HUDseen Was Wrong Again! It Was A VANDAL!

It appears that I rushed to yesterday's conclusion about the reason for missing five parking signs and brackets on Columbia Street.  A few hours after I posted that article, I spoke with a parking enforcer on his way to the 700 block of Columbia for the first time on his shift.  He told me that he had been informed that someone had VANDALIZED several of the signs on the south side of Columbia Street.

Yesterday, Parking Captain David Miller (boy, is he earning his pay these days) must have decided to gather up all the VANDALIZED signs as well as the brackets that had secured them to the meter poles.  He then handed everything to Rob Perry and told him, "Fix these for me and make it right."  Or maybe Miller did the work himself.  Once again, it's quite impressive work.

This morning, all five of the brackets were back on top of meter poles, and each of them now holds two $19 plastic scannable paid parking signs situated back-to-back.  This time, instead of using easily removable binder clips, a short screw was installed at the top of each pair of signs to keep them from coming apart and to make them sturdier.  STRENGTH IN NUMBERS!  At just 3 feet off the concrete, the signs -- the pairs of signs on each pole -- are still easily vandalizable, just less so.

What next?  Staples from a staple gun?

Over on North 7th, however, the two old meter poles remain without brackets and signs, ready to be removed altogether.  

So, contrary to what I claimed to "know" yesterday, paid parking signs on meter poles are not completely out of the equation right now.  Not yet.  They'll keep breaking and being vandalized, and we'll keep paying for them to be replaced.  And we still won't know how much money HPD is spending on all of this nonsense. 

One wonders if there is a special consequence for vandalizing our $10,000 parking kiosks, such as a higher fine or jail time.  Don't count on it.  Like the signs, there's plenty of money in the city's bank account to replace them!

Non-essential information!

It's been nearly two months since Parking Captain David Miller said the following at a Common Council SAFETY Committee meeting in response to a question from me:  "The van... um ... we're working on the van.    It's been an issue; that has been an issue, but we're working on it." 

The "van" that the second-in-command at HPD claimed to be "working on" and "has been an issue" is, of course, the white van that hasn't moved from the same parking space in the City Hall parking lot for over a year and a half and is being slept in by its owner.  Whatever "work" David Miller is having done on the van isn't getting the vehicle moved anywhere.

During last month's SAFETY Committee meeting, Chief Franklin ended her brief HPD report by inviting everyone to an upcoming "behavioral health graduation" which is a part of City Judge Cheryl Roberts' Mental Health Court.  Two people in the judge's court were due to graduate. Meanwhile, the mayor and everyone at HPD, including Chief Franklin herself, are well aware that a homeless person with mental health issues is sleeping in one of two vehicles he owns that are permanently parked in the City Hall parking lot.  I'm thinking that if Judge Roberts were to get wind of this, she would not be too impressed.   She probably prefers that her graduates not live in their vehicles.  And she certainly wouldn't want the Hudson Police Department to encourage and allow anyone with or without mental health issues to live in their vehicle.  Not even if the vehicle is parked in a city-owned parking lot for months or years.  She'd probably think it's a bad idea and bad policy.  She might even say it's not helpful to the individual.  She might even think (or say), "Why the hell would they knowingly allow and encourage this?  Don't they appreciate what I am trying to get accomplished?"