The Meanies At City Hall, At It Again!

The most lucrative nights for the City of Hudson are always on a night like last night when the 31st day of a month ends and another odd day begins (the 1st of the month), when the alternate side rule isn't at all alternate during two consecutive nights.  Residents who mistakenly flipped their car to the even side last night, trying their instinctual best to avoid getting a $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket, were likely issued a ticket by HPD.  The two consecutive odd numbered days that occur 6 times a year fool a lot of people (there are 7, but no tickets are issued on New Years Day), and City Hall reaps the benefits that I refer to as ill-gotten gains.  This shouldn't be happening at all, not if City Hall actually cared about us.

This morning at 8:30, I counted 6 ticketed cars parked on the even side of the 500 block of State Street.  Undoubtedly, a few more ticketed cars had already moved on by then.  On a typical night, HPD is lucky if they ticket two wrong side parked cars on that long block, and often there are no cars for HPD to ticket.  Extrapolate this to the entire city on streets where the alternate side rule in effect and  you can hear the ka-ching of the cash register.

Several years ago, a HPD officer told me that he felt bad about writing so many tickets in the early morning hours after the 31st day of a month.  He likely felt that residents (and there is no shortage of them!) probably didn't deserve a $15 ticket, and that penalizing them for making an honest mistake or being confused by the calendar was not helpful or friendly.  Still, HPD can count on it 6 times a year.  It's one thing to forget, or refuse, to flip your car to the correct side of the street, but entirely another thing to actually flip your car when you should have left it on the same side as the previous night.  It's called being confused, or getting tripped up by the calendar, not ignoring or forgetting about the rule.  Sorry, HPD sees no distinction.  The spirit of the ticket is mean, but it's a bonanza for the city at $15 a pop.  (If HPD issued 100 tickets last night, that's a whopping $1,500 in ill-gotten gains.)

If City Hall (including HPD) wants to come across as acting in the best interest of Hudson residents, it would stop issuing WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets on the night following the 31st of a month.  Times are tough, and $15 ain't chump change!  Show us you care and that you know, like that cop I spoke to, that we have done nothing wrong, that we thought we were doing the right thing by following the rule, and that a $15 ticket for an understandable and common mistake does not serve as a reminder about the overnight parking rule.  In other words, give us a friggin' break, we made an honest mistake that happens to all sorts of car owners 6 times a year that you are well aware of, accustomed to, and seem to be taking advantage of.  Honestly, it feels like some sort of a scam.

Using a wider lense, the practice is equally unwelcome and uncalled for, particularly in the winter.  The primary purpose of the alternate side parking rule is to keep parked cars out of the way of the DPW street sweeper.  But even though the sweeper was not out last night (cold temperatures prevent its use), HPD went ahead and issued probably well over one hundred tickets to parked cars that were causing no hardship for Robert Perry and DPW or anyone else at City Hall. HPD ticketed parked cars whose owners thought they had -- as they do every night -- done the right thing to abide by the rule and help the city do what it supposedly has to do on our streets.  

Gee, thanks DPW, HPD and Mayor Johnson, you really care about us, don't you?  Or do you really just care about grabbing as much money in the dark of night as you possibly can?  Please tell us what all of those parked cars you ticketed last night were doing wrong and why they deserved to be ticketed.  While you're at it, can you tell us where all the revenue from those tickets you issued last night will wind up?  Will it fund the HPD's pizza, soda and coffee fund?  Lastly, shouldn't the revenue from all parking tickets be used to create an improved, centralized Parking Department just like the parking consultant you paid over $30,000 last year told you in no uncertain terms has to be done if Hudson is to thrive?  When is that new Parking Department going to be formed and how will it be funded?  Do you need more time to issue more overnight alternate side parking tickets to make a proper and self-sustaining Parking Department a reality?