLC/Trust/Foundation zombie houses, and I imagine many of them give Craig Haigh one big fucking headache -- hopefully not from falling on his head, mind you! (And I mean that sincerely!).   There are far too many slick sidewalks in Hudson well after snowfall and especially when the temperatures turn the snow to ice and keep it that way for long periods of time, as we have been experiencing lately.

Oakdale Lake has been safe to walk on for weeks, and likely will continue to be safe for at least several more days, if not weeks. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for our sidewalks.  But it doesn't need to be this way.  It's truly obscene for the city to create a system to repair all of our sidewalks without getting the issue of ice and snow on sidewalks solved first.  What good is a smooth concrete sidewalk if it is covered in slick ice for days or weeks?  Will we be replacing the sidewalks in front of vacant (and unsafe!) houses only to allow the owners to continue to not clear them of snow and ice?

Get out there and enjoy the snow while we have it, being sure to WATCH YOUR STEPS! Snow will be covering ice in certain places, including for at least 120 feet on the even side sidewalk of 8th Street near Columbia! Steer clear of there!