Can I Have A Ticket-Free Metered Parking Space Without a Permit, Too?

For at least the past 3 days, the same as last year and the year before for weeks at a time, this trailer has been parked unmoved in a metered space in the Union Street Municipal Parking lot.  

The meter never has time on it and the HPD Parking Enforcers never ticket the trailer.  (Where would they even place the tickets?)  HPD never tows the trailer, which appears to be owned by the person living next door to the lot.  And so, the trailer is allowed to occupy a metered space for free in a city parking lot for as long as the owner pleases.  

The city's parking consultant recently offered us a myriad of issues which we need to address regarding all facets of parking in downtown Hudson, including our lots.  As far as I could tell, neither Police Chief Ed Moore nor HPD Commissioner Shane Bowers attended the parking consultant's meeting last week - not in person nor by Zoom.  Mayor Kamal Johnson was in attendance, but he appeared to be distracted by his phone for most of the consultant's review of his extensive report.

The main recommendation that the parking consultant, Jon Forster, made to City Hall was to consolidate all parking related functions under one department.  There are presently too many cooks in the kitchen dealing with parking.  He offered this quote:  When it's everyone's responsibility...it's no one's responsibility!  The picture of the trailer parked for free in a metered space in a city parking lot proves Jon's point.  It's not just that the lack of responsibility or oversight allows a trailer to park in a lot and be ignored by HPD, but the city is missing out on revenue.  The trailer's owner needs to feed the meter or HPD needs to  somehow issue the damn thing a ticket or two, or just tow it.  It's quite simple.  But Hudson City Hall, with its layers of complexity in regards to parking, makes things more difficult and, in the process, DECREASES CITY REVENUES.