Isn't Door Dash Wonderful? Don't We Need More Home Deliveries?

 

This morning, on a very busy-with-speedy-traffic 500 block of State Street,* I watched the most astounding thing.  Was I shocked?  Yes, but only because I witnessed it.  Was I at all surprised it occurred?  No, not one bit!  We live a new, scary and more dangerous world, where certain societal norms and long-standing unwritten rules designed to help us all live happily, safely and coexist are either optional or non-existent.  Vehicles are a huge contributor to the fraying of societal norms, communities and neighborliness, especially the obscene amount of delivery vehicles we must now all live and contend with.  Anyone, it seems, with a car and not one bit of training, can become a delivery driver.  That much was evident this morning on State Street.

What's More Money Down The Drain?

It takes a uniquely special kind of DPW -- and DPW Superintendent --to allow a storm drain and street to reach this level of damage.  I've heard of benign neglect.  Is there such a thing as blind neglect?

As long as one person is expected to supervise all of DPW -- as Rob Perry is expected to -- all sorts of things will fall by the wayside.  And when you come across an area around a storm drain so damaged as there has been for months on Glenwood Boulevard, you can't help but wonder where else our DPW is neglecting our fragile and worn infrastructure, both above and below our streets.  You can't help but wonder how much DPW's lack of preventive maintenance (and lack of general maintenance) is costing us in dollars.  You can't (or at least I can't) help but wonder if DPW is run by a careless, wasteful slob.  You can't help but wonder:  How much more damage is DPW willing to allow, and how much more money will we be forced to pay to repair the neglected damage?

So, This Is What It's Come To? "Classic" Parking and Other Options?

I don't know which part of this recent post on our Hudson Police Department's Fakebook page is worthy of the most criticism.  But I'll try.

My Suggestion:

Steer clear of the 7th Street Park this year. 

While Our New Mayor Is Taking Time To Hang Out With The Governor in Albany...

... On Monday morning while traveling eastbound in the right lane on I-90 nearing the bridge to Albany, I noticed a familiar dark vehicle pass me in the far left lane doing at least the speed limit of 65 mph.  It was a Hudson Police Department vehicle in a tear to get somewhere far from Hudson.  And, presumably, then back to Hudson to take care of some local law enforcement.  You know, to keep us all safe and secure, get the bad guys and dangerous drivers and all that!

Untitled Spring Photo (with caption)

 

According to a few different sources on the internet, garbage dumps/landfills are the third largest source of anthropogenic methane.  Food waste is the main source of landfill gas, which is primarily made up of equal parts of the planet warming gases C02 and methane.

Down On The Corner of State & JUNK!

 

The plastic JUNK sign -- a fine symbol of America's downfall -- appeared sometime in the last week.  Below it, the plastic sign for a roofing company -- not holding up well in the incessant wind -- has been there since I first noticed it six weeks ago.  

Anyone can lawfully remove signs from utility poles, including Hudson Mayor Joe Ferris, anyone from HPD or DPW (including Rob Perry) and, of course, anyone from National Grid, the owner of the city's wooden utility poles.  National Grid obviously doesn't care.

Such Classiness! Such Taste! Such Respect! Such Attention To Detail! Such Governance! This New Mayor Of Ours Is Really Killin' It, Isn't He?

 

Rather than replacing the recently broken $19 one-sided plastic scannable paid parking sign in front of Lightforms on Columbia Street with another one (or, as has been done elsewhere recently, with a new $29 two-sided sign), the damaged portion at the bottom was cut off, removing the blank space below the text, and the sign was replaced.  This approach to "replacing" broken $19 signs (that don't go missing!) -- obviously at the hands of a slob at DPW and likely okayed by Captain Parking David Miller, perhaps a slob himself -- allows the bracket secured to the old meter pole to obscure text at the bottom of the shortened sign. Add shim made from a ruler, some on the front which obscure additional important information on the sign, and voila, you've got several plastic signs along a sidewalk that might as well have the words WE DON'T CARE written on them with magic marker!  Along with FU!  (The sign that went missing in front of the Hereafter was replaced with a $29 two-sided sign!)

Warmer Weather And Shrinking Sidewalks Are Finally Here!

 

That was two weeks ago (and for the past several months).  

This was yesterday (and for the following several months)....

Almost F'ng Unbelievable! Numbers 7 and 8! And 9 To Boot!

Eight days ago, on Saturday the 4th, I noticed that all but a tiny sliver of the scannable paid parking was missing from the meter pole on Columbia Street nearest to Park Place.  What remained secured to the bracket showed that the sign had broken off; it had not been removed intentionally by anyone from the city.   I took my pictures and included two of them on a textless HUDseen post on Monday. Within 24 hours, a new $29 double-sided sign was secured to the bracket atop the old meter pole in front of the tavern known as The Hereafter. 

Isn't There An Implied Understanding That Obviates Ugly and Bright PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING Signs?

The three lovely NO TRESPASSING signs that recently appeared along the edges of the long vacant property at 3rd & Columbia raise a few questions, don't they? 

First, what the hell is the problem the Islamic Center people are trying to solve by installing the PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING signs on their property?

Who At HPD BOOTed This One?

 

By Wednesday afternoon, 2 days ago, less than 36 hours after the MINI on South Front Street had been BOOTed by HPD, the orange BOOT was no longer secured to the driver's side front wheel.  In fact, it was nowhere in sight.  As was the bright orange warning ticket that every BOOTed vehicle gets, telling drivers not to try to move their car and to pay their fines to get the BOOT removed. Typically, that means that the owner has paid all their overdue parking tickets and the $150 BOOT administrative fee ticket that comes with the BOOT.  That appears not to be the case with the black MINI that seems to have been parked unmoved for a few months.  That's because the two WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets -- with three weeks between them -- and the $150 BOOT ADMIN FEE ticket were still on the windshield. 

The Uglification of Downtown Hudson Continues (Thanks to the County This Time)!

 

A day or two ago, three large, 3-color, 51-word signs appeared in and alongside the County-owned parking lot at 6th & Columbia.  The one facing the sidewalk is obscene.  Who is its target audience?  Could it be drivers stopped in the street with a pair of binoculars when no parked car is in the way of the view of the sign?  Could it be drivers stopped on the sidewalk?  Pedestrians?  Nearby residents?  Local Italians?

It's Nice To Know That At Least One Officer At HPD Reads HUDseen!

It's no coincidence that less than 48 hours after HUDseen pointed out the long-term parked black Mini Cooper on South Front Street with just one three-week-old ticket on it that it was BOOTed by HPD.  They had obviously let this one slip through one of the many cracks that are prevalent in HPD's enforcement of overnight parking.  

Had this car instead originally been parked, say, on January 1st in the 500 block of State Street, it would have been ticketed every other night so often and so regularly that it would have been considered abandoned by Captain David Miller and likely towed and impounded within two or three weeks.  Probably in January!  But because it was parked on Front Street, it evaded the grasp and eyes of HPD.  It didn't look like an abandoned vehicle (so new and shiny!), so they ignored it.  For months.  That is, until HUDseen pointed out the flaw and inconsistency that car represented.  And the general incoherence and mess that overnight parking enforcement clearly is.

Can't Afford The Gas No More While Whiteys Flyin' Round The Moon! **

 

** I couldn't pass up using the title -- ripping off Gil Scott-Heron's wonderful poem Whitey On The Moon -- even though it isn't 100% accurate.  Victor Glover, a Black astronaut, is up there on Artemis II along with three White astronauts zipping around the moon.  And why exactly are they up there, and why do we care?  To forget our troubles down here?

I Don't Know Which Look Is Worse! Do You?

The ugly house at 251 Columbia Street was demolished several years ago, likely in 2018 or 2019.  What has followed is a prime example of what we're up against with City Hall's lack of attention to important matters and details.  Yet again, HUDseen must state the obvious:  NO ONE AT CITY HALL IS PAYING ATTENTION!

For the past 5 years or more, the "vacant" property has been an eyesore of its own, covered in black plastic sheeting weighted down by cinder blocks and "protected" by orange plastic netting.  Actually, calling it an eyesore is being charitable. The plastic cover was the owner's idea of weed control, which worked pretty well.  It also kept Code Enforcement at bay.

Number Six (At Least)!!!!!! Hooray For Stupidity and Wasted Money! And More Plastic Crap For A Landfill Quickly Filling Up!

 

When They Can't Pay Attention, We Pay the Price

 

This parked car that I came across on the even side of South Front Street today had an overnight $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket on its windshield. It looked familiar.  When I saw that the ticket -- which is yellowed and has been shat on by a bird -- was issued by a Hudson cop early in the morning on March 15th, I realized that I had noticed the ticketed car when I biked by it about a week ago.  Fifteen bucks is a pretty good parking deal for someone on a 3-week (or longer) trip away from Hudson, starting with a train ride on Amtrak.  It's a fantastic deal!  It's unheard of, actually!  And, apparently, HPD has no problem with that deal that loses the city money.

The Big Dig Is On! (And The Fibs Continue)

Our $125,000 DPW Superintendent is a strange bird, isn't he?

One week ago, eleven days after Harry Howard Avenue at the flats along Underwood Pond was closed to all traffic because of sudden major road failure there, Rob Perry made an announcement on the city's website about the situation.  Perry had had over one week to assess the very serious situation. (While Perry's name was not included on the "Harry Howard Avenue Closure Update," it certainly couldn't have come from anyone but him.) 

It's Getting Better All The Time!

 

The new 4-foot-wide concrete sidewalk on North 6th Street between Prospect and Washington was created late last fall by the new business complex known as Pocketbook Hudson. But our code is explicit: new sidewalks must be no less than 5 feet wide.   A four-foot-wide sidewalk does not allow two people to walk side by side comfortably, safely or possibly at all.  The Code Enforcement Department is literally directly across the street from the city's latest non-compliant pedestrian sidewalk.  

A New Perk Of The Parking Enforcement Job: Interacting With The Public!

During the few months in 2014 when I was a proud Hudson Parking Enforcer, I'm almost certain that I never once had to explain to anyone how to pay for their parking space. No one who had just gotten out of their car parked in a metered space ever approached me with a puzzled look to ask me how to put a quarter in the parking meter next to their car.  No one ever asked me why it was so difficult to pay for their parking space or if they needed a mobile phone to pay for it.  (Yes, I did get the occasional, "Do you have four quarters for a dollar?")