HUDseen: 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.

I recently made a complaint to an HPD supervising officer about three long-abandoned bicycles along Warren Street, all of them locked to city property for between the past 8 and at least 14 months. I asked if there was a policy at HPD regarding abandoned bicycles. The officer was not aware of a policy or approach to abandoned bicycles, telling me she would speak with her lieutenant about it. The officer soon called me back to tell me that there was no policy at HPD regarding abandoned bicycles. Nothing! However, I was told, their plan with the bicycles in question -- IN DIRECT RESPONSE TO MY PHONE CALL -- was to "wait three weeks and see if the 3 bicycles have moved" before they would break the locks and remove the bicycles. This was not a policy approach to abandoned bicycles; it was merely the response of the day. Or week. Or month. Call back in a year about an abandoned bicycle or five and no one at HPD will know what you are talking about. "Let me talk to my supervisor and I'll call you back."

My guess is that HPD parking enforcers have seen and walked past -- within inches at times -- those three abandoned bicycles a combined total of at least one thousand times in the past 14 months. Seriously. You'd think HPD would want their enforcers to be on the lookout for such things, including, of course, bicycles secured to parking meter poles. When I had the fortune of being a HPD parking enforcer for a few months in 2015, I asked Police Chief Ed Moore, my supposed boss, why I had to carry a walkie talkie to be in contact with the police station. I remember his response well: "Because enforcers are the eyes and ears of downtown Hudson." In other words, no one should expect Hudson patrol cops roaming the city in vehicles to keep an eye on something as unwelcome as an abandoned bicycle along the sidewalk, let alone notice them. Cops don't walk up and down Warren Street and on its side streets. They drive, so leave the abandoned 4-wheeled vehicles to them. Only parking enforcers can do something about getting obviously abandoned bicycles the proper attention and swift treatment they deserve (even though an abandoned bicycle is not a code violation). Except they don't bother to. And they won't bother to as long as they aren't told to. They don't care about abandoned bicycles or bicycles locked to parking meter poles or any other city property along the sidewalk, even if the obstruction might be in the way of pedestrians, parking enforcers and people trying to feed a parking meter. The enforcers don't care because their boss doesn't care. Their boss doesn't care because for the past 6 or 50 years, no mayor has cared enough to say, "You know what, abandoned bicycles on our sidewalks and elsewhere are a problem we can and should do without. We can prevent it. We can do something about it, and we will do something about it. Right now. A bicycle locked to a city streetlight pole that trips someone might make us legally liable. No bicycle, working or not, should ever be locked to a parking meter pole. Not for one minute. We have to show that we care about the health of our downtown businesses and what downtown Hudson looks like to everyone. This is no longer acceptable. It reflects poorly on us, and we can do better. A whole lot better. Right now."

And that mayor would approach the common council to suggest and make sure they create and pass an amendment to the city code so that HPD and/or DPW can properly identify, deal with and swiftly remove abandoned bicycles no matter where they are located in the city. So that there is a crystal-clear policy and approach regarding abandoned bicycles that everyone - absolutely everyone - is on the same page about. So that abandoned bicycles do not remain anywhere in the city for months and months and months and possibly years, especially on sidewalks along Warren Street. All it would take to get this done is a little bit of will and action from a council member or mayor, something Kamal Johnson has had little to none of for the past six years in regard to practically every quality-of-life issue the city has been facing, seeing and walking past and doing nothing about for far too long. of course, for a mayor to make such a simple effort, they have to care enough to actually get out of City Hall for a few minutes and walk around to see how things are faring in their city. Maybe even walk to and from work at least once a week instead of driving. Maybe just pay attention, and not to their phone.

This "bike" has been locked to the pole for
at least 10 months unmoved. Thankfully, last
week, the front wheel disappeared. Is it now
abandoned for sure?

10 months? 12?

Mid- September

At least 14 months!

If the electric scooters being ridden on our sidewalks don't knock you over and put you in a coma, the abandoned bicycles just might do it instead. Hello lawsuit, Andy Howard!