Galvan's solution to the lack of off-street parking for their tenants was to buy a parcel of mostly vacant land at the corner of Washington Street and 6th Street to convert much of it into a paved parking lot able to accommodate, as I understand it, about 30 vehicles. (Keep in mind that Galvan's apartment building could bring over one hundred new vehicles to the area surrounding State & North 7th Street.) Of course, the lot is not found on 7th Street, and Washington Street is two blocks from State Street. The idea that some of Galvan's tenants will park in this "amenity" (as it is referred to on the Hudson Depot Lofts website) is absurd. Looking south from the entrance of the recently paved lot, Galvan's apartment building is nowhere to be seen. Standing in the middle of the lot, just the top floor of the building is in view in the far distance. Pretty damn far, too. "But how far, HUDseen? How far is damn far?" Thank you for asking!
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| A parking lot that is too far away to be considered an amenity! (Why is the gate wide open and the lot accessible right now?) |
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| Where is home? |
To get a sense of how far tenants might be walking to and from their cars in the lot, I recently counted my steps and timed my walk from the middle of the lot (which currently resembles a figure eight demolition derby track more than a parking lot) to the intersection of 7th and Rope Alley, directly in front of the southwest corner of the building where I understand the building's main entrance will be located. Keep in mind that standing at 7th and Rope is still a fair distance to any of the doors of the apartments soon to be completed inside the building.
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| At last, coming into view. Still a long way to go, though! |
The walk lasted 2 minutes and 55 seconds! I was not carrying groceries, pushing a baby or two in a stroller or weighed down by anything -- just walking with hands free. It was daytime and it was not raining or snowing, without snow or ice on the ground (pictures with snow were taken another time). Nearly 3 minutes of walking involved 280 steps. At 3 feet per stride, the distance of my walk was close to 840 feet. Later, I confirmed this distance with the front wheel of my bicycle wheel -- 120 turns at precisely 7 feet per turn.
To give some context and comparison to the absurdity and uselessness of Galvan's off-street parking "amenity," I timed and counted my steps from directly in front of another property of theirs (they aren't difficult at all to find!) to see where I would eventually find myself standing. Beginning my journey on the sidewalk in front of the Armory building (where the Hudson Area Library is located) on North 5th Street just north of State Street, I walked due south at a typical sidewalk pace for a limber person. 280 steps and 3 minutes and 15 seconds later -- after crossing, and sometimes waiting to cross, State Street, Long Alley, Columbia Street, Prison Alley and Warren Street -- I found myself on South 5th Street, halfway between Warren and Cherry Alley.
I was, of course, standing on another sidewalk that Galvan is responsible for, this one being perhaps the most deplorable section in all of Hudson. I had arrived at a sidewalk hoping to put me in the morgue, located next to a large, grassy off-limits open space in the center of a world-class downtown commercial district. Welcome To Galvanville!
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| The start! |
Imagine being expected to park your car on South 5th Street and walking over two long blocks to spend some time in the Hudson Area Library! Possibly with a child in one hand, a bag of books in the other and a pocketbook slung over a shoulder! That is essentially the equivalent of what Galvan will be expecting (hoping?) of their tenants on 7th Street. Some "amenity," isn't it? Such munificence!
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| The end! |
What anyone paying attention knows, and what Dan Kent at Galvan also likely knows but would never admit to, is that every tenant of the Depot Lofts in their car looking for a parking space -- whether needing one for the night, for a few days or for a little while -- will search on State Street first before they even consider heading to the so-called amenity at Washington & 6th where parking may not be available. Who would settle for walking that far first? (There is, and will continue to be, little to no parking on that last block of North 7th.) I can even imagine that tenants of the Hudson Depot Lofts who are headed home by way of 6th street from Glenwood would just bypass the lot and Washington Street entirely, opting to remain on 6th Street to reach State Street without even thinking of giving a peek into the parking lot to see if a space is available there. Who wouldn't do the same? Who wouldn't check State Street first to park a whole lot closer to home? As a result of Galvan's generous off-street parking amenity for their tenants-to-be, parking on State Street, particularly overnight parking, will be a nightmare and just lead to parking rage and make enemies of neighbors. (Overnight parking is already very limited on upper State Street!) It turns out that we have Kamal Johnson and others at City Hall to thank for this obscene situation.
Last year, well after the Hudson Planning Board approved of Galvan's project on 7th Street, PB head Theresa Joyner sent a letter to the Common Council pleading with them to reverse the rule allowing developments like Galvan's to proceed without any off-street parking. Galvan was not required to provide any off-street parking for the tenants coming to the Depot Lofts, so they just thought that a 30-space parking lot over 1,000 feet away from the inside of the apartment building would be helpful and useful to their tenants and would prevent any parking issues in the neighborhood on nearby State Street which is often full of parked cars at night. Galvan is, once again, trying to be a good neighbor and make Hudson a more livable, friendly city. Because, as we all know, they really care about all of us living here. Just ask Dan Kent. Or ask the former residents of that last block of North 7th Street -- if you can find them! -- who, until two years ago, lived in the three perfectly good houses on that block's west side that Galvan had to demolish and remove to make way for an apartment building that may or may not come to fruition. That's the other monstrosity that the Planning Board had no choice but to approve and that may one day go up directly across the street from the full-of-amenities in-progress Depot Lofts.
If that second apartment building on 7th Street is built, it too might also provide the amenity of "tenant parking." But where, oh where, would that off-street parking be located and how long a walk would it require to get there and back home? How about at Galvan's aforementioned vacant, grassy lot at the corner of South 5th & Warren, just a 10 or 12 minute walk away from 7th & State (20 minutes with groceries at least!)? The unutilized, off-limits to the public fenced lot is available and has been waiting to be paved over for years, and I'm certain that Kamal Johnson would love for that grassy area to become yet another paved parking lot that Galvan's apartment building tenants residing a quarter of a mile away would avoid at all costs! "We need to house wealthy white people and they need to get daily exercise!"
It honestly sounds like something that Galvan would try to get away with, convincing their favorite tenant, our so-called mayor, of their idea's brilliance. "This will solve your parking problems, Kamal, and we'll be doing Hudson a favor even though we're not required to do anything. Take it or leave it." You know, the same old bullshit that Dan Kent and others at Galvan constantly feed the city and our puppet mayor.
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