More Progress With The New Paid Parking System! When Will It End?

Other than a recent quick mention of the city's ten remaining parking kiosks that might someday appear downtown to be utilized for on-street parking (the 6 kiosks out now are only found at parking lots), there has been scant information given recently by HPD's Captain David Miller and Chief Mishanda Franklin regarding the progress (if any) with the city's new paid parking system.  The ambitious new system is certainly not anywhere near being finalized, and changes and corrections are still being made.  Yet there haven't been any parking updates in months, neither on HPD's Fakebook page nor at any of the monthly meetings of the laughably tilted SAFETY Committee.  The silence is deafening.

Well, if you're curious about what's in store for us next in the paid parking realm, HUDseen is here to help.  What I came across yesterday is clearly something that David Miller and Mishanda Franklin would rather not talk about or admit to. The absurd ham-handed money-wasting never ends.  We should all be concerned.  Very concerned.  They obviously don't know what they are doing with our money.  "They," of course, being our top brass (and highest paid) LAW ENFORCEMENT professionals who made a sworn oath to protect all Hudson residents.  It might be past time to amend the oath our police officers make to include something about parking kiosks, parking signs and parking revenue.  (I'm only half unserious about that!) 

Bracket and sign gone for good!  Another 
great idea come and gone.

Five of the six paid parking signs atop parking meter poles on the even side of the 700 block of Columbia Street are gone, obviously removed intentionally by either DPW or Parking Captain David Miller himself earlier this week.  How do I know this?  Because, in addition to the signs, all five of the brackets used to secure the signs to their poles were also gone.  (And I didn't find any of the signs flat on the ground or hanging from the poles!)  The message from our parking expert(s) at HPD is clear:  WE ARE DONE WITH INSTALLING OUR $19 AND $29 SCANNABE PLASTIC PAID PARKING SIGNS ON TOP OF METER POLES AND CONSTANTLY HAVING TO REPLACE THEM BECAUSE OF THE WIND!  IT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE, AND WE COULD NO LONGER JUSTIFY THE COST OR THE OPTICS.

The same thing happened over on the east side of North 7th Street (between Warren and Columbia) where the only two paid parking signs atop meter poles were removed along with their brackets.  But thank goodness for the grass nearby!  In the signs' stead, one conventional sign pole with a paid parking sign atop it was installed in the grass of the park along the sidewalk near where the two empty meter poles now await removal by a pair of DPW workers with a fresh carbide blade.   And no one thought to trim the tree to make the sign easy to see and to scan. (See lead picture.)  One wonders if Parking Captain Miller inspected DPW's sign work.

About two months ago
on the west side of North 7th

It's beyond obvious now that those two meter poles, along with the several others on other side streets, on Columbia and on Union -- with and without signs and brackets on them -- should never have had signs on them and they should have been removed five months ago in December when DPW first started removing parking meters from meter poles.  The idea of putting the signs on the meter poles was a desperate and dumb one. 

What's the plan?  Are there any signs nearby?
(The gravel has been on the sidewalk for at least 
three weeks, confirmed by a nearby business owner). 

Is BUMBLING the best word to describe what we are getting from the Police Department top brass?  Or is it BUNGLING?  I hesitate to call it Keystone Cops level dysfunction because at least the Keystone Cops knew to stick to law enforcement.  There's nothing funny about parking signs and kiosks, is there?

How much time, money and effort did Captain David Miller, others at HPD and some at DPW put into the effort to have paid parking signs (and brackets!) installed atop parking meter poles?  And how much will it cost to put signs on sign poles embedded in the sidewalks to take the place of the signs on meter poles?  Don't worry, we will never know!  No one from HPD will even mention it, nor will any council members ask about it.  It would be too embarrassing to talk about!