Can Dysfunction Be Measured With A Short Portion Of A Yard Stick?

If HPD and/or DPW are able and willing to install scannable paid parking signs on South 7th Street at the reasonable height of 5 feet off the ground, when will all the other hundreds of previously installed signs on light poles all over downtown  -- including on 7th Street -- be dropped from their 8-foot height to 5 feet?  Wouldn't the kids with the spray paint cans not be the only ones to appreciate such a respectful gesture?

That scannable plastic paid parking sign appeared in the last week or two. Notice the meter pole in the background without a sign (or two) on it.  And further on, the streetlight pole with a sign high upon it. 

On Tuesday morning, I noticed one more broken paid parking sign and one more missing paid parking sign.  I think we're up to eleven of them now!  Call them collateral damage, written into the budget!

Look familiar?

That's the shim on the ground!

By this morning, three days later, the missing sign on 7th, not far from the police station where the Parking Bureau is located, had been replaced.  Hoorah! And it was replaced with two $19 signs back-to-back!  Out are the wooden shims to prevent the wind from snapping the signs at the base (some of them double-sided), and in are two back-to-back single-sided signs to reinforce one another against the wind.  Fucking genius, by any measure!

On the ground in the background of the picture above, behind the two back-to-back signs, is the shim that held the previous sign in place for a month or two at most!  I wouldn't be surprised if a DPW worker kicked it to the side to make it go away.

However, this morning, two blocks away and three days after I noticed it hanging by a thread, the mangled-by-the-wind single-sided sign near Lucky's gas station (the 2nd or 3rd on that pole to break and need replacing) still had not been replaced, and nearly all of the sign was gone.  What remained was sharp plastic protruding from the bracket at the top of the pole waiting to tear into someone's hand, tear a child's eyeball out of its socket, or rip a dress or jacket (or the uniform of a parking enforcer).  That's one of the many brackets we bought to be able to install the scannable plastic signs on the poles to allow drivers to pay for their parking space AND NOT GET A FUCKING $10 "METER VIOLATION" PARKING TICKET!  

This morning!  That plastic is 
f'ng SHARP!

Also left behind -- though NOT ON THE GROUND!!!  --was the wooden shim taken from a portion of a Hudson Police Department yard stick that appears to have been part of a failed effort from the late 20th century to halt the use and sale of illicit and evil recreational drugs like marijuana. That's the wooden shim that Captain David Miller thought would keep his $19 (single-sided) and $29 (double-sided) plastic scannable paid parking signs from snapping off in the incessant wind.  

There is no longer any doubt about who is 
responsible for this mess we are living with
AND PAYING FOR!

Also on Tuesday morning, there was a paper sign taped to the window of the Parking Bureau stating that "the parking ticket clerk is out sick today."  The date on the sign was Monday, the previous day.  Two people were hired to run the new Parking Bureau.

Read the words carefully to find all the errors.

On Wednesday, that sign had been replaced with a plastic-laminated sign that -- same as the previous sign -- no one ever would have encountered when the Parking Bureau was located in centrally located City Hall where there is never a shortage or complete lack of nearby parking during the week from 9 to 5.

Yesterday, the sign was gone and the blind was not drawn, and it appeared that the Hudson Parking Bureau was no longer "temporarily closed."

On Tuesday morning at 9:30, with city court in full swing, there wasn't one available non-handicapped parking space in the parking lot in front of 701 Union.  Of course, no parking is allowed in the street in front of 701 Union.  Had you driven into the lot to find a space to pay your parking ticket inside the building, you would have had to turn around (carefully), exit the lot and go find a space to park on 7th Street, in the 600 block of Union or in the Union Lot.  Then, of course, pay for your space (hopefully with your phone!), then walk to the Police Station only to find out that a human cannot help you.  Then walk all the way back to your car (without getting run over crossing the street), hoping it wasn't ticketed in your absence.  Cussing all the way, of course, and ready to strangle someone or just run them over with your car.

At 9:30, there wasn't one available parking space in front of the new Parking Bureau (that was closed at the time anyway).  Ironic, isn't it?  "Sorry, we have no interest in making your life better or easy.  Go away!  Have a great day!  Be safe out there, and be nice to other people."