A community service officer intern for the Northfield Police Department was issuing parking tickets this afternoon along Division St. He said he written up over a dozen in a couple of blocks.
In May of 2011, I blogged: Do we need a downtown parking hall of shame?
No real progress since then, evidently. But it makes me glad that the City Council hasn’t approved the Streetscape Task Force’s request to spend $700,000 for another parking lot. The NDDC, the Chamber, and the Streetscape Task Force need to tackle the problem of chronic downtown parking violators first.
I’m confused. Wouldn’t more available parking spaces be a pretty good way to reduce the temptation to park incorrectly?
Peter, I suppose that’s a possibility but for the chronic violators, I’d doubt it. The new parking lot would be a block or more away so it’s more likely that they’d continue to search for an available spot on Division first.
Plus, asking taxpayers to fund a $750,000 irreversible decision on a parking lot without first pursuing other alternatives doesn’t seem wise to me.
As a recent offender, I feel that the $10 fine is quite fair. I get lazy when it’s hot and move my car less often. I am also constantly loading and unloading my car with recycling/trash/custom orders to be mailed/repairs that are leaving the store/window displays, etc. It’s more a matter of logistics when I forget to move my car.
I shall report to Bridge Square for the public stoning when I am called!
Mary, I can see how you feel a $10 fine is fair. But if you multiply your rationale many times over by other downtown store owners/employees who likely have similar rationales, it’s a big problem that not-so-indirectly contributes to the push for a $750,000 taxpayer solution. How is that fair?
At college we had a parking fine that increased with each offense, so in this case Northfield could do $10 for the first offense, $20 for the second, $30 for the third and so forth.