They Can't Even Be Kicked To The Curb! (Don't Try, You'll Just Hurt Yourself!)

 

This past Friday, I counted 17 cigarette butts on the new not-at-all-smooth section of stone pavers in front of the bodega at 2nd & Warren.  The butts -- as well as a red plastic coffee stirrer, the uneaten top of a strawberry and other bits of litter -- were trapped in the depressed grooves between the stones.  Yes, litter (mainly the most despicable type, of course) was essentially stuck on a brand-new city sidewalk, like some sort of interactive art installation.  ("Look, children, cigarettes BAD!  Really BAD!  DRI BAD, too!  Really BAD!  Stone pavers BAD.  Can you say code violation?")  Heck, even a broom would have a difficult time moving the butts along, and offering someone a dustpan to gather them would be a cruel joke.  Rain won't wash the butts away unless they are drawn into the several holes and cracks between the pavers that Luizzi and City Hall found no problem with.  The discarded butts, which come primarily from smokers about to enter the bodega, might just be most readily removed with a pair of fingers.  This could be Hudson's latest community service project for guilty criminals! 

Perhaps if DPW waters the new DRI vegetation every 3 months they will find the time and be able to spray all the accumulated trapped litter and cigarettes butts off of each corner and into nearby storm drains where our sewer system can handle it all.  (Add those two tasks to DPW's 2026 budget and beyond.)  Rob Perry knew these stone pavers were coming, and he knows all too well that any material besides concrete that is used for a sidewalk is a code violation.  But here we are, wondering whose idea this all was and how much worse it might get. Chalk this unwelcome result at the intersection (along with the other intersections and other unwelcome results we already have) up to this: "Gee, no one saw this coming because no one was paying attention."

The slots are ideal resting places for all sorts
of lovely things.  At best, rain will just move litter to
a nearby slot.

All but one of the 17 butts were trapped between the stones,
making our new "stone plazas" ideal ashtrays (butt-trays?).

Drainage?  Mistake?  Ignore it?

There are so many unfilled spaces between the stones that it seems like they might have been created intentionally, perhaps as some sort of hair-brained drainage scheme.  Was this Luizzi's, the architect's or Rob Perry's idea?  Once enough water gets under there, though, things are going to start coming apart quickly.  Then who gets to pay to repair and replace all this "free" stuff the DRI gifted us?  Just maybe, if we're lucky, all the litter and cigarette butts will fill all the cracks and holes, solving Rob Perry's problem altogether.  Hooray for litter, bring it on!  Leave it alone!  Make historic Warren Street the ashtray of the Hudson Valley!

Do you suppose that Rob Perry finds this acceptable?

Plug that hole with a cigarette butt, please!

Final thought:  Who is going to be responsible for removing snow and ice from on top of the stone pavers?  A shovel won't work well, and whatever is used will allow snow to remain in the grooves and eventually turn to ice, won't it?  Can't you hear the complaints being called in to City Hall and DPW already?  

"Hi, Mayor, didn't anyone see this problem coming before the plans for DRI were finalized?"