Sunday, June 3, 2012

Menace Under the Bridge

There isn't a troll under the Ferry Street bridge, but there's something almost as menacing for people crossing the bridge on foot: poison ivy. This aggressive green peril is growing up through the stairs of the foot path, delivering days of itchy misery to all who, through ignorance or misadventure, come in contact with it. Walkers beware!


9 comments:

  1. Must we remind the DPW every year to take care of this problem under the bridge? How many unsuspecting people must brush against the ivy first?

    They should have written it down when we pressured them to do something about it last year. Whoever it is that keeps the DPW's calendar mustn't understand the meaning of PUBLIC SERVICE.

    Blaming CSX would be a lame excuse. The DPW's first responsibility should be to public safety. C'mon guys.

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  2. Someone who lives near there, or often walks there, could just buy a bottle or can of Ortho Poisen Ivy spray, sometimes labeled Brush Killer, and take care of the problem. If the stem is very large, an inch or so, cut it with clippers and poisen stump. You might have to do it a few times a summer and maybe again next year, but it does work.
    Consider it a community service.

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  3. If I walked there more regularly I would have noticed it before a lot of unsuspecting people brushed against the leaves, or even grabbed it as one toddler was doing when I arrived to take the picture.

    After taking the photo I found a plastic bag, wrapped it around my hand and forearm (wearing a short-sleeved shirt) and ripped as much of it away as I could. It was safe for walking after I was done, which I considered not as much a community service as a social obligation.

    But if you think I'm going to go out and BUY something - poison even! - when my taxes are supposed to be going to protecting public safety first, well ... (I think you get the idea).

    "Judy," by any chance do you work for the DPW?

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  4. This is 'our town' as much as it is the DPW's.

    They will get to it once every 10 years - just like they F I N A L L Y do when Promenade Hill becomes a forest blocking that spectacular river view.

    I also suggest if you see something that needs doing - do it!
    Don't wait cuz it won't happen.
    The Cemetery is the main focus of the DPW - the city of the dead - not the city of the living.

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  5. Making some attempt at undeserved fairness, the Poison Ivy beneath the stairs is so extensive and deep-rooted that at some point the DPW might consider it the responsibility of CSX (if I'm right about the property lines).

    Since I ripped away some of the vines people are safe, but this is an important enough safety issue that the whole nasty job should be attended to by someone other than citizens.

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  6. unheimlich, first, in reply to your silly, snide comment, neither I nor anyone I know works for DPW. No need to put "Judy" in quotes--that is my real name.
    Good for you for "ripping as much of it away as I could." But that won't kill it.
    Yes, taxes should pay for this, but since that doesn't seem to be working, a 32 oz bottle of Ortho Brush killer, at $7.99 will--with lots left over.
    However, since I've been fighting poison ivy on my property for 30+ years, I would love to know what your solution, other than a poison is. Please let me know ASAP.
    Yes Vincent, if you see somthing that needs doing--do it!

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  7. Sorry Judy, I've never heard of you.

    This is how I read your advice to me: if our taxes "don't seem to be working," then stop complaining and do something about it yourself - learn to be a citizen.

    Now if you haven't been to this blog before, then why not let strangers make their case concerning the often disappointing public services for which we're paying? If the City of Hudson is a new home for you, then watering down someone's fair criticism of a city department on a public safety issue is an odd way to introduce yourself.

    But if you've spent an even moderate amount of time at this blog then you'd recognize my ridiculous moniker, which means that you already know how much I do for this community and thought you'd innocently condescend on the subject of civic-mindedness.

    Here's how our world currently works: nearly powerless and tapped-out citizens witness city officials, city departments or other potential wrong-doers in the act (or non-act) of negligence, waste or law-breaking.

    Citizens take pictures and provide useful accounts of the almost-daily outrages; they familiarize themselves with the responsibilities and laws pertaining to the office or abuse in question; they document law breaking elsewhere in the community; they raise public awareness of these issues by blogging them.

    Aside from voting it's nearly all that we're able to do (though it must seem miraculous compared to the really bad old days here).

    So here's my advice to you.

    First, if our taxes "don't seem to be working," then please allow blogs and citizen-journalists to investigate our problems even if you find the Register Star a sufficient investigatory organ.

    Second, if an $8.00 can Ortho is such a small amount of money for you, then perhaps you should be buying it for others for whom $8.00 is not a small amount of money. You might "consider it a community service."

    But you probably should have inspected the problem for yourself beneath the Ferry Street staircase before you weighed in. You'd have seen that it is too great a job for citizens to have taken on.

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    Replies
    1. Sorry, Judy, for letting "unheimlich" have the last word, but I hope you will let this exchange stop here. I don't want the comments on Gossips to be reduced to bickering among commenters. There are certainly issues relating to a citizen's responsibility to his or her community that merit discussion, but this particular exchange about who should take responsibility for eradicating poison ivy has moved, bizarrely, into the ad hominem.

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  8. Or, into the ad feminam in this case.

    -- Jock Spivy

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