"Speak of the Devil, and He Shall Appear"

That's not exactly the perfect title for this story, but I couldn't resist. Last Friday, in the introduction to the post about hospital litter in people's yards on McKinstry Place, Gossips reviewed the ill-fated parking permit plan for the part of the city around the hospital, which was passed the Common Council by a tiny margin in March 2015 and was then vetoed by Mayor William Hallenbeck. It turns out I left out an entire chapter in the saga of the parking permit plan. In June 2016, a revised version of the law creating a parking permit system was laid on the aldermen's desks.

A line-by-line comparison of the 2015 document and the revised 2016 document reveals that not much was changed. An alternative, mildly sardonic title for the bill was added: "The Friendly Neighborhood Parking Solution for the year 2016"; a paragraph in the "Legislative Findings" section, which mentioned aldermen John Friedman (Third Ward) and Bart Delaney (Fifth Ward) and their interactions with hospital executives, was deleted; all references to the City Clerk were changed to the Parking Ticket Bureau. Aside from that, the proposed legislation remains the same, including the parameters of the area to which the parking permit system applies, which so outraged the former mayor.

A residential parking permit system is hereby established on both sides of the following streets unless otherwise noted: Warren Street east of Eighth Street to its easterly terminus; Worth Avenue from the intersection of Warren Street to the north side of the Worth Avenue entrance to the State Prison; the west side of Prospect Avenue from its intersection with Warren Street and Worth Avenue to the south side of Prison Alley, and the east side of Prospect Avenue from Warren Street to the south side of Rossman Avenue; Rossman Avenue; Van Winkle Avenue; Eighth Street; Columbia Street from the east side of Eighth Street to Fairview Avenue; Fairview Avenue from Columbia Street to the south side of Green Street; Green Street from the west side of Fairview Avenue to Fredrick (sic) Street; Fredrick (sic) Street; McKinstry Place; Columbia Turnpike from Prospect Avenue to Cemetery Road.

This proposed law, in its revised form, was placed on the aldermen's desks in June 2016. At the time, it wasn't clear if enabling legislation would be required to enact the law, and when it was determined that it was, the state legislature was out of session, so no action was taken. Last night, however, at the informal Common Council meeting, a resolution was introduced requesting that a formal home rule request be sought. That resolution was accompanied by the 2016 version of the law. As with the lodging tax, bills must to introduced by our assemblymember Didi Barrett and our state senator Kathy Marchione and passed by the state assembly and senate before the law creating the parking permit system can be enacted by Hudson city government.
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