POUGHKEEPSIE – The City of Poughkeepsie Financial Parking Deck, across the street from the MJN Convention Center, experienced more trouble on Wednesday just before 9:00 a.m., forcing dozens of potential jurors to be late for jury selection and caused many others to be late for work as they waited upwards of 15 minutes to get into the parking garage.
There are three entrances to the parking deck that accommodates daily users paying by the hour and permit users that pay a monthly fee to the city for access to the structure. The Garden Street entrance has been closed for days at a time on several recent occasions due to a malfunctioning ticket machine. The Garden Street gate has been chained off all week, causing users to drive around the garage and try to merge with users who are entering from Market Street/Civic Center Plaza. On Wednesday, one of the two ticket machines at the front entrance malfunctioned, causing traffic usually spread out among three entrances to all try and use one entrance. Tempers flared as people sat in line while car after car pulled up to the awkwardly placed ticket machine to gain access to the garage. The machines are placed in the middle of curved platforms that make it difficult to reach without getting out of the vehicle. Driver after driver was observed pulling up to the machine, getting out of the car and either getting the entrance ticket or swiping their access card before getting back in the car to enter the garage.
The delays had cars backed up from the front entrance around the deck and back to the rear entrance on Garden Street. The delays at the front entrance caused traffic to back up on Main Street for more than a block and cars trying to reach the garage from Market Street were backed up to Church Street (Route 44/55 East).
One Dutchess County worker sat in traffic for more than 20 minutes before getting into the parking deck. “We all pay good money to the city for our parking spots and this is the third day in a row that this has been a major issue,” he told Mid-Hudson News before heading to his office on Market Street.
A City of Poughkeepsie parking employee arrived after noticing the traffic on the surrounding streets. He stationed himself at the one working entrance to distribute entrance tickets or swipe access cards to avoid having motorists get out of their vehicles. The traffic began moving a bit but was still noticeable because of the number of vehicles using the only entrance point.
The parking department supervisor eventually arrived and began working on the malfunctioning machine at the other front entrance.
Three different people who were reporting for jury duty with the county approached the Mid-Hudson News reporter to ask for directions. “I am afraid I am going to be in trouble for being late,” the first woman said. “I’ve never had to do this before.” The second potential juror, from the northern part of the county, said “I made it down from Rhinebeck to here faster than I was able to go two blocks in Poughkeepsie trying to get into this garage. It’s not a good look and certainly not a welcoming atmosphere.” The third respondent, while following the reporter to the juror building said people in line were very angry. “People had their windows down and were cursing and complaining about trying to get into the garage,” the young woman said. “I expected to see a fight break out.”
The machines that distribute the small entrance/exit tickets on cardstock-type paper historically break down when there is rain or high humidity, causing a parking employee to respond and spend time fixing the machine. Other parking garages in the Hudson Valley and beyond have replaced the ticket machines at their structures and switched to parking meters similar to the ones placed along sidewalks in Poughkeepsie, with great success.
