A parking meter named Hope

It sounds like something out of "A Streetcar Named Desire." Drop a coin in a parking meter in Baltimore, and the pointer swings not from 0 to 30, but from Despair to Hope. Yes, it does. Have Baltimorons gone off the deep end? Do they think a few well-placed quarters can turn a city around? Nothing of the sort.

We shouldn't have to explain that it's part of an anti-panhandling initiative to attract donors more comfortable giving to a tidy machine than an unkempt person. The money goes to Baltimore Homeless Services.

But you don't get any more Hope for a quarter than you do for a nickel in one of these special "Make a Change" meters, and, in fact, the register won't stick on Hope, even if the meter's full; it swings right back to Despair -- an existentialist's dream, to be sure -- but the idea is to have people reaching into their pockets again and again.

The grim statistics: 2,943 homeless people were counted in Baltimore last winter. So far, there are just a few of these old-fashioned meters in touristy parts of town. No word on whether you can park all day at one of them -- out of Sheer Desperation

Getting rid of the problem

Another approach to making homelessness go away was pioneered by a major hospital in Los Angeles. A 63-year-old patient from Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower Hospital was recorded on surveillance video in March wandering crime-plagued Skid Row in a hospital gown. She had serious untreated health problems, including dementia, when she was found. Prosecutors filed criminal charges yesterday against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, part of Kaiser Permanente, the largest HMO in the nation.

From the AP
• Man Buys Smoker, Finds Human Leg Inside • Coach Stops Runaway Horse by Biting Ear • Man Allegedly Tries to Use 'Blurry' $100 • Police Break Up Brawl at Chuck E. Cheese • Suggestive Card Ruffles Farmer's Feathers • Nerds to Auction Themselves to Women • Toilet to Tap? San Jose Probes Plan • Seattle to Allow Pygmy Goats As Pets • Yankees Rookies Dress Up in Oz Costumes

The legal action was the first of its kind in Los Angeles, and experts said it appeared to be unprecedented nationally, according to The Associated Press. The Bellflower Hospital is among 10 Los Angeles-area hospitals under investigation for discharging homeless patients onto the streets instead of into the custody of a relative or shelter. Kaiser said it was sorry.

Quote

"Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope."

-- Mahalia Jackson

This is a test

St. Louis is the latest city to experiment with parking meters that take credit and debit cards, as well as coins. The new meters each cover several spaces and come in two varieties.

One allows drivers to simply input a parking space number and the amount of time they want; the other requires printing out a receipt that must be displayed on the vehicle's dashboard.

Both have gotten mixed reviews. Some people are unhappy about having to walk back to their cars after printing a receipt, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Others drive off, apparently confused by the absence of a conventional meter.

"I think it's the city's attempt at discriminating against stupid people," said John Oliver, a carpenter. Though complaints have been few, it appears people don't like plastic -- and, in fact, one person got a credit card stuck in a meter. Of the 500 or so people who have used the new models since Nov. 1, only about 25 -- or 5 percent -- used plastic.

Parking meters gone wild

If you can't trust your parking meter, what can you trust? I mean, you might not like the way it keeps time, but that might be because it's entirely too accurate. Not in Ashburton, New Zealand, however.

In August, the country's Reserve Bank released a series of new coins, forcing the recalibration of parking meters. The Ashburton District Council had congratulated itself on being well-prepared for the coin changeover, with 16,000 coins passed through meters to ensure all were ready for conversion.

But rather than getting with the program, the meters began to think for themselves. It appears that if 10- and 20-cent coins are used together, meters become confused; the 10-cent coin appears to be the culprit. Sometimes it fails to register; on others it registers but triggers a random or incorrect time.

To add to the woes, a meter that registers correctly at one time of day may, at another time, come up with an incorrect reading.

The meter failure occurred about 3 or 4 percent of the time and was always to the council's disadvantage. "So I don't think we'll get too many complaints about that," said the councilman in charge.