How Careless Can A City Be?

Hit this metal tub full of dirt with your car "by accident" and you will likely walk away unscathed (but cursing).   Of course, your day will be ruined, and you may need to have your car towed because it too was ruined. 

Hit this ancient, extremely heavy metal tub on the side of a busy city street "by accident" while on your bicycle, e-bike, scooter, moped or motorcycle and you will not walk away unscathed.  If you live, you may not ever walk again.  Or you just might have to be extracted from being impaled on the fence or being run over by a passing car or truck and be taken straight to the morgue.  Dead on impact.  Don't bother with the hospital up the street -- it's too late for them to do anything about your unbeating heart and crushed skull.  

And when asked about "the tragic accident" that killed a Hudson police officer on bicycle patrol (or just poked both of their eyes out and dislodged 4 of their teeth on the fence) after they impacted an old metal tub on the side of a city street, DPW Superintendent Rob Perry might continue to repeat his obscene claim that he "didn't know anything about the tub," adding, "You know, the cop should have been more careful.  I can't be held responsible for someone making a mistake."  

Then the DPW Superintendent is asked, "do you ride a bicycle in Hudson?"

"Are you kidding?  Not me. No way!  I'm not an idiot," he responds with a grin.

And Perry would continue to allow the tub to remain where it has been for decades, waiting to needlessly kill or seriously injure someone other than himself.  Yes, maybe even a Hudson cop (how would Chief Franklin respond to that "accident"?).  Or a child. Or Bill Huston ("aw, too bad!").  Or a mother of three.  Or someone who can't afford an automobile.  Or someone out for a pleasure ride on their motorcycle, perhaps HPD Commissioner Shane Bower, the one city official who is supposed to be making our streets safe.  Now that would be just too bizarre.  Bizarrer things have happened, don't you know!

There is no denying that the tub on the side of the street is nothing more than a reminder of how dysfunctional and careless most of City Hall has continued to be over the past 6 years with Kamal Johnson in the Mayor's Office.