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)!

Wouldn't it be fascinating to find out how this tree area 
came to be and how much money the city spent on the grate
and the tree or trees that have been there since who-knows-when?

As I recall, the tree in front of 412-416 Warren was removed at least 2 years ago, though here is a screenshot from Google Street View dated September 2019 showing the same treeless tree grate at the curb.  

Guess who has owned 412-416 Warren for the past 11 years?  Surprise, fucking surprise -- it happens to be the city's largest property owner, the world's best Monopoly game player ever, and the shadowy, duplicitous real estate crime organization by the name of Galvan.  Until recently, weren't they the ones buying all sorts of sidewalk trees for residents who wanted them on the sidewalks in front of their homes?  Didn't Galvan recently sue the Yummy Kitchen food truck people after a customer of theirs fell on Galvan's obscenely dangerous South 5th Street sidewalk and sued Galvan? Galvan sued Yummy Kitchen, claiming they were the reason that woman tripped on the sidewalk and had to be taken to the hospital!  (I do not know the outcome of that lawsuit or if it has been resolved.*)  It must be nice to have so much money that you can be as irresponsible as you want to be while creating a distorted world mostly devoid of truth, sincerity and reality.  

A 12-inch wide, 4-inch deep hole in the sidewalk adjacent to a
parking space that is available in the dark. 
Sign of a City Hall that can't pay attention and does not care
about the well-being of its employees, residents and visitors.

Sometimes there is a cone in or over that hole in Galvan's sidewalk (as if that were a solution), but more often than not there is not one.

What do we have an ADA Coordinator for? (Because the DOJ made City Hall assign someone to the "position," that's why!)  What do we get from a Department of Public Works with a 6-million-dollar budget?  Why do we pay Rob Perry $123,000 so that he can ignore issues on our sidewalks that will get the city sued in an instant and just might seriously screw someone up for life or even kill them?  What do we have a Code Enforcement Office with four employees for if it ignores glaring hazards to pedestrians and has no interest or ability to keep us safe on our own sidewalks? (Could part of the reason be that the Code Enforcement Office continues to be pushed further and further away from downtown Hudson?)   Do any city officials ever walk the streets of Hudson, including Warren Street?  Would Kamal Johnson do anything but ignore the hole if he were to notice it while walking by?  How many times has he walked past it in the last six years since he became mayor, do you suppose?  Would he tell someone to put (another) cone over the hole if he noticed the cone were "missing"?

Ten months ago!  Someone's idea 
of a solution to the gaping hole in 
the sidewalk.

What do you suppose the city would do if a parking enforcer stepped in that hole while issuing a parking ticket and wound up with a destroyed back, knee and/or ankle and three missing teeth?  Nothing?  Just let the hole be? What if an enforcer, a cop or a pedestrian of any sort, even a child, wound up in a coma after stepping in that hole?  How would Kamal Johnson react if asked by the Register Star to comment on the "accident" that someone may not wake up from?  What would Kamal say and do if he accidently stepped in that hole and wound up in the hospital for two weeks or more?  Nothing?  Would Rob Perry and Craig Haigh visit their boss to offer their sincerest get well wishes?  Or would they have a good laugh instead, maybe raise a toast to their good fortune for not being the ones who stepped in the hole in the sidewalk where a tree once stood?

If someone you know is considering moving to Hudson, I suggest you tell them to look elsewhere for a town that has its act together, can pay attention, takes safety and code enforcement seriously, isn't completely dysfunctional, has a responsive, genial and accountable DPW Superintendent that anyone can find and talk to, and last but not least, doesn't have an immature mayor who is unqualified to hold office and is addicted to Facebook.  

One reason that sidewalks made of flagstones are a 
code violation is because they can be so slippery.  The city 
allows them to remain all over town.  This poor fellow was 
the second person to slip and fall within minutes on Court Street
this past February.  They were both taken to CMH.

Another sidewalk tree hole ON WARREN STREET,
though not as deep as the one found one block east. 

If you aren't familiar with this obscenity, you haven't 
walked Warren Street in the past 7 years.

Another big "we don't care about you"
from City Hall.

Union Street, for well over a year.  Rob Perry's 
idea of safety, beauty and effective governance.

*It appears that the Yummy Kitchen people have given up on parking their truck along Galvan's sidewalk on 5th at Warren as they are now in the Cannonball Factory a few blocks away on North 4th, without the need for the truck.  With neighbors like Galvan, who can blame them?