Greenport, Hudson: Same Zip Code, Same Toleration For Ugly!

 

What should we call this most abhorrent development in the public sphere that City Hall has no idea how to handle? Shit creep? The demise of Hudson? Mayor Ferris's legacy? Signs of the ugly (end?) times we live in? Scraping the bottom of the fucking barrel?

Welcome to zip code 12534!

Two weeks ago, toward the end of the Code & Infrastructure Committee's fourth monthly meeting, with CEO Nick Fox in attendance for the first time, committee member Henry Haddad, with the actual city code in the form of a book in front of him, had something to say about "all the signs posted on streetlamps and street poles."  First, he cited the names of two companies who have installed signs around town: "Cars For Cash and Two Brothers Moving."  Neither of those companies, if they even exist, have hung signs in Hudson.  I know this for a fact (yes, I've seen them all!).  

What Henry did not mention is that the signs are all on National Grid's wooden utility poles.  The City of Hudson owns the lights and arms at the top of NG's poles but not the poles themselves.  And just as anyone can attach signs to NG's poles, anyone can legally remove signs from NG's poles (if they are within reach, of course), but the City of Hudson has no authority per se over NG's poles or signs on them. Henry was probably misreading the code regarding these "illegal signs."  While the city certainly has jurisdiction over the black fiberglass streetlamp poles on Warren and its side streets that it owns and DPW is responsible for, I seriously doubt that the city code has any rules regarding signs on any utility's property, including NG's wooden poles.  I could be wrong.

Haddad continued.  "Those [signs] are, in fact, illegal and against code.  We can fine them appropriately."

Fox: We'll pull the numbers and see if we can get them to come through.  Get 'em pulled out.

End of brief discussion.

Can you imagine the futility and waste of time and taxpayer revenue with that effort?

"Excuse me, Mr. Car Junk Man, you must stop posting your signs to National Grid's utility poles in Hudson and immediately come back to Hudson and remove all of your plastic signs you screwed to the utility poles we do not own or maintain.  And if don't, we will track you down and you will be fined!  A lot!  The Hudson Common Council has no toleration for your signs.  They never have!"

The only solution, it seems to me, is this:  Get the mayor, Rob Perry, Nick Fox, the city attorney, Henry Haddad and Chief Franklin all at once on the phone with the Rob Perry's contact person at National Grid, demanding that they regularly clear their utility poles of any and all signs in the city (God knows they've got enough trucks and workers in town every day!).   If National Grid is willing, make a verbal agreement right then and there that NG will remove signs from their poles.

If NG refuses or fails to follow through with the agreement, then there's plan B.

DPW removes the signs with its bucket truck.  One of each company's signs is given to the Code Enforcement Department. Each phone number is called and a message is left with a person or voicemail:  "Stop posting your signs in Hudson.  We will keep removing them if you do not.  If you continue to post signs on any utility poles in the City of Hudson, we will send you a cease-and-desist letter from the city attorney, along with a code violation fine of $200.  You have been warned.  If you have any further questions, feel free to call the Code Enforcement Department."

Nothing else is going to work.

I removed this sign yesterday. And 
for two weeks prior to yesterday, there 
was a dumpster parked at this corner 
 without a nearby posted HPD parking
permit allowing it to be there.

There's a reason that these stickers
 aren't found on wooden utility poles!

Since early December, between the lakes. 
Earth to Rob Perry!  Do you copy?

Do you get the sense, like I do, that things are spiraling out of City Hall's control and that the ship has too many leaks for them to control and repair?  Things are not getting prettier around town, that's for sure.  It seems to be one thing after another these days, and City Hall is completely unprepared for it all.  How is it that a member of the Common Council needs to explain to our head Code Enforcement Officer (reading from the code, no less!) what can (or might) be done about plastic business signs on National Grid's utility poles?  How much time and effort and money will it take to solve this latest quality of life issue dropped on us, and solve it for good?  And how the hell did we even get to this point of absurdity?