Among the communications to be received at Tuesday's Common Council meeting is a letter from Zachary Bayman, CEO of The Maker Hotel and Gymnasium. It will be remembered that a window at The Maker Cafe was shattered during the shooting that occurred in the wee hours of December 10.
We have been troubled by gangs of young people gathering, drinking and doing drugs near our business. We frequently witness drug deals occurring on Warren Street and in the alleys around our business. Carm, who funded a loved restaurant, was savagely beaten up in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon by high school age kids who filmed the entire incident and who barely received a slap on the wrist.
I am concerned for the safety of The Maker's staff, the residents of Hudson, and our visiting guests. I am concerned for the local business community which relies on hospitality, travel and retail, which will go out of business if Hudson is not deemed a safe city. I am concerned for the employees of Hudson's businesses who will be unemployed if Warren Street becomes lined with shuttered restaurants. I demand immediate and ongoing action to curb these issues.
The letter goes on to make some specific demands:
- Immediate reinstatement of monthly Police Committee meetings
- Allocation of funds to purchase and install surveillance cameras
- Allocation of funds for regular nighttime police patrols on Warren Street
- Installation of lighting in the alleys
Please, no surveillance-crazed city of 6,000
ReplyDeleteThere is something really disturbing about Mr. Bayman's letter of demands, full of hyperbole and useless and unrealistic suggestions. "Bullets regularly flying on Warren Street;" Flood the alleys with lights to stop crime; have an officer walking up and down Warren Street all night and into the morning. It's kind of laughable, and he sounds like a bully. Will Mr. Bayman attend monthly HPD meetings if they happen, as he demands/suggests? Does he know that Ed Moore already gives a monthly HPD report at informal meetings?
ReplyDeleteMr. Bayman's concern that Hudson could be deemed an unsafe city if his demands aren't satisfied is absurd. News to the Maker owner: Shootings and plenty of other unsafe nonsense in Hudson haven't been uncommon for years. Where was your outrage a few years ago when SWAT teams with rifles were seen after a shooting? Or are you only concerned now that the "bullets regularly flying on Warren Street" landed a little too close for comfort? B Huston
Bully? Too close for comfort? Your comment is moronic.
DeletePlease tell me how often "bullets are flying on Warren Street." And how "regular patrols of Warren Street" will help solve a city-wide problem. Then we might be able to have a sane discussion about what to do about the gun and other violence that is found in much of Hudson, on and (mostly) off of Warren Street.
DeleteI wonder how you or anyone would feel if the bullets entered your home or property. Your comment made it seem to me that gun violence is blase at best. We have to all recognize that something has to be done to stop gun violence. I believe by taking a passive approach we end up with a greater problem. Yes, there has been gun violence in Hudson before. What does that statement mean to you? To me, it means, it's time to stop it.
ReplyDeleteIf Mr. Maker had attended any recent meetings at City Hall (the same meetings he claims are insufficient for HPD to properly fight crime), he would have known that at last month's CC meeting, prior to this month's shootings, Ed Moore requested funds for more surveillance cameras, mobile cameras I believe, to fight crime. Mr. Maker is demanding all sorts of things, not suggesting them or trying to work collaboratively or to offer assistance. He obviously knows how to spend money, utilize resources and fight crime better than HPD.
DeleteAnd if your demands aren't met, Mr. Maker? Will you pack up and move elsewhere where there is no violence at all? Albany, perhaps? Kingston?
Welcome to equity of incarceration. You voted for this. In New York City, teenagers arrested with handguns are released with an appearance ticket. The word is out. It will likely get worse.
ReplyDeleteThe next stage might be for business owners to hire private security patrols.
Mr Bayman represents the silent majority in Hudson.
ReplyDeleteHe is a world-class CEO, a warm and caring leader, and a deeply invested community member and local homeowner. His letter is clear and polite.
And he is right, this situation is unacceptable.
We should all be deeply concerned that a senior citizen was savagely attacked (and the entire attacked filmed and broadcast on social media) with no arrests to date.
Chief Moore, we respect you. Please update the community on your progress to track down and arrest these criminals. Your department may lose its hard-won credibility if you do not.
Kamal and Tom - the only reason you get elected and appointed, respectively, is because competent and talented people have better things to do than run for local office and play (political) house. If you had any integrity you would allocate the salary increases that you just gave yourself and your immediate staff to pay for security cameras or ask your landlord and friend, Mr. Galvan, to chip in after al the tax breaks you have given him on his buildings.
If you do not act on Mr. Bayman’s reasonable and evidence based demands, you may find more than the usual 50 people turn out at the next election, and they won’t be there to vote for you.
Please:
1. Step up police patrols
2. Install police monitored cameras
3. Install good lighting in the alleys
We have a terrific and hard-working police force that is representative of our towns citizenry. They put their lives on the line for us. We owe them the resources and support that they need to do their jobs.
If there are no funds to keep the voters safe…. maybe look at the Youth Center’s budget. They have plenty of new vehicles, one of the largest buildings in town, and many well paid staff.
What alleys should get additional lighting? All of them, every block of them? Or just the portion of Prison alley behind the Maker that is so chock-full of crime and "flying bullets?"
DeleteSounds like Common Sense to me: Get rid of the Youth Center and its "well paid staff" so the alleys can be more well lit (there are lights in our alleys, by the way), and we can buy some cameras and hire more officers. Get rid of the one place downtown where Hudson youth can spend some time safely. Give them a reason/force them to hang out on the streets and in the alleys instead. Your approach to "common sense" solutions is nonsensical.
DeleteThank you, Zachary Bayman and thank you Common Sense. We are not resigned. Isn’t it healthy to respond to such an act of violence with concern and suggestions? I can understand “Demands”, with staff and clients’ safety at risk.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I thank Ed Moore. I’m grateful for his leadership in Hudson and just thought the other day, out of the blue, THANK GOD we have him! We are not resigned, but he isn’t either.
Common Sense and Ruralist perfectly represent the imperious bloviating of a vulgar minority, anonymous blowhards toying with subtle tones of intimidation and idle menacing – an irony beyond satire – who can take their fabulist narratives, gilded w/entitlement, and touch grass. We don't need a gridded prison. We don't want a gridded prison. Begging for a panopticon is beyond comedy in 2022. And it goes without saying, it will never deliver what is sought.
ReplyDeleteNote the one thing this ignorant little screed doesn't demand, which is certainly the shortest path to resolution, that the Makers next door neighbor – Lawrence Park – take some responsibility for the attendant risks of the scene they are cultivating, and profiting off of.
p.s. Council president isn't an appointed position
David - were any of the following crimes committed by Lawrence Park regulars?
DeleteA small sample of 2022 events:
1. Home break in and gang assault of a female:
https://dailyvoice.com/new-york/columbia-greene/news/nearly-two-dozen-teens-break-into-hudson-home-assault-16-year-old-police-say/850611/
2. Robbery with weapon:
https://www.news10.com/news/columbia-county/hpd-at-large-hudson-robbery-suspect-turns-himself-in/
3. Young man shot:
https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/19-year-old-shot-at-hudson-terrace-apartments-in-hudson
4. First degree sexual abuse:
https://www.news10.com/news/columbia-county/after-treatment-hudson-man-accused-of-sexual-abuse/
2021. Illegal guns and drugs:
https://www.news10.com/news/columbia-county/police-arrest-4-teens-over-illegal-gun-collection-in-hudson/
David, your tone and choice of words show that you have not internalised the lessons from your 2013 viral incident.
https://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/2013/02/defending-right-to-carry-guns.html
Why don't you support Mr. Baymen's solutions, or propose another course of action?
Critiquing is easy. Building is hard.
Unfortunately, substantiating policy demands with a crime blotter is the tabloid depth I expected from you, Common. But go on with that pedantic tone, and haughty deployment of my name. Its only ever clearer that your shambolic understanding of Hudson crime, Hudson youth, and the leading policy thinking on the either of them is, to use your word, incompetent. That you think your trying comment above is ‘building’, well, I think we’re done here.
DeleteMy "building" comment refers to the specific steps that Mr Bayman outlined, and that the City and Police Chief can action right away.
DeleteDavid, you are educated and experienced, why do you resort to name-calling and insults?
You can do so much more for Hudson and for yourself.
Yes, as a community we are lucky to have Chief Moore who is a stable, calm voice of reasoned leadership. The men and women of the HPD are also hard working and likely prefer to do a good rather than a poor job. And while I often deride the mayor and the Council for doing their respective jobs poorly (or at all), in this case I don't think it's really a local problem nor is there likely a local solution to be found in our City government.
ReplyDeleteA few very loud voices in the Democratic Party have pushed for a long time to relax the NYS penal law as it applies to pre-trial detention (bail). Combine that now established policy with the fact that minors are generally unreachable by the adult penal law, and you have a perfect condition for poor behavior. Add to that the obvious lack of parental supervision and the ready availability of hand guns. And here we are.
You want safer streets? The only thing, the ONLY THING, the community can do is shame the parents who permit their children to behave like this. As for the adults who are also engaging in this behavior, the only thing, the ONLY THING, the community can do is express its displeasure with the fact that NYS is ok with violent people awaiting trial being able to continue to prey on the rest of us.
In the meantime rest assured, the person drinking or eating next to you in a Hudson boite is as likely to be armed as not. Feel safer yet? Have a nice day.
Police law enforcement is only as effective as the courts. Hudson City Court and the County Court, for whatever reasons (bail reform?), are allowing too much ugly behavior in town that goes unpunished or underpunished. I don't know who, if anyone, is to blame for this, but something is not right. I like to think HPD is doing all and the best they can, but it often doesn't feel that way.
DeleteI say bring back the pillory. It might be an actual crime deterrent, especially in the winter.
B Huston
"BB" asked: Does street lighting dramatically improve public safety?
ReplyDeleteSee this study: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/5/9/how-something-as-small-as-street-lights-can-reduce-crime
Answer: Yes it does.
On budgets:
If the City of Hudson can build a multi-million dollar sports complex for a few dozen kids (no longer enough to field a full team), and make unforced errors that lead to expensive six figure litigations with Verizon and Colarusso… then we can probably afford a few LED street lights in areas where repeated drug trades go down.
The City of Hudson didn't fund the sports field, lights, etc., the Hudson City School District did. Two separate legal entities with 2 overlapping tax bases.
DeleteThen I stand corrected on the point of funding for the sports fields. Thank you for the clarification John!
DeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong: All of the recent violence seems to be taking place in the same area of town, right? I haven't heard of a shooting at 7th St. Park. When was the last time someone was beat up near Wasabi? My point is the action steps Mr. Bayman brings up don't need to be rolled out City wide. More importantly, let's say cameras, lights etc. are installed and record who is shooting/beating up/mugging, etc. What then? Who is going to be held accountable and punished? Mr. Friedman supposes all the violence being carried out by kids, and I don't think he's wrong, but I'm not sure how far shaming will go. It certainly hasn't worked in the past, but I certainly agree that the parents should share the accountability for the behavior of their kids, There is an important term that we seem to leave out in this discussion: consequences.
ReplyDeleteLight is an impediment to a healthy night of sleep. Many homes have bedroom windows facing the alleys for that reason, so I don't know if alley lighting is such a great idea unless there are actual crimes being reported in alleys. If so I think alley lighting would be best if the lights were closer to the ground, rather than the high, blaring street lights we now have.
ReplyDeleteThe higher concentration of people you have living in any area the greater the incidence of crime. The perpetrators of these crimes also predominately come from low income households. That being the case, with crime on the rise, the current city governments apparent obsession with constructing more apartments and low income housing really makes no sense. What is the point, are there not enough people here? The city is packed with cars, how does importing more people, cars, traffic and congestion benefit anyone living here? Shouldn't local government represent the interests of the existing residents? How is this expansion in anyone's interest?