A Little Too Much Roving, Yet Again

Once again, someone driving onto the sidewalk at 3rd and State has wreaked damage for DPW to deal with and spend money on.  While the trash can was mostly spared, the sign pole was not, and it surely saved the can from total obliteration.  Let's hope no one on the sidewalk or crossing the street was hit.

Welcome To Hudson! (Time For A Break)

I began HUDseen on February 6th, almost a year ago, with the same heading as above (though without the parenthetical).  It seems that little changes around here, at least for the better.  The rusty and unreadable sign along Route 9G that I first posted about is still there a year later, the same few out of service fire hydrants are still covered in plastic bags as if to beautify the city, our sidewalks continue to worsen, the 8.5 feet wide trailer still takes up one-third of the width of the truck route while parked near TSL, and sidewalks covered in ice and snow by the same property owners over and over are never a surprise.  I could go on and on.  Maybe in a year, if we are lucky, the orange cone trapped on a pole underneath a recently installed parking meter will still be there in front of City Hall, and perhaps Hudseen will provide an updated picture then.  But for now, don't expect as many articles as I have been churning out for the past year.  It's time for me to step back and take a break.  

If something comes along that I feel the need to report on, I will likely do so.  It just won't be a daily effort anymore.   Stay tuned if you can, and thanks for reading even if you despise what I write.  (My favorite comment from an anonymous reader came recently in the form of a simple "SHUT UP!" -- twice, possibly from the same person.  I must have been doing something right, and my break is in no way a reaction to that comment!)

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!  And if you see something that might be appropriate to feature in HUDseen, by all means contact me at huston.bill@gmail.com!   Thanks, be well, and get outside as often and as far away from screens and concrete as you possibly can!!!

Huh?

 

This puzzling, bizarre and creepy sign was seen yesterday on a lamppost in front of the diner in downtown Valatie.  It appears to have been installed not by some random person, the diner nor a  fringe conspiracy group, but by local officials.

Is Used Cooking Oil Flammable, Combustible, Or Just Ugly?

Where and for how long is used oil allowed 
to be stored outside in the City of Hudson?

It was at least four months ago when I first noticed two nearly full containers of used cooking oil on the ground outside a side door to the Hudson Central Fire Station at the corner of Washington & North 7th.  Now there are eight of them, with only the eaves above offering protection.  Since meals are served to the elderly every weekday in the building, I'm thinking that some food is prepared in an oil fryer. Of course, the building is also the temporary location of City Hall offices.

Used cooking oil, also known as waste.

Is the person in charge of the meal preparation hoping that someone will come along and take the oil containers away sometime this year?  Or are they storing their used oil outside without any plan to dispose of it properly?  Would they be okay if some rascally children decided to dump all the oil in the street or on the sidewalk and see what happens to the next vehicle or pedestrian that passes?  Would the important people in City Hall (that building!) be okay if every eatery in town that produces used cooking oil just left their containers outside for months, 25 feet from a sidewalk for all to see and with no plan for proper disposal?  What would Kamal Johnson say, if anything?  Hell, maybe that's the oil he's been using to grease the wheels of his fine-tuned political machine!

Galvan Cares! City Hall Cares, Too!

On Thursday, I had the fortune of seeing and walking around these bags full of garbage on the sidewalk of the 300 block of Columbia Street, gifts from the tenants of a Galvan-owned property.  The 5 bags (and any that may be added) will remain through the weekend and beyond, likely until Tuesday when DPW is scheduled to remove trash on the north side of the city.  

And Another Two Months Later...

This unwelcome graffiti still on a downtown public trash can lid begs a question or two, doesn't it?  If every lid of every public trash can in the city had an F-bomb painted on it in clear letters, would DPW still do nothing?  One F-bomb is acceptable to DPW for 6 months or more.  Would fifty of them scattered all over town, including lining both sides of Warren Street, also be acceptable for several months?  You gotta wonder what DPW's policy is in regard to graffiti on public property, especially the vulgar stuff.   That is, of course, if they even have a policy or sensible approach to the most unwelcome types of graffiti. 

If someone were to write "I LOVE HITLER" in large bright letters on a trash lid, would DPW ignore that, too?  Does Robert Perry care what the city looks like?  Does he understand what a quality-of-life issue is?  Where is his office where he sits and works -- does anyone know?

Was It Aliens? Or Just Another Truck Straying Off The Truck Route?

Somewhere around 9:00 tonight, the wooden utility pole at the southwest corner of 7th & State was sheared apart about 6 feet above its base. When I arrived, there were no signs of any vehicles having caused the damage. There was no one there besides firemen and National Grid workers surveying the scene. No wires, electric or otherwise, were on the ground and electricity to neighbors was not disrupted.