This parked car that I came across on the even side of South Front Street today had an overnight $15 WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket on its windshield. It looked familiar. When I saw that the ticket -- which is yellowed and has been shat on by a bird -- was issued by a Hudson cop early in the morning on March 15th, I realized that I had noticed the ticketed car when I biked by it about a week ago. Fifteen bucks is a pretty good parking deal for someone on a 3-week (or longer) trip away from Hudson, starting with a train ride on Amtrak. It's a fantastic deal! It's unheard of, actually! And, apparently, HPD has no problem with that deal that loses the city money.
For arguments sake, let's say the owner parked that car on South Front on March 14th and hopped a train. By today, April 5th, 22 days later, the car should have been issued 11 WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets, not just 1. The city is missing out on $150 plus any late fees that might arise.
Had the car been parked in the city's long-term lot a few hundred feet away where it is supposed to be parked long term (assuming Amtrak was involved), the owner of the car would have been expected to pay $220 for the 22 day stay. Had the owner not paid for a space in the lot, the car would have likely been ticketed 19 or 20 times at $15 or $20 a day. HPD parking enforcers regularly ticket in the Amtrak lot during the day, though not on Sundays. HPD officers are responsible for overnight tickets on streets, though not in lots.
Of course, the only parking-related signs on Front Street near the Amtrak station are directly across the street from the ticketed car on the odd side, in a rare tow zone where parking is limited to 4 hours during the day to a handful of spaces. This is obviously intended to keep Amtrak riders from parking there, something that is not a concern across the street along the bend in a narrow street at a dangerous intersection on a long hill where speeding multi-ton vehicles are a common sight and sound.
There are no signs related to overnight parking anywhere on Front Street. It's entirely possible that some police officers are not aware that the overnight alternate side parking rule exists on Front Street. How else could a parked car go 22 days and nights without an overnight WRONG SIDE PARKING ticket, something we only dream about over here on State Street?
HPD Captain David Miller has made it clear to me that HPD's ticketing of cars is crucial for a number of reasons, though DPW activity is not at the top of his list. One of them, as you can imagine, is that ticketing parked cars overnight allows HPD to identify abandoned vehicles. You know, like when vehicles have several overnight tickets accumulated on their windshield, maybe 11 tickets or more, that would be an indication that the vehicle hasn't moved for three fucking weeks and ought to be towed off the fucking street where it's not supposed to be parked indefinitely. (It's safe to say the owner is not parking their car in front of their house and regularly getting ticketed and not knowing why or caring, that's for sure.)
According to the city's online parking ticket portal, that black car has a total of 6 outstanding WRONG SIDE PARKING tickets -- all of them issued on South Front between Allen and Cross. 2 in January on consecutive odd nights, 2 in February (on the 7th and 11th), and 2 in March (on the 3rd & 15th). I'm beginning to think that car has been parked in the same space for a few months, not a few weeks. HPD just gets around to ticketing it twice a month, and any more often is asking far too much.
4-hour limit on one short portion of Front Street with signs saying so. No time limit directly across the street, with no signs saying shit. Captain David Miller is killin' it! Absolutely killin' it!
This lovely sight -- it's not an art installation -- showed up last summer when the DRI and bridge projects were going on, as I recall. Think Rob Perry cares? Of course he doesn't, you numbskull, 'cus he's not part of the Common Council's new SAFETY Committee! Captain Miller is, though! Perhaps he can get this taken care of sometime this year. Of course, he has to actually see it first to do anything about it.
Why is everything such a mess around here?
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