The Register-Star reports today that the newly installed parking meters on the 300 block of Warren Street are already starting to rake in the revenue: "Parking meters generate a flurry of tickets first day in operation."
This story reminded me of an incident I heard about over the weekend from a Gossips reader who recently took the train to New York City and parked his car in the municipal lot across the street. As many people will attest, the electronic meters at that lot are not easy to comprehend and use, even for people who are fairly savvy about such things, and on that day, some people were having an especially hard time. My friend helped them through the process, and when they were finished, they went back to their car, thinking they had to put the receipt on the car as evidence that the fee had been paid, only to find that they had already gotten a ticket!
I'd become so used to the covered meters that I hadn't noticed they were suddenly uncovered.
ReplyDeleteI entered my office for only a few minutes, just to pick something up. When I emerged there was a ticket.
Were they watching and waiting for people? Had I missed some sort of notice which I would have heeded?
I chalk it up to nastiness. (Next comes one of those moments when you hear officials explaining that this is "a city," after all.)
The thing I learned last year about our "meter people", especially the males, as they walk along Warren Street checking meters, if there is a minute or two left, they will stand there until "Expired" pops up and start writing immediately. I was in La Gamin having breakfast when I looked at my watch and though I have a minute or two left. As I exited to add another quarter the meter guy was almost half finished writing me a parking ticket already. A real CREEP!
DeleteMaybe all these tickets - that the HPD is backlogged in collection - can replace their budget that they hold Hudson hostage to.
ReplyDeleteA reminder --If you are visiting the 300 block of Warren Street at night or on weekends, you can park in the large parking lots in front of the Columbia County Human Services Building on Columbia Street. These lots are open to the public, have no parking meters, are well lit, and they are only a short walk up a gentle ramp directly across from the Opera House.
ReplyDelete--Ellen
Or visitors can just avoid Warren Street altogether.
ReplyDeleteWas the public alerted beforehand as to the day the meters would be put into action? I'd have appreciated the 'heads up.'
I'd wager that the Unfriendly City actually planned ahead on a big haul from unwitting citizens the moment they uncovered the new meters.
Imagine, a world where government actions are actually hostile to the citizenry. Who ever heard of such a thing!? (heh).
In New Haven, College Street is the main commuter artery through the center of the city, and there is No Parking as of 4.00pm. College Street then becomes a Tow-Away Zone.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a Freshman at Yale my room overlooked College Street. I'd watch four tow trucks line up by parked cars at 3.45pm. At 4.00pm exactly, the tow trucks hooked up the parked cars. At 4.01pm the cars were on their way to the pound.
For all these cities this is business. In Chicago they've even written a song about it, with the chorus "Hey, hey, tow them away, the Lincoln Park vultures are here!"
-- Jock Spivy
New Haven, CT population: 129,779 (2010 US Census).
ReplyDeleteHudson, NY population: ca. 6,713 (2010)
When I lived in Chicago, I unhappily found out where they take towed cars--a dark underground place that is hard to get to unless you have a car.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in Chicago's residential Streeterville neighborhood, (area around The Magnificent Mile),
You could park illegally with your blinkers on--no problem. That is probably no longer true for financial reasons.