Who Is Mi$$ing Those Parking Meters Now? Tax Paying Residents Are! Planet Earth Is, Too!

Prior to this year, DPW made regular use of the sturdy and ancient metal poles supporting our parking meters when they needed to post temporary NO PARKING signs in preparation of planned events and reacting to unplanned events such as snow emergencies.  Think of the meter poles as FREE, PERMANENT, READY AT ANY TIME and WELL-SPACED sign supports that made DPW's job a bit easier and cheaper.  Think of the meter poles as dual purpose infrastructure and a big help to DPW.  With the parking meters and their poles gone, though, what can DPW attach their temporary orange wooden NO PARKING signs to?  Plastic, of course!  Cheap and ugly plastic to the rescue once again!  More plastic destined for our landfills full of the awful toxic shit that never degrades! 

In the background of the lead picture, taken a few days prior to last Monday's cancelled Memorial Day parade, just beyond the piece of white paper that had fallen off the sign, you can see the filled hole on the sidewalk where a parking meter pole stood until very recently.  That pole had probably been standing along the curb for at least 30 years supporting a pair of parking meters and, of course, the occasional painted orange wooden NO PARKING sign from DPW.

Here is another example from last week of the lunacy our new paid parking system has created for everyone, this one on the sidewalk along the other side of the 7th Street park:

This temporary sign of DPW's was also zip tied to a very new-looking plastic "traffic delineator post" beside a parking space on North 7th Street, about 8 feet from where a very permanent parking meter pole once stood before it was removed a few weeks ago.  The meter pole was between parking spaces; the delineator (as well as the one in the background) is alongside a parking space where a car door might open and close and a human being might want to maneuver.  Parking meters, their poles and any temporary signs attached to them were NEVER in anyone's way while parking downtown.

So, DPW's efforts to post temporary NO PARKING signs  -- which happens quite a bit in the warmer months -- has now become more time-consuming, more polluting and, of course, more expensive.  More use of vehicles to carry the temporary plastic supports.  More labor to handle them, set them up, remove them and put them back in storage for the next event.  Eventually, of course, all plastic breaks, gets sent to a landfill and has to be replaced with more plastic that breaks, gets sent to a landfill... and the costs begin to pile up.  City residents had to purchase our new plastic delineators because there are no longer any parking meters.  Rob Perry didn't ask anyone if green plastic delineators would be appropriate on our sidewalks.  He had no choice; he had to buy something (though I suppose he could have chosen red over green).  And city residents will continue to pay to replace the delineators when they break... because there are no parking meters poles for DPW to use for their temporary signs we can't live without.

DPW's new green "traffic delineator posts" came from a company by the name of Vevor (their name is printed at the base).  Their website offers three of the posts for $50.  But the posts come with just one rubber base support.  DPW seems to be using two of the supports on all of its posts.

In addition to the new Vevor plastic crap ugly delineators, DPW is now forced to use lots of the heavy, handmade metal posts that they've had forever but never had to use on our sidewalks where parking meter poles were available and handled the job just fine for every event that came along. 

As recently as this past December, the NO PARKING sign in this picture would have been attached to the meter pole (with meters) that now has a scannable paid parking sign on its top:

This was never necessary until this year!
Words fail me, but dumb comes to mind.

The picture above may sum up the insanity of the unforeseen consequences (including expenses) following the removal of our parking meters and poles. And I haven't heard any mention of any of this at any meetings.  Have you?  Did Rob Perry not foresee this coming?  "By the way, Common Council, if you remove the parking meters and their poles, we are going to be incurring additional costs for our temporary sign installation needs."

The more we rely on plastic, the more we humans, all animals and our planet die by it.  And let's face it, the shit is ugly.  Hudson is getting uglier by the day.  What is less ugly:  A) A pair of parking meters on a sturdy metal pole found every other parking space along the curbs of our downtown sidewalks; or B) all of the following: BRIGHT GREEN PLASTIC TRAFFIC DILENEATORS ON OUR SIDEWALKS BEFORE AND DURING EVENTS, SCANNABLE PAID PARKING SIGN EVERYWHERE HIGH AND LOW AND (soon to come) ENORMOUS PARKING KIOSKS ON OUR SIDEWALKS?  City Hall (primarily HPD and DPW) has chosen B as the less ugly choice.  In reality, though, City Hall has chosen ugly over attractive, clutter over tidiness, senseless instead of sensible, waste instead of savings, disposable over permanence, and unsustainable over sustainable.

Excuse me, folks, I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your meal, but may I stand on your table to scan that parking sign above you on the pole with my phone?  I really need to pay for my parking space, otherwise I will get a parking ticket I can't afford.  It will only take a second, I promise, and I won't step on any of your food or knock anything to the ground.