Parking Violators Getting the Boot

The city clerk’s office will soon begin increasing fees for parking violations downtown. This is an effort to improve on-street parking by encouraging long-term parkers to use the many parking garages. The city has recently purchased 50 tire boots and will soon begin placing them on the cars of those who consistently break our parking laws and refuse to pay their parking tickets. The Commercial Appeal recently quoted a city employee who said that the city was not using this as an attempt to increase city revenue but is only trying to change parking behavior. Anyone who believes this is a little naïve. Why is the city afraid to admit that this will in fact bring in new revenue? This is a good thing. We need all the new revenue we can get. It is estimated that the city loses, or fails to collect, between $1 million and $2 million in unpaid parking tickets.

After one year, parking tickets expire and violators are off the hook. This rule is well known apparently but it is news to me. When I read this I was shocked. Violators wait out the one year period and then they know they are safe from any fines related to their illegal parking. The majority of the parking bandits park in the Central Business District where the majority of the city’s parking meters are located. The Central Business District has been the focus of revitalization efforts for years now. Think of the good that can be done with the new revenue!

The latter half of the 20th century saw the decline of downtown Memphis and the Central Business District. Decreased demand for rail and river transportation, de-industrialization, civil unrest in the 1960s and 1970s and the expansion of Memphis’ suburbs all lead to the area’s decline. However, the creation of the Center City Commission (now Downtown Memphis Commission) and the Beale Street Management Corporation have had enormous influence and they have played a large role in the current regeneration.

Beginning in January 2012, the increase in parking ticket fees will take effect and habitual offenders will get the boot. If this new revenue stream is redirected to the Central Business District, many of the projects that have been put on the back burner for years could be moved to the front of the list. What is the point of writing tickets when violators are not pursued and why the one year expiration on tickets? The city should do away with this. Violators should not be let off the hook because they were able to beat the system. Why are we rewarding this?