Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, public parking spaces meant for residents were few and far between in the 500 block of narrow, tree-and-house-lined, one-way Washington Street. The street, one of three, has essentially been taken over by the business complex at 549 Washington, also known as the Pocketbook Hotel (PBH). Just about any parking issues -- certainly those that didn't exist until this year -- on Washington, Prospect, or 6th are a result the PBH business complex.
To those willing to accept it, it is now abundantly clear that the fate of our planet -- and all living things on it -- is looking grim. Quite grim. Flooding after unprecedented rainfall, droughts, forest fires all over (adding more carbon to the atmosphere in a doom loop), heat domes that kill and force Europeans to consider air conditioning, unpredictable and unusual weather (with lots of wind), invasive species spreading to once inhospitable regions, warming oceans, endless wars over oil. It seems like we have passed the tipping point. We (primarily the US and other industrial countries) have simply added too much carbon to the atmosphere for planet earth to function properly. Mankind's disposable infrastructure -- built for our survival -- is completely untenable and in contradiction to the laws of nature. Treating our planet like a toxic dumping ground seems to have finally caught up to us.
Typically, when I test our new $10,000 parking kiosks to make sure they are paying for themselves, one of two things happens. Via the digital screen, after a few taps on keys, they either respond that they are ready to take money for parking spaces or there is a printer error keeping them from taking money. On Thursday, I had to add another result to the list: No response at all. No surprise there!
Sometime this week or last, DPW renewed the pedestrian crosswalk across Front Street at the Amtrak station. That crosswalk -- perhaps the city's longest -- first appeared 4 or 5 years ago, as I recall. (It can be seen on Google maps from 2022 but not from 2018). White paint was originally used, so it's difficult to say who installed those lines years ago.
... are any crosswalks or stop lines at all! Everything is fine there! Don't waste the money and effort! Stick to Warren!
Anyone who contends with overnight on-street parking (and plenty who don't) knows that you risk a $15 WRONG SIDE parking ticket from HPD if you fail to adhere to whatever overnight parking rule exists on your street (odd/even is not the only rule), regardless of signage or no signage. Additionally, just about everyone on the planet knows that the reason for the overnight parking rules is twofold: to allow the Hudson DPW street sweeper to do its thing outside of winter, and for DPW to be able to plow streets of snow to the curbs within two nights. That's it; it's not complicated: Stay out of the way of the sweeper and the plows or you will be ticketed. All streets need to be swept; all streets have an overnight parking rule of one sort or another.
Yesterday afternoon, I first saw the Shop Rite 18-wheeler headed west in the 500 block of State Street, among the five blocks of State betwe...
