A Few Things To Be Excited About

With the Kamal Johnson on the way out, let's take a look at two projects begun under his (too long) tenure that are developing and changing the city in numerous ways, not all of them good.  These projects will be part of Johnson's legacy.  Of course, he won't be around to answer for them if they sour badly.

Last week, a total of close to 60 parking meters were removed from three of the city's four metered parking lots -- both lots on Warren and the Union Street lot -- and replaced with what appears to me to be inadequate, poorly located signage (in one lot, as seen above) or no signage at all for each lot's kiosk.  As of Saturday, the several dozen meters in the City Hall lot on Columbia Street had not been removed.  That lot is going to be a serious challenge for HPD (HPD!!!!!) to make convenient for those needing to use a kiosk to pay to park there (that being anyone without a municipal lot permit).  There has been a kiosk on the Columbia Street sidewalk at the lot's main entrance/exit for over two months waiting to be activated, a location that is nothing short of dumb and disrespectful (and, in my mind, dangerous for users).  If HPD (HPD!!!!) is going to stick with a single kiosk for the lot, it needs to be centrally located, not near the vehicle exit that no one walks in and out of. Duh!  But even the island in the middle of the lot, which will be void of meters, would not be a good location if only because it's probably not ADA-compliant.  (The old, neglected, worn lot is a mess, particularly the walking and driving surface, and the entire thing should have been completely redone years ago, and certainly before the kiosks came to town.  It's a 1970's era lot with one $10,000 high tech parking kiosk on the sidewalk.)  If a lot with 19 parking spaces has one kiosk, how many kiosks should a lot with 5 times as many spaces have? Whatever the case, HPD (!!!!) is going about it all wrong.  The lot is simply too large for just one kiosk, and it's current location is just wrong.  With the meters in the City Hall lot unremoved, I have no doubt that our Acting Police Chief, in between discussions with his investigators and patrol officers about street crime and other important law enforcement issues, is reconsidering how to kiosk that lot properly.  Let's hope he doesn't have to spend too much time thinking about it and getting it done.

According to the recently posted pair of signs in the Warren Street lot closest to 3rd Street, parking in all lots is no longer free on Saturdays.  This is a huge deal!  And another dumb idea!  Just two small signs replaced two pairs of the 20 meters that were removed, with one sign on each side of the lot, while the other lot a half block away had no new signs at all.  The Union lot also had no new signs.  My guess is that HPD is not yet enforcing the new Saturday parking lot payment rule.

Speaking of signs, the vintage store adjacent to the parking lot closest to 3rd Street, Magic Hill, is going out of business.  That storefront is adjacent to the former Chinese takeout restaurant, a space that has been vacant (and ugly) for at least one year with no sign indicating the owner wants someone to occupy it (there should be a law against this!).   Also, Furlong, the large antique store on the odd side of the 600 block of Warren has been offering its remaining merchandise at a 50% discount for the past month as it also prepares to close down.   I remember when that store, not too many years ago and under a different name, was approachable by the common person.  Residents even!  Hell, I even bought a record or two there once!

Businesses closing left and right, storefronts empty for years, a fragile economy and a city running out of money.  Yet the city is upping parking fees (75 cents an hour), doing away with free parking in its parking lots on the city's busiest day of the week, and no longer offering free downtown parking in the month of December.  Hmmm... how sustainable is this?

Already water damaged

There are no signs on the new $10,000 kiosks nor on the receipt it prints out for customers indicating if the receipt should be placed on their dashboard so that parking enforcers can see it.  Wouldn't that be helpful information, you know, just to be clear about things?  As I understand the new kiosk parking enforcement process will be handled, rather than a quick glance with a pair of eyeballs at a pair of parking meters on a pole while walking on the sidewalk to determine if a parked car or two in the street is worthy of a $10 meter violation ticket, parking enforcers will have to SCAN EVERY LICENSE PLATE OF EVERY PARKED CAR WITH A HANDHELD TICKET MACHINE TO DETERMINE IF THE CAR IS IN VIOLATION OR NOT.  If this is true -- and I can't imagine any other means of enforcers enforcing parking without meters -- it seems to me the job of enforcing will take longer and be more of a hassle.  To get a view of the license plates of cars parked on the street, I'm thinking that enforcers will have to step off of the curb, often between parked cars of course, just to get a scan or two of plates. Step back up on the sidewalk, walk 40 feet, step off curb in between two parked cars.  Scan a car or two.  Repeat. Walking in the street might be a safer and easier alternative for enforcers to do their job.  Who the hell would want to do such work?  Has our Acting Police Chief given the new parking enforcement protocol a try himself so that he understands exactly what his parking enforcers' new job requirements are really like?  (From what I've heard, once all the parking lot kiosks are working properly, on-street meters will be removed for kiosks.)

Soon headed to a garbage bin and landfill

Speaking of parking, for perhaps the first time ever in Hudson's history, late last week a large food delivery truck was parked on the 500 block of Washington street to make a delivery to a business which the owners refer to as a "creative campus."  The Pocketbook Hudson's address is 549 Washington, and this is where drivers' GPS will send them -- to the (once) quiet, house, tree and car-lined, one-way Washington Street.  If you live in the area, it's enough to make you scream.

Thanks to the monster that is Pocketbook Hudson, the parking shitshow in the formerly residential neighborhood of one-way Prospect/one-way Washington/narrow and busy 6th began two weeks ago and it will only get worse.  A lot worse, expanding to State Street, 5th Street and beyond.  The Pocketbook Factory development never should have been given the green light by the Hudson Planning Board.  But they were forced to since Galvan and their pal-in-power at City Hall, Kamal Johnson, had already somehow figured out a way to get rid of the city's off-street parking requirements for developments.  And so, anything goes, including parking shitshows and enormous air-conditioning units you can hear all the time in your backyard that just might make you insane, angry, and unable to sell your house if you should decide that your quality of life in the neighborhood has hit an all-time low with no end in sight.

Hell, as if 4-foot-wide sidewalks weren't disrespectful enough, the sidewalk along the beginning of the south side of Washington Street will no longer be in a straight line.  It is currently being rerouted so that the monied guests of the hotel and wellness fucking center located on one-way Washington Street can get valet service for their cars.  Yes, there will soon be a drop off area that allows drivers a drive-thru area, if you will.  They will be driving where a sidewalk once was.  Twice each time.  Heaven forbid Pocketbook guests would have to search for a place to park on the street (good luck!) and walk to their massage and yoga appointments.  Yes, it's true, there are plans for valet service for a business complex on one-way Washington Street!!!!  The developers -- who don't live in the neighborhood surrounding their property -- have no nearby or distant parking lot for their guests' cars to be parked in!  Valet to where? 

So that Pocketbook Hudson can operate properly, by my analysis, there have been at least six public (residential!) parking spaces removed on Prospect Street alone.  Two of them are lengthy handicapped spaces, and the driveway entrance at the southwest corner of the site is 40-feet wide.  Two more on-street handicapped spaces are set to be created on Washington Street where the valet drive-thru will be located (see above).  Besides the straight sidewalk, the drive-thru being created right now has already removed at least five public parking spaces that were once used by residents.  That's a total of 11 parking spaces removed by Pocketbook Hudson.  Sean and Gabe, according to their original plans, also hope to create a delivery area on 6th Street near the northeast corner of the building.  (Do you know why there is no parking allowed on the other side of North 6th Street between State and Washington?  Because the street is too narrow to allow it!)  The delivery area would remove two more public parking spaces, bringing the total removal of public, on-street parking spaces in a residential area to 13.  (I wouldn't be surprised if the total turns out to be more than 13.  And pardon my french, but why the fuck does Pocketbook Hudson need four handicapped parking spaces?)  Of course, the Hudson Planning Board approved all of this four years ago, even agreeing with the PBF zillionaires that there would be no adverse effects on parking for residents in the vicinity of the "creative campus" now known as Pocketbook Hudson.  The hotel and restaurant recently opened for business.

To reassure Betsy Grankow and the Planning Board four years ago, here is a claim the PBF developers and their engineers made in their application to the PB:  "On street parking will be maintained along the site frontages."  Is that so?  How much exactly?

How many public parking spaces has the
drive-thru already removed?

Here is some more text from the Pocketbook site plan application submitted to the Planning Board by Sean Roland, Gabe Katz and their engineers.  (I made sure that there are no typo errors): 

Based on the proposed building uses and their expected operations as outlined in the Operations Summary, a peak parking demand of 62 parking spaces on Friday and Saturday evenings and 67 spaces on weekday middays during typical operations are expected.

Drive-thru (the sidewalk)!

If you haven't already, I urge you to read the November 10th article in the Hudson Intelligencer regarding the Pocketbook Hudson, if only to read what our Code Enforcement Officer Craig Haigh is quoted as saying about one serious quality of life issue the city's latest and greatest "creative campus" has created in a dense residential neighborhood already full of residents' cars parked on the street, particularly when the overnight parking rule is in effect.  Constant noise, a barrage of delivery trucks on narrow streets (some of them ONE WAY streets) in a residential neighborhood, narrow sidewalks, sidewalks in the way of out-of-town guests needing a facial, no off-street parking, valets searching for a parking space in front of a house, fewer public parking spaces in a residential neighborhood full of cars needing on-street parking, increased competition for parking, especially on weekends, parking rage night and day, decreased housing stock (more on that later), light pollution, creative bullshit from millionaires running roughshod over Hudson and Kamal Johnson, millionaire developers who don't live in the neighborhoods they are transforming... you name it, Pocketbook Hudson is bringing it!  If you don't live in the neighborhood of Prospect/Washington/6th, consider yourself fortunate. 

At the very least, given the headaches on the way, Sean Roland and Gabe Katz should be offering free weekly massages at their Washington Street "wellness center" to any local residents who ask for it. And we'll all promise not to require valet service.  We'll walk there and back.