Whose Garbage Is It? And Who Should Pay To Dispose Of It?

On Saturday, I was surprised to see that the large mattress behind the long vacant property at 538 State Street had been removed.  I thought it would never happen.  That was the mattress that had been lying there in plain sight since at least last November when I first noticed it.  It took a few emails to the mayor and one Hudson Hub request two months ago to get it removed, and I can only assume that DPW took care of it, which means city taxpayers, not the property owner, paid to have it disposed of.

Then, yesterday late in the afternoon, I noticed another development having to do with garbage, this one just as fascinating philosophically.  There were two new public trash cans in town. The short metal trash cans surrounding the pocket park in the 300 block of Warren had been replaced with larger, wooden ones that are typical of those found downtown.  Two hours after Mel's Bakery & Cafe had closed, the new can closest to the park (and to the bakery/cafe situated in the park) was overflowing with trash, made up mostly, if not entirely, of cafe customers' disposables. (The metal can on the sidewalk in front of the park had also been replaced with a wooden one, though it was not overflowing.)

Still not large enough, apparently!

Mel's Bakery & Cafe doesn't put out a trash can for its customer who dine and drink (from so many paper cups!) in the public park outside its front door.  The city provides that disposal service, paid for by city taxpayers, of course.  Apparently, Mel's is doing so well that the old trash can that served the park's needs for decades (when there was no food establishment nearby) was no longer adequate.  The public trash can serving the public park was filling up too quickly on the weekends with disposables from a private business.  DPW (and tax revenue) to the rescue!

Private business in a public park, an
unusual situation.

Should city taxpayers be paying for the removal and disposal of waste produced by customers of an eatery just because their only option to sit outside and eat and drink from disposables just happens to be in a public park?  We don't pay to remove the garbage created by customers of the Hudson Roastery, Olde Hudson or the Maker who eat and drink at the outdoor chairs and tables those eateries provide, do we?

Who are the tables for?  And what happened to all the grass?

Notice all the grass in the park as seen in the screenshot below from a 2023 Google Maps.  It's been trampled.  Thanks to a business.  That grass will never return as long as the park is used as a dining area.  Of course, unlike grass, dirt turns to mud in the rain and it remains that way well after.  Whose park is it and who pays to maintain it?

I'm glad Mel's is doing well and that they are here in Hudson; they make some wonderful bread.  But it seems to me we are helping them out (subsidizing them?) just a bit too much only because of their location.  If they want their customers to eat and drink in a public park and they don't provide table service, the least they could do is provide their own garbage can for the disposables they send their customers out the door with.   And don't let the can overflow with garbage, especially after you've closed for the day (or days).  It's a public park.  Or at least it was one until recently.

But what about City Hall and the people who are keeping an eye on the city's bottom line (if there are any), particularly in these financially trying times?  Has anyone considered whether paying to dispose of the disposables from a business is in our best interest or, in the bigger view, even possible?

The time has come for the little Hudson to start figuring out where it is wasting money.  Like garbage, the money-wasting is everywhere.  Even emptying one trash can costs money, and that isn't getting any cheaper, especially if the trash cans are getting larger but still overflowing.

Don't get me started!