First, the kiosk in front of the parking lot closest to 3rd Street was out of order with some sort of printer trouble. At least that was the warning that appeared on the screen after I punched a few keys to see how it was faring. Being a federal holiday with free parking as it was yesterday, what I expected to see on the screen was a greeting telling me that I didn't have to use the kiosk or pay for a parking space. I had no such luck, and I have no doubt that the kiosks also don't bother to remind people on Sundays that parking is free. One of the many wonderful aspects of our parking kiosks is that the screens are easily programmable to offer all sorts of helpful information for users. All it takes is a human being paying attention who wants to program the kiosks with helpful information, though I'm still unsure of who that person at HPD is, as you probably are, too. Of course, our trusty parking meters had all the necessary helpful information written on them for anyone to read at any time without pushing a fucking button and waiting for a response, especially in frigid temperatures. Oh, well, maybe I just wasn't made for these modern, high-tech times.
The other $10,000 parking kiosk on Warren Street appeared to be operating properly (shown in pictures), ready to accept cards and coins (but not paper currency!!!) on one of the city's 8 federal holiday free parking days. (There are 11 federal holidays. Would there be an outcry if MLK DAY was not included among the 8? Who decided that it should be included? Who decided that free parking shouldn't be offered on Juneteenth, Columbus Day and Veterans Day? Was it a Black Italian American Veteran?) The piece of paper taped to the kiosk above the screen that has been there for months should have been removed in early December when HPD parking enforcers began removing the city's hundreds of parking meters. It's not just that the sentence at the bottom is poorly constructed, it also happens to be offering false information. Confusing, false and unhelpful -- the trifecta! And it turns out that the sentence at the top of the weeny sign is also 100 percent false. When I punched a few random keys after the screen asked me for my license plate number, it then gave me the option of paying for a parking space in the lot or ON THE STREET! Hello, is this the parking kiosk complaints and questions department?
One of the first issues that came in front of Jen Belton, Tom Depietro and their merry band of parking kiosk gurus on the Ad Hoc Parking Study Committee a few years ago had to do with one of the two old kiosks at the Amtrak Station parking lot whose base had been allowed to become such a badly rusted and damaged mess that it needed to be removed for safety purposes. While the kiosk still worked, there had been concern that it might fall over (I'm not kidding). This bit of information had come from then City Clerk and helper-outer of all things parking, Tracy Delaney. She asked the committee if they wanted to purchase a replacement kiosk. The committee decided not to buy a new kiosk right away, leaving the remaining kiosk to do all the work with the plan that a new kiosk for that lot would be ordered eventually when the committee was ready to purchase kiosks for all the city's parking lots. That $10,000 kiosk, one of the 16 that were purchased a year ago, was installed at the Amtrak lot this past summer. It stands next to an ugly, ancient one that should be put out to pasture. At least 3 months ago, someone tagged one of the clear plastic walls of the kiosk shelter with pink paint. It's still there, brightening things up!
Maintenance of city property is not something City Hall takes to heart (particularly DPW Superintendent Rob Perry, who has a high tolerance for graffiti and other forms of vandalism made to city property). By the time someone (probably a parking enforcer) noticed that the base of that Amtrak kiosk was a rusted mess, it was too late. The interior supporting structure was probably in worse condition. Throw it away. This begs the question: Who at HPD is in charge of making sure our new $10,000 kiosks are looked after regularly and maintained properly so that they don't, oh, I don't know, get so rusty that they might fall over and kill a child or a dog? Who is keeping fresh snow and slushy snow full of salt from accumulating at the base of the kiosks for days or weeks at a time and after every snowfall? Has anyone told DPW not to salt the sidewalks near kiosks so that the bases of their metal casings doesn't rust prematurely and render entire kiosks useless in five years? This is, after all, Hudson, not Miami. Have any nearby property owners been warned not to salt the sidewalk near the new kiosks? How long is HPD expecting their kiosks to last? Decades? Who is in charge of cleaning and maintaining our costly kiosks so they last a long, long time? Given the small, taped paper signs full of false and confusing information still on the kiosks, I'm thinking the answer is NOBODY.
How many paid $10 dollar meter violation parking tickets are required to pay for a $10,000 kiosk? How much does it cost to pay a parking enforcer making $20/hour to issue one thousand $10 meter violation parking tickets? Who would you even ask to get all this important information? Is it the same person who should have made sure those little paper signs full of false information were removed from the kiosks last month?
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