A group of merchants, most from the Main Dempster Mile shopping district, decried what one called “predatory enforcement” of new parking rules at an Evanston Transportation and Parking Committee meeting Wednesday evening.
Julie Matthei, co-owner of Hewn Bread on Dempster Street, claimed parking enforcement officers “are staking out our neighborhoods, customers and employees” and that customers from out of town “don’t want to come here anymore” because of the tickets they’re getting.
Alderman Cicely Fleming, 9th Ward, said it now seems like parking enforcement officers “are everywhere.”
Cicely Fleming.
Parking Division Manager Jill Velan said, “None of my officers are sitting in one spot” stalking people.
But she said the city code says, “If you get out of your car for one minute, or an hour, you’re supposed to pay for parking.”
So, if someone runs into a store without paying to park, “don’t call it stalking if you get a citation for doing that.”
But Velan added that several recent changes have made the PEOs more visible.
“You never used to see parking enforcement” in business districts on Mondays, “because they were towing for street cleaning.”
She said the city this year also added staff to start enforcing meter fees on Sundays and reconfigured the assignments to have seven beats instead of six.
And the PEOs now no longer have to fill in as substitute crossing guards.
“Before, they couldn’t get to every single area every day,” she added.
A group of merchants at the meeting.
Alderman on the committee agreed that the parking regulations need revision and Velan said she’s developing a package of changes to be considered at Monday’s City Council meeting.
Fleming and Alderman Melissa Wynne, 3rd Ward, said they’d favor increasing the maximum parking limit from two to three hours.
Velan said she’s also looking into options to provide employees of businesses special permits that would let them park on nearby streets now restricted to residents and at restructuring the current zone system that limits how often people can park on a given block.
Not quite true
The Parking Officers may do fewer crossings, but it is not totally eliminated. They have been seen occasionally at school crossings – both morning and afternoon.
Why don’t the PEOs spend more
Why don’t the PEOs spend more of their time ticketing the vehicles parked in the bike lanes?
The entitlement is ridiculous
I love these people who think that the taxpayers should subsidize storage of their private automobile on the public property. The fees for parking are ridiculously cheap and don’t even come close to covering the actual cost of maintenance, opportunity costs of alternative uses, etc…. Then they get upset when laws are enforced to get some minimal compensation?!?!
Crazy.
Insane parking program
The biggest problem is this Parking System allowed ONE VISIT PER DAY IN ANY ZONE. Pay to grab coffee in the morning, come back to shop later and you are locked out. You receive a message PARKING DENIED. City Manager says that’s always been City Code, now with technology it is being enforce. He and the Asst City Mgr need to resign if they truly believe that is OK. After public outcry, the city says they corrected this…now you are allowed to park multiple times, up to a two hour total, but you have to have a 30 minute wait period between sessions. That is NOT a solution. that is an INSULT. THIS IS THE TRUE PROBLEM.