"Melted"? "Removed"? Is That So, Rob? Are You 100% Certain Of This?

During his DPW report to the Infrastructure Committee (CODE is gone! Out! Done! Moved!) last Monday, DPW Superintendent Rob The Slob Perry described his department's recent replacement of the angled pedestrian crosswalk across Warren just west of City Hall Place.  It turns out that crosswalk in front of Hudson Hall was never ADA-compliant, so it should never have been installed in the first place (it's been around in one form or another for several years).  Time to try again.  Once the new crosswalk was installed straight across Warren east of City Hall Place, Rob explained, "the one by the Opera House was melted and removed."  Perry was kind enough to include a picture of a portion of our new crosswalk but failed to include one of the "melted and removed" former crosswalk if only because there was nothing to take a picture of. Or so he wanted the committee members and the public to believe.

The work of slobs.  In the heart 
of downtown HUDSON!

This "melted and removed" crosswalk is more conspicuous (and safer!) than many other old, degraded, and ignored crosswalks around town waiting to be renewed.  Can't you see a family (with children in tow!) being fooled into thinking this is a legit crosswalk?  Can you imagine the embarrassing lawsuit the city is forced to settle out of court after the entire family is run over?   Andy Howard to judge:  "I was told that the crosswalk had been removed by DPW, your Honor.  For this error, we do apologize to the dead family."

Did Rob Perry's foreman tell him that this 
crosswalk had been "melted and removed"?
Or did Rob see that it had been "melted and  
removed" with his own two eyes?

The original cost of the "removed" crosswalk -- which got fresh lines a year or two ago -- likely cost us at least $500 (11 lines at @ $40 each, plus labor and other materials).  And how much did it cost city taxpayers to have DPW thoroughly "melt and remove" it, do you suppose?  Of course, the new crosswalk cost us about the same as the one it replaced... maybe more; shit ain't gettin' any cheaper!  And as long as Rob Perry insists on (and is allowed to insist on) creating crosswalks and stop lines using ridiculously expensive (and getting costlier) heat-treated decals rather than pavement paint, this city will always wonder why there is always so little money in the bank and, of course, why there are so many dangerous intersections missing stop lines and crosswalks.  If the city continues to waste money on heat treated white decals for crosswalks and stop lines, we just might get a mayor elected to City Hall who convinced us all that they and they alone will finally make all of our intersections safe for everyone.  And guess what?  It will be a big fat lie!  Or just wishful thinking pie in the sky nonsense political claptrap!  And nothing will change.  Just you watch; it's bound to happen.

7th & State.  No traffic light.  No stop signs (or stop lines)
 for speedy State Street traffic. No crosswalks at all. 
No problem at all!  This is the only intersection on State where
State traffic never has to stop, and there isn't one bit of white anything
in the intersection, as if pedestrians don't exist there!  It's beyond stupid.

Consider this.  The city official responsible for installing and "removing" our crosswalks and stop lines is the same person responsible for ensuring every resident's tap water is safe to drink and won't give us all cancer or some other deadly illness.  That's the water that comes to us from a reservoir several miles out of town in Churchtown, near the Taconic Parkway.  At some point, hopefully soon, this one person ruling DPW nonsense will have to end.  It should have ended long ago.