Priorities Inside City Hall (And Out Front)!

New $700 pedestrian crosswalk at 7th & Columbia?  Check!  Refreshed $600 crosswalk across Front Street at the train station that, according to Rob Perry, was originally installed a few years ago by Amtrak? Check!  Two metered parking spaces removed with bright yellow paint to make the intersections at each end of Park Place safer for pedestrians?  Check!  Check!  (Done on Monday.)

How about a new plastic window for the garbage bag vending machine in front of City Hall to replace the obscenely opaque plastic window that should have been replaced at least one year ago, as it would have been in any self-respecting city?  Sorry, NO CAN DO! That will have to wait another 12 months! *

How about removing the graffiti from the garbage bag vending machine in front of City Hall (!!!) that should have been removed three years ago?  FUCK NO!  Why the hell would we do that?  Plus, we CAN'T AFFORD TO!  

$700 crosswalk

Notice how the shade of the new yellow curb 
paint along the cones does not match the old
 yellow curb paint in the foreground!

The brighter shade of yellow curb paint was 
applied on Monday, removing one of the two 
metered parking spaces at the north end on
the east side of Park Place.

On a sunny weekday morning about four weeks ago, I came across four city employees gathered at the southeast corner of Columbia & 7th Streets, adjacent to the 7th Street park.  Let me tell you, it was quite a rare sight.  Included in the group was "mayor" Joe Ferris, his aide, Tiffany Martin, HPD Chief and, still after ten months and soon to set a world record, Acting Police Commissioner Mishanda Franklin, and DPW Superintendent Robert W. Perry, Jr. (in his favorite salmon-colored slacks). Though I didn't dare get too close or take a picture for fear of being accused of either harassment, disorderly conduct, terrorist acts, disturbing the peace or all of them together, from across Columbia Street it was clear to me that the big wigs were focusing on the intersection, not the park or anything else.  Perhaps, I thought, 7th & Columbia is on the mayor's list of the city's ten most dangerous intersections, a list that the public is not privy to as we approach the end of the first third of Ferris's two-year term.  

About three weeks later -- sometime last week -- an expensive, lengthy, 14.5-line pedestrian crosswalk appeared across 7th at Columbia. Aha, so I was right!  That morning, the mayor and his coterie of safety experts were trying their best to improve that intersection!  But the truly amusing thing about that city official confab at the intersection occurred about a week prior during a meeting of the so-called SAFETY Committee when council prez Margaret Morris spoke her mind -- from her home via a headless voice beamed into City Hall -- about the dangers that busy intersection along the truck route provides drivers.  She went on for at least 4 minutes to make her point to Henry Haddad, Police Chief Franklin, and a few others, repeating herself more than a few times as she tends to do.  It took Morris four minutes to tell everyone that she thinks the intersection would be safer with two stop signs for Columbia Street traffic, never mentioning the words pedestrian or crosswalk once.

But, of course, Margaret Morris was not among the gang of four that I came across on that sunny morning at 7th & Columbia, was she? No, she was not!  One wonders if the mayor had invited her to come along on his safety tour that morning, though my guess is that he had no need or desire to include her.  Word on the ground is that they don't see eye to eye on much these days.  Who knows, given all the nonsense and eye-rolling that this new mayor has brought to the city, the two may dislike each other enough to not want to be found together in the same room or even on the same sidewalk. **

According to the city code, the only city official with the authority to get traffic control devices installed or modified (including signs and crosswalks) is the police commissioner.  Only the police commissioner can tell the DPW Superintendent where to install crosswalks or ONE WAY and DO NOT ENTER signs (to name just two).  Neither the mayor, the mayor's aide, the Police Chief, the head Code Enforcement Officer, nor the DPW Superintendent can tell the DPW Superintendent to install traffic control devices.  Prior to becoming the Acting Police Commissioner last fall , actor and Police Chief Mishanda Franklin stated this fact publicly on at least a few occasions.  Of course, she didn't say anything about whether the Acting Police Commissioner could be involved in such decision- making, particularly if the chief and commissioner happen to be the same person, even herself.  (It is truly creepy to me that after so many months there has been no talk of appointing a new police commissioner!)

On June 1st, speaking to Chief Franklin and Captain David Miller (who was taking notes), SAFETY Committee chair Henry Haddad requested four traffic signs for three intersections (two ONE WAY and two DO NOT ENTER), explaining that the signs would make the intersections safer for drivers and pedestrians alike. DPW soon installed three of the four signs, but the DO NOT ENTER sign for wrong way drivers on 7th approaching State still has not made its way to the intersection where State traffic is often quite speedy and never has to stop.  Any numbskull can see how a DO NOT ENTER sign (or two!) there might save a life or four someday, perhaps today.

About four weeks ago, a DPW crew of two installed three NO PARKING ANY TIME signs on the sidewalk in front of the wide property known as 80 - 86 North 6th, directly across the street from the glorious new Pocketbook business complex.  The narrow sidewalk in front of the property was narrowed by a few more inches (don't walk into that sign pole!  Single file, everybody!)  According to public tax records, HPD Captain David Miller, Jr., has owned that property since 2015. Parking is never allowed on the east side of North 6th from State to Washington, though Rob Perry decided long ago that the entire two blocks of curb never needs to be painted (or repainted!) yellow, regardless of the shade of the paint.  There are now 9 NO PARKING signs along that two blocks of sidewalk, with 6 of them found between Prospect and Washington, including 3 of those 6 in front of HPD Captain David C. Miller Jr.'s wide property where parked cars a rarity.  If anyone claims that there has been a problem with parked cars on the east side of 6th Street, even across from the Pocketbook business complex where the curb is still NOT PAINTED YELLOW, they are yanking more than your leg.  And if there is a parking problem where cars are not supposed to be parking, why isn't the f'ng curb painted yellow like it is everywhere else in town?

Signs, signs, and more signs but  
NO YELLOW CURB for drivers to see! 
Is this also at David Miller's "request"?

No request was ever made or those signs at any meeting of the so-called SAFETY Committee, or, for that matter, any other public meetings.  The new signs (on new poles) were installed in front of a private property, and Rob Perry never mentioned anything about them before or after they appeared.  But who told Rob Perry to find or buy three NO PARKING signs and three signposts and have them installed on the narrow sidewalk in front of 80 - 86 North Sixth?  Since there wasn't a public request made for those three NO PARKING signs, who made the request and when and where did the request occur?  Who justified and approved the need for the signs and their expense, when was it done, and behind what closed doors was it done?  Was the mayor involved?  Was the City Treasurer involved?  Was Henry Haddad involved?  Or was it merely David Miller, Rob Perry, and possibly Mishanda Franklin who got those three NO PARKING signs installed in front of David Miller's house on North 6th Street, perhaps doing so over the phone?  Can any property owner get Rob Perry on the phone (good luck with that!) and instantly receive a NO PARKING sign or five -- or any other traffic control devices, perhaps a crosswalk or three -- in front of their house without a public request and public approval by anyone at City Hall or on the council or on a committee?

Last question. In the mayor's bid to make the city a safer place to walk, drive, pedal, and zip down a sidewalk on an electrified scooter or "bike," is he collaborating with Henry Haddad and the so-called SAFETY Committee that Margaret Morris created, or is he ignoring Henry, Margaret and their SAFETY Committee?  Why do I think the answer is the latter?

* I cannot get a picture of the window on the garbage bag vending machine that accurately depicts how obscene, WTF-inducing, damaged, scratched, ugly, disrespectful and opaque it truly is when standing in front of or to the side of it.  To truly appreciate the depths that our new mayor has allowed City Hall to sink to, you have to visit 520 Warren yourself.  And you don't even have to go inside or walk the stairs to the second floor where all the action is!  But, by golly, if you do head upstairs, don't raise your voice one decibel above normal speaking volume toward the mayor or he may ban you from City Hall indefinitely, possibly for life.  I found out the hard way how thin-skinned the guy is so that you don't have to find out for yourself!  You've been warned.  

** Have you seen this recent heading of a Times Union article (that I cannot read online)?  Schenectady mayor questions council president's priorities.  Boy, does that sound familiar in a backwards fashion!