The remedy for most of the problems, except the last one, is simply to download the ParkMobile app. Once you've done that, paying for parking involves just a few taps on your phone. For those without smartphones, the kiosks are on the way.
Tiresome as it is for those of us who park on Warren Street to adjust to the new system, consider how it has changed the job of parking officer. In the past, the parking officers could walk up and down the street, on the sidewalk, looking for expired meters. When they saw one, they would issue a ticket. Now their job requires that they scan the license plate of every car parked on the street to find out whether or not the parking fee has been paid. On a holiday weekend like this past one, that's a lot of cars and a lot more work for the parking officers than in the past.
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"The kiosks are on the way..." Hmmm. Let's see: 10 kiosks have been in storage for over a year, but four of them need to be retrofitted to have solar panels that for some reason are missing (Chief Franklin said at the recent SAFETY Committee meeting that she "got a quote" for that work but failed to say what it's going to cost us.) Where will the ten kiosks go, and how many blocks of streets will they cover? Two? If you want to kiosk, say, the 200 block of Warren, you would need at least three on each side -- two in the middle and two at each end. And 6 kiosks may not even be sufficient.
ReplyDeleteLess than a year ago, Jen Belton and Tom Depietro of the Parking Study Committee suddenly realized that if they stuck to their plan to kiosk the entirety of Warren and all the side streets and Columbia, the city would be forced into bankruptcy twice over. So, yes, "the (ten) kiosks are coming." But they won't do much to help matters, will they? It's frightening how shoddily this whole thing was handled. Amateurs, all of them, playing with our money.
The City of Rochester has a combination of parking meters, kiosks and a parking app. On some streets, the only option is to fill a parking meter with quarters. And guess what? They do not charge for parking on the weekends. In Hudson, City Hall and HPD see a busy weekend as an opportunity to make money, particularly by issuing tickets. In Rochester, it's just the opposite. They see free parking on weekends as an opportunity to welcome and attract people to downtown so they need not worry about being ticketed and can instead spend as much time downtown spending their money on something besides a parking app, kiosk or meter or ticket. Like a meal or a gift from a local brick and mortar restaurant or shop.
ReplyDeleteThe City of Hudson, particularly HPD, is addicted to and reliant on ticketing cars, and as a result it can't see the forest for the trees.
Making parking free everywhere on the weekends strikes me as a bad idea. I reckon it would turn Warren St into a vehicular zoo.
ReplyDeleteHowever, making a couple of municipal lots free on the weekends could be a good idea. Traffic would be redirected to them and visitors would then walk a few blocks increasing foot traffic for adjacent businesses.
I was on the phone with the folks at the end of the phone number on the street signs listening to someone tell me that I had to have the app on my phone before I could register or pay when I got a ticket for not paying.... These guys should be running the school system!
ReplyDeleteI think the point of charging for parking is to raise revenue, so the idea that it would be free on the weekends is kind of backwards. During the weekdays for example, lower Warren (primarily residential) is pretty empty as locals park elsewhere. The only time it fills up is on the weekend. For locals it is a hassle and since they now avoid parking on Warren altogether, free parking might be a good idea to have on weekdays, Tuesday - Thursday, during the off season, to give local residents a break. At this point, Hudson doesn't need an incentive to attract people on weekends with free parking.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I just got off the phone with someone who is coming to drop some art off at my gallery on lower Warren. I explained the new parking situation to them not wanting them to get a ticket. The artist said she didn't like to use QR codes or pay for things online, so she would have her husband wait in the car while she dropped the piece off. They could park around the corner, so it's not a total deterrent, but something to consider is that many people do not want to make online, QR code payments and it isn't the cost that is a deterrent, but the method of payment. Many businesses in Hudson are just making ends meet and any deterrent to customers isn't a good idea, in my opinion.
Before all this was set in motion, did anyone from the parking study committee or HPD reach out to residents or business owners to get feedback about the idea of changing and expanding paid parking? Of course not. The city hired two parking consultants who told them what to do. And we can't expect HPD to care how residents and businesses might be affected by the parking overhaul. The purpose from the start was to increase revenue, consequences (and residents) be damned.
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