Two Months? How About Just Two Days!!!! (Things Are "Going Great!")

 

Confirming Captain David Miller's recent claim that the city's new paid parking "change" is "going great," it appears that the two parking experts at HPD ordered the wrong scannable paid parking signs.  They are made of plastic, not metal.  Pictured here is one of two signs installed by DPW last week on Columbia Street that are no longer properly secured and are going to have to be thrown away and replaced.  Make no doubt about it, more are on the way soon.  I took the pictures yesterday. 

The now worthless pieces of garbage didn't remain secured to the meter poles for even one week!  And if David Miller and Mishanda Franklin think that replacing broken plastic signs with identical new plastic signs is the path forward, they're in for a surprise.  A third sign on Columbia, featured on HUDseen three days ago, is holding on for now.  In that article, I asked for 2 or 3 months to come up with a picture of the first missing sign I come across.  Instead, it took all of 2 friggin' days!  It took just two days after my few-month prediction and the cheap plastic sign shown here is ready for a landfill!!!!

Nice metal bracket!  How much did that cost us?

Is it possible that numbskull money-wasting distracted amateurs making over $100,000 a year took over parking 7 months ago when Jen Belton's Parking Study Committee and the city's parking consultant hung up their shoes in July?  How else can this fiasco boondoggle embarrassment be explained? 

I can tell you for a fact that last Monday, Mishanda Franklin, apparent head parking guru at HPD (possibly second in command after David Miller), told the SAFETY committee that more parking signs were on the way for Warren Street's side streets so that parking enforcers can resume issuing tickets on those streets.  However, she did not mention that she had ordered signs made of plastic, nor did any committee member ask her what the signs are made of.  But our Police Chief, in response to a question from a council member about signs, did manage to say these three conflicting things within twenty seconds:  "We have more signs coming," then "we have the signs, DPW has signs," then "we actually just got more today as well."  You don't say, Chief Franklin!  Do you mean the plastic signs that you ordered?  Did you mean to order plastic signs rather than metal signs? How many more of the plastic signs are on the way?  How much money have you spent on the plastic signs?  Will the plastic signs you got today be your replacement signs?

"The change is going great!"

Like so much bullshit that is going on in this country, I can't believe that cheap, broken plastic parking signs is even an issue to take up anyone's time or brain space.  What next?  Will all the parking enforcers quit because they're sick of the bullshit and the "change" is not "going great" for them? 

First it was the wrong kiosks that Tom Depietro and Jen Belton purchased (which HPD is still dealing with AND SPENDING MONEY ON one year later!).  Then it was all the delays for the entire month of January. And now it's the wrong parking signs that HPD ordered and bought that can't stay attached to the tops of ancient parking meter poles for even one week.  Every one of those plastic signs that was installed by HPD last week will soon be in the trash!  (Hooray, "we have more signs coming"!)  How much did those plastic signs cost us?  How about all the brackets between the poles and the signs?  How many were purchased?  Did they cost us a dollar each?  Two dollars? More?  Where is all this money coming from anyway?

Why on earth is the TOP BRASS at HPD dealing with parking signs and kiosks and parking at all?  What were Captain Miller and Mishanda Franklin being paid 50 or 60 dollars an hour to do a year ago when they didn't have to concern themselves with parking?  Were they twiddling their thumbs hoping a crime would occur, just waiting for the phone to ring?  Were they wasting city revenue doing something they were unqualified for and had no business getting involved in when they should have been concentrating on the job they were hired to do, a little thing called law enforcement, protecting and serving and all that?

Chief Mishanda Franklin's HPD report to the SAFETY COMMITTEE last Monday lasted less than one minute.  She failed to mention that on December 18th a woman in the crosswalk at Park Place and Warren was struck by a Jeep Wrangler and dragged 20 feet, breaking her leg and possibly more (not to mention the mental trauma she probably has for the rest of her life).  No, no mention of that -- don't expect our Police Chief to ever mention an incident that nearly kills a pedestrian.  Maybe if someone gets killed she will!  

No, Mishanda's reports to the SAFETY committee (and formerly to the entire council) don't last long enough to include such trivial matters as safety and dangerous intersections along the truck route.  Perhaps she's in too much of a rush to get home to her two new children.  At last week's SAFETY meeting, our Police Chief also didn't bother mentioning something that she did take the time to post (with pictures) on her department's Fakebook page a few days before the meeting.  In one picture, a beaming uniformed Franklin is shown standing next to a newly hired cadet graduate by the name of Triston Schermerhorn.  It's kind of a big deal finding and retaining police officers these days, but you wouldn't even know Franklin hired a fresh recruit by listening to her 50-second report to the four council members and the public a week ago.  Why would she even bother mentioning a new hire?  That brief report of Franklin's was followed by a parking "breakdown" report by Captain David Miller that lasted at least 5 times as long.  What exactly are HPD's priorities right now?  Parking?  Parking kiosks?  Trying to make sure plastic parking signs stay attached to ancient parking meter poles with the help of a metal bracket?

"Welcome to the family," Mishanda wrote at the end of her Fakebook post to the Hudson community introducing Hudon's newest police officer.  Perhaps Officer Schermerhorn should be put in charge of those plastic parking signs right away, a task he should have plenty of time for since actual law enforcement does not seem to be a priority at HPD anymore!  Thank goodness we found someone who can pick the plastic signs up off of the streets and sidewalks after they fall off the meter poles.  Hell, someone has to put them in the garbage, right?  Welcome to the family, indeed, Triston!