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| This is an improvement? Nearly 4 feet to the curb and just over 6 feet to the wall. |
The post on the southwest corner was installed 21 inches from the curb.
Those two posts, as well as the post on the northwest corner, are sticking out of round holes in the concrete a few inches deep (the 4th is in soil off of the sidewalk). If those holes are not filled with concrete -- which should have been done before the posts were bolted to the breakaways -- they will fill with rainwater and snowmelt, rusting out the steel pole until it falls over or needs to be replaced prematurely. Of the four stop sign posts just installed at 1st & Warren, two of them have exposed holes at their bases. It is as if two different contractors were working at the two adjacent intersections.
Here are the bases of all four sign posts at 1st & Warren:
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| The disc can only be installed before the post is installed... |
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| ...not after! |
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| This looks proper and respectable, doesn't it, like the work of a professional? |
The 4 lovely temporary stop signs one block away at 1st & Warren that have been on and off the sidewalks since late last summer, that have been a running joke at many recent monthly Public Works Committee meetings, and which many residents besides committee member David Marston have been waiting since late last year to be replaced with something more respectable, were also finally replaced with permanent versions a few days ago. Apparently, the stop signs have been sitting somewhere at the DPW garage on Dock Street completely ignored, untouched and unmaintained for the past 9 months or more. This is Rob Perry's idea of Downtown Revitalization! DPW Initiative, too! Do nothing to improve their looks! I can hear him now, telling his foreman what not to do: "Don't touch them. Let the scumbags on the westside have their stop signs back when the time comes! I don't give a shit what they look like and neither do they!"
Here is what the fronts and backs of three of the four "new" stop signs look like, just as they looked last August when DPW took them away to storage on Dock Street.
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| Why even have the ALL WAY sign, and why are they only found at this intersection? |
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| Rob Perry is a slob of the highest magnitude! We pay him over $123,000 to be an absolute lazy, unaccountable slob. |
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| The bottom of this freshly installed stop sign is just shy of 8 feet above the sidewalk. The base of the post is less than 2 feet from the curb. |
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| The bottom of this stop sign, located at 6th & State, is exactly 6 feet above the sidewalk. The post is less then one foot from the curb. |
A few days ago, I noticed a crack in Luizzi's concrete curb ramp/sidewalk on the southeast corner at 1st & Warren which was not there a month ago. 3 of the 4 corners now have cracked concrete, just 7 months after the ramps were created. Not to worry, though -- Jen Belton and Rob Perry are ON IT!
Following Perry's DPW report at the May 12th Common Council meeting (done, of course, over Zoom while, no doubt, sipping a beer on his couch at home), 2nd ward member Jen Belton had this to say to him: "I was walking around and I saw the new sidewalks and they look great, except that some of them are already cracking. I have another question, though," before moving on to a separate topic, even though she had not asked Rob a question about the cracks, just simply stating an observation. Still, Perry addressed the issue of Luizzi's cracked sidewalks anyway: "As far as the cracks in the sidewalk, we are aware of it. We did a walk through with the mayor, the mayor's aide, the contractor, the engineer last week. They are supposed to come up with a full depth repair. So they are probably going to have to just cut out the cracks and repour a joint in between them."
"Probably"? Rob Perry is our $123,000 DPW Superintendent and he doesn't even know exactly how to repair cracks in a concrete sidewalk? Also, "in between" what? In between the cracks? In between the joints? And what the hell does a "repoured joint" look like anyway, and how does it permanently repair a crack in a concrete sidewalk? It's not more joints in the sidewalk we're looking for; it's smooth walking surfaces where cracks once were that we need, Mr. Perry!
What the hell was our $123,000 DPW Superintendent talking about and what is wrong with him? Is his brain scrambled? Of course, Perry could have just simply said, "Luizzi will have to redo those cracked portions of their sidewalks," and left it at that. Instead, he offered nonsense and useless technical jargon to make him sound like he knew what he was talking about and had the situation completely under control. Even without seeing his face or body, Belton and the rest of the council were no doubt thankful to hear Perry's assurances, knowledge and professionalism nearly two months ago. He's got it! Of course, the cracks that Jen Belton is so concerned about are still there (and proliferating) and Luizzi's "repoured joints in between them" are still nowhere in sight or underfoot. This is an unmitigated ten-million-dollar DRI shitshow thanks primarily to a City Hall that cannot pay attention. (And I haven't even touched on the traffic and parking problems that the unnecessary and unwelcome bumpouts at 2nd & Warren are causing!)
When Luizzi finally completes our DRI project and leaves town and our sidewalks made of their concrete continue to fall apart all over the west end of town this year, next year and beyond, who will "just cut out the cracks and repour a joint in between them"? One assumes that DPW will have to do the work, perhaps with Rob Perry showing his concrete crew how to repour a joint between something. Or he'll tell the homeowners to repair Luizzi's concrete sidewalks themselves and if they don't like it they should go to hell.
For more on Luizzi's work at 1st & Warren, from 3 months ago, read here: A Lot of Explaining To Do. HUDseen saw most of this coming (it's worse than I thought it could be!).
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