Galvan Giveth, DPW Taketh Away. Not You Worry, Though, There Always Be Hudson Hub!

 

I'm thinking it was in October or November of last year, no more than 5 months ago, when Galvan had a contractor pour a concrete sidewalk -- where one did not previously exist -- in front of their new asphalt private parking lot at 6th & Washington for their tenants in the Depot Lofts at 7th & State. (Can you imagine moving to the "country" and wanting/needing to park your car so far from your apartment? And having to pay for it!). The enormous chunk of loose concrete from that sidewalk that you see in the pictures I took this morning at 7:00 appeared at least ten days ago, and I'm not kidding.  I don't know what else other than a DPW snowplow could have obliterated that sidewalk.   (Notice the lone car parked in the lot. There are a lot of dark windows facing 7th Street at night at the Depot Lofts. Lots!) 

How Could It Have Been Possible? (So Many Questions!)

 

If we are to believe Margaret Morris's recent explanation of the events leading to her "very minor [vehicle] accident" in a Warren Street parking lot on February 20th -- that her "car slid on the ice" while she was parking it -- how on earth did both of her car's front wheels make their way over a 6-inch ( I measured it) concrete curb  at the front of the parking space then continue rolling another foot or two before the front of the car hit the side of a building?

Somewheres Over The Rainbow?

Well into last Monday's one hour Parking Safety Committee meeting, apparent parking supervisor and actual Police Captain David Miller -- without any prompting -- gave a spiel about how far the city has come with parking since "HPD took over parking less than a year ago."  It came after a Warren Street resident stood up and voiced her concerns and complaints for a few minutes about the new parking system and after several minutes of mostly confusing responses from SAFETY Parking Committee head Henry Haddad, Miller and Police Chief Franklin (yes, there are three people speaking on parking matters these days).  Miller's speech was as laughable as it was incoherent.  Here it is; hold on to your wig: 

How Cheap, Low Class and Disrespected Can We Be Treated?

Upon closer inspection in the wonderfully warm sunlight this morning, I realized that I misspoke last night about HPD's and DPW's sign replacement effort yesterday.  While the broken-off single sided polyethylene aluminum "Dibond" crap sign on the east side of 6th Street at Columbia was replaced with a double sided crap sign of the same EASILY BREAKABLE material, the sign that went missing on the other side of 6th Street was not replaced with a double sided crap sign.  Rather, it appears that someone decided to reattach the same single sided sign that had been broken off the pole (or possibly a different broken sign, perhaps from the 700 block of Columbia Street) but with about two inches of the bottom of the sign missing.  Someone with a box cutter probably made a clean cut across the bottom of that polyethylene sign right above where it had been sheared off of the bracket on the pole a few days ago.  So classy!  So very classy!

And By 8pm...

 

... the two short term parking signs we spent $38 on that were made into garbage by a passerby yesterday or the day before at 6th & Columbia had been replaced with $58 in short term parking signs made of the same brittle material, whatever the hell it is.   Actually, Mathew Signs identifies our sign material as being made of "Dibond," the latest high-tech, unrecyclable crap we should all be excited about and which f'n AI refers to as a "brand name aluminum composite material (ACM) featuring two pre-painted thin aluminum sheets bonded to a solid polyethylene core.  Known for being lightweight, rigid and durable, it is popular for [among several things] signage, resisting warping and corrosion."   Rigid?  Durable? You don't say!  Is Hudson's future in Dibond?  AI also claims that polyethylene -- a fantastic form of toxic plastic -- "takes roughly 450 years to decompose," about as long as it will take Parking Captain David Miller and Parking Chief Mishanda Franklin -- with zero crime to concern themselves with -- to get our parking system straightened out and truly "running great" so that they can retire and finally relax.

SHORT TERM Signs, Indeed! With Plenty of Short Term Money and Short Term Thinking To Boot!

According to a few invoices I recently received from the Parking Bureau, our new one-sided scannable paid parking cost us $19 each.  These are the signs attached to random streetlight poles on all of Warren Street, some portions of side streets, in parking lots as well as on the tops of meterless parking meter poles on side streets, Columbia Street and a short portion of Union Street.  The signs are referred to as "Short Term Parking Signs," and they measure 12x18 inches.  

Do These Cars Appear To Be Abandoned To You? (What's Another $15 Ticket or 30?)

During last month's so-called SAFETY Committee meeting, I tried my best to find out why the Hudson Police Department tickets cars parked overnight on the so-called WRONG SIDE of the street when there is no DPW sweeper or plow activity happening.  After all, if a parked car isn't in the way of DPW activity in the early morning hours while HPD is issuing $15 WRONG SIDE parking tickets, how can there be a WRONG side of the street to be parked on?  No one is doing anything WRONG by leaving their car parked on a city street - whatever side it's parked on for the night -- if it's not in the way or causing trouble for DPW, correct?  No, not according to HPD brass.