Seen On Green. (Is The Public Works Board Made Up of Blind Members Unfamiliar With Hudson's Sidewalks?)

Suffice is to say that Jason Foster -- Green Street resident, 3rd ward council member, and chair of the so-called CODE & Infrastructure Committee (that saw Nick Fox once a few months ago but will never see him again... a sure sign of dysfunction at City Hall) -- never walks his dogs or himself on the inside sidewalk of the bend of Green Street.  Foster's too smart for that, as all his neighbors must be as well.  He values his life and his dogs' lives too much to make such a reckless choice as walking where a sidewalk literally disappears.  Some people who find themselves walking on Green Street, however, don't know what they're getting into, where simply choosing the wrong side of the street to walk on might wind them up in the morgue.  Like dead on arrival.  Death by vehicle (or speeding ebike!) from behind.  Never saw it coming.  Never felt a thing.  Died peacefully and quickly, head smashed to pieces. 

My guess is that the ladies in these pictures were from out of town, unfamiliar with the sidewalks, the missing sidewalks and so-called sidewalks of the Green Street death trap portion of the truck route.  They probably learned their lesson the other day and will avoid that side of the street forevermore.  If they ever dare to return to walk in Hudson.

Forced to walk in the street at a bend in the
 truck route and major artery in and out of the
 city where speeding is a constant.  Brilliant!

  

When Hudson police officers are out walking the 
 beat (ha!), are they sure to be on this side of Green?

In a stunning act of WTF that no one should be surprised by, the Public Works Board left this obscene and INSTANT-LAWSUIT-FOR-THE-CITY section of Green Street "sidewalk" off of their SIDEWALK TO DO LIST. It didn't even make it onto their "alternate sites" list! No, not this year.  Hell, they don't even talk about this death trap -- they're probably afraid to given how many entities are involved in the mess (National Grid, property owner(s), Verizon, City Hall, safety mayor Joe Ferris, et. al.).  By doing and saying nothing about the longtime dangerous problem over there in the third ward, the people that govern us -- if there are any -- are basically saying, "We don't care.  It's not our problem.  Maybe someone else will figure it out some decade.  We're too busy.  Sorry." 

Meanwhile, the much more dangerous and problematic half-block of sidewalk in front of the Spark of Hudson's new headquarters on quiet, straight, one-way South 5th Street with a traffic light at the end, which the PWB refers to as the "East Side of 5th Street from Cherry Alley to Union," did make their list (albeit on the list of alternate sites if more funds should become available)!  At the very least, the PWB has their eyes set on getting rid of all the hazards, injuries, and lawsuits that downtown sidewalk has up its sleeve.  Strangely, though, I've never seen any pedestrians forced off that portion of sidewalk and into the street. Have you?

Is it the sidewalk furniture that's the problem?!

During a recent Legal Committee meeting, member Jason Foster made the pitch that Green Street (his street) needed a yellow median line and shoulder lines on both sides to prevent what he determined has become a problem on a street that handles more than 6,000 vehicles per day: vehicles drifting out of the traffic lanes and slamming into parked vehicles.  He even provided pictures of two crashes that he claimed might have been prevented had there been shoulder lines.  But the missing and blocked sidewalk death trap that has been forcing all pedestrians to walk in the inside of the bend of Green Street for decades is, apparently, not worth solving or even mentioning. Jason Foster would rather try to do something about a perceived reckless driving problem on Green Street where speeding is rampant all the while ignoring the pedestrians-forced-to-walk-in-the-street problem on the same side of the street he lives on, only about 200 or 300 feet away from the very walkable and utility pole- and earth berm-free sidewalk in front of his house.  Sure, that sounds like a great plan!  He's got his priorities straight, that's for sure.

On December 20th, 2025, just two days after a Warren Street resident was struck by a turning vehicle while she had the right of way at the east end of the crosswalk at the Warren Street end of Park Place, winding up in the hospital with a badly broken leg, a person by the name of Jason Foster was grazed by a turning vehicle in the same goddamn crosswalk, though on the west side.  According to the DMV accident report regarding this incident that I received 6 or 7 months ago, Jason Foster was not injured, the vehicle did not stop, and he immediately walked to the police station to let them know he had been struck while in the crosswalk.  I had no idea if that Jason Foster was the same Jason Foster who is a 3rd ward council member, if only because there had never been any mention of the incident at any public meetings that I had been paying attention to.  So, to put the mystery to rest, at a common council meeting last month, eight months after someone by the name of Jason Foster was nearly run over while in a crosswalk and still no mention had been made of the incident, I asked 3rd ward council member Jason Foster if it was he who had been grazed by a turning vehicle at Park & Warren in December.  He admitted that it was indeed him.  Then I asked him why he had never once mentioned the incident publicly, and why there has never been any mention about that dangerous crosswalk from him or anyone on the council or on any committees.  Foster replied that I was mistaken and that he had mentioned the incident and the crosswalk publicly at meetings.  And that was all he had to say about the matter.  Except that his statement was COMPLETELY DISINGENUOUS AND FALSE!  Outside of responding to my questions about the incident, to this day Jason Foster has not talked publicly about that crosswalk and the incident at Park & Warren that almost got him run over by a turning vehicle that may never have stopped!  Not one word.  Nothing, no details, no apparent concern.  As if it never happened. 

I think that the dangerous crosswalk at the Warren end of Park is much like the pedestrian death trap on Green Street in that they are both not an easy fix, so it's just easier for common council members, our so-called mayor, and those on the so-called SAFETY Committee to do everything they can to ignore both situations.  Let's face it, solving problems is not City Hall's strength; they are more adept at creating them.  Why was the "Stewart's intersection" improved a few years ago (and it is improved in some ways, though not all)?  Because it was part of their store expansion deal with the city, and Stewart's paid for all of it!  Heck, if not for Stewart's expansion, there might still be an old and faded NO TURN ON RED sign there for southbound Fairview drivers hoping to turn onto Green.  Instead, the city decided that an improved Stewart's intersection should no longer have a NO TURN ON RED sign for those drivers.  Just recently the common council debated about whether to turn the entire city into a NO TURN ON RED zone, only to realize after a few months of yakety-yak that it can't be done in Hudson.  Presumably, had it been able to happen and did happen, the zone would have included all of the Stewart's intersection.

Holy crap, this sure gets tiring!

(I have been attending and paying attention to common council goings-on for close to 12 years.  The subject of what has to be the worst, most obscene, most disrespectful, and most dangerous section of sidewalk in the entire city -- found along the bend of Green Street -- has never once reared its ugly head.  Not once, at least that I am aware of.  One wonders what Jason Foster thinks about it. Certainly, he is aware of it, isn't he?  And what about that partner of Jason's also keeping an eye on the third ward for us, Columbia Street resident Lola Roberts?  Why have I never seen her once walking in Hudson in the past 30 months since she joined the common council?  Surely, she doesn't have an opinion about the Green Street pedestrian death trap, does she?  No, she does not, if only because I've never heard her mention anything about it, either!  In fact, she doesn't have anything to say about any of the city's problems, including the worst of our worst sidewalks, so-called sidewalks, and sidewalks that essentially don't exist.)