Dear State College borough parking office,
I read recently that you’re considering increasing fines for repeat parking offenders. I really hope you don’t do that. You see, I am a repeat parking offender.
Let me start by saying that I am a downtown-State College kind of gal. I frequent the downtown. My family likes to eat in the downtown restaurants. We like to shop at the downtown stores. This past holiday season, I did almost all of my shopping downtown. I even purchased gift cards at downtown stores for Grandma to give to my kids. Grandma lives locally, but doesn’t like to go downtown because of the perception that parking downtown is unavailable, if not inconvenient.
Two of our three children work in downtown businesses. As Penn State students, they work downtown because they can walk to work from apartments or dorms during the academic year. Unfortunately, when they are at home over holiday or summer breaks, they have to drive downtown to work from our home in Patton Township. Their employers don’t provide parking.
My husband operates a business in the downtown. He has a parking spot on private property several blocks away, but sometimes, because of the immediate needs of running a business, he has to use a parking meter. Deliveries, problem-solving, meeting with clients and so forth sometimes make it hard to have a parking spot that is distant from his office.
Statistically, because my family uses the downtown more often than others, the four drivers in our family are more likely to be repeat offenders. We park in the meters, get distracted, and the meter expires. We park at the meters because going into the parking garages at night for college girls is kind of creepy. We park in the metered lot that is right outside of work because of an immediate need of the business.
We get parking tickets.
For the record, we don’t get tickets because we block traffic, park on the wrong side of the street, are too close to a hydrant, or park in front of someone’s house all night. We get tickets for staying too long. As for the argument that we’re taking up a spot that could be used by a potential customer? If I’m shopping, eating, spending and conducting business, doesn’t that mean I’m a customer, too?
Sometimes we don’t pay our tickets in the window of “pay now, pay less,” and they go to the more expensive rate. On more occasions than I care to admit, we have forgotten to pay the ticket at all and they’ve gone to the magistrate’s office. I won’t share my experience with the BOOT – it was so painful that I’ve blocked it from my psyche.
I’ve heard rumors about some key system that I can load up with payments, but I’ve heard that people still get tickets with that system, even after they’ve paid. Sigh.
State College borough parking office, you’ve made a lot of money off of our family.
I understand that the rationale for raising rates for repeat offenders is to send a strong message that we need to use the system correctly. I can assure you that we all agree that the money we spend on parking tickets could be put to better use. It’s not intentional. It’s not personal.
I hope that the parking enforcement people can also say, “It’s not personal.”
Sometimes those of us who use and work downtown aren’t so sure. There are more than a handful of business and restaurant owners, sales professionals and other frequent downtowners who question the objectivity of your parking enforcement practices. Some people get tickets. Some don’t. Some get double tickets. Some don’t. We question if tickets are sometimes written early in anticipation of an expired meter. We wonder about the calibration of the meters.
I have watched the parking staff park their borough vehicle in the no-parking zone in Calder Way as they go in for morning coffee at the Cheese Shoppe. Business owners or other patrons who park in that same no-parking zone in Calder Way are ticketed, some as repeat offenders. What’s up with that?
More than one person who plugged a meter for a neighbor when they saw you about to write that ticket has shared the stories of threats of legal action by your enforcement staff. Is it really illegal to put money in someone else’s meter?
When I read the report that the parking enforcement staff wrote 1,800 tickets on State Patty’s Day weekend, I wasn’t as bothered by the 800 extras as I was by the report that on the average weekend you write 1,000 tickets. Weekends mean visitors, parents, alumni and patrons in the downtown. Ouch. Welcome to Happy Valley.
Perhaps the perception that parking is an issue downtown might not be so far off base, after all.
The administration of Bell, Calif., was recently accused of having a “Bell Police Department Baseball Game” and assigning points for singles, doubles, triples and homeruns based on the number and type of violations that were written for motorists in their city.
What would be the consequences if one of your enforcement staff ended their shift without writing any tickets? Would they get in trouble? What is the number that means they’ve done their job for the day? Does “minimum number of tickets” translate into a quota system?
I think it might be time for my family to shift its downtown business and social activities to the townships.
The townships don’t have parking enforcement offices or meter staff who know our cars by sight. They also don’t seem to complain about business closings and empty retail space.
Thankfully, Appalachian Outdoors and Rapid Transit both have websites, so I can still patronize some of my favorite local businesses. Maybe the shipping charges will be less than what I spend in parking. I guess I’ll have to wait until Sundays to get my Ham a la Corner. Patton Township has Starbucks. Wegmans has bagels. Lemont has a Mexican restaurant. Harris Township has Kelly’s. Champs and Ale House both have great food and great service – and free parking. Maybe my kids can get jobs on campus and use my PSU parking pass when they are helping business operators when the other students leave town.
So, borough parking office, I’m sorry, but our relationship has to end. Punishing me as a repeat visitor would be the last straw. I can’t afford you anymore. You don’t make us feel welcome.
Are you worried that I might not be alone?
