As Time Goes By
Given the attention being paid these days to the woeful state of the sidewalks in Hudson, this picture, found in the collection at PhotobyGibson.com, caught my attention. It was taken in 1960, and it shows the sidewalk on the west side of Front Street heading north from the train station.
What struck me about the picture was that sixty-four years ago, before urban renewal and the closing of the last cement plant, back in what some may remember as the good old days of Hudson, this stretch of sidewalk was in far worse shape than it is today.
COPYRIGHT 2024 CAROLE OSTERINK
The good old days never were.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't surprise me. 50's and 60's were peak decades for car worship. All the focus was on building fugly highways. People in the 60's most likely regarded their legs as pedal pushers, and nothing more. Feeling a slow reversal now, but far too slow.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Hudson in the late 50's, 60 and 70's everyone took care of their own sidewalk. My father, uncle, neighbors etc. were always making repairs on their own...a bag of concrete, trowel and a wheelbarrow always on standby. Come winter......back when it actually snowed all the time everyone shoveled their sidewalk to the curb. Not sure when that mindset changed.
ReplyDeleteThat chain link fence is a beauty. How in the world did we ever become so dismissive of quality of life?
ReplyDeleteThe fence and the overgrown vegetation (it was much worse until a week or so ago when tree removal was done for the new bridge) and the sidewalk are all Amtrak's responsibility. They take forever to clean that sidewalk up, where litter is the norm.
DeleteYou should have focused not on the west side of the street, but on the east side of the street. That is the single most dangerous stretch of sidewalk in the entire city. In fact, it is so bad that I always walk on the roadway in the gutter at that location. If the city is serious about increasing tourism, the DPW should repair the sidewalk even if it is technically the responsibility of the owner. Many tourists who arrive by train use this stretch of sidewalk, and it is a pathetic, hazardous introduction to our city. The city should just spend a couple of thousand dollars to fix it ASAP and send the bill to the appropriate landowner.
ReplyDeleteThere is a law on the books, but it isn't enforced:
Delete§ 266-4
Care of sidewalk by owner or occupant.
A.
The owner or occupant of any premises adjoining any street where a sidewalk has been laid shall keep the sidewalk on such street in good repair...
B.
The owner and the occupant shall be jointly and severally responsible for compliance with the provisions hereof.
Yes, that sidewalk on the east side is atrocious and insulting. But the only money that the city should spend on it is for Craig Haigh to pay the site a visit, determine that the sidewalk is a hazardous code violation and begin issuing code violation notices to the property owner immediately. This is how things are done in the real world.
DeleteBut our CEO does not actively look for the dangerous sidewalk code violations that are so prevalent in Hudson. Instead, one has to file a complaint with CEO for them to look into it. Whether or not Craig actually pursues the complaint is another issue and the crux of the problem we have had for far too long.
Our CEO is primarily concerned with building permits and building code violations, not general code violations seen and stepped on every day that can put someone in the hospital or morgue in the blink of an eye.
The CEO is woefully underfunded and understaffed, so we can't blame Craig Haigh for prioritizing his department's duties and the city's everday code violations, can we? If not, then who is to blame if there is no one steering the ship at City Hall?
A good portion of the operations at City Hall are flawed by design, as if failure is the preferred outcome.
Since a significant percentage of people who arrive by train in Hudson use the sidewalk on the east side of the street, Craig Haigh should dispatch a DPW crew to temporarily repair that stretch of sidewalk with asphalt. It would benefit tourists and residents alike, and it's better than nothing.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, patch the sidewalk this week, issue a citation immediately, and then enforce the citation. This one stretch of sidewalk is a test case to get the ball rolling. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Let our journey to repair all of Hudson's sidewalks begin here on Front Street.
ReplyDeleteThen head over to 5th & Columbia with violation notices in hand. Examine Galvan's obscene missing section of sidewalk along the south side of their building at the northwest corner. Issue violation notice immediately. Repeat weekly until missing sidewalk is properly filled with concrete and the sidewalk is no longer dangerous, as all property owners are expected to do, including the city's largest property owner. Then move on to 518 Columbia, just a half block away. Examine the dangerous pathetic neglected sidewalk in front of a city-owned vacant lot. Ask the mayor for help as to how to proceed and who to send the violation notices to.
Delete