Despite the attention paid to making the city walkable, Hudson residents remain wedded to their cars, and the city--residents, elected officials, regulatory boards--remains obsessed with parking. Fifty or more years ago, the desire to create parking lots justified the demolition of buildings. The sites of many significant buildings in Hudson are now parking lots. Fortunately, that doesn't happen as much anymore, but a recent development on Green Street may be a harbinger of things to come. The lawn in front of 72-74 Green Street was paved over--with asphalt--to create offstreet parking for the building, which was recently rehabbed as apartments.
The pictures below--Google captures--show how the building and its front yard used to look.
The creation of this parking lot raises concerns about the fate of the wrought iron fence that used to surround the yard. Some of it remains, but most of it is missing. Back in 2012, Gossips revealed that this fence had been salvaged from the entrance to Promenade Hill back when Urban Renewal reconfigured the west side of Front Street.
 |
Sadly, there is nothing in the city's zoning code to prevent this from happening. One wonders how long it will be before the folks on Washington Street decide that paving their front lawns will be the solution to their parking problems. The picture below, which accompanied an article in the Register-Star, shows that residents, whose street parking spaces are being taken up by patrons of Pocketbook Hudson, have already started parking their cars on their front lawns.
 |
| Photo: Spenser Walsh | Register-Star |
"Don't it always seem to go
ReplyDeleteThat you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot " ......Joni Mitchell
That car on a Washington lawn has been there since well before HPB opened. It seems to be a permanent fixture, and unsurprisingly it is not a code violation.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it will be that simple for most people. The house on Green Street already has a curb cut for the driveway which gives them access to the paved area. I guess they could pave their lawn and drive over the curb, but I believe they need permission to cut the curb.
ReplyDeleteThe curb cut on Green Street is actually new. You are correct that new curb cuts must be approved by DPW, but the code provides little basis for denying approval.
DeleteThanks Carole. One would think if it is eliminating a parking spot, that alone could be a basis for denying approval. But oh well.
DeleteThe lack of proper code enforcement and a code and charter badly in need of an overhaul/rewrite are both slowly destroying Hudson, though the pace seems to be picking up lately.
ReplyDeleteA more extreme example of the issue on Green Street are the food trucks Galvan has allowed to remain permanently parked in front of the Depot Brewery they spent so much time and money renovating to recreate its historic look. The food trucks block the view of the building! It's hideous! And Galvan certainly didn't tell the Planning Board that food trucks would be planted there (though it does seem as if Cascades is gone).
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that if the little front lawn lot on Green Street is full or near full, a car or two may have no choice but to back out of it. Genius! Hello truck route and city drag strip!
ReplyDeleteWho owns this building? Let's shame them. Looks like they cut down the trees too? Great. Let's shame them some more for being lazy and selfish....folks will do anything for convenience. I think there is some real education (and ordinances?) needed for Hudson with regards to landscaping best practices. I've seen multiple new owners cut down trees on their properties. We need more trees as it is almost unbearable for pedestrians to walk in the heat. Besides light bulbs, perhaps CAC could spearhead some real education like the city of Kingston does. And also perhaps instead of only having homeowners volunteer to plant trees on their hellstrips, make it MANDATORY, like NYC is doing. No ifs ands or buts. A tree canopy is ESSENTIAL to help alleviate the effects of climate change and the well-being of the citizens of the city. Why it should only be voluntary in 2026 is beyond my comprehension.
ReplyDelete