Eight days ago, on Saturday the 4th, I noticed that all but a tiny sliver of the scannable paid parking was missing from the meter pole on Columbia Street nearest to Park Place. What remained secured to the bracket showed that the sign had broken off; it had not been removed intentionally by anyone from the city. I took my pictures and included two of them on a textless HUDseen post on Monday. Within 24 hours, a new $29 double-sided sign was secured to the bracket atop the old meter pole in front of the tavern known as The Hereafter.
Three days later, around noon on Friday -- YOU GUESSED IT -- that brand new sign was gone (pictures above). Within less than 100 hours a $29 parking sign on that pole was nowhere to be seen or easily found (I searched underneath the nearby parked cars). Twenty-nine dollars plus labor down the fucking drain. Go find (buy) another one, Captain Miller! Sure, we'll pay for another one. Again! Why wouldn't we? You are swimming in newfound parking revenue, so why the hell not!
Broken sign number 7! Another one off to a landfill in need of replacement!
Less than a minute later, and about 9 parking spaces to the east, I came across a similar scene. YOU GUESSED IT, we are governed by questionably competent people who have no idea what they are doing, especially with our money. It was broken sign number 8 (that I am aware of), a one-sided scannable sign made of plastic surrounding a thin layer of metal that likely gave in to the forces of the fierce winds that never seem to end these days, just as the other seven signs have likely succumbed to. (I'm not kidding! It's the wind! Just go stand next to one for a minute or so.)
To solve the problem (mystery?) of the continually breaking parking signs, I'm pretty certain that a collaboration between HPD Captain David Miller ($151,736 salary*) and DPW Superintendent Rob Perry ($122,874 salary*) was recently convened. Their solution to stop the embarrassment and the wasting of signs and money? I noticed it a few weeks ago: white wooden shims had been inserted along the base of replaced signs, presumably to keep the new plastic signs from flopping around in the wind so much, cracking and ultimately snapping off. Yes, the solution to the constant damage and replacement of the $19 (single sided) and $29 (double sided) signs was SHIMS! What type of shims, exactly? The type of shims cut from a wooden yardstick, of course!
You can't make this shit up. What's not funny at all is how HPD, DPW and the Mayor's office treat tax and parking revenue like it is garbage. So easy to throw around and to throw away. Until there isn't any more to throw away!
This morning, on South Fifth Street at Warren -- YOU GUESSED IT -- I came across sign number fucking 9! Not just broken, but gone gone gone. I didn't bother looking under the car.
Two months ago, during the Code & Infrastructure Committee's first meeting (where no one form Code was involved or present, which is still the case), committee chair Henry Haddad ($5,000-plus with health benefits council member "salary") expressed his safety concerns to DPW Superintendent Rob Perry about the signs on top of meter poles along our sidewalks. Haddad was searching for guidance and, as he said, "a permanent solution" for the signs that were too easily bumped into by visiting children (this was before the broken signs began to pile up).
Perry replied that the solution was to put the signs high on actual sign poles installed in the sidewalk. His final words? "It's just money. You gotta pay for it."
Eventually, perhaps this year, plastic scannable signs atop old parking meter poles will be a thing of the past. Each one of the old meter poles will be replaced with a shiny new tall metal sign pole, and our problems will be solved. But how much "just money" will that cost us, do you suppose? And who will get this done and inform the Common Council and city residents how much this will cost city taxpayers? Will it be Captain David Miller, our latest parking guru? Perhaps the Chief of Police who has no crime to concern herself with anymore?
During this month's SAFETY Committee meeting, Police Chief Mishanda Franklin ($173,966 salary*) had one thing to say about parking before her second in command gave his parking revenue update and nearly the entire remainder of the hour and a half meeting was taken up with parking issues, none of them having to do with SAFETY. It was an update of sorts. She told the committee that the installation of the remaining parking kiosks was not going as quickly as she had hoped (yes, it's true, the top person at HPD is responsible for getting the city's remaining kiosks in the ground and in the right places). For one, the chief said, the council still has to approve the resolution to pay for the installation so that it can "move forward." Franklin was also having trouble communicating with the company who will be responsible for installing the remaining kiosks (of which there are ten, I believe). "I will try to get that on the calendar in the near couple weeks. My hope was to get it (installation) done this month, but we are at the will of the company." Franklin didn't specify what company she was referring to. How can she blame "the company" for the delay in installation if the Common Council hasn't even approved the funds to pay "the company" to perform the installation of the remaining kiosks?
More concerning, perhaps: Does anyone know what it means to "try to get something on the calendar"? Does anyone know who, if anyone, is managing Hudson to ensure that it doesn't go bankrupt?
* 2025 salaries, as found on the SeeThroughNY website. You can easily find the salaries of any and all city employees there. I recommend it!
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