In this post I give my opinion in all of the considered changes to the parking regulations. I will go over each change.Right now, folks without a permit have to feed parking meters between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. A change in an ordinance proposed this week would require drivers to pay through 9 p.m.
I do not agree with this change. Parking in the city can be a hassle at times as it is. I think it will discourage people from visiting the city since they will have to worry about getting a ticket even later in the evening if approved to go to 9PM. It might discourage residents from going to city meetings since they will have to worry about their vehicle parked outside city hall while in the meetings. Another problem is the 30 minute meters have a sensor that you can only park in the same spot for 30 minutes and then must move the vehicle. You can't just put more money in and gain another 30 minutes. The samething applies for the regular meters but on those you get up to two hours and then must move the vehicle. This just creates more of a hassle for city residents then good. Basically if I attend a city meeting at 7PM and I park in a 30 minute meter spot I am going to have to exit the meeting in the middle of it just to move my car to another spot. That is unacceptable and ridiculous. It is bad enough we must pay to park on a public street that our tax dollars pay for to have to feed the parking authority more money late into the evening hours. Again I am totally against this idea and think it would be a bad move to approve it.
Next considered change I will go over is: Fines for parking broken down or illegally registered vehicles may also go up, and not every ticket could be placed on your windshield if the ordinance goes through.This change I am not totally against but do question parts of it. It says fines for parking broken down vehicles would go up. So what they are saying is if your vehicle breaks down and you can't have it towed that same day you will get a fine? I never had this happen to me so I didn't even know they fine you for this but that's not fair. It may not be your fault if your vehicle breaks down. Then they are going to fine you for something out of your control? I don't agree with this fine going up. I don't agree they should even fine you in the first place. Regarding illegally registered vehicles I don't have an issue with the fine being raised because there are alot of people who don't get their vehicle registered and don't care. It is the law to have your vehicle registered and have insurance so I have no problem with the fine being raised for that part of it. I do have a concern regarding not every ticket being placed on the windshield though. If you get a ticket and they don't put it on your windshield how are you going to know you have a ticket? I need to find out more information on that before posting an opinion on it.
Of course I have no problem with them expanding the acceptable forms of payment. The more options we have to pay for the meters the better. Alot of people don't carry cash or change so it would be a good idea to give the residents additional ways to pay for parking.
Not sure what they are considering in modifying for the notice of violation provisions so I don't want to comment on that either until I know more information. Like I said I am against changing the hours for the meters. 6PM is long enough to have the meters active. The parking authority says they are considering this change cause they are trying to protect people who live near the arena so the parking near their homes won't be clogged. I think that is a bogus excuse. They are trying to change the hours because of money. They know if they change the hours they will make more money off of residents and people visiting. It will only hurt the residents rather then protect them as they will have to worry about parking even more in this city.
In my honest opinion I think the meters should be removed and instead regulate a parking time limit in certain areas. For example "downtown" they could give a three hour parking limit. That would give residents and people visiting a three hour window to shop and eat "downtown". Certain other areas like outside city hall and the court house could have a time limit as well but I think the meters need to go. Also maybe instead of making things harder for us residents to park the parking authority and the city should brainstorm ideas on how to create more parking for residents and visitors but then again all they care about is the money, when the Executive Director is making 100,000 a year salary I wonder why.
If you have concerns regarding these changes come out to the public works committee meeting on Wednesday, April 9, 2014 at 5:30 PM in Council Chambers.
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