We Should All Be Very, Very, Extremely Concerned About The Future Of Hudson

For those of you, like me, who were sure that the city would never possibly be able to install dozens of kiosks around town by January 5th -- the date Captain Commissioner David Miller claimed the downtown business district would finally be free of parking meters to make way for "kiosks and digital" -- there is no need to be concerned anymore.  Everything is under control!  HPD's got it!

According to a front-page article in Tuesday's Register-Star newspaper -- which quotes Miller and "Parking Bureau Supervisor" Doreen Danforth extensively -- the $9,000 parking kiosks are no longer part of the ambitious on-street parking kiosk plan.  That's right, in less than 3 weeks, anyone parking downtown in a so-called metered space (on a street, not in a parking lot) will need to use their phone to pay for the space via a fucking parking app.  Payment by phone only is the direction the city is headed.  This is ludicrous!

From what I was able to understand from the article, though it's not entirely clear, this decision was made by Danforth alone, with no assistance or input from the council.  She was quoted as saying that the city shouldn't be spending any more money on kiosks.  It's not that we "shouldn't be," it's that WE ARE NOT ABLE TO SPEND ANY MORE MONEY ON KIOSKS!

Does anyone think it's beyond creepy that Captain Miller failed to mention during his report to the council and public two weeks ago that HPD had decided kiosks were no longer part of the plan for on-street parking?   He must have known about the complete about-face regarding kiosks.  But all he said was "We're going with the kiosks and digital" as if we're all supposed to know what the hell that means.  If I were a council member, I would be livid about this latest turn and failure to communicate properly and honestly.  And extremely concerned about the future viability of this city.  We should all be concerned. 

By the way, the new procedure for parking enforcers to allow them to determine if a parked car is in need of a "meter" violation ticket is by the use of a handheld scanner that reads license plates.  No more eyeballs on a pair of meters that took 4 seconds to scan.  Enforcers will now have to scan each and every license plate of each and every parked car they come across to make the determination to issue a parking ticket or not.  Late last week on Warren Street, I asked a friendly parking enforcer if it was possible for him to scan license plates of parked cars from the sidewalk.  He said that it was not possible.  "You mean you guys will have to step off of the curb every time you need to scan a plate?" I asked in disbelief. 

"That's right," he replied.  As you can imagine, he's not at all happy about it.

An added issue soon to come to HPD will be finding, hiring and, especially, retaining part-time parking enforcers.  You watch.

This will be beyond a shitshow!  It will be a veritable disaster!  An enormous boondoggle that might sink the ship!  A huge money pit dumpster fire!  An embarrassing but spectacular failure that Kamal Johnson will not be around to answer for.  And HUDseen first saw it coming and first wrote about it nearly three friggin' years ago!

Read more here, because...  It Had To Happen!