I, too, have a hard time seeing why the meter should not also be acceptably sharp if you focused on the numbers and shot at f/32. Depth of field should have been enough.
So, I suspect there's something else going on. Maybe as simple as camera movement, film "pop" during the exposure, etc.
Do do a test to ensure you're Fresnel and ground glass are properly placed. Easiest for me is to photograph a ruler set at an oblique angle to the camera back. Use a longish lens, shoot wide open (to get the shallowest depth of field possible) and focus on a mark in the middle of the ruler (e.g., the 6-inch mark). Develop the film and check the negative with a loupe (10x is good - 8x is okay). If your mark is in sharp focus, then you are fine. If another mark is sharper, you've likely got a discrepancy between the gg focus plane and the film (but repeat the test to make sure it wasn't operator error).
I do this fairly regularly with my cameras when I'm in the middle of a printing session. It's easy: set up the shot, shoot, toss the negatives into the print developer for five minutes or so, stop, fix for a couple minutes and check with the loupe while wet. Then the negs get tossed.
As for focusing: I recommend, as others here have, the method described on the LF home page, especially in the article on how to find the optimum f-stop.
It is a beginners mistake to focus on something far away and then stop down to get nearer objects acceptably sharp. Depth of field extends both in front of and behind the plane of sharp focus, so you really want to focus in between the nearest and farthest points you want acceptably sharp and stop down to the appropriate f-stop depending on the "focus spread," i.e., the distance between the near and far points on your camera bed or rail when you focus on each separately. All the details are in the article here:
https://www.largeformatphotography.info/fstop.html .
As far as movements go for the shot you posted: Many would just set up the camera with standard in "zero" position and make sure the back was parallel to the façade of the building, focus halfway between near and far points and stop down as needed. I might have applied a little tilt, if it helped (I check focus spread to see - less focus spread means the movement helps). I'd choose the nearest foreground point I wanted acceptably sharp and then on the closest vertical, which in this case might be the top of the parking meter or the top of the face of the building, depending on the tilt and the distances in the scene, and then tilt to get both these in sharp focus. Then I'd find my near and far focus points and see if the focus spread were better than just using zero position. If so, I'd use the tilt.
As you can see, there's a lot to figure out about how to optimize movements, focus and f-stops, so don't hesitate to come back here regularly with your questions.
Best,
Doremus
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