What Confusion? What Fusion?

This Ford Fusion has been
parked unmoved on the
odd side of Prospect
Avenue for a few months

On January 10th, 44 days ago, I received an email from Hudson Police Chief Ed Moore in response to my inquiry about Overnight Alternate Side Parking Rules on Prospect Avenue.  I had noticed three vehicles parked on the odd side of Prospect that hadn't moved for weeks and hadn't been issued any $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets.  This was Ed Moore's response: "FROM WARREN TO ROSSMAN IS ALTERNATE SIDE PARKING."

I then asked Ed why his officers were not ticketing along that portion of Prospect.  He responded right away: "I WILL CLARIFY TO MY OFFICERS THAT ALT SIDE PARKING ON THIS SECTION OF PROSPECT CAN BE ENFORCED, AS I AM SURE THERE IS SOME CONFUSION."

9 days later, on January 19th, I sent Ed Moore and HPD Commissioner/mystery man, Shane Bower, an email with a picture of the Fusion on Prospect in the same spot, showing the debris built up behind its passenger side rear wheel along the curb, asking them why the car had not gotten any WRONG SIDE tickets since he told me 9 days prior that the section of Prospect Avenue the Fusion was parked in is supposed to be enforced by his officers.  I got no response.

45 days later, the "confusion" and the Fusion remain, and the Fusion has not received one $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket from HPD.  HPD has had close to 30 opportunities in the past 2 months to issue WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets to the Fusion and they have not done so once.

Yet early this morning, a few hundred feet away from the illegally parked Fusion without a $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket, a vehicle parked on THE ODD SIDE of the 800 block of Warren was issued a $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket.

The overnight rule,
regularly enforced on Warren

During Rob Perry's monthly DPW report at Informal Common Council meetings you will often hear and see in great detail all about the critical job his DPW street sweeper performs.  He includes pictures and stories of the debris along our curbs or in big piles dumped out of the sweeper at the dump on Court Street, showing how critical it is that the street sweeper gets to do its job and clean our streets and keep the junk out of our fragile and ancient sewers.  His take home is usually:  We all benefit when vehicles stay out of the way of the sweeper so it can do its job.  And, of course, the $15 WRONG SIDE tickets issued by HPD aid in that quest.

During his most recent report a few weeks ago, Perry showed pictures of debris on the pavement along parked cars somewhere on Columbia Street.  He emphasized the point that when a street like Columbia has no Overnight Alternate Side parking rules (which its upper reaches do not) how much junk and debris DOES NOT GET REMOVED.  Why?  Because vehicles are in the way of the sweeper because their owners don't have to move their cars every night to the other side of the street.  

Then you discover that HPD is not ticketing vehicles parked on at least one street THAT HAS THE OVERNIGHT RULES, and the Chief of Police can't or won't coherently explain why this is so.  Then you notice a car parked for 3 months on Prospect with debris building up behind its curb-side wheels and the only conclusion you can reach is that there is little continuity or coherence at City Hall in regard to the OVERNIGHT PARKING rules.  

HPD's $15 overnight tickets are meant to penalize car owners for getting in the way of the all-important street sweeping done by DPW, YET on at least one street there seems to be no interest by HPD to ticket vehicles that are in the way of the DPW street sweeper AND PARKED ILLEGALLY.  It is as if the people in charge at HPD, DPW, the Mayor's office, and the Parking Bureau do not bother speaking to one another and may not even be interested in speaking to one another to make sure they are all on the same friggin' page about overnight parking rules.

HPD issued my car a $15 OVERNIGHT WRONG SIDE ticket on State Street a few weeks ago, a street that is regularly ticketed overnight by HPD.  Why wasn't the Fusion parked on Prospect issued one, too?  Too much confusion?  No one speaking to one another?  I try my best to park on the correct side of the street every night.  Not just because I would rather not get a $15 ticket, but also because Rob Perry, Superintendent of the DPW, tells us over and over that it is in our city's best interest if all car owners allow the street sweeper to do its job ON EVERY STREET IN HUDSON WHERE THE OVERNIGHT RULE APPLIES. 

What on earth did Ed Moore mean when he wrote that his officers "can enforce" the overnight wrong side rule on Prospect?   "Can" they enforce the rule on State, Warren, Union and all the other streets in town that also have the rule?  Is enforcing the overnight rule optional; do HPD officers have discretion about what streets and vehicle to ticket overnight?  Why would the Chief of Police not say that his officers "shall enforce" the rule on Prospect?  

Is it because there is a car repair garage at the corner of Prospect and Warren that has limited parking capabilities and seems to be parking its customers cars on Prospect Avenue for days, weeks, even months at a time?  What else could be the reason?