Do You Ever Wonder Why The Hudson Common Council Is So Useless and Full Of Dysfunction?

There is more malfeasance than Tom Depietro's two signatures on third ward councilmember Lola Roberts' 2023 ballot petition.  No one should be surprised at this.  She is a sham!

Lola witnessed two people sign her petition who both actually included the same address in the 400 block of State Street, even though all of the 400 block of State Street is located in the fourth ward.  According to "Sheet No. 2" of Lola's 8 sheets of signatures, she witnessed two signatures of people residing outside of her ward.  OUTSIDE OF THE FUCKING THIRD WARD!!!!!! 

Let's Look On The Bright, Warm and Sunny Side, Can We?

 

On Thursday, for the first time in at least 5 months, I noticed HPD officers speaking with a scruffy group of "patrons" at the 7th Street Park.  It's typically a sign that it isn't winter when HPD is responding to calls of unwelcome behavior in the park (almost always in the portion of the park closest to the store where alcohol can be bought!).  Hooray for no winter!  Hooray for HPD in the park!

An Economic Indicator Or Just a Joke?

 

Eight dollars for a used plastic milk crate that is legally considered stolen property?  Isn't April Fool's Day next week?

At our local non-profit thrift store!

Pave Paradise And Put Up A Parking Lot No One Will Want To Park In!

The issue of on-street and off-street parking as it relates to large developments in Hudson (and the entire country) is a serious and complicated one, made all the more difficult by the fact that for the past several years, as difficult it is to believe, there has been no requirement for developers to provide off-street parking for their projects. (I still have no idea how and why this change took place.)  In short, the situation here is a true shitshow, no more apparent than on North 7th Street at State Street where Galvan's enormously out-of-scale 5 floor apartment building with retail spaces is quickly taking shape. (They call it the Hudson Depot Lofts, and according to the website, the 64 pet-friendly units will be available this year.)  But where will the hundreds of tenants and customers of the shops park their vehicles, either overnight or for an hour or two?

How Corrupt, Dumb And Disrespectful Can A City Hall Be? (You May Have Difficulty Believing This!)

In April of 2023, third ward resident Lola Roberts submitted her 8 pages of signed petition to the Columbia County Board of Elections to get on the ballot in the fall to run for one of the two third ward council member seats.  Shershah Mizan and I also submitted ours on time.  All three of the petitions were accepted by the BOE and the three of us were on that fall's ballot, vying to represent the third ward on the Hudson Common Council.  You remember who came up short.

I recently obtained copies of Lola's signed petition papers from two years ago.  Within ten minutes of perusing the petition's pages -- and with the help of my original walking list from 2023 -- I had easily found five signatures that should not have been accepted by the BOE.  No one made objections to those invalid signatures (there is only a three-day window to do so once the BOE accepts a petition!), and the BOE didn't see any of them in their own reviews of Lola's petition if they even bothered to take a cursory look at it.  It's almost as if the BOE made sure Lola got on the ballot, faulty petition notwithstanding, so that I would have less of a chance to get on the council.  (For more about the BOE making a "mistake" related to my candidacy and petition two years ago, read here: Just An Honest Mistake?).

A Lot Of Explaining And Repair Work Is In Order. Already!

Sometime in November of last year, give or take 4 months ago, the contractor who the city hired to do the DRI work on the city's west end finally put down new concrete sidewalk curb ramps (and beyond) on all 4 corners at the intersection of 1st & Warren.  The job there, from ripping up the sidewalk to replacing it, TOOK FAR TOO LONG TO COMPLETE and was the first red flag of their project.  (Actually, the intersection is still missing 4 permanent stop signs!)

Whenever possible, pouring concrete in the cold is best to be avoided.  Wet concrete needs warmth to cure properly for a long life of being walked on and subject to the elements.  Concrete that does not harden quickly is a weak and imperfect end product.  It doesn't take a professional paver to know this.  Luizzi's timing for their concrete work was the second red flag of their project.

Is It Finally Beer, Food Truck and Blocked Sidewalk Season Again?

 

After several calls last year to HPD informing them of vehicles and food trucks parking on the sidewalk in the 700 block of State Street in front, and to the side, of the Return Brewery (sometimes several vehicles at a time), I was told by someone at HPD (I forget who it was) that the management at the brewery had been spoken to about the issue of their customers parking illegally and that "they will be  taking care of it."  Through the fall, the sidewalk continued to be utilized for parking of food trucks and brewery customers' cars, obstructing the public right of way, sometimes completely.  Hooray for much needed successful new businesses in downtown Hudson!

A City Hall Uninterested In Its Taxpayers, Failing At Basic Communication

I recently heard from a reliable source at City Hall that communication from DPW Superintendent Rob The Slob Perry to the Mayor's Office is practically non-existent.  This news didn't surprise me one bit.  As soon as Kamal Johnson arrived in City Hall 5 years ago, Perry essentially removed himself from 520 Warren and settled at the top of Rossman Avenue behind barbed wire fencing.  Perhaps our DPW Superintendent is uncomfortable being near, and communicating with, black people.  Perhaps, at the same time, Kamal has difficulty dealing with Rob and other white people.  It's difficult to say if any of that is true, but something really, really weird and concerning is going on between these two city officials. Whatever it is, it's not good for the future of this city or for anyone trying to make Hudson their home.

What SHOTS FIRED? What EMPLOYEE INJURY? What ASSAULTS? What SEX CRIMES and BURGLARIES?

Sometime late last year, thanks to the Freedom of Information Law, for the first time I came across a monthly report from the Hudson Police Department which detailed what our police officers, detectives and police chief were spending their time doing.  It is called the HPD Incidents by Type report, and it is a list that is typically more than two pages long.  I don't know if HPD is required to create this report or even why they bother compiling it, but it is possible that it is meant to be seen by few, if anyone, outside of HPD, and possibly just by the mayor.  I have never once heard mention of this report by name at an informal council meeting in the 10 years I have been attending meetings, and I would bet a few dollars that not one current common council board member, including Tom Depietro, is aware that HPD's monthly Incidents By Type reports exist. 

The Latest Word From City Hall On The Repair Of Our New LED Streetlights. The $hitshow Continues!

According to the only helpful person in the Hudson Mayor's Office, as told to me on Tuesday morning, the city will now be hiring an electrician to repair streetlights that are out.  This will apparently be a solo electrician, not the electrical contractor, Leggett, which was mentioned in HUDseen's March 1st article about the streetlight repair mess we are in.  Leggett didn't work out, apparently, and Rob Perry keeps changing his tune. 

How can such a small city be run so poorly and wastefully?

The DRI Project Has Resumed. But Don't Worry...

....it's all going to be finished in 3 months!  3 months and we will all be REVITALIZED at long last!  Just 3 MONTHS!!!  Just 3 MONTHS?????

Where Is Rob Perry's Explanation? Where Is Rob Perry?

There are a couple of concerning things worthy of mention regarding the DPW street sweeper in its LOUD, DISRUPTIVE and UNWELCOME action that I observed on State Street yesterday AFTERNOON.  In general, what I saw -- and plenty of people heard!!! -- was just wrong, and yesterday was not the first time that I have seen and heard the sweeper in the daytime recently.

How To Waste Money And Make Hudson Look Like Shit At The Same Time!

Last week, after seeing this insulting "sign" on city property in front of the Union Street parking lot, I called the state agency who we have to thank for it and the original 10 or 11 nearby so-called sidewalk trees which showed up at least 7 years ago.  All the trees are in the same general condition as the sign -- they are either dead, dying, cut off or completely gone (leaving a gaping hole or cone in the sidewalk, thank you very much).  To call them trees is an insult to mature, thriving trees.  The redesigned sidewalks and curbs, trees and sign were brought to us with grant money from the Environmental Facilities Corporation, which is a rather suspicious name for an agency to begin with.  The rest was up to us.  "Us" being Rob Perry.

Thank You, National Grid, For Allowing This Long Overdue Public Service Announcement!

He is the only City of Hudson department head who does not work from his own department's offices.  He is arguably the most influential and powerful Hudson city official.  He takes home over $117,000 a year.  He no longer parks his personal car behind City Hall. In fact, he had one of the two designated spaces with a sign on the wall behind City Hall until Kamal Johnson arrived and immediately made the space and the sign his own.  His two clerks who do work in his department's offices in City Hall have both told me on several occasions that he is "never" at City Hall and that he works "out there."  When he does find the time to visit his clerks at City Hall, he usually does so by means of the staircase leading to the back roof of City Hall where there is an outside door to his clerks' offices.  Last year at a council meeting I asked him where his office was located, and he responded in his typical dismissive and evasive fashion: "The city is my office" whatever that is supposed to mean.  (Tom Depietro had no problem with the department head's "answer.")  His supposed boss, the so-called Hudson Mayor, Kamal Johnson, isn't even sure where this department head's office is located, nor does he seem to care.  His department has an annual budget of around 6 million dollars.  He is the supervisor to more than 40 city employees over 4 separately named departments, with additional workers in the summertime.  He hasn't showed up in person to an informal council meeting in at least four and a half years and his monthly department reports to the council only involve his voice and pictures, many of which are presented sideways.  He lives on the rare block of a city street that has no overnight parking regulations at all.  He is considered by HUDseen to be a slob.  In fact, his first name rhymes with the word slob.  And finally, it's difficult to find anyone who has a positive thing to say about him. 

TYPICAL EFFORT FROM OUR DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WASTE

Sometime last fall, at least 6 months ago, I noticed that DPW had spray-painted white circles around two potholes on South 2nd Street near Cherry Alley.  I'd seen it in action around town before.  Someone from DPW, often a crew of two, drives around town in a fossil fuel burning vehicle looking for potholes, spray painting circles around those they find so that other DPW workers -- always a crew of two riding around town in a fossil fuel burning vehicle with hot asphalt patch and shovels at the ready -- can come by later and fill the highlighted potholes they locate through the windshield of the moving vehicle.  Well, that's how it's supposed to work at least. 

What Will The City Do With This BOOTY?

The owner of this BOOTed Subaru parked on Warren Street yesterday afternoon owed the city $634 in 13 unpaid parking tickets, most of which were issued in 2021, 2022 and 2023, none in 2024, and three this year.  One and a half hours after noticing the car, it was gone and the city's parking ticket portal showed that the vehicle had no outstanding tickets to pay.

What bank account does that revenue find its way to?  HPD's coffee and donut fund?

BUMP? You Call That A BUMP? Are You Sure It's Not ROB PERRY'S SPECIAL LUMPY ASPHALT PUDDING!

DPW's wonderful patch job at 4th & Columbia appeared in mid-December.  (Read about it here: DPW At Their Best).  The BUMP sign appeared sometime last week in the warmth because the patch turned to dangerous wavy goo, as it still is.  It's a notoriously crash-prone intersection, made worse by DPW's horrendous gelatinous asphalt patch job installed 3 months ago and now with the addition of a huge sign making the already narrow truck route narrower.  This is the ultimate in shitshowness.   Welcome to Hudson.

A Slob Supreme! (As Evidenced By Rob Perry's Vending Machine)

Click below to read and see more.

Thanks To National Grid, We're Still Not Out Of The Woods! If They Have Their Way, We May Never Be!

Twice last year -- in either April or May and then in December -- in the same location, a large portion of the National Grid-owned quasi-public trail behind Oakdale Lake washed away due to rainwater runoff.  A hole was waiting for anyone to walk, run or bike into and possibly die, especially at night.  Debris had been washed to the creek below.  And twice in the past 6-plus months -- in August and again last week -- National Grid has filled that recurring washed out portion of their property along the trail.  (According to a NG worker at the site last year, the same thing happened several years ago.)  Yes, National Grid has been busy at it again already this year filling the same goddamn hole.  Last year it took them at least two months to fill their gaping hole after surrounding it with orange caution tape.  And this time it also took National Grid at least two months to fill the same goddamn hole after I noticed it on the last day of December (actually, the hole looked to be a bit larger this time around, which is unsurprising).

TO DESCRIBE THESE PEOPLE'S WORK AS "CRAZY" IS JUST THE BEGINNING

The never-ending nonsense I hear coming from the mouths of council members during council and committee meetings appalls me to the core.  I think these people would be laughed out of any other city or town.  And the garbage is only getting worse, if only because no one is paying attention to what is going on.

It Took Just 9 Months. Guess Who We Have To Thank?

Early in May of last year, as I watched Rob Perry watch Colarusso put the finishing touches on a freshly repaved 500 block of Washington Street, I made a promise to my readers that I would notify you all of when that thankfully smooth long block west of 6th Street is first marred. I knew that you, like me, were dying to know when that asphalt was finally punctured.  Well, in mid-February, just 9 months after the asphalt cooled, I noticed a 6 x 5-foot rough (as in poor, ugly and lumpy) patch job in the middle of the street close to 6th Street.  It sticks out like a scab over a skin wound, doesn't it?  Except this scab won't dry up and disappear on its own.  And, as narrow as the street is, drivers and riders will feel it every time they make the turn off of 6th to head west on Washington.  Once an asphalt section of street has been dug into, the whole thing has been compromised.  (Notice the cracks already creeping out of the corners of the dig!) 

This Is How Bad Things Have Gotten At Hudson City Hall, Where Darkness Prevails. Guess Who Is Behind The Mess!

Over 7 months ago, in mid-July, HUDseen ran a piece about the streetlight on North 3rd adjacent to Warren that had never been on since National Grid switched the bulbs to LED's and handed the responsibility of the lights to DPW a few weeks prior.  Rob Perry's clerk, Samantha, had a difficult time believing me that the light wasn't working when I told her about it. (Rob's two clerks work in the office on the second floor of City Hall where he can never be found.)  It took Samantha a while, but she did tell me that she would "tell they guys about it."  I told her about the light again a month or so later.  Almost unbelievably, that streetlight is still not illuminated at night.  It appears that since June or July when that light was changed to LED bulbs by National Grid (or their electrical contractor) and handed to DPW, it has not worked.  Not for one minute.  Thanks, National Grid!  Thanks, DPW!  Thank, "guys," you are all really killin' it!