In the latter half of 2024, during discussions among Parking Study committee members regarding the $1,000 annual Amtrak Parking Lot permits that, according to City Clerk Tracy Delaney, seemed to suddenly be causing such trouble in the lot, committee chairperson Jen Belton had this to say a few times at different meetings: "They (permit holders) aren't paying their fair share." Fellow member and parking expert Tom Depietro agreed with Belton on at least one occasion and may have uttered the words himself. And so, City Hall ceased issuing the permits in late 2024. The last of the lot's RESERVED FOR PERMIT HOLDERS signs were removed by DPW a few months ago, and now anyone parking in the lot pays $10 a day using the ParkMobile app or one of the kiosks at the lot's entrance. As a result, the city likely created additional revenue, though it's difficult to know for sure. Perhaps some former permit holding commuters went elsewhere to park.
As I recall, Belton also wanted to do away with the municipal (downtown) parking lot permits or at least raise the price. It seemed only fair; she conceded that people using those permits were also "not paying their fair share." All permits were too good a deal, allowing the city to lose money. However, those were just words, and the price of an annual Municipal Parking Lot permit still stands at $250.
On January 2nd of 2025, after a payment of $250 from the owner of the van shown in the pictures here, the City Clerk's Office issued the owner a 2025 Municipal Lot Parking Permit. The van had already been parked in the space next to the tree at the eastern end of the island (where it remains today) for the previous few months, in late 2024. With permit in place above the dashboard, that van did not move from its parking space once during the 365 days of 2025. Not once did it leave the lot, let alone the space. By all accounts, it became the owner's home, something that City Hall and HPD were fully aware and accepting of. Even encouraging!
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| 2026 Municipal Lot Permit #001 |
By my calculation ($250 divided by 365 days), the owner of the possibly immobilized van paid the city an average of 68.5 cents a day for all of 2025 to leave the lovely vehicle in the (his?) metered parking space. Not 68.5 cents per hour, mind you, but 68.5 cents per day for 365 days straight. The current hourly rate for parking in any city-owned parking lot, including the City Hall lot, is 75 cents per hour (plus a possible fee of whatever the fuck if you use a phone to pay).
Where is Jen Belton when we need her?
Sometime in the past few weeks, the City Clerk's office issued the owner of the van another $250 annual Municipal Parking Lot Permit so that his possibly immobilized vehicle could remain in the same exact metered (not free) parking space for another 365 days and continue to pay the equivalent of 68.5 cents every day for the privilege. You'd think that the wise people at City Hall and at HPD would have told the owner of the van to at least park his piece of shit possibly immobilized vehicle in one of the lot's PERMIT ONLY parking spaces so that someone visiting Hudson might be able to pay to park in the space next to the tree. Of course, to do that, the vehicle has to actually operate and roll. Or, you might have expected someone at City Hall to have come to their senses and told the owner of the van, "Sorry, sir, municipal parking lot permits are not meant to allow vehicles to remain parked for months or years in city parking lots, especially vehicles full of and surrounded by junk, including food. We will not issue you another permit. Go away and don't come back. Ever! We can't house you in the lot anymore for $250 a year."
Alas, no such sensible words were spoken.
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| Food underneath! |
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| Is there a fucking steering wheel? |
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| Food on top! |
Don't get me started about the van-owner's other vehicle that has been parked unmoved in the same lot in the same metered parking space since March or April of last year or I might just have to use another cuss word. That second vehicle has a very new looking 2026 Municipal Lot Parking Permit hanging from its rear-view mirror. And you fucking guessed it! Its number is 002.
One of Mayor Ferris' challenges is going to be to root out the dysfunction at City Hall that allowed this to happen and allows it to continue. At least it should be one of Joe's challenges. Hopefully he will understand that the underlying problem isn't the person with two vehicles (and all their associated issues) parked in the lot at all times for anyone to see; it's the fact that City Hall is fine with it all, thinking that $500 is a fair deal to allow someone to do whatever they like with their permits and their vehicles on city property.
Can you imagine if Albany or Chatham were so hospitable?
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