What Shall We Name This Latest Quality-of-Life Issue??

 

Because the Pocketbook Factory-related parking issues on Washington, Prospect, 6th and nearby streets are only just beginning, HUDseen will likely be reporting on the worsening situation there for months, if not years, to come.  The situation demands an accurate moniker we can all agree on, particularly those of us living in the area of the unfortunate new monstrosity known as Pocketbook Hudson that was approved by the Hudson Planning Board 4 years ago even though the developers had no off-street parking options for its future guests and customers driving into a dense residential area with a very limited amount of available on-street parking (nor was it required by the Planning Board of the development to have any off-street parking spaces -- not even one.) 

It's worse than a situation.  Already. Much worse.  It's a parking shitshow, though I tire of that term (and HUDseen is a family-oriented blog).  How about Sean & Gabe's Parking Gift To Hudson (they being the developers who brought us Pocketbook Hudson that has no dedicated off-street parking to speak of)?  How about Nightmare On Washington Street?  Or Prospect Street!  Or 6th Street!  Or all of the above!  Not bad, I suppose, but maybe a bit too much.  Well, for now at least, I'm going to choose The Pathetic Pocketbook Parking Problem, if only for its alliteration.  And boy, let me tell you, do we have a pathetic problem in the neighborhood, all of it on public display.

Here are some parking scenes recently seen alongside and near the "creative campus" now known as Pocketbook Hudson (PBH). (That is how they referred to their devilopment in their proposal to the Hudson Planning Board!  They left out the "creative parking" aspect, it turns out!)  What I've seen is just a fraction of the problem, I'm sure.

Sometime within the past two weeks, a desperate Washington Street resident near PBH, obviously frustrated with the sudden lack of nearby parking options, placed an orange cone in a stand-alone parking space in front of or near their house to ensure they have a space for their car when they return home.  This is how bad the Pathetic Pocketbook Parking Problem is.  No one should have to ever consider placing a cone in the street to reserve a public parking space for themselves.  No one is allowed to do this.  

This is not good for the neighborhood, not good for the general community, not good for neighbors.  It can pit neighbors against one another -- something I saw coming four years ago but the Planning Board and the mayor did not.  We all know that neighbors have been killed and injured by neighbors over lesser transgressions than placing a traffic cone in the street in an attempt to reserve a public parking space for one's own use.  ("Did you touch my cone that I put in the street, neighbor?  What the fuck is wrong with you?  That's my cone!  That's now my parking space!  Touch my cone again and you will regret it.") That traffic cone represents the degrading quality of life issues the PBH has brought to the neighborhood -- it is in no way an encouraging indication of what lies ahead for neighbors of PBH, including those outside the rectangle of Prospect, 6th, Washington and Franklin where the parking problem has already spilled into.  But, hey, desperate times require desperate measures.  Why not give a traffic cone a try! 

At least one Washington Street resident living in the shadow of PBH has also decided that it's worth risking a parking ticket from HPD by parking in at least one NO PARKING zone -- this one at the beginning of the street -- rather than driving further down the street to maybe find a parking space -- if they can -- a few hundred feet from home and a few hundred feet from where they have been parking for years with ease.  Of course, guests to the PBH will likely frequently be doing the same if they aren't already.  Grab the first space you find, yellow curb be dammed! 

Look at how tightly parked these cars are:

This (Sunday) morning

Because there are no alleys adjacent to the new "creative campus" known as Pocketbook Hudson (with an address of 549 Washington), delivery truck drivers will have no choice but to park their trucks in the street, hopefully, if possible, against a curb.  Last week, I may have witnessed the first ever delivery of food from an industrial food supplier to a property on one-way Washington Street.  It was painful to watch the driver try to find a suitable space; not only did he have to drive once completely around the block to arrive back on Washington, but he had to back up about 50 feet to get in the space he settled into to finally make his food delivery to PBH.  Let's face it, this is unprecedented.  And unwelcome.  Deliveries will somehow, somewhere, anywhere also be made on Prospect and on 6th.  The two handicapped spaces each on Prospect and Washington will regularly be used for deliveries, I guarantee! 

Over the years, I've seen lots of cars around town parked facing the wrong direction, but never one on North 6th Street, where parking is only allowed on the west side of the street alongside the PBH.  That is, until this morning.

Last night in the dark, I witnessed another first for me, a first for one-way residential Washington Street and, I'm fairly sure, a first for the entire city: Valet service in Hudson!  For the richies!  Yes, valet fucking parking has finally arrived to our city.  Not to the Maker, not to Farmer & Sons, not even to Warren Street, mind you, but to the formerly placid, sleepy, one-way, residential (or what used to be residential) Washington Street in Hudson, NY.  Welcome to the new Hudson.  Get used to it.  Get your pocketbooks out!  Good luck finding a parking space.

The PBH's valet drive-thru that will disrupt the natural flow of the sidewalk has not yet been completed, but that hasn't stopped valet parking from arriving to Washington Street.  The keys to the car in the center of the picture below were handed over to the valet.  The car ahead of it was parked in what will soon be one of two handicapped parking spaces -- two former public parking spaces that up until a few months ago had been used by nearby residents for decades, if not forever.

As the valet was getting into the expensive- and new-looking car, I asked him where he parks his cars.  As I thought he might, he pointed east to the dirt lot beyond 6th Street and across the street from the Firestation.  "You're allowed to park your cars in that lot?" I asked him.  He nodded, said "yes," and got behind the steering wheel to make his way to the lot.  But, of course, he couldn't get there directly at all.  First, he drove a few hundred feet to Franklin Street, turned on his blinker, took a left, drove the short distance to the end at Prospect, took another left, drove the several hundred feet to the end of Prospect, took a left on North 6th, drove a few hundred feet to the stop sign at Washington (returning to within about 100 feet of his starting point!), took a right on Washington and, after about one minute of driving, pulled into the dark, unlit dirt lot with no lights to park the car among the 10 or 12 cars he had already parked there for a few hours or for the night.  The valet parked the car, then walked back to his perch on the sidewalk of Washington Street where another guest's vehicle may have been waiting or soon to arrive.  It's a big parking lot over there at Washington & 7th.  Hell, the HPB can probably fit 150 or more valeted cars in that lot on a good night. Unless, of course, someone else decides to use the lot.  Like, oh, I don't know, Hudson firefighters and their guests.

With the exception of PBH valet service.

There were 6 cars remaining in the lot early this morning, parked in no organized fashion:

As announced on the city's website this past Monday, our Acting Chief/Acting Commissioner/ (Acting?) Captain at the Hudson Police Department, David Miller, recently signed (as "Captain David Miller, Acting Police Commissioner") four orders related to parking.  One of them, strangely enough, had to with unauthorized parking in "any Hudson Fire Department parking lot", though no specific parking lots were cited (the order is below).  On Friday at the HPD station, I asked Captain Commissioner Chief Miller if the large dirt parking lot on Washington Street across from the Firestation at 77 North 7th Street was one of the parking lots where parking was not allowed as a result of his recent Police Commissioner's order regarding Fire Department parking lots.  He said that it was not, and that that parking lot was not a Fire Department lot.  "Well, whose lot is it then?" I asked. 

"It's owned by the city," was Captain Miller's response.

I was relieved to hear that.

In response to my logical and fair follow-up question, Captain Miller claimed that he was not aware of any signs related to parking or towing of vehicles for that large lot.  He said that as far as he was concerned anyone could park in that lot for as long as they like.  Apparently, HPD does not enforce any parking rules in the dirt lot being used by PBH guests and others, even vehicles parked there overnight. 

"But the two signs in the lot say Fire Department right on them, and that unauthorized vehicles will be towed," I said.

"Again, Bill, I don't know anything about signs there."

According to Captain Miller, his Police Commissioner's order was necessary because tenants and guests of Galvan's new enormous apartment building at 76 North 7th Street have been parking in the area in front of and to the side of the Firestation's fire truck garage, not in the nearby dirt lot on Washington as I assumed they were.  That really straightened things out for me as well.  

This enormous white box truck with commercial plates, associated with the Caribbean bodega in the 200 block of Warren Street, has been parked for at least the past three months unmoved and unticketed (or towed) in the "city's" dirt lot on Washington Street that, regardless of what the two longtime posted signs at the edge of the lot might say, has nothing to do with the Hudson Firestation across the street.

The truck can't stay parked in the lot forever.  Or can it?

Much of the panel on the passenger side of the truck was tagged by a graffiti artist recently, as was the other, smaller white box truck also associated with the bodega while it too was parked in the lot recently. That commercial truck actually moves fairly regularly, and can be found parked either on North 6th, at the end of Prospect Street or, during the day, double parked in the 200 block of Warren Street in front of the bodega it makes deliveries to just about every day. Prior to three or four months ago, the larger of the two enormous box trucks was parked at the end of Prospect Street for 4 or 5 months, never moving off of the street except to switch sides of the street on Monday and Tuesday nights to avoid being ticketed by HPD.  That was at a time when parking was easy to come by on Prospect.  Prior to that, the truck was parked unmoved on North 6th Street between Prospect and Rope Alley for at least 9 months -- unmoved, unticketed and untowed.  This is a fact, and certain neighbors will confirm this, possibly even our soon-to-be new mayor! 

8 or 9 months late last year and early this year!   
Ask our future mayor!

For reasons unknown to me, as well as reasons neither Rob Perry nor any Police Chiefs or Commissioners for the past 6 years -- acting or not -- have any interest in explaining, there are no overnight parking regulations on North 6th between State and Washington.  A vehicle of any legal size and width, even those with more than 4 wheels, can remain parked on the west side of North 6th Street without being ticketed or towed for, literally, as long as the owner pleases.  The vehicle doesn't even have to operate or have a valid registration.  That is, of course, as long as the car or truck is parked facing south, not north.  Not that that ever occurs!

What an obscene parking shitshow we already have in the neighborhood (sorry kids)!  And we ain't seen nothin' yet -- wait until the summer!  My guess is that none of the Planning Board members who voted to approve the Pocketbook Hudson "creative campus" proposal (I think it was unanimous) live or lived on Washington Street.  Or Prospect Street.  Or North 6th Street.  Or anywhere nearby, for that matter.  Or maybe they did but they've since left town.

Sign on the Prospect Street side of the building