Remember When Our Parking Meters Required No Paper, Ink, Solar Panels, Credit Cards, License Plate Numbers, "http://www..." or "Purchase Date"? You Remember Those Stupid Tyrannical Parking Meters, Don't You?

This is the parking "receipt" I received yesterday after dropping a quarter in one of Warren Street's recently installed "new" $10,000 parking kiosks, all of which were delivered to the city 17 months ago.  The piece of paper measures 5 inches by 2.25 inches, with print on both sides.  The kiosks refer to each of their own printed "receipts" as a "permit."  "Permit" on the screen; "receipt" on the permit.  Every single one of the receipts/permits that our kiosks print out will eventually be driven to a landfill somewhere far, far away, right where they belong for eternity.  Unless, of course, they get tossed to the ground and wind up in our sewer system.  Maybe, if we're lucky, a bunch of them will make their way into the Hudson River!

Remember when there was no need for our parking meters to tell customers that "we do not take custody of vehicle but only rent space"?  Remember when anything similarly printed on a parking meter would have gone viral?  "Ah! So the City of Hudson is in the space rental biz, are they?"

On the back side of all parking receipts/permits,
repeated three times!  Gee, thanks, that's so helpful!

Remember when there wasn't much at all expensive, time-consuming, annoying, wasteful or ugly about our parking meters? (They required a working 9-volt battery, emptying of quarters once a week, and the occasional simple maintenance by a city worker.  Replacing an old meter typically cost us a few hundred dollars.)

Remember when no one was confused or complaining about how to pay for a parking space downtown, when even a child or a blind person could pay for a parking space with a coin or two without having to touch a keyboard and stare at a screen?

Remember when our parking meters actually let everyone know what the hours and days of paid parking were?

Remember when we didn't have scannable paid parking signs everywhere?  (Think as recently as last year!)

Remember when most vehicle owners didn't feel the need to remember their license plate number? (I say it's always a good idea to have it memorized, regardless of parking needs!)

Remember when HPD was not in charge of parking, before they "took over parking," as Parking Captain David Miller has so eloquently put it a few times?

Remember when it was always possible to get help from a human to pay for a parking ticket when City Hall was open?  Remember when no one was turned away even if the sole Parking Bureau employee was out sick?

Remember when Tom Depietro, as our go-to parking expert member on the Parking Study Committee, repeated his claim that the only way to rid the city of "THE TYRANNY OF THE QUARTER" was to remove all of our parking meters and replace them with fifteen $10,000 kiosks that accept paper money and credit cards only?  Thank goodness ol' Tommy Boy took care of that pestilence!  We can all breathe a whole lot easier now!  Leave those tyrannical quarters at home!