SWEET THANG, Indeed! The Ruination of a Neighborhood Has Begun!

By the time HPD responded to my call early this afternoon informing them of a car parked in a clearly marked and signed NO PARKING ZONE on 6th Street at Prospect, another car was illegally parked on the opposite corner of the intersection.  The license plate on that car, a Mercedes-Benz, read SWTHANG.  HPD issued each car a $25 ticket.  (NO PARKING ZONE tickets should be at least $50!  There's a NO PARKING sign right in front of you to easily read!  There's a yellow curb to notice if you care to!  Parking there can get OTHER people killed or injured and OTHER vehicles totaled!)   By the way, where the hell is my commission? 

Got Asthma? Got A Hospital Bill? Got The Right Of Way? Got Congestion? Got Patience? Got An Explanation That Makes Any Sense, Mr. Perry?

(This HUDseen article goes out to all of you, of course, but particularly to Peter Spear and Tom F.  Have a safe and happy winter and holiday season!  And be sure to look all four ways before crossing!  Do it twice at 3rd & Warren!)

If you spend any time near the intersection of 3rd & Warren observing what is going on at the city's busiest-with-foot-and-vehicle-traffic intersection, or if you just happen to be walking or driving by there at the right (or wrong!) time, you will notice a problem -- really, if you look close enough, a host of problems -- created by City Hall that they somehow aren't aware of or don't care about.  Or, more likely, both.  It's an absurd, unwelcome, dangerous, easily preventable and even deadly situation brought to us years ago by the one and only Rob Perry, our $125,000 DPW Superintendent. He needs to offer an explanation and justification for his actions that have created quality of life issues for all of us without actually solving a problem he set out to solve on his own.  But who might force an explanation out of him? Kamal Johnson?  Joe Ferris?  Rich Volo?  Margaret Morris, perhaps?

So Many Questions!

Yesterday was a historic day as far as parking matters (and meters) in Hudson are concerned.  With all 100 of the parking meters in the City Hall Municipal Parking Lot removed in the afternoon, there is not one parking meter left in the city's four downtown lots. Plenty of ancient parking meter poles remain, but no meters top them anymore.  

It will be interesting to see how long the poles remain.  That's a DPW job, and not a cheap, quick or easy one.  I expect it will take years!

The Mayor Who NEVER REALLY WAS

On September 11th of last year, HUDseen ran an article that got a lot of attention.  The piece showed how our dear, so-called mayor, Kamal Johnson, had gotten at least eight of his personal parking tickets taken care of without paying for them, having them "voided" or "dismissed."  If you haven't read that article, I suggest you do:  Introducing...  (this is January's reposting of the original article).

How's That Budget Coming Along?

Given City Hall's concerning budgetary woes, HUDseen will publish the occasional article with the title seen above, focusing on a simple something that shows how wasteful certain departments are with our money.  Highlighting things that, from a practical and financial perspective, make absolutely no sense.  Our DPW Superintendent, Rob Perry, with a salary over $125,000 and in charge of multiple departments (DPW, Water, Sewer, Cemetery), as HUDseen has attempted to point out for the past two years, is particularly wasteful.

What Shall We Name This Latest Quality-of-Life Issue??

 

Because the Pocketbook Factory-related parking issues on Washington, Prospect, 6th and nearby streets are only just beginning, HUDseen will likely be reporting on the worsening situation there for months, if not years, to come.  The situation demands an accurate moniker we can all agree on, particularly those of us living in the area of the unfortunate new monstrosity known as Pocketbook Hudson that was approved by the Hudson Planning Board 4 years ago even though the developers had no off-street parking options for its future guests and customers driving into a dense residential area with a very limited amount of available on-street parking (nor was it required by the Planning Board of the development to have any off-street parking spaces -- not even one.) 

Have City Hall and HPD Abandoned Us?

 

Considering that, as far as I can tell, there is nothing in the city code regarding how the city handles abandoned bicycles and bicycles (abandoned or not) locked to city property such as light poles, parking meter poles and guardrails, you have to wonder if City Hall actually gives a crap about how walkable, pleasant, safe and viable Warren Street is.  You have to wonder whether for the past six years Kamal Johnson has actually had any interest in improving life and commerce in the city he claimed to have so much pride in and was supposedly presiding over.

Will Joe Ferris Tolerate The Sloppiness At City Hall That Kamal Johnson Has Ignored For The Past Six Years? Good Gawd Amighty, Let's Hope Not!

 

A few weeks ago, as their process for installing sidewalk trees typically begins, Hudson DPW spray painted a pair of large white boxes on the sidewalk along North 5th Street, north of State, in preparation of digging two tree holes.  This likely happened because the homeowner had requested of the Conservation Advisory Council to have a pair of trees installed in front of their house, this being the only means I'm aware of that a sidewalk tree can be installed.  About a week ago, DPW dug the two tree holes, though not where the white boxes were located, mind you, but adjacent to them.  Yesterday, late in the year (too late?) and about a week into regular overnight frosts, the two trees arrived in their new homes (at whose hands I do not know) across the street from the Hudson Area Library.

It's Official! Hudson City Hall Thrives and Profits On Confusion, Sloppiness and Incoherence!

 

Click below for the entire story in pictures...

It's The Regard For Beauty and Professionalism That Impresses Me Most

 

I'm pretty certain that I listened to every minute of every meeting of the now defunct Ad Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Parking Study Committee, whose sole mission was to get modern parking kiosks on our sidewalks to finally rid the city of the trusty, inexpensive and user-friendly parking meters that only left us with the dreaded "tyranny of the quarter"* that Hudson residents have been living with and feeling the effects of for far too long.  (You didn't know?)  There was no shortage of discussions between the hired parking consultant and committee head Jen Belton (and others) about signs related to the kiosks, particularly as the committee was winding up its work. (Apparently, the two were also in contact between meetings making arrangements for signs.)  During those several meetings, however, I never once heard the parking consultant or any committee members utter the words TAPE, ORANGE TAPE, PAINTER'S TAPE or ZIP TIES.  No, not once!  Can you imagine?

Is Hudson In A Race To The Very Bottom?

 

Don't we all deserve a whole lot better than this bullshit?

A Few Things To Be Excited About

With the Kamal Johnson on the way out, let's take a look at two projects begun under his (too long) tenure that are developing and changing the city in numerous ways, not all of them good.  These projects will be part of Johnson's legacy.  Of course, he won't be around to answer for them if they sour badly.

What You Can Expect When A Mayor Isn't Interested In Paying Attention!

One of my most lasting impressions of our outgoing mayor -- all of which will likely stick with me longer than I would prefer them to -- occurred over two and a half years ago.  What I saw our mayor doing in a public setting -- or, more to the point, not doing -- was, while shocking in the moment, a huge red flag of things to come.  I witnessed it, I took pictures of it, I wrote about it on HUDseen, and it's pretty clear to me that my concerns then about the future of Hudson have been realized in recent months. 

Hudson's Budget Woes Are So Severe That HPD And The Common Council Are Hoping The Grinch Can Save Us. "Vehemently" Hoping!

At the conclusion of his Police Department report during Monday night's Informal Common Council meeting, Acting Police Chief (and possibly Acting Police Commissioner) Captain David Miller had this to say (you will be pardoned for being confused by what he said):  "... In my opinion, for the suspension of parking during December. Considering everything you guys spoke about, I don't think we should do that this year."  Rather than the suspension of parking next month, a difficult feat for anyone, let along the Acting Police Chief, what Captain Miller was suggesting to the council since, as he also said, "now that this is on my lap," (meaning all things parking), was that the annual holiday goodwill gesture that is free metered parking on streets and in parking lots during the month of December should not take place this year so that the city can increase much needed revenue through quarters in the meters, the use of kiosks in parking lots and, of course, $10 meter violation tickets.  As I understand things, though, all parking revenue goes straight to HPD or the Parking Bureau that HPD now controls, not to the general fund.  Not that that really matters.

The Politics of Garbage -- THE RESULTS ARE IN (A DUMPSTER)!

 

The first-place award for the local candidate with the most wasteful and nonsensical of all the wasteful and nonsensical visual pollution political lawn signs that we were so fortunate to recently be distracted and bombarded by (and, in some areas, still are!) has got to go to Margaret Morris. 

Be Careful Out There. Or Just Move To Oswego.

 

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine tripped and fell on a nasty sidewalk tripping hazard near the curb along Warren Street that had been around for a long time and, as I soon found out, was well known to the property owner.  About a week later, I noticed that that hazard and another one nearby, both in front of a popular retail business open 7 days a week, were each marked with two lines of white tape.  Problem solved... I guess.

Who Is the Aesthete at HPD?

 

Factors contributing to the city's recent very concerning budgetary woes can be seen all over town and on the pages of HUDseen and Gossips of Rivertown, though perhaps nowhere as glaring as on and near the six new $10,0000 parking kiosks which appeared outside city parking lots a few months ago.  The numerous issues with the kiosk project, particularly the amount of time and money being spent on the kiosks, is so stark and concerning that it requires attention.  Serious attention. These concerns do not seem to be shared by any of the members of the Hudson Common Council, but they certainly should be.  The city is running short on funds, and the parking kiosks -- meant to increase revenue -- are part of the problem, not the solution.  The kiosks also serve as a symbol of how generally dysfunctional things have gotten at our City Hall.  Take the kiosk along the sidewalk for the city parking lot located at 313 Warren.

Don't Thank Me, 'Cus I Didn't Do It!

 

Screwed? Or Just Lucky?

"Attention to detail is not about perfection. It's about excellence, about constant improvement." (Chris Denny)

With that wonderful, irrefutable quote in mind, I have a few questions about something that's been attached to a city sidewalk for the past 6 months that seems to be acceptable only here in Hudson. 

2027, You Say? Are You Sure?

 

Last Monday afternoon, while walking past the "Work in Progress: Mixed Use" development project at the northwest corner of 8th & Warren, I noticed that there was no noise coming from inside the building with the Work in Progress sign posted to the front. There weren't any of the trucks, machinery, workers and construction activity I had been accustomed to seeing and hearing for the past few months. So, I stopped by on Tuesday around noon to look and listen for activity, for "progress." Nope, none of that there on Tuesday either!

LIVE BETTER? With All These Tractor Trailers Passing Through Town? On Green Street? On State? On 5th? On Columbia? On 3rd? Crossing Warren Street?

It's not unusual for anyone living on upper State Street to see, HEAR, and sometimes feel the passing of an enormous and heavy 18-wheeled, 70-foot long (or more) vehicle heading west to get the hell out of town to make their delivery on time or to just get home. (The semis are rarely headed east.)  People living on, say, Allen Street or Union Street, might be up in arms if it happened as often on their streets. 5 blocks of State Street -- from Green to 3rd -- are part of the de facto Truck Route Alternative (and State Street Speedway). You get used to it as best you can, and the police don't seem to mind, either.