No Stop Line? No Crosswalk? No Nothin'?

NO PROBLEMO!

(The lead picture was taken on Saturday morning during the farmers market.  With no stop line to abide by, that's where the driver of the car decided to stop for the red light.  It happens all the time! A signalized intersection without stop lines is a huge WE DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU to all pedestrians.  Even our new "safety" mayor would agree with me.)

There must be something deeply wrong with any city hall in the year 2026 that can't find the will or the money to install a full complement of stop lines at each and every one of its signalized intersections and never let them fade away to nothing.  There must be something deeply wrong with any city hall in the year 2026 that can't find the will or money to install crosswalks at intersections where they are clearly needed and have been for several years.  There is something troublingly wrong with Hudson City Hall if, for example, the 3-way intersection of 2nd & Allen was given 3 stop lines and 3 crosswalks last year while the 3-way intersection along the busy truck at 6th & Columbia -- where the always busy farmers market is located on Saturdays -- has never had any crosswalks or stop lines.  Because 2nd & Allen has stop signs, every vehicle that comes to the intersection must stop, and each of those three stop signs has an associated stop line and a pedestrian crosswalk.  But because 6th & Columbia has a traffic light, at any one point in time the traffic on one of those streets does not have to stop at the intersection.  And so, naturally, there should be no stop lines or crosswalks at all at that intersection.  Ever.  Why on earth would one of the city's busiest intersections along the truck route (where vehicle crashes are common) need any stop lines or crosswalks if there are no stop signs there?

If DPW were to use its heat-treated decals to install 3 stop lines and 4 crosswalks at 6th & Columbia, it would likely cost -- and I'm not kidding -- at least $1,200.  And that's just the cost of the decals!  (Add labor, gasoline for the 7 DPW pickup trucks that will be needed, as well as the cost of the gas to fire up the heat gun.)  Could that be the reason there are still no crosswalks or stop lines there?  Rob Perry hasn't been able to afford to do it in the past ten years?

The State of New York covered the cost of the crosswalks (and possibly the stop lines) at 2nd & Allen last year as part of the CHIPs repaving project that covered 2nd Street from Allen to Warren, a project overseen by Rob Perry.  Like 2nd & Allen, the intersection of 5th & Union was repaved (as part of most of the 400 block being repaved).  But that intersection got no crosswalks nor stop lines last year.  Council president Margaret Morris, who claims to be so concerned and focused on the financial stability and safety of the city, owns a house at that intersection.  That's her intersection!  I've never heard her ask Rob Perry why 5th & Union never got any crosswalks or stop lines.  And no one on her new so-called Safety Committee seems to care that someone forgot to install crosswalks and stop lines at that intersection last year or if any will ever appear.  But, of course, Rob Perry doesn't participate in the Safety Committee meetings.  He shows up to the Code & Infrastructure Committee meetings.  And I haven't heard committee chair Jason Foster or Rob Perry mention a peep about installing crosswalks or stop lines at any intersections this year.  Have you?