How Dangerous, Narrow, and Speedy Is Green Street? Ask Jason Foster, Not Rob Perry!

A few months ago, during a Legal Committee meeting, 3rd ward council member (and Green Street resident) Jason Foster did his best to convince Margaret Morris that a yellow median line and shoulder lines were needed on Green Street to prevent crashes and slow down traffic. (There are zero marking on Green.  It's insane that there isn't a yellow median line, particularly for the bend.)  To prove his point, Jason provided two pictures of vehicle crashes on Green Street, each involving a parked car that was rammed into that he opined might have been prevented with pavement markings.  Jason also said that he was provided the pictures by the Hudson Police Department as a result of a Freedom of Information Law request he had made for them.  I don't recall where things were left after Jason's presentation, but I do know that this issue has not come up again at a Legal Committee meeting.  And for good reason.

You see, a few weeks following that meeting, at a Code and Infrastructure meeting (which Jason chairs and which does not involve the Code Enforcement Department), DPW Superintendent Rob Perry did his best to refute what Jason had offered during the meeting that Rob was not a part of.  During his DPW report, Rob showed the same pictures that Jason had shown but told Jason and others in attendance that one of the crashes was the result of a drunk driver (without offering any evidence) and the other was also a result of something that no street lines could have prevented (sorry, I don't recall those specifics).  Perry had done his homework, for sure.  Not only was it creepy theater, but it was classic dismissive bully $125,000 Rob Perry.  Jason, no doubt, had no idea that Rob had planned to bring up the issue; he was blindsided and put in his place.  Rob's message to $5,000 Jason Foster was clear, though unstated:  Shut the hell up, you annoying twit; you don't know what you're talking about.  Only I know what's going on in this town.  Take your pictures and your grand ideas back home with you and put them in the garbage.  Stop bothering me with your bullshit. Can't you see I'm busy here?

Is it any surprise that Jason Foster hasn't had anything else to say about making Green Street safer so that people don't feel the need to park their cars on the curb and on the sidewalk, to keep them off of the street as much as possible and out of harm's way?  Once Rob Perry has dismissed you, it's best to obey.  No sense in being publicly humiliated twice.

Last night, on North 6th Street, HPD issued a $10 IMPROPER PARKING ticket to a van parked with one wheel on the curb.  Of course, they never do this to cars parked illegally on Green Street.  One wheel or all four, what does it matter on Green? 

The Hudson Police Department also doesn't care how often or for how long people leave their cars on the sidewalk in front of the Green Street laundromat.  Everyone knows that driving on and parking on the sidewalk there is permitted and not a violation of any sort.  Sure, leave your multi-ton vehicle there for 5 minutes or 30, you won't get a ticket or hassled by the cops!  After all, it's Green Street, where anything goes and the sidewalks aren't meant for pedestrians!