Thank Goodness The City Got Rid Of Those Old Parking Meters So That Parking Revenue Could Flood The City!

The $10,000 (plus $100-plus per month "connectivity fee") parking kiosk for the 700 block of Warren (just beyond the grey car in the background) is meant to be used by people parking their cars in the unmarked parking spaces seen above.  That so-called kiosk has been OUT OF SERVICE and DEAD for at least 13 f'ng weeks, and Parking Captain David Miller continues to see no reason to attach an OUT OF SERVICE sign to it or bother explaining to the public and the so-called SAFETY Committee for months what is going on with it.  (The kiosk's solar panel has been kaput for months, failing us no more than three months after it was installed, a fact I learned on the sidewalk from a city employee.) And why should we expect PC Miller to do such things that are far beyond his paygrade, not in his job description, and possibly beyond his mental acuity?  Why should we expect anyone at Hudson City Hall or at HPD to do such basic, decent things that come naturally to any self-respecting city hall in America that is occupied by adults?

If you were to ask our $125,000 DPW Superintendent Rob Perry why there are so many missing or well-faded parking space lines up and down Warren Street, on side streets, and in city parking lots, he'd probably tell you that no one told him about them.  Or that he's short- staffed.  Or that the lines aren't important.  Or that his painting crew didn't have time this year.  Or they ran out of white paint.  Or all of the above.  He might just finish with, "I don't know what to tell you.  It is what it is."  Or "Stop bothering me, jerk."

If you were to ask $150,000 HPD Parking Captain David Miller the same question, he'd probably tell you that parking space lines are the responsibility of DPW, not HPD or its Parking Bureau.  "Sorry, I can't help you. I've been really busy the past few months trying to track down a cheap solar panel on eBay, as well as an OUT OF SERVICE sign in my file cabinet.  Talk to Rob Perry... that is, if you can find him.  Go away, I've got work to do, my time is expensive."

If you were to ask our $79,000 mayor Joe Ferris how he feels about the deplorale condition of the city's parking lots and parking space lines in the downtown business district, including DIRECTLY BEHIND CITY HALL, he'd probably tell you that there simply isn't any money to get anything done this year.  "We're hoping the increased parking fee rates, the increased revenue in the expanded paid parking zone along all of Warren, the increased parking ticket fees, and HPD's huge effort to boot as many cars as possible will allow us to get to the parking space lines repainted sometime next year.  That's the plan.  Sorry, I have to go now; I've got Didi Barrtet on the line and I need to speak to her, as I do every day."

The city has no warranty for the 16 kiosks.  It 
was deemed too expensive.  If a car runs one over, 
we'll have to pay to replace or fix it.  5 or 6 months 
ago, both Jen Belton and Claire Cousin agreed
with me that this kiosk should be protected. 

If you were to ask me the same question, I'd tell you that you have arrived in Hudson, NY, likely the most poorly managed city in America in 2026.  And I would add, "Get used to it.  It's only going to get worse!  Just you watch."

With the parking meters gone from our sidewalks, well-demarcated parking spaces for the paid parking zone are now more important than ever.  Do I have to explain why this is so?  Apparently, at least as far as the folks at HPD, DPW and the mayor's office are concerned, the answer is a resounding yes. 

Has anyone at City Hall calculated or thought about how much it will cost to create hundreds of white-lined parking spaces in the expanded area of the paid parking zones where spaces have never been demarcated (in the first three blocks and the last block of Warren), including the ongoing cost to paint those lines every year or two so that they don't fade away to nothing?  Because having one portion of the paid parking zone with demarcated spaces and the rest of the zone without them is disrespectful and pure idiocy, isn't it?  Or is Hudson City Hall now governed by disrespectful idiocy?  Or is City Hall simply broken?