Dear Common Council "President" Margaret Morris!

I'm sorry to bother you, Margaret, but I have just a few important questions that I feel require answers from you, an elected city official who owns a Hudson property that abuts two sidewalks.  The issues I bring your way, as I can only assume you will agree, are central to Hudson's public infrastructure, well-being (fiscal and otherwise), and future prosperity and success.  For reasons that I cannot understand, you appear to be ignoring these critical issues.  Thus, the questions for you.

For how many more months will the wooden pallet be leaning against your fence for all the world to walk past and see?  Would you be okay if every property owner in town were so sloppy and inconsiderate?  Isn't the message you're sending out to the world that you don't care what Hudson looks like or how messy it is?  Who are you hoping removes that pallet from your property, Margaret?  Or do you not care if it ever gets removed from public view?  What is the pallet there for?  Who is it there for?  The eyes of passers-by, to enhance the beauty of downtown Hudson?

(I took the picture of your pallet on September 14th, at least 2 weeks after I first noticed it in the same spot.)

ALSO

Who Invited Tesla To Offer Free (Supervised) Rides In Their Driverless Car, The Latest Oktoberfest Tradition?

Were you among the brave and fortunate few to take a ride in a "supervised" driverless Tesla during the Upper Depot Brewery's Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday? No, me neither!

WORKING SMOKE ALARMS SAVE LIVES, You Say? What About WORKING FIRE HYDRANTS? Do They SAVE LIVES Too?

It seems to me that in the most practical of terms there's no difference between the purpose of a smoke alarm and a fire hydrant: they're both intended to prevent fires and save lives and structures when a fire does occur.  They go about their jobs differently, but they both have the same goal in mind; they are both part of the arsenal of fire safety, along with fire extinguishers.  The only difference is that one is inside a structure while the other is outside.  And any sensible person or fireman can agree that both alarms and hydrants need to be WORKING in order to prevent fires and save lives and structures.  Furthermore, when they are found to be not working, alarms, extinguishers, and hydrants should be fixed as quickly as possible, like without hesitation.  And if they can't be fixed, they should be replaced with working ones right away!  You never say, as Rob Perry and any number of Hudson Fire Department officials have said at public meetings justifying the existence of out of service hydrants, "There are others should we need them."  This is an idiotic approach to fire and death prevention.  If that thinking applies to fire hydrants, it should apply to smoke alarms, shouldn't it?

Who Paid For Nick Fox's "BUILDING DEPARTMENT" Business Cards and How Much Did They Cost?

Last I checked, there is no such thing as a BUILDING DEPARTMENT associated with Hudson City Hall, not inside 520 Warren nor at any other location, including on 7th Street.  The only departments located at 77 North 7th Street are the Hudson Fire Department and the Hudson Code Enforcement Department.  (The business card is taped to the door leading to the Code office.)

It's Only The 4th or 5th Time In 8 Months. What's The Big Deal?

This morning, for the 4th or 5th time this year, I noticed that the back-to-back plastic scannable parking signs atop the meter pole on the odd side of the 700 block of Columbia just beyond Park Place were no longer where they had been for about the past 25 days.  HUDseen last noticed the signs missing from that pole on September 5th (they were on the ground).   Two more appeared within a day or three. Today's missing signs were not missing yesterday when I walked past them, so someone likely took a disliking to them last night.  There is a saloon a few feet away.  I don't care for that drinking hole, though a while back I heard that mayor Ferris was a regular.  Maybe he still is.

Is This What's Known As Curb Appeal? Or Clutter? Or Just More Expensive Crap We Never Needed In the First Place?

Imagine seeing this every day and night outside your front door more often than you'd prefer.   Who wouldn't want to kick it and spit on it (or pee on it -- hell, dogs can!) at least once every day?  And that lovely white spray-painted circle!  Was that really necessary, and for how many years will it remain beautifying the neighborhood? 

Is Our Fair City Headed In The Proper Direction?

In July of 2020, over 6 years ago, two truck route signs each were installed above the intersections of 3rd & Columbia and State/Columbia & Green.  The former were meant to prevent trucks and tractor trailers headed north on 3rd approaching the turn on Columbia from continuing north past Columbia toward and onto State Street. The latter were meant to prevent trucks and tractor trailers headed south on Green Street from turning off of the truck route onto State (to then head all the way to 3rd to turn south there).  At council meetings and via emails for months before those four signs appeared, I made a big stink about the issue of errant trucks and tractor trailers on State Street, reminding the city what they were ignoring and not doing properly or at all.  

How Are Things Over At The Pocketbook Business Complex? Great! If You Can Get There!

The two "temporary" (there's that word again!) A-frame signs that we've been so fortunate to have grace the northwest corner of 6th & Warren 24/7 for the past several months are associated with two businesses at the complex three blocks to the north. Yesterday's wind was not nice to those signs, even the still-standing metal one that weighs at least 40 pounds. Upright or not, the signs are a clear code violation.

Don't Worry, It Was Just A TEMPORARY Week Without The Parking Bureau! (Is The City Clerk's Office Next? How About The Police Department?)

 

According to the automated email response I got ten days ago from the Hudson Parking Bureau (with no personal name associated with it), today should be the day that the "temporary" closure of the Hudson Police Department's new Parking Bureau ends. (They're working out the kinks!) The apparently not-so-important bureau was closed all 5 days last week, plus the previous Friday, with the vacation possibly beginning the day before, on Thursday the 17th.  (Someone was there on Wednesday the 16th.)  The sign that has been on the window of the bureau's office for the past 10 or 11 days does not give any indication as to why the offices was closed or when it might reopen.  Who the heck is in charge over there?  Our four police detectives?

Who Is More Incompetent, City Hall or Galvan? Or Is It A Tie?

It happened within 6 or 7 weeks of Galvan's contractor creating the new sidewalks surrounding their hotel project at 4th & Warren and letting us little people walk on them.  It happened within 25 days of HUDseen writing about the obscenely dangerous situation at the northern end of our new sidewalk on 4th Street.  And it happened within 3 days of an email from me to mayor Ferris asking why the end of that sidewalk was still such a dangerous obscenity available for anyone to fall off of after so many weeks.  "It" is the dumbest shit imaginable.  (If I were to print Ferris' email reply to me, you might think I had made it up.  Maybe another day if I have time.)

It's Official! We Have A Parking Captain! But "How The Heck Were We Supposed To Know?"

If, like me, you've been wondering who is supervising the city's ambitious new paid parking system since HPD flipped the switch early this year, there's no need to wonder anymore.  Just as I assumed all along, the person who we are all counting on to make the parking system a smashing long-term success is the second-in-command at HPD, Captain David Miller, the same fella I've been somewhat facetiously referring to lately as Parking Captain (or PC) Miller.  I'm afraid it's not a joke anymore. But, really, in the grand scheme, it is a joke. It's got to be!

The 7-Inch Sidewalk Cliff Not Tall Enough For The Public Works Board!

 

Tiff, Gary, and the gang at the PWB require a 9-inch cliff minimum before they act. 

Can't You See A Child Slamming Their Forehead or Eyeball Into This Thing?

Of course you can!  And then what?  The parents sue the City of Hudson and Galvan?  Sure, why not!

Sorry About Your $25 Overnight Parking Tickets. Too Bad About That Tree, Isn't It?! Be Glad The Price Hasn't Increased To $35 Yet!

 

Depending on what street your car commits the heinous crime of being in the way of the DPW street sweeper early in the morning, HPD will issue you and your car one of two overnight parking tickets.  On State, Warren, Allen, and many north-south streets where there are no posted overnight parking rules, HPD officers issue $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets.  (No signs = $15.)  However, on streets such as Prospect (see pictures), Washington, Union, and others with posted special overnight parking rules that typically don't apply every night of the week (referred to as, I believe, local street rules), HPD officers issue $25 NO PARKING ZONE tickets.  (Yes signs = $25.)  Even though your car is parked on the "wrong side," you will not be issued a $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket where local street rules apply.  You've committed the same crime of parking on the wrong side of the street, but a different ticket with a higher fee applies.  And to add the confusion, if HPD finds that someone has parked their car during the day or night alongside a yellow curb and/or in front of a NO PARKING ANY TIME sign, they issue the same $25 NO PARKING ZONE ticket.  Different crime, but same ticket and same fee.  This makes all the sense in the world, doesn't it? 

Who Will Save Us? Or Is It Too Late (After 4 PM)?

At 10 am this morning, no one was available at the so-called Parking Bureau, and the same unhelpful "we are temporarily closed" sign that was on the window last Friday was still there. (Shouldn't the sign be on the front doors of the building or at the entrance to the parking lot, or, better yet, at the corner of 7th & Union posted on a stop sign or two?!!!!)  There is still no indication on the sign when or if a human being will return to occupy the office behind the window "M-F 9AM-5PM."  The closure is temporarily ambiguously indefinite.  It's just temporary, mind you!  

Can you imagine?

Sure you can!

What's The Opposite Of A Sinkhole? A Volcano?

I first noticed the strange wet problem on Spring Street on July 31st, nearly two months ago, if only because someone had marked it with spray paint.  That paint is long gone, but the problem has been ignored (likely by DPW) and it has only worsened.  A lot.  The asphalt in front of 6 Spring looks ready to erupt at any moment.  The well-cracked large hump, which slowly releases water constantly, is now two or three inches high at its apex.  (Pictures can't convey the severity of the hump very well.)

Sure, Doubling The Ticket Fee To $20 Sounds Appropriate! We Need The Extra Money To Fix The Kiosks!

During Thursday's Legal Committee meeting, chair Margaret Morris, with the help of council attorney Ken Dow, made it clear that she really wanted to get in order and on paper her proposal to raise the price of every parking ticket so that the council can vote on the proposal tonight and get the new ticket fees codified. There's a whole lot to say about the proposed increased initial fees and late fees (the latter is beyond absurd!), but I will just stick with one aspect of the fee overhaul and juxtapose it with reality on the ground.

Pictorial Evidence Of mayor Ferris' "Safer" Intersection, Still The City's Most Dangerous Place To Walk!

The car above had just turned off of Park Place. Yes, it was stopped, though the two elderly pedestrians, while standing in the crosswalk, essentially got permission from the driver to resume their crossing of the street.  Pedestrians attempting to communicate via eye contact with people behind the wheel and glass of a multi-ton vehicle, particularly those that are moving, is usually a challenge, never fun, not always successful, and often doesn't end well.  Vehicles tend to have the upper hand in this ugly relationship that is regularly forced on pedestrians.  My motto is, "You can't reason with a vehicle; you can only curse it.  Don't assume it's going to stop."

Welcome To The New & Improved Parking Bureau At HPD! Go The Hell Away! We Don't Want To Help You Pay For Your Parking Ticket!! Now Scram!

On Wednesday at 9:10 am, inside the HPD station at 701 Union, I came across three people (two seated, one standing) waiting for someone behind the Parking Bureau window to lift the blind so that they could pay their parking tickets.  None of them looked thrilled to be waiting and wondering.  One woman was filling out an envelope to be put in the slot, having given up on the idea of handing her money to a human being.  She didn't have a hard surface or clipboard to write on. 45 minutes later, the blind was up and the clerk was ready to accept money, questions, and complaints.

Welcome To JUNKville, NY! Visit Our Beautiful Riverfront Public Park And Leave Your JUNK There! We Love THE JUNK Like No Other City! Please Return Often!