Seven Minutes Is Exactly How Long It Takes To Rape The Populace And Seriously Dent Local Business And Tourism
We hadn’t posted on the new parking meter rate hikes now in effect last week, because at first, it just seemed like a sign of the times. But in practice, we noticed last night the reality of what is going on here: Large-scale entrapment on behalf of the Philadelphia Parking Authority and The City Of Philadelphia. Here’s how it works: Let’s say you’re meeting someone for lunch in Center City, and you find on-street parking a block away from the restaurant. At the new rate, you’re gonna get seven minutes per quarter (as opposed to the old rate, which gave you 15 in most CC locations). To be safe, you wanna pump two hours’ worth of quarters into the meter. This means you will need 17 QUARTERS to insure that you don’t get a ticket. And if you don’t have them on you when you exit the car, you’re screwed; just try rolling into a nearby corner store and asking for this many quarters, even if you buy something. And if you don’t have a SmartCard — which you don’t, because really — you’re toast. The PPA and the City have basically just trapped you into getting a ticket. Which, if you live in a farther-flung neighborhood or suburb, you will remember next time you need something in Center City, and then not go there. Given today’s economic woes and the difficulties faced by retailers in particular, this is an utterly shameful move on the part of the City and the PPA. This rate hike is anti-business and anti-citizen to its core; and unless SmartCards are made more readily available — hey, why not force PPA meter maids to sell them? — there’s gonna be a revolt. Today, Philadelphia, we are ALL Susanna Foo.
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:58 am
I once asked a meter maid if they had change for a dollar and the lady almost broke her neck shaking her head so hard.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I see a new ad campaign for Septa somewhere in here.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:02 pm
The evidence for what you are suggesting is mixed. It’s more likely to shift people onto SEPTA, which, hey, maybe not such a bad thing from the perspective of someone who actually needs to find parking in a reasonable amount of time in Center City. Granted, it would be even more likely to do that if SEPTA were any good. But generally speaking, that’s what you would expect.
It would, however, be nice if they would put in some multi-space, credit card-accepting meters if they are going to keep the meter hikes up. Because you are right about one part of this: no one carries that many quarters around.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
17 quarters for 2 hours? That is absurd. And unreasonable. The city needs to get a move on swipe card parking meters.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I used to use the SmartCards a lot and can tell you that a good number of meters are broken and can’t read them. I don’t know if this is still the case, but a lot of meters outside of Center City didn’t even accept them a few years ago too.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Oh, and if it’s raining hard a working meter won’t take the card either.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
@Nate: Oh believe me, given the choice, I personally always like to bike, SEPTA it, or take a cab, depending on the situation. However, there are those times when you have to wind up in a car and use the meters; under this new rate, unless you are some freak who always happens to have a burlap sack of quarters on his/her person, this is entrapment plain and simple.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:17 pm
we need more access to smart cards and SEPTA tokens, or hell, here’s an idea SEPTA passes. If you live anywhere outside of center city its almost impossible to find tokens outside of your nearest pawn shop so you need to make sure you have two dollars in singles or change on you…so infuriating.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:34 pm
This idea has less of a chance than Milton Street becoming the new city ethics czar of ever happening, but wouldn’t it be nice if SEPTA and the PPA put their heads together and came up with a unified stored-value transit/parking card? Or just retrofit SEPTA buses/turnstiles with PPA card readers and use their technology as the basis for the new cards? Oh, and make sure they actually work?
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
They really need to just get on the multi-space, credit card-accepting meter tip, to reiterate what I mentioned above. If Baltimore can afford it… come on now.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:37 pm
@conkyfilms
That would be awesome actually. Plus, it would instantly put Septa passes in the hands of timid suburbanites and remove a small, but significant, mental block to using Septa.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Well you don’t HAVE to give your money to the city in order to park downtown. You could opt for a private garage or to take a cab if you really love cars. Or, even if you live in the Northeast, drive your car to an el stop, and you’ll save yourself time and aggravation. No one really has to park on the street in Center City.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:56 pm
i, for one, am fine with this price hike. the city government needs money! i pay all my (justly issued) parking tickets cheerfully (total whack job, right?) because i know this. i want to give the city of philadelphia my money because i like philadelphia and i feel like city hall is doing it’s best. i’m not okay with the library thing, but that’s a whole other issue/post.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
This sounds reasonable to me. It will encourage a.) more public transit/walking/biking; and b.) wider adoption of smartcards.
In short, quit yer bitchin’. This is actually good, smart, progressive urban policy.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I may be incorrect, but I thought that the PPA doesn’t necessarily give meter money to the city. I thought it was a quasigovernmental company, like the New York Port Authority and it keeps it the money to run itself and the city only gets money from tickets.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
doesn’t sound like he’s just bitchin’ about the hike, but bringing up the issue of Smart Card availability for those who do need meters.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:10 pm
What i don’t understand is: why are all the meters around all the Ritz theaters 2-hour meters? It’s almost impossible to get in and out of any movie in under 2 hours. Tthough in this case, meters are a bargain. An afternoon show of The Wrestler at the Bourse last sunday cost me $16 in garage fees.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
meters flash “out of order” when they are full right? how many quarters can one of those things hold?
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
@ bhiladelphia, good point 3 times in the past 2 weeks I have parked at an “out of order” meter, never happened to me before
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Hey djlynnabraham, Ritz at the Bourse validates parking. It only costs like $5 bucks to see a movie their if you park in their lot. Maybe $4.50?
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Another nail in the coffin of CC restaurants. Democrat regimes are the enemy of free enterprise
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Hey JB the PPA is a government agency that runs outside of the city government and is controlled by John Perzel.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:01 pm
@tinybikebell: Do a little research into the business practices of the PPA and where all that money you gladly pay is actually going. Trust, you will not smile while writing that check ever again.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
While the increased fines is one thing, the $2.00 for one hour of metered parking is ridiculous. Though if you go just a few blocks north of 3rd and Market, there are a bunch of 2 hour unmetered parking spaces.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:12 pm
@clintoris
It really isn’t. Think about what a garage costs for that amount of time.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
There’s a great solution to all of this – don’t drive into Center City. There are very few times when it should be necessary to do so, there are much better ways to get around. Finding and paying for street parking is a pain in the ass, and it should be something that’s available for occasional short trips. Why would you ever drive to get to a Center City restaurant? That’s the great benefit of an urban environment – the density means you rarely have to have a car.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
@nate
Having read one of your previous comments, I agree, concerning the multi-space kiosks. Though it still galls me a bit, the accessibility of a kiosk, as opposed to needing my weight in quarters, would make it easier to swallow.
Plus, reading this after receiving a $36 (justly deserved) overlimit fine makes me particularly hostile to this.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Holy fuck….jburnside is back?!
@tips
You never gave us a tally on the yeas and nays on banning him. I respectfully request that tally now.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I find the kiosks to be a pain in the neck … though the convenience of being able to use a credit card is nice, it takes so damn long to go through the process and print out the ticket for your dashboard.
Here’s an idea: just lower the parking fines and have the meter maids/men just ticket everybody! You can just consider it a “bill” for parking. And if you’re out of the spot before they come around, it’s free!
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Boom. Posting in a epic thread.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:08 pm
expat, you should see JB’s apoplexy all over the inaugural and post-inaugural entries.
On topic: It’s entries like this where what we may call the “thoughtfulness” tenor slips under even Thomas Friedman levels and risks a full out collapse into Internet Andy Rooneyism. You ain’t this old yet, tips.
There’s plenty of PPA and private lots in the city where you can park your car for less than the curbside meter rate, in many instances RIGHT NEXT TO THE METER SPACES. If you know you’re going to be doing whatever in CC for something in the neighborhood of two hours, you really ought to be leaving those street spaces for people who really are going to be in and out in a sub-hour “jiffy.” The meter spaces are for short errands. They have a capacity for two hour parking time, but the fact that they are being constantly used to their full capacity is part of the problem with parking in Philly.
Had to jump in.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
@C. The Impaler
I’ve been actually working a lot more since the election and hence reading and posting less. I H\hadn’t noticed jb’s return. I just thought he had slithered off into whatever weird corner of suburbia he inhabits since his only real reason to post here was gone. That or Sweeney banned him on the down low.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Ahhh…but here’s the GREAT thing about all this…PPA TRIPLES it’s income with minimal overhead increases over the last 6 years, and instead of that money going to fund city projects like it’s supposed to…guess who got raises?
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I find this all incredibly galling considering that there seemed to be no notice about this change in fees, which practically guarantees a ticket the first time you encounter a meter with the new rates. Also? The fee for being over time just increased to $36.
I ride my bike to work and regularly use SEPTA, however, I have two kids, one of whom is three. Sometimes I have to run a few errands at multiple locations in the Center City area. Relying on SEPTA to do that with a difficult or napping three-year-old in tow would be hellish and take four times as long as using a car. I really feel for parents who have no other option than SEPTA.
The Republican-controlled Parking Authority is utterly without shame. The meters on South 4th Street seem to be semi-working, setting you up for tickets by running out too quickly. I recently got a notice of an overdue ticket for parking in a two-hour non-metered spot when I had been in the spot for 15 minutes total, and, at the time of the ticket, had been out of the spot for at least an hour. Yet to fight these unjustified tickets, I have to take time off from work.
I want to know if there is some way the City can wrest back control of this lawless Authority. The streets are ours, our City should get the money from the meters and tickets, and we should have some measure of control over these things that so affect our daily lives and businesses.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
The city does get the money from the tickets. It doesn’t get the meter money.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
FYI – the meters no longer accept dimes or nickels. Only quarters. It is insane.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Yeah, but at this point what would a nickel buy you? A minute?
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
@expat, I think JB just returned this week. Part of me thinks he wasn’t “banned.” Rather, in an effort to produce more epic threads where people can fight a common enemy, Sweeney hijacked the identity and has someone ghost-commenting under the burn’s namesake.
Perfectly Disgraceful, if I understand your dashing about Center City with kids in tow woes right, this policy is designed to make parking easier for you. Longer term parkers will finally get a clue and park in the lots, giving you the ability to dart to a few stops with more convenient short term parking.
As far as notice, this was announced back in November IIRC.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Two issues here:
(1) Raising parking prices. Fine with me. Encourage mass transit and discourage people from using the meter spaces to park all day. It should help the shoppers and parents with kids because more spaces will be available when you just need to run in somewhere for a little while (which is what meter spaces are for). If it hurts restaurants and businesses, then they should make arrangements with parking garages to validate. Compared to NYC or DC, parking in Philly is pretty easy and cheap.
(2) Having so many meters where you can only pay with quarters when you need 9/hour. Stupid, as tips pointed out.
PPA sucks, but fixing the PPA and a fair price for downtown parking aren’t related.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
The PPA is awful. If everyone pissed off by this set a time and day, walked outside and took a screwdriver to the nearest meter it’d solve this problem…at least for a little while. Power to the people.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Under a 2004 compromise, the PPA, which is run by a seven-member board, pays its bills and then sends its first $25 million in profits to the city and any amount beyond that to the schools. Bad news the authority has made only one payment to the school district _ $4 million in 2004.
http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?
January 24th, 2009 at 12:24 am
While we wish we could ride our bikes into center city – we live in NJ! Public transportation is not exactly easy to get into town. We DRIVE into the city at least once a week, usually to dine or shop. Lots of our NJ friends do as well. Between the price hike in bridge tolls & the meters, guess what, you’ll be losing our business – bottom line. This is a slap in the face to CC merchants, especially with such a bad economy.
Plus, how are those tiny meters going to handle all of those extra quarters? PPA should be ashamed of themselves for not having a better plan of action.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:45 am
While I don’t understand the 7.5 minutes, I also don’t undertand why they only take quarters now. I mean if i only have a nickel, Can’t I have 1.5 minutes to find some other change somewhere?
January 25th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
This will ultimately end up hurting businesses in Center City and elsewhere. I come into Philly twice a week from the Mainline to workout at the 12 Street Gym. Afterward, I normally eat at a restaurant or do a little shopping. I will now leave the city as soon as I’m done at the gym. At a time when most people are looking for ways to cut costs, there is no way I’m paying $12.00 to park my car in a garage each time I come into the city. If I could get a refund for my gym membership, I would.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:59 am
@gkirkwhite
You drive in from the Mainline just to go to a gym, but are worried about some extra $ for parking? You do know that time=money, right?
I guess they don’t have any gyms with that kind of “equipment” out in Burbsylvania.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
The parking authority owes the city a yearly audit. Since the Perzel takeover this has not happened. If you think parking money goes back into the city you’re crazy, it goes to buy more SUV’s, hire more *traitor* employees and put stop signs on the corners of northeast philly.
What about the tourists? Do you think they took septa here from their home states? And septa, don’t even get me started.. The train i take every night doesn’t have room for all of the passengers, arrives late every day and leaks water on your head when it rains. I can’t imagine traveling with children or packages. The PPA is yet another reason why philadelphia bleeds residents.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
wrap some paper, receipt, gum wrapper, etc around a penny or nickel and stuff it in the coin slot, then stuff 3 quarters in so it looks like you TRIED to pay, but, gosh darnit, i think that thing is jammed! :o
oh and, duh, bike.
July 30th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
What i want to see reported is how PPA money goes directly to the state and not to Philadelphia. PPA is a privately run organization in where the heads of PPA make over six figures… The state funnels this money into stupid programs and not to Philadelphia programs or ordinances… you think it could benefit the Firefighters or the Police…..noooo it goes to retarded programs…