Meters made legal after the fact ('The city is losing millions of dollars' )

The Times Picayune ^ | August 06, 2005 | Bruce Eggler

[elkfersupper]

Hoping to head off a major loss to the city's treasury, the New Orleans City Council has passed an ordinance legalizing the new parking meters that Mayor Ray Nagin's administration began installing in January. Because the law seeks to authorize the new machines retroactively, its legality is almost certain to be tested in court.

[elkfersupper]

"I can eat fifty eggs."

[mmercier]

Drivers are a prime source of revenue for municipalities.

In my home town, everyone who works down town has to run out every hour and switch their parking space, otherwise our sole "meeter maid" who sits on a bench smoking pall malls will ticket those who do not do the shuffle. Now it is so coordinated it is almost hilarious, especially watching the "meeter maid" observing the chaos and looking for the few who do not respond in time. She never misses a car that is not moved I am told. We have no meters, just a 1 hour limit. It is a funny thing to see, and probably has cost the local businesses tens of millions in lost productivity over the years.

[Vermonter]

Years ago, in Brooklyn, I watched over a period of weeks as the city replaced a sidewalk in downtown. As the work neared completion, one day an entire new sidewalk had been poured along a full block. The next day a crew was installing pipes for new parking meters.

On the next day, with cars parked all along the new sidewalk, the city workers installed a meter on the top of each new pole. Behind them came a Meter Maid writing tickets to every car parked there.

This article beats that though

[elkfersupper]

cost the local businesses tens of millions in lost productivity over the years.

Got 'em here too. Same situation. Control-freak Nazis.

[Paladin2]

Remember, it's free parking that made America great.

[elkfersupper]

They're not (yet) brave enough to just make every street a tollway or just raise taxes. Pick us off one at a time, and there's minimal resistance.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

You in a heap a trouble, boy!

[elkfersupper]

"What we have here, is a failure to communicate!

[HangnJudge]

I lived in NOLA for 8 years

One of many things I learned was to
not mess with the police. They will ticket, tow, or boot you freely
and if provoked, very well might beat you and ask questions later

Interesting city but will not live there again.

[Bogey78O]

Same thing happened where a city changed the signs to No Parking. The meter maid followed the sign installers writing tickets.

Meter Maids are the msot dispicable sivil servant ever created.

[elkfersupper]

The bad news is....every city and village in the U.S. is headed to the same place.

[longtermmemmory]

That is SO true.

I am shocked how STUPID municipal governments are regarding free parking. They do not consider that getting more people down town will bring more money.

Instead they push them to the free parking of the malls.

[FreedomCalls]

In my home town, everyone who works down town has to run out every hour and switch their parking space,... We have no meters, just a 1 hour limit. It is a funny thing to see, and probably has cost the local businesses tens of millions in lost productivity over the years.

The whole purpose of the meters or the one-hour limit is to ensure that no one hogs the space all day, so that people who are just coming and going LIKE SHOPPERS and DINERS can find a space that's not occupied by all-day parkers like your office workers. If the office workers would just up and pay for an all-day space in a parking lot or garage like they are supposed to then not only would productivity go up from not having workers go out and try to game the parking meter system, the businesses would find their sales would go up too because then people could easily find a parking place in front of their establishments.

[FreedomCalls]

Got 'em here too. Same situation. Control-freak Nazis.

That's what they get for hiring cheapskates who would rather take up spaces reserved for shoppers and diners thatn go and pay for all-day parking somewhere else. The whole point of time-restricted parking is to prevent people from hogging the spaces all day so that shoppers and diners or anyone else there for just a short period of time can came and go quickly in and out of open parking spaces. If you want to park all day, then go pay for an all-day parking space. Don't force your custopmers to have to park a long way away or pay for an all-day space when they only need 30 minutes.

[elkfersupper]

I'll never live anywhere or go anywhere that I have to pay for parking.........period.

[FreedomCalls]

I am shocked how STUPID municipal governments are regarding free parking. They do not consider that getting more people down town will bring more money.

Read these responses. The purpose of metered parking is to ensure that there is parking available. If there was free parking then the employees of the businesses would hog all the spaces all day and there would be no room close by for short-term customers. Some employees are such parking space hogs that even if the parking is free but limited to one hour, that not only do they switch their cars around every hour, they watch out the windows to see what the meter maid is up to. The stupidity is not the municipal governments, it's the downtown workers taking up all the metered or time-limited parking that's supposed to be for CUSTOMERS.

[FreedomCalls]

I'll never live anywhere or go anywhere that I have to pay for parking.........period.

So you'd rather take up the free parking that your customer is supposed to use, so that he/she has to either go somewhere else or pay for their parking so that you don't have to? Are you a government worker? You certainly don't depend on commercial traffic or you would realize that easily available parking is of paramount concern to your customer -- even if you have to park somewhere else like a pay parking lot.

[packrat35]

I refuse to go downtown Memphis for this very reason. I can afford to pay to park, but I am not going to pay to park to go shopping when I can go elsewhere for free.

It's stupid.

[elkfersupper]

I don't live anywhere or go anywhere that I have to pay for parking, nor will I. I am more or less a country boy.

[mmercier]

You make good points, especially regarding the few spaces that are available in the square itself, and the need of customer parking... I go through that every time I simply want to pull over and get coffee. There are few office workers, mostly restaurants, hairdressers, hardware stores and what not.

The shuffle game I am referring to occurs in the two small lots off the square, where approximately 50 - 75 people must park. Every other space in the area that is not marked is full, side streets, open lots, everything.

There simply is not enough space, so we get these little hourly comedy acts. I live down off the square, and just noticed last week that this is still going on. It has been like this for a decade. Sitting outside of one lot on a strategically placed public bench, where there is a convergence of three hairdressers and an Asian nail salon, can be very interesting; especially in the spring and summer.

The cost in lost productivity for the local business must be astounding. Most here are all rats at the polls anyhow, so I am not exactly crying a river over this.