The announcement, on the day before Thanksgiving, that parking at meters and in municipal lots would once again be free in the month of December came as a bit of a surprise. Granted it is a long-standing tradition in Hudson, but at the informal meeting of the Common Council on November 10, Captain David Miller, acting chief of police, recommended that fees for meter parking not be suspended for December. Some members of the Common Council appeared to agree with Miller's recommendation. Despite this, in the waning days of his administration, Mayor Kamal Johnson seems to have made a unilateral decision to continue the tradition and forego around $15,000 in revenue for the City from the meters and more from potential parking tickets.
The current situation inspired me to wonder when and how the tradition of free parking in December got started. Thanks to a reader, Gossips discovered several years ago that parking meters were introduced in 1941, only on the 5o0 and 6o0 blocks of Warren Street and on Seventh Street. What's interesting is that the merchants of Hudson petitioned the Common Council to install the meters, as explained in this article which appeared in the Hudson Evening Register in April 1941. (Because it's a bit hard to read, a transcription the text follows.)
The question of parking meters for Hudson will be determined at a special meeting of the Common Council tonight. The meeting will start at 7:30.
It is expected a resolution, asking for a six months trial of parking meters, will be introduced at the meeting. The matter has been under consideration by the council since a petition, signed by Warren Street merchants, pleaded for a trial term of parking meters this summer.
If the resolution is adopted, aldermen will be called upon to select the type of meter to be used and where they will be placed. It is believed meters will be installed on both sides of Warren street between Fifth and Park Place and on North Seventh street. The body may, however, suggest that meters be installed down Warren street as far as Fourth.
Claiming the parking situation in Hudson has been a serious matter during the past few summer seasons, merchants petitioned the Common Council to give parking meters a trial. If the situation is not improved within a period of six months, may be removed at no cost to the city, the merchants say.
The minutes of the Common Council indicate that at a special meeting on April 10, 1941, the Council unanimously passed a resolution to install parking meters on Warren Street between Fifth and Park Place and on Seventh Street from Warren to Union and from Warren to Columbia. The resolution contains some interesting language about the need for parking meters.
WHEREAS, this council believes that the installation and operation of traffic parking meters on certain streets and thoroughfares in the City of Hudson may provide a solution of the traffic problem and relieve the congestion and confusion necessarily attendant to heavy and congested traffic and the inability of operators of motor vehicles to find adequate facilities for parking their vehicles.
In 1941, the parking fees at the meters were a penny for 12 minutes and a nickel for an hour.
Knowing when parking meters were introduced in Hudson does not tell us when the tradition of free parking in December began. A logical assumption would be that the tradition was initiated in the 1970s, by the group that called itself SPOUT (Society to Promote Our Unique Town). A major objective of SPOUT was to lure shoppers back to Hudson from the strip malls of Greenport, where parking was plentiful and free. Given that goal, it would make sense that SPOUT would come up with the idea of free parking in the city's commercial district during the biggest shopping month of the year.
Logical as it seems that free parking in December was a SPOUT initiative, Gossips has been unable to document it, and some believe the tradition was already established when SPOUT was organized in 1975. Whether the tradition started fifty years ago or even earlier, Hudson is a very different place today than it was then. It is highly unlikely that free parking is what motivates people to visit Hudson in 2025, if it ever actually was, and, given the City's current fiscal challenges and uncertainties, foregoing any potential revenue seems a bit unwise.
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At least Kamal is consistent: from beginning to end, his administration (if that’s the proper word) has been marked by one bad decision after another, malfeasance followed by nonfeasance. He’ll be remembered as a disaster for our city.
ReplyDeleteCan we bring back SPOUT (Society to Promote Our Unique Town) 🐳
ReplyDeleteLocal businesses all do their own promotion and I think Hudson has been promoted well enough already. If anything, it's time to put the brakes on organized promotion, as tourism has escalated out of control. A better approach would be to raise the lodging tax and charge a weekend toll to enter Hudson for nonresidents.
DeleteThe question is, will HPD/Parking cover the kiosks or otherwise make it apparent that parking in the lots is free? The city has never covered the meters in the past ten years or more. That's been done by a volunteer group, and they never have enough bags to cover them all. Don't be surprised if none of the meters are covered this year.
ReplyDeleteHow about free blue garbage bags, why stop at free parking for tourists?
ReplyDelete