Is It Possible We Are Governed By Fools Who Don't Know How To Manage Much Of Anything, Including Money? It Sure Looks That Way!

For the past 24 hours I had been planning on using the picture above for an article simply titled, STOP SIGN NUMBER TWO.  That's the new stop sign and pole at Warren & Park that DPW installed (once again 8 feet from the curb) on Wednesday to replace the sign and pole that were knocked over on Tuesday after surviving two months of thousands of close calls from trucks, tractor trailers, bad drivers, and drivers confused about the new, safer intersection. Notice the vertical reflective red strip on the pole; it was not included in the first stop sign effort!

Then, this morning, I came across this:

The fucking thing didn't last more than 36 hours before it was destroyed again. NOT EVEN 2 DAYS, AND POSSIBLY WITHIN 24 HOURS!  Can you believe this shit?  How much did that reflective strip cost us?  WE ARE ALL PAYING OUT THE WAZOO FOR THE IMCOMPETENCE COMING OUT OF CITY HALL!

And here's the kicker!  It's entirely possible that the replacement sign and pole were destroyed by a vehicle early last night while Rob Perry was explaining to the worthless Infrastructure Committee why DPW had to replace the original sign and pole on Wednesday.  Even though Perry's DPW reports are supposed to focus on matters from the previous month, he even included a picture taken the previous day of his crew working on installing a replacement sign and pole, with mobile generator nearby that powers a jackhammer meant to dig into asphalt.

It is also entirely possible that as I write this, DPW is installing a new stop sign 8 feet from the curb at Warren & Park to replace the very sign that Rob Perry showed a picture of being installed during last night's laughable Infrastructure Committee meeting, held just 20 hours ago.  Get out your camera again, Rob!

Here is what Perry had to say last night (20 hours ago!) about his stop sign being hit on Tuesday.  His tone (and reactions and comments from committee members) was one of frivolity.  First, though, for the second time in a few months, Perry felt the need to explain why the stop sign had to be installed "out there," without specifying how far in the street it was located from the curb.  (I'll spare you the details, other than to say there is no room for another sign at that corner without doing some major work.)  Then, Perry, always the consummate adult professional, had this to say: "It finally got hit."  (Someone laughed out loud, likely Henry Haddad.)  He went on, still having a good ol' time of it: "I would have thought it would have been within three days.  So, we would have all lost our shirts on that bet.  But it did finally get clipped."  (Was Perry thinking mayor Ferris was part of his "we"?)

While our $125,000 DPW Superintendent was disappointed that it took the original sign and pole so long to "finally" come down and need to be replaced in the same spot, he did get the results he wanted the second time around, doing his best to make a fool of the mayor.  And it didn't take even two days, let alone three!  Let's hope that this time around Perry and his "we" were all smart enough to have made that three-day bet on stop sign number two.  If not, it's okay, because that group of "we" knows that there will be plenty more opportunities to place bets on mayor Ferris' replacement stop signs coming down at Warren & Park, perhaps even five or six more times this year.  Place your bets today on stop sign number three before it "gets clipped" tomorrow (if it's installed today, of course)!  Get in on the action!  Don't let Rob Perry hog all the winnings!  Is there a betting app for the stop sign yet?

Just a few minutes after I came across this morning's temporary stop sign 8 feet from the curb at Warren & Park (within about 60 hours of coming across the first one!), I happened on more evidence of the sloppiness, incompetence, and lack of respect for Hudson in general and residents specifically that has infected City Hall and HPD.

Who is willing to bet that these two $19 signs are never replaced?  Of the 6 parking meter poles on the south side of Columbia between Park and 8th, four of them are missing signs.  It was about two months ago when the pair on the pole nearest 8th went missing.  

The creepiest thing about the multitude of fallen signs over the past several months (essentially ever since they showed up in February) isn't the waste of money and time, the sloppiness, the neglect, and the disregard of aesthetics (it's great that HPD is making Hudson uglier, isn't it!).  No, the most concerning aspect of the continually falling signs is that no one has ever brought up the issue at a council or committee meeting.  NEVER!  (Talk about an issue worth exploring with a psychologist or municipal consultant!)  But it might not help matters that no one can answer the following question:  WHICH HPD EMPLOYEE IS IN CHARGE OF PARKING?  AND DON'T TELL US THAT TWO PART-TIME EMPLOYEES ARE MAKING A TAG TEAM EFFORT!  THAT'S NOT HOW DEPARTMENTS OR BUREAUS ARE PROPERLY SUPERVISED! EVER! NEVER! NOT EVEN IN HUDSON!

Even just being able to ask such a valid question shows how much damage HPD's new paid parking system is causing us.  And costing us.  Every one of us.

Any bets on how many more months before this $10,000 parking kiosk works again?  That's the kiosk that was installed six or seven months ago and stopped working three or more months ago!  I'm thinking that whoever is in charge of maintenance of kiosks has simply given up caring whether it ever operates for the public ever again.  Don't count on this kiosk being repaired this year.  Twenty dollars, anyone?  

3 months and counting!  
(HPD certainly isn't counting, though!)