Is Hudson City Hall dEAd? Or Just FAILing Us?

Here's a real head-scratcher for everyone, especially those concerned with what seems to be the norm these days:  decreasing revenues, including parking revenue, and rising taxes.  And a City Hall that doesn't seem to care about either of those issues. 

Last Saturday afternoon, I spent about 15 minutes in the City Hall Municipal Parking Lot doing what I love:  examining ancient parking meters.  It had been a while.  And let me tell you, the task is not an easy one, even with my decent eyesight.  The opaque plastic screens are so old, scratched and opaque, and condensation tends to build up on the inside even well after a rain, that it is often difficult or literally impossible to read a meter's digital display.  Trying to make out the display is often an exercise in either contortion, futility or patience.  And you have to watch where you step in that lot, especially along the raised island in the middle where half of the lot's meters are located.  But really, the entire lot is a veritable minefield of tripping hazards and other dangers with nothing to protect people walking to and from their cars from cars circling the lot, some quite speedily and often headed in the wrong direction.  Not that Rob Perry or Mishanda Franklin cares!  They aren't out issuing tickets in that lot, or even parking there.  Kamal Johnson does park in that lot, but we know he has other more pressing matters on his mind.

Of the 118 metered spaces in the lot*, I counted a total of 23 inoperable or missing meters -- an out-of-service rate just shy of 20 percent.  In other words, one out of every 5 meters was not working (while quarters could be inserted, no time would appear).  15 meters were in dEAd mode (all of them found among the 58 meters on the island), 6 were blank, and 2 were in FAIL mode.  I was actually able to read all the meters, though some with difficulty.

9 of the lot's (and island's!) 15 dEAd meters, in addition to one in FAIL mode, were among the 32 meters on the western half of the island.  Two poles there each held a pair of dEAd meters and another pole held had a dead meter and a FAIL mode meter!  10 is 31 percent of 32.  In other words, nearly one out of three of those 32 meters were not working.  Nearly one-third of those 32 spaces was offering free parking 5 days a week (parking is free in the lot on Saturdays and Sundays, though that appears to be about to change).  For how long prior to last Saturday had there been so much free parking in the lot, do you suppose?  For how long had the city been missing out on revenue in the form of quarters and meter violation tickets in the city's largest lot which happens to be directly behind City Hall?  With kiosks that only accept coin currency supposedly on the way to our parking lots, has HPD decided to stop repairing meters in the lots?  

32 meters, with 10 of them out of service,
possibly all of them just needing a new battery.

Yesterday morning, with only a few minutes to spare, I tried my best to read the displays of the 32 meters on the western half of the lot's island to see how much progress in the past week our Police Department had made there attending to the 10 out-of-service meters/free parking spaces.  Well, I counted 7 dEAd meters (including the same two pairs of dEAd meters from last week) and one blank meter.  Two meters were impossible to read, no matter at what angle I held my head.  8 (or 10, depending how you "look" at it) free parking spaces of 32 spaces -- that's a 25 percent (or 31 percent) out-of-service rate.  Both rates are something we should all be proud of.  And proud of our city officials of.  Keep it going!  Get that rate higher!  Decrease revenue!  Don't write any tickets!  Raise taxes while your at it!

I think it would have been hilarious if a common council member had raised their hand at the most recent informal council meeting following Captain Chief Commissioner David Miller's HPD report to ask the following question:  Why the hell are there so many out of service parking meters in the lot out back?  Who isn't repairing the meters and why?  Did the city run out of money to buy batteries for them?  Why are we offering so much free parking in metered parking spaces while the city's CFO and Treasurer reminds us every month that parking revenues are low?  When was the last time a parking enforcer issued a $10 meter violation ticket to a car in a space with a broken meter?  What the heck is going on at HPD?  Aren't you now in charge of all things parking?

But you'll never hear a council member ask any questions of any department head as pointed and important as these. And you'll never hear anyone from HPD admitting what they are failing to do with our parking meters and parking kiosks or how much money they're spending or wasting.  One of the last things that former Police Chief Ed Moore said to the council during his farewell address was TO GET PARKING MATTERS OUT OF HPD'S HANDS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.  HPD SHOULD ONLY BE ISSUING TRAFFIC TICKETS AND THAT'S ALL!  The parking consultant hired by the city a few years ago, prior to Ed Moore's departure, said essentially the same thing.

It's all so messy and unprofessional!

If someone were to ask me what I thought the main difference is between the dozens of parking meters in Catskill and the hundreds of meters here in Hudson, my answer would be simple:  The people in Catskill seem to give a shit and "get it," but our people in Hudson City Hall and at 701 Union Street do not.

A pair of meters in downtown Catskill.
Clean, respectable, ALWAYS easy to read, 
all of them at the SAME FUCKING HEIGHT, 
and no stickers with meter rules on them!

*There are 120 metered spaces in the City Hall lot, but 2 of the 8 spaces for charging electric cars are without meters.  So, really, the percentage of free parking in metered spaces in the lot is higher than 20 percent.  Whatever the number is, it's unacceptable.