Sure, This Makes All The Sense In The World! Sure, This Is Good For Hudson! Sure, There's No Dysfunction At City Hall Or AT HPD To Be Concerned With!

If there are two things we can count on here in Hudson, it's that parking is a mess and City Hall can't pay attention to anything.  Consider the following as (further) evidence of these two seemingly intractable problems. 

Soon after the Pocketbook business complex opened its many doors earlier this year or late last year, I began noticing the yellow car in the lead picture parked on various streets surrounding 549 Washington during the day and often overnight.  (The car kind of stands out even if it is tiny.)  Parked primarily toward the end of Prospect Street (if a space was available) but also on North 6th (as seen in picture) and even on Franklin Street, there it was every day, as if it was owned by an employee of one the many businesses at 549 Washington (which stretches to Prospect).  I've never seen the car parked on Washington.

At least 6 weeks ago, I noticed the yellow car parked where you see it in the picture.  And to this day it is still in that same space on North 6th, completely ignored by HPD and DPW for at least a month and a half, perhaps over two months.  The fucking car hasn't moved for at least 40 days and nights and not one overnight parking ticket has been issued to it because there is no overnight rule on North 6th Street between State and Washington, where parking is only allowed on the west side of the street.  That car isn't even on HPD's radar, just as all vehicles parked on the west side of North 6th are always ignored, no matter how long they remain unmoved.  (The record for an unmoved vehicle on this portion of 6th Street, at least in the past 10 years, is 18 months!  It happened two years ago, in the same space as the yellow car!)

Not only has the parked yellow car not moved nor been ticketed or towed for over 6 weeks (of course, I don't know how long it had been there before I noticed it), but its registration expired two months ago, it is overdue for an inspection by just 13 months, and the rear driver's side tire is slowly deflating.  In any other city that has its shit together, this car would have been considered abandoned and towed away weeks ago.  But since there is no overnight parking rule where it is parked... it's not a problem vehicle or a safety issue.

Meanwhile, over in Realityville, if HPD finds out that you have 3 or more unpaid parking tickets overdue by 30 days or more, your car will be BOOTED and you will have no option but to pay all your overdue fines plus a $150 BOOT FEE to get the BOOT removed and get your car back.  HPD has no toleration for overdue parking tickets, including $10 so-called meter violation tickets.  Bad car!  Bad car owner! How dare they do this to us! Stick it to them!  Don't give them a warning!  BOOT them and inconvenience them for making our work so difficult!  Make them pay up!  And if they don't pay up within 24 hours, TOW THE CAR and let the tow company charge them another $150!

Anyone who parks their car overnight on the so-called WRONG SIDE of certain streets -- even those with no signs indicating what the overnight parking rules are or even that there is one -- will almost certainly be ticketed in the early morning hours by a Hudson patrol cop.  Depending on the street (if it has a rule, of course), the season, and the rule, the ticket can be $15 (Wrong Side) or $25 (No Parking Zone).  HPD has no toleration of cars parked in the way of the DPW street sweeper and snowplows.  Ticket them!  $15! $25!***  Make them pay!  Get them out of the way!  Learn them a lesson!  Give us the fucking money or we will BOOT you, too!

Yet, here in the year 2026, a car parked unmoved for weeks or months with an expired registration, an expired inspection, a slowly deflating rear tire, and surrounded by gravel and GRIT in what once was a quiet residential neighborhood is NOT A PROBLEM AT ALL FOR DAVID MILLER OR ROB PERRY.  Leave it alone!  Ignore it!  Do not ticket it, do not BOOT it, do not tow it!  That cute little yellow car and its owner are not causing any harm to the city.  Leave it the hell alone and let it remain there for as long as the owner wants to leave it there.  Keep driving right past it every night! We want it to remain there for months even if all the tires go flat and the car can't start.  Months, years, whatever it takes -- we don't care if it's been abandoned!  Why would anyone think this is a problem that we should be concerned about?

That cute little uninspected and unregistered car has been parked unmoved 24/7 almost directly across the street from mayor Ferris's house for the past 6 or 8 weeks.  Do you suppose he has recently noticed the distinctive yellow car once when headed to or from the front door of his house?  If he has noticed it, do you suppose he understands the parking problem (aka, mess) and bigger dysfunctional issue that car points to?  Or does he think there is nothing there to be concerned about and that the little yellow car with the deflating tire and other issues is fine where it is for the unforeseeable future?  Do you suppose in the past several weeks that 6th Street resident and city mayor Joe Ferris has reached out to either David Miller, Mishanda Franklin, or Rob Perry (or all of them at once!) for an explanation from each of them as to how a car can be ignored for so long by HPD and DPW that has apparently been abandoned on the street where he regularly parks his own car overnight (and where parking can be tight thanks to the Pocketbook)?  I would pay 20 bucks to hear their responses, if only because it might be the funniest nonsense gobbledygook I've heard in months.  Or at least 6 friggin' weeks!

Delivery to the 6th Street side of the Pocketbook business complex 
on July 17th.  Notice the yellow car parked in its space further 
down the street beyond Prospect.  JULY 17TH, over 30 days ago!

*** Margaret Morris is hoping to raise the fee of a WRONG SIDE parking ticket from $15 to $25.  She parks her car in her garage at night, and I'm pretty sure she has no idea what a WRONG SIDE ticket is typically used for or how many of them HPD issues practically every night of the year.  She, along with plenty of people associated with city government (2nd ward council member and Greenport resident Dewan Sarowar comes to mind first), have no idea what it is like to have to keep your car parked OFF of the WRONG SIDE of the street for practically every night of the year lest you be ticketed by HPD.  It's a hassle and quality-of-life issue that none of them understand one bit, yet they are more than ready and willing to raise the price of those tickets for those of us who are all too familiar with the hassle and quality of life issue that is found on some streets but not others (including the street Rob Perry lives on).  All of this is quite disgusting, but none of it is at all surprising!