On Parking, Tired Signs, Our Distracted Mayor, and A Horrible Odor

 

The consultant that City Hall hired to look into downtown Hudson's present and anticipated parking situations gave a power point presentation last night to summarize his findings and offer some suggestions. The public meeting took place at the firehouse and on Zoom. Besides the consultant, Mayor Johnson, Michelle Tullo, Tom Depietro, and Michael Hoffman, I was the only other person in attendance at the firehouse.

The thorough presentation, which took over an hour, touched on a dizzying array of issues that those in City Hall should or do know about already.  Such as:  Too many players in the Parking Game -- consolidate and have all parking under one umbrella, one department; We don't have much opportunity to add off-street parking but we need to; Get rid of the old meters, go digital or cloud, the quarters are costing us; Hudson relies on 85% of our parking needs with on-street spaces, which is too high;  Increase the fees for parking violations, especially the paltry ten dollar meter violation fee;  And there was this he had to say about our signs:  "they can be confusing to visitors."  And, "they are TIRED."  We paid someone to tell us all this and a whole lot more?

If the city is paying for someone to have a look at our parking situation, the assumption is that those in power are serious about the issue.  They're gonna do something about it!  However, there is plenty out there to belie this assumption. Just take a look at all the missing parking space lines along Columbia Street, lines for metered parking spaces that should have been repainted at least 3 years ago by DPW, and you realize that no, the city is not serious or able to get a handle on the parking situation.  

 

It will be a huge task to handle even half of the consultant's suggestions, but who's going to get it done?  DPW?  They haven't found a half day, 5 hours maybe, in the past 3 years to restripe the parking space lines on Columbia Street?  Or find the time to replace these insulting, beyond "tired" signs on S. 7th Street?  Do you think Rob Perry cares about a worsening and concerning parking situation downtown?   (I did not see Rob Perry or Ed Moore at the meeting, not in person nor on Zoom)

Is it possible that the Mayor's Office will get it done?  From the amount of time our dear mayor spent tapping his thumbs on his phone last night while the presenter was standing and speaking 10 feet in front of him, I'd say that Kamal Johnson really doesn't care about his own city's parking situation or much of anything else.  For at least 15 minutes during the middle of the presentation, I watched as our mayor could barely tear himself away from his phone.  Such a stellar example for us all!  So respectful to his guest!  Is there a better way to say "I don't care what you have to say" than by staring at your phone while someone is speaking to you, trying to inform and help you?  We pay Kamal to be so rude and inattentive?  Why did he even show up?

I could have taken dozens of photos of the distracted mayor, but this is all I got.  None of the other 3 attendees were busy on their phones EVER during the presentation.  One wonders if the meeting/presentation were held in the Chambers at City Hall with a packed crowd and he were on video, if the mayor still would have spent more time texting on his phone than actually paying attention to what his consultant had to say.  Perhaps, though, the mayor realized what I realized soon into the presentation:  This guy is not telling us anything new.  Not that that is any kind of excuse to be so rude and immature!

Note to all of you with chemical and odor sensitivities (as I have):  The Firehouse, where all meetings are now being held and where City Hall is temporarily moving to, has some sort of air freshener odor that may turn your stomach, or worse.  The unnecessary fruity, artificial scent did not give me a headache, but it was very close to doing so, and I nearly turned around when I first got a whiff of it the moment I stepped into the building.  I likely won't return to the Firehouse if I can help it.  The mayor will probably be fine with that.