HUDseen: So F'n Ridiculous! Yet No Surprise At All!

While most Hudson residents with a car have no reason to drive on North 7th Street north of State Street, what transpired last week in front of Galvan's new apartment building, known as 76 North 7th, should concern everyone with or without a car (or bicycle!). The results are emblematic of the woeful lack of planning and coordination inside City Hall, yet more evidence of a Kamal Johnson administration that isn't interested in paying attention to the important details and continues to squander money. I can't imagine this kind of nonsense happening so regularly in any other city in America.

This past Friday, Galvan's paving contractor repaved only the section of street directly in front of 76 North 7th (by my rough measurement, the distance being just over 200 feet). As Hudseen pointed out in a recent article, North 7th Street from State Street to just beyond Railroad Avenue has been in disrepair for years, particularly at the sunken Railroad Avenue intersection. The final section of the block, in front of the Firestation, is pretty bad, too.

With an entire block of asphalt needing replacement for all the city's residents, including all of the apartment building's future tenants (who will hopefully never show up!), Galvan's contractor left untouched approximately 150 feet of cracked asphalt street at the southern end of the block (from State to the building's south side and Rope Alley), as well as at least 25 feet at Railroad Avenue, by far the worst portion of the block.

The paving contractor milled the street on Wednesday, September
24th. They repaved it 9 days later, on Friday, October 2nd.

You gotta wonder: Does Rob Perry care about what portions of 7th Street were replaced last week and what portions weren't? Did Rob Perry have any involvement in Galvan's (or Baxter's, their building contractor) approach to repaving North 7th street, including what portions should be left alone? Was Galvan/Baxter given permission to have a city street repaved by their choice of paving contractor? Was Perry even aware that Galvan/Baxter was going to repave a portion of North 7th Street? If he was, why the hell didn't he figure out a way to get the entire block repaved while a professional paving contractor was there with all of their equipment and manpower, even if the city had to pay for it? Is Perry happy that the intersection of State & Railroad is still a sunken, damaged mess after a professional paver repaved the street 40 feet away last Friday? Who owns the traffic lanes and sidewalks in front of 76 North 7th Street, Galvan or the city? Did Galvan have the street paved for themselves and their future tenants or for all the residents of Hudson? Did Galvan conclude that the asphalt directly in front of their apartment building was the only portion of 7th Street they could legally remove and repave? Isn't the entirety of the properties on both sides of the street, from State St. to Railroad Ave., owned by Galvan? (Notice in the picture below that they did create parking spaces just north of State. And with fresh asphalt, no less! They created parking spaces but left alone the street being used by drivers getting to and from those spaces!)

Nearly as much was left untouched as was repaved.

My sense is that once the Hudson Planning Board gives permission for a development to proceed, the developer has free range to do as they please. 'Cus you know that no one from City Hall is paying attention to what is going on. Heck, Rob Perry's own clerks in his own DPW offices on the second floor of City Hall have told me on numerous occasions that Rob is "never here."

From Railroad Avenue looking south after a portion of 7th Street
had been milled to prepare for repaving. Notice the amount of
street full of cracks that remained untouched.