We Can Only "Hope" Something "Happens"!

Following the SAFETY Committee update portion of Monday night's informal council meeting, 3rd ward council member, Lola Roberts, asked SAFETY Committee chair Henry Haddad the following poorly worded question (taken straight from the archived video of the meeting):  Have you had any discussions about maybe with the one-way streets? I understand like probably not much and you talked about any discussions about making the one way signs bigger or larger or more, like...

Haddad replied:  We definitely need to put some one-way signs or do not enter signs on the majority of the alleys on one ways streets.  And maybe alternate or change one of the like the one-way streets that was discussed on North 7th since it becomes two way then it's one way and two way again... So I think it's all kind of interwoven a little bit with that kind of stuff.  The signage was discussed and the chief asked Rob to put those out in the next round of signs.  So, I'm assuming, since the weather is breaking, I think we start that what May 1st, painting and putting signs up?  So, my hope is yes, that that happens.  (my emphasis)

Rob Perry, of DPW, is not involved with the SAFETY Committee, yet he is supposedly being asked (told?) by Police Chief and Acting Police Commissioner, Mishanda Franklin, to do something to make the city safer.  Perry is involved with the Code & Infrastructure Committee that, 4 months into the new year, somehow still has no involvement from anyone at the Code Enforcement Department.  Henry Haddad is involved with both of these committees.  (Does your brain hurt yet?)

Last night while walking home at 7:15, I watched as a car turned right off of Prison Alley onto North 5th to head the wrong way to Columbia Street.  The driver either did not see the single (and small) ONE WAY sign at the intersection or they ignored it.  The driver made it to the light at Columbia, waited at the red light, then proceeded to turn left onto Columbia when the red light went blank, even though no green light appeared.  No "accident" occurred, thankfully.  

There are no WRONG WAY DO NOT ENTER signs at any of our intersections.  Henry Haddad (at my urging) feels there should be, though I have not heard him tell Rob Perry this.

The south-facing green light at Columbia & 5th has been missing for years.  Rob Perry probably intentionally undid it so that any wrong way drivers would not get the impression they were on a two-way street.  This might have been a smart move on his part in that regard, but pedestrians headed north on 5th can't actually CROSS THE TRUCK ROUTE ON THE GREEN if there is no green light to cross on.  Two years ago, DPW spent a few hundred dollars on CROSS ONLY ON GREEN signs that can be found at intersections up and down Warren Street, installing none on Columbia along a residential street that is much busier with traffic than Warren, with much speedier and larger vehicles, including 18-wheelers.  Nobody told Perry to put those signs up on Warren Street, signs meant to keep pedestrians from being hit by passing vehicles.  It was his idea and he didn't need to justify it to anyone.  Save the visitors!  To hell with the locals!

There are at least three similar intersections in town with a missing green light -- all of them at intersections along the truck route -- but I've never heard any discussion at any meetings of any kind about the pedestrian safety issues these missing green lights create.  Rob Perry certainly has no interest in explaining why a green light or three would be out all the time at some of our most dangerous intersections.  (Does the mayor know about the missing green lights?)

I'm not sure what signs Henry Haddad was talking about the other night that he said are going to be "put out" (by DPW, of course).  During the most recent SAFETY Committee meeting -- which Henry was an integral part of -- there was no talk of specific locations where ONE WAY or DO NOT ENTER signs were going to be installed.  There certainly wasn't any talk about how many signs would be needed or how much it would cost to buy them, important information that only Rob Perry can reveal. In fact, the so-called SAFETY Committee hasn't made any decisions about anything related to safety or signs.  They just talk.  Mostly, of course, about HPD's new paid parking system and all the issues, glitches, questions and revenue it is creating.  Second-in-command at HPD, Captain David Miller, makes that happen every month! And I guarantee that Mishanda Franklin hasn't spoken with Rob Perry about signs of any kind, including one way signs.  Our $125,000 DPW Superintendent has his mind on closed Harry Howard Avenue and, most of all, how much he misses moonlighting as the bartender at the shuttered Kozel's restaurant.

The city's code is clear:  only the Police Commissioner can get traffic control devices installed.  Not the Police Chief nor the DPW Superintendent.  Only the Police Commissioner can tell Rob Perry what signs go where.  Right now, for the past several months, and probably for several more months if not forever, our Police Chief is the Acting Police Commissioner.  (Fortunately, the latter position is unpaid!) The city code is also abundantly clear:  The head of the Hudson Police Department is the Police Commissioner.  The Police Chief is second in command and takes orders from the Police Commissioner.  And the Police Captain is third-in-command, not second!  (Presumably, not too long ago, both the HPD Commissioner and the HPD Chief were paid positions, right?)

When you don't stick to your own organizational rules, stupid shit tends to happen and things tend to take forever to get accomplished, if they ever happen.  ALL THE TIME!  Add Lola Roberts, Dewan Sarowar and Rob Perry (if you can locate him) to the mix and you've got yourself a permanent shitshow!  Headed the wrong way to Nowheresville!