Dear Editor:
If everything that we homo sapiens attempted went according to plan, we’d have to give our misnamed species another name. So, given the reality of what we are, I don’t want to be too censorious, but still….The signs along two blocks of Garden St.— NO PARKING Wed to Fri Aug 19 to 21—went up a few days ago. Okay.
Wed. morning dawned clear and hot, and saw two blocks of Garden St. empty of cars, ready for work to be done. We assumed, since PSE&G had finished digging up the street and had filled in the holes, that the road pavers would come and seal it all under asphalt, and we’d be done with all the machinery and noise, and welcome!
Noon came. Nothing happening. Evening came. No work was done on the street.
Well, we guessed some unforeseen hitch had occurred, so on Wed evening we found, not without difficulty, a place to park our cars again, ready for work to be done on Thurs.
Thurs. dawned clear and hot. No workmen on the street. Noon. No work all day.
Fri., clear and cool, cars still obediently off the street, but no work done.
Now, damn it, it’s hard enough to find a parking place in town, when every block has NO PARKING signs in front of houses being gutted and rehabbed (sold by owners who could no longer afford to pay outrageous property taxes).
It’s easy for some city worker to slap up NO PARKING signs, but it is a misery for those who live on those blocks to try to find another place to park. And in his desperation he’d better not let his bumper hang over a yellow line, or some officious city employee will punish him with a ticket.
This—NO PARKING signs put up, but no work done—is not an anomaly. It has happened before on other streets, no parking for several days while waiting for some entity to get its act together. It indicates sloppy planning and scheduling by City Hall. Given our human failings (twice the average in City Hall, apparently), the charitable thing is to forgive. Once. Twice.
But you’d think that someone whose wages are paid by our taxes, would be embarrassed enough to at least issue an apology. I haven’t heard one, but I admit I may be a little hard of hearing.
T. Weed
P.S. And whenever whoever decides to do whatever…another 3 days?