Why Isn't The Hudson Police Department Promoting Tomorrow's DOOMSTRIKER Event For One Of Their Fallen Officers? Or Are They?

 

I noticed this 8 x 11 poster last Saturday, not far from the cash register at a local pizza shop.  It is entirely possible that a current or former Hudson police officer taped it to the wall, perhaps even former HPD cop and current HPD Commissioner Shane Bower.

First, a bit of recent history and context to help understand this upcoming event and how it relates to local government.

The Garbage, Litter and Stains Never End (As Does The Garbage Coming From Rob Perry's Mouth)

Speaking of never-ending garbage, here is an update on the issue of the stained steps to the entrance of Promenade Park.  It's almost beyond belief.

Wish Them Well! They're Going To Need It!

Over the weekend, I spoke with the new owners of 425 Columbia Street while they were doing a bit of weed and poison ivy control in front of the weed, poison ivy and plywood-covered eyesore that had been equally neglected for far too long by the previous owner as it had been ignored by Hudson Code Enforcement.

Thank Goodness for Fakebook!

Apparently, there is a full-time Account Clerk position available at HPD.

It pays between $35,000-$45,000 a year (depending on experience, I presume), which is not far from what most fast food establishments and grocery stores are currently paying for entry level work. 

How To Make Things Worse, Not Better. And Piss People Off! And Create Parking Lot Rage!

If Mishanda Franklin, Kamal Johnson, Jen Belton, Tom Depietro and others have their way, soon the one-person Hudson Parking Bureau will no longer be located in City Hall, around which parking is regularly available on weekdays. The new $17,000 Parking Bureau office at 701 Union Street has been built and is ready to be furnished and occupied when someone says GO. Gone will be the friendly, welcoming, approachable, historic and gentle atmosphere of City Hall, replaced by bullet proof glass and a chute to "hand" someone your parking ticket payment. A lovely pair of vending machines had to be moved out of the way for this change, but they are still nearby for your convenience, as well as being the first things you will see when you step inside the building. At least no one will have to go through the nearby metal detector for the court. Oh, and lots of firearms will be nearby. The way things are headed, we shouldn't be surprised if the next step is to have a beautiful AI robot behind that bulletproof glass.

The DPW Gift That Keeps On Giving (Even To Themselves)

This morning in the lower 500 block of State Street, I noticed a pair of DPW workers using a pavement saw to cut a rectangular hole in the sidewalk for a planned sidewalk tree.  Apparently, they didn't have time today to attend to the horribly damaged concrete patch job that DPW put down one block away on the truck route four weeks ago.  Nor did they last week or the week prior.  It's as if Rob Perry doesn't give a shit how bad that portion of street becomes or how dangerous it is to everyone passing over and around it.

More Evidence Of "The Tyranny Of The Quarter," The Problem Plaguing The City (Or Possibly Just Jen Belton and Tom Depietro). Will Tonight's Meeting Offer Any Succor?

 

Tune in to tonight's Parking Study Committee meeting to discover (if you can understand what anyone is saying) where progress stands on ridding the city of the recently discovered troubling phenomenon known as the  "tyranny of the quarter," as well as how much longer it is going to be before we see any of the several $10,000 parking kiosks installed along Warren Street that have been gathering dust in a DPW storage shed on Dock Street for the past 4 months.

Who Would Want To Hug This Tree, Let Alone Admire It? or How Does A Trail Camera Protect Us From Babesiosis?

 

While there is at least one conspicuous trail/surveillance camera in the back of Oakdale Park, what you won't find anywhere are signs warning hikers about ticks and the diseases they so easily transmit to humans walking in the woods. In our largest and wildest public park, we have a surveillance camera attached to a tree 7 feet off the ground but not one sign anywhere to maybe keep someone from getting bit by a tiny insect that just might kill them or cause them a life of misery and medical bills.  

You Aren't Finished, Are You, Luizzi?

One section of street included in this year's CHIPs repaving project was the northern end of North 3rd Street, north of State Street to its terminus. The contractor for that project, Luizzi, finished repaving the street a week or two ago, about a week after they installed two new ADA pedestrian curb ramps at State Street. (All intersections along a street being repaved are required to get new curb ramps and ADA mats.) 

SEEN (and Heard) This Morning

 

Who Else But A Slob Allows This? (How About A Slob Who Peddles In Garbage?)

During his January DPW report to the Common Council, Rob Perry mentioned that he had purchased "some polycarbon" public trash receptacles to replace the "older style" wooden ones that have stood the test of time.  What Mr. Perry failed to mention was that the lids on his new receptacles are the same black metal lids as ever.  He justified the purchase and use of the new receptacles on our sidewalks by saying this:  "Hopefully they will be more resistant to vandalism."  The only problem with that explanation is that it is a crock of shit, because as anyone can plainly see, the vandalism that shows up on the receptacles can be found on the lids, almost never on the slats. 

This Is What A Combination Of An Absentee Landlord And A Lack Of Code Enforcement Looks Like

He Thinks Speeding Cars and Trucks Are Hilarious! And He Thinks HE'S So Amusing And Clever!

During his DPW report to the Common Council and the public earlier this month while, of course, only his voice was on Zoom, Rob Perry added a quick but very revealing comment to his announcement that Luizzi's repaving of Worth Avenue "was officially complete and open to traffic" that day.  This was the same report, at least for the first twenty seconds, in which he sounded as if he may have been inebriated, possibly, for all anyone knew, while on the couch in the living room of his house.  In his typical mocking, snot-nosed tone, here is the comment Perry felt he needed to offer:

Have You Seen It, Felt It Or HEARD It Yet? Rob Perry Hopes You Have!

 

They Sure Do Like Their Chain Link Fences, Don't They? Aren't We So Lucky!!!

If you suddenly notice a lot of chain link fencing,
you have probably arrived in the Galvan District.  Concrete 
barriers and gravel sidewalks are dead giveaways too!

We need more fences and more NO TRESPASSING signs,
 not fewer!  Rather than make 618 State habitable,
the city prefers that Galvan fence the building off.  This way 
no one will ever work on it or live in it, solving our
housing crisis.

This Galvan fence arrived at 4th & Columbia 
a week or two ago.

Fenced in area where three perfectly good houses stood until 
Galvan decided a few years ago that they had to go.   
City Hall and the Planning Board agreed.

Intentional or Unintentional Inexplicable Omission?

If, as I understand it, the Front Street portion of the DRI Streetscape project was meant to improve the sidewalks and make things generally safer for pedestrians on both sides of the street, including at every intersection on the east side, it seems that someone has made a rather large, inexcusable error on South Front Street.  Because, as I noticed today, where the portions of sidewalk on the east side of Front Street meet both Cherry Alley and Union Street there are still no pedestrian curb ramps to be had.  With the four curbs anywhere from 4 to 7 (!) inches above the street surface, it's difficult to imagine that this was an intentional omission, as if someone told Luizzi not to touch those four curbs or that those intersections were just left off of the plans as if everything was fine with them and anyone in a wheelchair could safely and easily navigate the four street/sidewalk transitions, one of them at 7 inches in height. 

"NO RECORDS"? NO TICKET? NO BILL? NO CONSEQUENCE? NO PROBLEM?

Nearly 11 weeks ago, just before noon on Saturday, March 1st, a driver attempted to back up his pickup truck and attached trailer to get in front of a garage near the southwest corner of 6th & State. From across the street, I heard the sound of metal on concrete, a loud KA-LANG. I looked up and noticed that there was no longer a stop sign at the corner.

Advertise For A Car Wash, Injure or Kill A Pedestrian or Two! Destroy A Car or Two! Kill A Bicyclist! Hooray!

A sign or two on the sidewalk 
wouldn't do.

The sign was an advertisement for a $10
car wash at the other end of the block.  An 
obscene display of disrespect.

City Hall continues to have a culture of
disregard, if not disdain, for pedestrians and,
generally, safe streets. These pictures prove it.

The Hudson Fire Department's car wash was held from
noon until 4 today.

 

Hudseen Quiz Time! And More Fun Observations and Pictures Of A City In Decline!

In your lifetime, how many public parks have you entered where one of the first things that greeted you, if not the first thing, was a PORTA JOHN?

We're In Good Hands, Don't You Worry (Even If We Are Missing a Great Cop)!

Talk about dysfunction and a city that isn't interested in paying attention to quality-of-life issues!

This Is What A Six Million Dollar DPW Budget and A $123,000 DPW Superintendent Salary Get Us After Just 6 Weeks

The question is, would Superintendent Slob Perry allow this in front of his house on Prospect Avenue for even one day?

What On Earth...

... does an insurance agency and financial services firm have to do with so-called workforce housing in Hudson?

Shit gettin' weird 'round here, y'all!  Wealth management for residents of "workforce housing"?

Low Morale Might Be The Least Of City Hall's Problems

 

I do my best to stay away from entering the Code Enforcement Office on Washington Street if only because the workers there tend to act like thugs.  They just don't seem to want to be bothered, and they tend to be unfriendly.  Even the attire the workers can be seen in is often, well.... how can I best describe it?  How about inappropriate?  How about unprofessional?  Shocking? Off-putting? At times frightening, even?  How about unacceptable in any other city?

Our DPW Workers, The Experts At Traffic Flagging, Without Flags And Even When Sitting Down

While several DPW workers have been cleaning up messes left behind from Luizzi's CHIPs repaving and DRI projects this week and last, as well as directing traffic -- or just watching it move -- around Luizzi's blocked streets being worked on, attending to the city's public trash cans and other important tasks can wait. Filling potholes?  Fuggedaboudit!  Washing away stains on stone steps that continue to reappear?  Sorry, Charlie, no time or interest!  Painting a fire hydrant or two?  No, sirree, no can do!

Welcome To The Break Room. Sorry, I Mean The Police Headquarters and City Court Building! (Where The Disrespect, Poor Grammar and Ugliness Proliferates)

To make way for the recently constructed new Parking Bureau office inside the Police Headquarters portion of 701 Union Street, two massive vending machines had to be moved.  Out of the way... and then into the way.  While the machines were once inconspicuous for those entering the building (mostly unseen behind the wall on the left in the lead picture), they are now the two most conspicuous (and some might say ugliest) things that greet everyone entering the building, especially those headed to court (to the right) and those hoping to settle a parking ticket (straight ahead).  It's a feng shui nightmare for those already stressed about something (few people paying a parking ticket or headed to court feel like a million bucks!).

All The More Reason To Despise Elon Musk, Tesla and The Despicable People Associated With Teslas

 

Okay, they're not all despicable.

Parked on the sidewalk for at least 15 minutes, and 
probably a whole lot longer.  The reefer madness 
festival was taking place down the street at Basillica,
making parking a bit tight all over the place.

Why Is It Impossible To Come Across This Kind of Shit On Sidewalks In Downtown Catskill, Chatham or Rhinebeck?

Can there be anything more obscene, insulting, disrespectful, dangerous and, from a legal liability standpoint, fucking careless and stupid than the perfectly round 12-inch hole in the sidewalk that has been in front of 412-416 Warren for well over the past year?  I guarantee that if you pointed the hole out to Rob Perry or Craig Haigh, they would both say the same thing:  "Talk to the property owner.  It's not our problem and there is nothing we can do about it."  Perry might be more succinct:  "We don't do sidewalks or trees." Ask Kamal Johnson, our dear mayor, and he would respond, "Have you spoken to DPW or CEO about it?"

It is most definitely time for Hudson to have a city manager so that the position of mayor can be officially relegated to the do-nothing position that it has become (or always has been)!

How The Latest Stains On The Promenade Steps Reveal The Never-Ending Nonsense Coming From Our DPW Superintendent's Mouth

As promised in an article from two weeks ago, it is time to show that something Rob Perry stated during his April DPW report to the council was complete bunk.  For a salary of $123,000, you'd think we would occasionally get a straight answer or explanation from the guy. 

Where Are Those $10,000 Kiosks Anyway? Spring Is Almost Over!

 

If any of the much-discussed $10,000 parking payment kiosks ever make it out of the storage shed on Dock Street and onto a Warren Street sidewalk, it's going to be quite a show to see how the city handles the aftermath of the first one that is destroyed by a car or truck that hops the curb.

Want To Slow Vehicles Down And Welcome Other Improvements At The Same Time?

BRING BACK THE RED BRICKS!  OR, BETTER YET, COBBLESTONES!

Two Years! At Least! But Who The F*&% Is Counting? (Not Rob Perry, That's For Sure!)

The picture above was taken last October, at least a year and a half after I noticed the gaping hole in the base of the lamppost alongside the DMV building on North 6th Street.  By any standards, with the clear exception of our $123,000 DPW Superintendent, the base to that lamppost on a city sidewalk in front of a historic city building has been damaged, ugly, dangerous (particularly to children) and, by allowing the elements to get to the wiring inside, damaging and compromising the functioning of the light itself for years.  The light hasn't turned on in more than a year.

What Are Your Tax Dollars WORTH?

For well over one year.