Any municipality that owns a large outdoor public parking lot and contends with snowfall, particularly occasional large amounts of it, has a problem to solve that is not unlike the issue of snow on the streets: how to clear the entire lot properly, efficiently and as quickly and cheaply as possible after every snowfall without parked cars in the way of the snowplows. This includes all the parking spaces in the parking lot, not just the driving areas.
The answer is actually a simple one, and it was made years ago by Hudson City Hall for the 120-space City Hall Municipal Parking Lot in the 500 block of Columbia Street, by far the city's largest downtown parking lot. Perhaps the solution was decided on even before the parking lot was opened to the public: the city would include for the parking lot the same overnight parking rule we have for our streets. There would be an overnight alternate side parking rule in the lot so that, like the rule on city streets allows, the entire lot can be properly cleared of snow by DPW within two nights after a snowfall, especially after a large one (where it might take 4 days or more to complete). One side is cleared one night; the other side is cleared the following night. Ready for the next snowfall. Duh!
Hudson's decision makers were smart back then (this was before Kamal Johnson's time. Way before!). They knew that it was imperative to have an overnight parking rule in the City Hall lot. They knew that allowing cars to park anywhere in the lot for any amount of time more than 24 hours -- days, weeks, months, perhaps years even -- was not in the city's, or anyone's, best interest. It would lead to a messy parking lot full of untouched snow and ice even well after the smallest of snowfall, and an absolute nightmare and hugely expensive time-waster after a foot or two of snow falling in the lot. They understood that ice in a public parking lot is a legal liability to the city, particularly if it sticks around for days or weeks. Also, the last thing the city needs is for DPW workers to be hacking away at ice in the parking lot that formed from snow that fell a week prior that DPW couldn't remove because parked cars were in the way of the DPW snowplows. Additionally, a parking lot without any overnight parking rule would lead to people leaving broken down vehicles in parking spaces for months and possibly even sleeping in them. It would lead to headaches for the city and wasted time and expenses. The decision makers back then knew that it would be an absolutely stupid, foolish, wasteful, legal liability to not include the same overnight street parking rule in the city's largest parking lot. It had to be done, and there was probably no debate about it. To make it official, two or three signs were put up in the lot to remind people of the rule. The overnight parking rule in the lot was done.
Until it was undone a few years ago.
So why has there been no overnight alternate side parking rule in the City Hall lot for the past few years? Surely there must have been some logical, compelling and sensible reason or two to get rid of it, right? Why would the city undo a rule in the lot that prevented cars and vans from parking for months, even up to a year, especially those with flat tires and other troubles that rendered them incapacitated and ugly eyesores, even dangers? Why would the city allow any vehicles to remain unmoved and unticketed in one space for months -- even those with a $250 parking permit -- with the owners possibly sleeping inside? Isn't that what the city's founders knew needed to be prevented? Why would the city decide that it would be in everyone's best interest for DPW to not be able to properly clear the large parking lot of snow, particularly after a large snowfall? Did the Common Council think this was a good idea and vote to approve it? Why would the city do away with a parking rule that regularly brought revenue to the city in the form of $15 overnight WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets? How is it that the powers-that-be decided a few years ago that a decision made decades ago to benefit Hudson residents and to make the city liveable, respectable, safe and prosperous was in fact a bad idea that had to be done away with?
The answer is as disturbing as they come, and there can be no doubt that the unwise decision to undo the rule was just one of the numerous, long and winding tentacles that has led to the fiscal troubles the city currently finds itself grappling with. As Rob Perry explained a few years ago at a council meeting after a question from me, he, "the mayor and the police commissioner" decided that "developers" needs for free parking spaces for their upcoming developments (the two planned apartment buildings three blocks away on 7th Street and the hotel one and a half blocks away on 4th Street) meant that the overnight parking rule in the city's largest parking lot had to be done away with. None of that so-called plan for Galvan's parking needs has come to be, and it never will. It was idiocy from the get go. But that's beside the point.
Of course, the Common Council was never consulted about the plan to remove the overnight parking rule in the City Hall lot. They were never told what the negative consequences and side-effects would or might be. They were never told how much in lost revenue in the form of $15 overnight WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets the city would lose out on by doing away with the parking rule. It just happened, as suddenly and as quietly as can be, behind closed doors. Heck, maybe it happened over the phone.
A scenario where the Kamal Johnson's contact at Galvan told the mayor that the overnight parking rule in the City Hall parking lot had to be done away with is not at all far-fetched, is it? Certainly, Rob Perry knew that doing away with the overnight parking rule in the lot was not in his department's best interest. He had to have known that this was an absolutely stupid idea all around. He had to have known that all snowfall, especially from the big storms, would lead to headaches, wasted time and wasted money trying to get the lot clear of snow. Perry would never agree to removing the overnight parking rule on a city street because a developer needed parking spaces, would he? So why did he allow it to happen in the City Hall parking lot that holds 120 or more vehicles and where snow happens to accumulate as frequently and in the same amounts as it does in the streets DPW has to plow? Why would the DPW Superintendent agree to make things more difficult and expensive for his department, not to mention making things difficult and unsafe for people parking in the lot? Rob Perry isn't an idiot, is he? No, he isn't. He knows what he's doing. But he likely had no choice: he was probably told by his so-called boss, our so-called mayor, Kamal Johnson, to remove the two signs in the lot that had been up for several years, if not decades, warning people to abide by the overnight alternate side parking rule or they would be ticketed. And Rob Perry was probably shaking his head in disgust as he had those signs in the lot taken down -- maybe even chuckling at the absurdity of the situation -- after Johnson made the decision at the behest of his personal landlord, Galvan, the city's largest property owner and developer. We all know that this scenario is not too much of a stretch of the imagination and that stranger, more screwed up nefarious shit has taken place in this day and age. Yes, even in Hudson.
Yesterday we had just 4 inches of snow. Because vehicles in the City Hall lot do not have to abide by an overnight parking rule, DPW will never be able to properly and completely clear the lot of snow due to parked vehicles, even ones possibly being slept in, will always be in their way. Vehicles will always be in their way as long as there is no overnight parking rule in the lot, and, of course, NONE OF THOSE VEHICLES WILL BE OWNED BY ANY OF GALVAN'S TENANTS AT 76 NORTH 7TH STREET!
Temperatures will turn much colder by Friday, allowing most, if not all, of the untouched snow in the lot to turn into slippery and unwelcome ice, a scenario that has played out far too often for the past few years. Maybe it will snow again soon. Wait til' we get a foot or two of the white stuff!
And my last point and question: When was the last time a Hudson police officer on ticket patrol in the early morning hours issued a $15 overnight WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket to a vehicle parked in the parking lot directly behind City Hall? Has it been four years? Or has it been five years or more? And for how many more years will we continue to lose out on revenue because an unqualified city official or two undid a wise and beneficial parking rule that was implemented decades ago? For how many more years will DPW find it an impossibility to properly, efficiently and cheaply rid the City Hall parking lot of snow after every snowstorm? Is Hudson City Hall changing with the times or just getting dumber, more wasteful and simply not paying attention?
Of course, the city's other three, much smaller lots should also be subject to the overnight alternate side parking rule. Duh!
The question on everyone's minds these days seems to be What would Joe Ferris do?
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