Until a few days ago, I'd been wondering where the city's new $10,000 parking kiosks for the City Hall Municipal Parking Lot in the 500 block of Columbia Street were going to be located. Would they go on the island currently full of parking meters that bisects the city's largest downtown parking lot with about 100 spaces for the public? Or would they be situated near the entrance/exit along Prison Alley where just about everyone parking in the lot eventually walks through twice to get to and from Warren Street, using the walkway to Warren that is full of tripping hazards? (After all, the lot is there for visitors arriving by vehicle to Hudson's downtown. They tend to walk toward Warren after parking, not away from it.) Since there doesn't seem to be enough space at the alley entrance for even one kiosk that won't get run over within a day or two (putting kiosk users at risk as well), I was sure that the only viable place in the lot for two or three $10,000 high-tech parking kiosks was on the island. With meters removed (can I watch, please!), there would be room for a kiosk at either end of the island, with maybe one near the middle. Or just two near the middle. On the island, the kiosks would be conspicuous, centrally located (convenient for all) and generally out of harm's way. And it's where most drivers would expect to find them. Just sayin'.
But no, it looks as though the long island in the middle of the city's largest parking lot is not the chosen site for any of the 16 $10,000 parking kiosks that have been in storage since early February and that the city is resting its hopes on to increase parking revenue (by quite a bit!), "modernize" parking matters and make things EASIER for everyone parking in downtown Hudson. (As Tom Depietro loves to remind everyone, the kiosks will finally rid the city of the TYRANNY OF THE QUARTRER!) Rather, as the recently spray-painted boxes and letters on the sidewalk of Columbia Street indicate, the lot's two kiosks will be located in an area (outside of the lot!) that I had dismissed when it had crossed my mind, a location that seems to defy logic and common sense, and that most people might agree with me when I say, THIS IS JUST DUMB!
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Presumably, K1 stands for KIOSK ONE (of two). Will DPW fill the cracks in the sidewalk first? |
I wonder if locating the kiosks on the sidewalk at the entrance along Columbia Street was Tom's idea. Tom's and Jen Belton's? Do they both feel that it would be safe for people to be walking in and out of and near an entrance and exit to a busy parking lot WHERE VEHICLES ARE REGULARLY ENTERING AND EXITING THE LOT? Was Dominic Merante involved with the decision? Did he also not see that this could be a problem, unsafe, a hassle for most, and not make things easier or more helpful than the tyrannical parking meters that are currently located at each parking space? How about Dewan Sarowar? Did he vote AYE when this idea was proposed (he is really good at the AYE's!)? Did the parking consultant WE ARE STILL PAYING have something to do with the decision on the kiosks' location in the city's largest parking lot? Did he really suggest locating the parking kiosks on the sidewalk adjacent to the side of the lot where no one generally walks after parking and where they would be an inconvenience to just about everyone parking in the lot, even difficult to find and in a potentially dangerous area full of moving multi-ton vehicles with drivers trying to get in and out of the lot?
How about Mayor Kamal Johnson? What, if anything, did he have to say on the matter of the location of the $10,000 kiosks in the lot behind his office at 520 Warren where he parks his car? The lot is called the CITY HALL MUNICIPAL PARKING LOT, after all, and he is the guy in charge of City Hall.
Isn't he?
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