You Gotta Wonder What, If Anything, Is Happening Over At Code Enforcement and How Much Longer the City Can Go On Like This

The lead picture, showing the front steps of the eyesore at 336 State Street, was taken just over two years ago.

This picture was taken late last week:

Still "dangerous and unsafe" and a whole lot more.

Guess who has owned 336 State for 8 years and done nothing to make it habitable, let alone lift a finger to make it look decent from the sidewalk and remove the shit at the bottom of the front stairs?  Guess which city department has allowed the owner of 336 State to do absolutely nothing to improve the property, including allowing them to leave garbage and other useless shit adjacent to the sidewalk FOR YEARS?  Guess what department has never once charged the owner of 336 State a dime for doing nothing to remedy their building that Code Enforcement deemed Dangerous & Unsafe ten years ago following a fire, a property that has been on the CEO's useless Vacant Building Registry all that time?  Guess what city department is failing to charge owners of vacant buildings $1,000 per year until the buildings are deemed habitable as our city code stipulates that Code Enforcement is to do? 

The same company that for the past 8 years has ignored (and been given permission by the city to ignore) 336 State Street was recently given permission by the Hudson Planning Board to build, among other structures around town, a hotel and bar at 4th & Warren and, to ostensibly solve the city's housing crisis, an enormous apartment building at 7th & State that could include another one of similar size across the street. 

Are we living in a city that is operating even close to properly?  Or is Hudson City Hall in failure/heads-stuck-in-the-sand mode?
Read and see more about the charming property at 336 State from a HUDseen article published just 750 days ago (give or take a few days):  Property of the Month

Can there be a more dispiriting sight than a vacant, neglected eyesore property that has been deemed Dangerous & Unsafe by our Code Enforcement Office that no one, not the property owner nor Code Enforcement, does anything about for years, or even decades?  What an absolute slap in the face to every Hudson resident and taxpayer!  Talk about a City Hall that ignores quality-of-life issues as if they don't matter one bit!  And that's just the aesthetic issues posed by neglected, eyesore structures and properties.  What of the physical dangers that Dangerous and Unsafe buildings pose to nearby buildings and residents?  Sure, 336 State has been "dangerous" for 8 years, but what about the houses with families living in them just feet away from Galvan's (and Code Enforcement's) neglected, dangerous, rotting shithole?  Have those houses and families been in any danger for the past 8 years?  Of course they have!  The dangers are real and present at any time of the day or night, moreso in these increasingly windy times and especially in an urban setting where homes are adjoined or inches from one another.  Stupid, regrettable and preventable shit that affect peoples' lives, sometimes drastically or fatally, as a result of neglected vacant buildings is not at all uncommon.  Here is one recent example that Hudson City Hall might not be able to wrap its head around: Fire At A Vacant Building Burns Four Other Homes. 

For the past 8 years at 336 State: two unused mailboxes,
two rotting apartments, a Dangerous & Unsafe structure.

How would you feel about living next to 336 State Street for a decade or more?  How might your insurance company feel about it?  Would you feel safe knowing that Code Enforcement doesn't give a crap if Galvan ever lifts a finger to repair their long-vacant building that is inches from yours so that it is no longer deemed DANGEROUS AND UNSAFE?  Or to take two minutes to remove a fucking traffic cone and tarp at the bottom of the front steps to show you give a shit about others and want the city to look respectable?  Do you think Dan Kent of Galvan would care if 336 State Street burned to the ground tonight in a strong wind, taking down three other houses in the process, and creating 20 homeless people?  Do you think Craig Haigh would care?  Apparently, no one at City Hall understands that 336 State is not just a danger to its vacant self, but that it is a danger to neighboring houses and a danger to the entire city, indeed to the functioning of City Hall.  How would Kamal Johnson feel about living next to 336 State?  How would Craig Haigh feel?  I think you know how I would feel.  Well, guess what, people own homes next to it!  People have to live next to and near 336 State.   People have to walk by and see the tarp and the cone and the decay and the depressing sights every fucking day for years.  Even if you don't "notice" the blight, it affects you.  But no one at City Hall, including Kamal Johnson, Craig Haigh, the fire chief, the police chief, and every 4th ward council member for the past several years, gives a flying crap how much longer the city and Galvan do absolutely nothing about 336 State Street.  It is almost as if Galvan has the city in its pocket.  That can't be true, can it?  You gotta wonder:  when was the last time Dan Kent stepped inside 336 State or even looked at it for one second while driving by?

For at least the past two years, that cone and tarp have been nothing more than a huge middle finger from Hudson City Hall and Galvan to every resident of Hudson:  "Sorry, we don't fucking care about any of you!  Get used to it!  336 State is not our problem, even if it catches fire and destroys six nearby homes!"

Then there's this. (It wouldn't be a complete HUDseen article without mentioning our DPW Superintendent, would it?).

According to Rob Perry at January's council meeting, the water emergency which Hudson suffered late in December was caused by two water main breaks and "14 different houses. Some were under construction, some were condemned*," all of which had burst pipes, as I recall, on a 14-degree night.  How Code Enforcement and DPW discovered that water was leaking in those 14 vacant houses is beyond me.  Perry offered no specifics or addresses of the houses, just two pictures of flooded basements (even though he admitted that he was out of town on the night of the burst pipes).

618 State, Galvan's eyesore "dangerous and 
unsafe" house, surrounded by a fence and in 
the shadow of their apartment building project.
 The fence went up late last year 
when squatters were found to be sleeping inside.

In February, I FOILed for information from CEO and DPW on those 14 houses.  Surely, I thought, one or both of those departments is keeping track of houses whose owners are causing such trouble for the city.  Surely there is a written record of those 14 houses that were the cause of a water emergency.  My request came back empty:  "No such documents."

Apparently, no one is paying attention.  Or Rob Perry was lying again.  Or, more likely, both. 

* Code Enforcement does not "condemn" buildings.