“To take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.”
The Economist, founding prospectus, 1843.
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Latest Editorial, Guest Op-Ed, The Shallot: Layers of Truth (satire), and commentariat watch
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Read our full upcoming Editorial here when it drops…
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Mayor Johnson: Honor your commitment to Hudson by meeting with the incoming Mayor: share your knowledge, flag what's in progress, and help ensure a smooth transition. Real leadership means caring beyond your own term. So asks Carla Sadoff in an Open Letter to Mayor Kamal. Read the full letter here.
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Guides, Profiles, and Masthead
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[Next] Election ‘27: Voter Guide
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About: Manifesto, Contact Submissions, Index of Content, Subscribe
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Subscribe: Email Newsletter for (Hudson) Common Sense Briefing
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Hudson Common Sense’s Satirical Dispatch from the Frontlines of Local Absurdity
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Recent Editorials, Guest Op-Eds, The Shallot (satire), and commentariat watch
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This FOIL File, Part 2 in our series, dissects the city’s vehicle inventory and payroll data to reveal how a micro-city with fewer than 100 full-time employees amassed a fleet fit for a Wyoming county. We ask the uncomfortable, nay uncommon, question: if Hudson’s mayor is committed to green (both environmental and fiscal) sustainability why is City Hall running on gasoline and paying more than six figures in car insurance per year? Read our full story here.
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How could Hudson City Hall meetings benefit from reserving public comment for City residents who live with the consequences? Idea #6 of our 15 Days of Ideas delves deeper into the issue, and argues that Hudson needs to put its residents first in City Hall Meetings.
***Read our full story here, and read all our daily ideas here.***
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Bard College arrived at Hudson’s Business Roundtable expecting routine questions about the Galvan properties. Instead, it walked into a civic theatre where residents demanded free buildings, free housing, and a gentle redistribution of vibes. The CFO’s mispronunciation of Olde Hudson was treated as a diplomatic scandal on par with mishandling a French minister’s wine glass.
Read our full satirical dispatch on how fiduciary duty collided with Hudson fantasy politics here.
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Hudson runs too many meetings, often at irregular hours, announced through inconsistent channels. Idea #3 of our 15 Days of Ideas delves deeper into the issue, and argues that Hudson needs one simple rule: public meetings at 7pm, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, for a maximum of one hour, ideally less. No exceptions. No moving parts.
***Read our full story here, and read all our daily ideas here.***
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Fifteen Ideas to Improve Hudson City Hall begins with the small things. Not grand redevelopment schemes or budget rewrites, but practical steps that any competent official could execute without committees, consultants, or new spending. Some proposals are creative, others are simple housekeeping, all are meant to make City Hall more efficient, apolitical, and enable it to treat all residents as equal.
06: Hudson City Hall meetings should reserve public comment for City residents who live with the consequences 05: One Day, One Desk, Hudson’s One-Stop Shop for Resident Service 04: A Weekly Hudson Email and Blog Covering Every Taxpayer-Funded Meeting and Move 03: A Single, Stable, Public Civic Calendar 02: One Universal Meeting Link for All City Business 01: Simultaneous Common Council Voting
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A rural county that feels more like Yellowstone is run as if it were House of Cards. Has the time come to end meritless incumbency? For a county with two hundred million dollars at stake, standing at a crucial fork in the road, the choice is simple: a leadership culture in the spirit of Yellowstone, direct and accountable and willing to say to your face what it stands for, or House of Cards, where everything happens offstage.
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In the week between losing and conceding, Johnson used Trumpian tactics locally: Facebook posts that distorted the (budget meeting) truth, calls to “arrest” a local blogger, and inciting physical threats against the incoming Council President, and nativist dog whistles aimed at independent immigrants. The Youth Center and its allies, in echoes of the Zachos Dog Poop-Gate became the loudest opponents of modest cuts, exposing it as a de facto jobs program, while insiders and the local paper closed ranks, leaving Hudson with division, deficits, and a clearer view of what not to repeat.
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https://digital.vestaboard.com/0d538bc8V0ac1V42f9V8a21V3e6aea4745f7
~ 1843 - The Economist Magazine