In Atlanta, summertime means festivals, concerts and races. And those activities drive a lot of traffic into the city, which can often make parking a challenge.
More than a year after Milwaukee-based Duncan Solutions was hired by Atlanta to restore the city’s on-street parking program, angry drivers are still complaining about what they consider aggressive ticketing and heavy enforcement.
Under the name PARKatlanta, the company signed a seven-year contract in 2009 to, among other things, purchase, install, maintain and collect money from new meters, install parking signs and street markings and write tickets. In exchange, PARKatlanta pays the city $5.5 million annually throughout the contract, and keeps all of the profits.
But not everyone is happy -- especially drivers.
Steven Dickson said his car and a line of eight others recently got tickets because of a misleading and confusing sign.
"I have no problem with designated parking spots," said Dickson, an Atlanta resident. "I don't park illegally. I know especially in Atlanta that parking is scarce and if you park in the wrong spot, you can get ticketed or towed. ... I am just saying that the signs were wrong."
Dickson paid a $25 fine.
Since taking over, PARKatlanta has created more than 1,700 metered spaces and installed more than 7,000 signs. Before the contract went into effect in 2009, the city had about 800 functioning meters, which are still in use. Wireless technology lets passing enforcement agents instantly know which spaces are unpaid or expired.
Valerie Bell-Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works, which oversees PARKatlanta, said there are 63 enforcement agents, which includes 24 sworn officers.
Memorial Day through Labor Day of 2010, PARKatlanta issued 33,918 citations, which is actually fewer than some of the previous summers when the city was handling it.
When citizens initially went ballistic over PARKatlanta, Atlanta City Councilman Michael Julian Bond was charged with heading up a special panel to review parking policy. As a result, four types of parking zones were created to match an area's use with parking time limits: business/government, mixed use, schools or entertainment. Signs and/or meters indicate the zone.
So if you park in a city-owned space, you have two hours to go to City Hall to pay your water, three hours to shop or go to class, or four hours to catch a meal and a show. Restaurant and bar owners had complained that they were losing business because patrons didn't want to rush.
Even with the zones, time limits are still an issue.
Paul Luna, owner of Lunacy Black Market in downtown Atlanta, said PARKatlanta is making money at the expense of small businesses like his. He said he regularly hears complaints from customers who have gotten tickets or been booted while enjoying a meal at his restaurants. Regulars have stopped coming.
"Whenever someone comes out and sees a boot on his car, there goes the customer," Luna said. "How can this not be affecting any of the neighborhood businesses?"
Others see his point.
“The city makes it impossible right now to really enjoy Atlanta. Everywhere you go, you have to park and pay,” said Jimi Flix, a freelance photographer and Cobb County resident. “The whole idea of private enforcement is tasteless. They are motivated more by getting fines than finding people who are really abusing the system."
Flix, who has been a fixture on the party scene for more than a decade capturing Atlanta’s sometimes glamorous nightlife, said he now limits his trips to the city to avoid PARKatlanta. “And when I do come, I put my car in a garage,” Flix said.
Coming off this month's Peachtree Road Race, Atlanta, as usual, has a host of large festivals and events lined up for the next few months. One of the biggest will be the recently revamped Music Midtown. Thousands of people are expected to swarm onto Midtown's Piedmont Park on Sept. 24 for the all-day music fest that will include Coldplay and the Black Keys.
Still, it's a year-round issue. A.J. Joiner, an event promoter, said the extra metered parking spaces have cut in on his business. On Friday nights, he hosts a happy hour at Barley’s on Peachtree Street downtown. But he and his patrons have to pay.
“It does add up and my customers have complained,” Joiner said.
Most of the angst comes from people who actually live in Atlanta and depend on street parking.
“The unfortunate thing is that the city has sold this process to the private sector, when it could have done it itself and bridged some of the budget shortfall that it is having,” said Atlanta resident Zennie Lynch, who has racked up three tickets under PARKatlanta.
Despite his tickets -- including a $25 doozy for being five minutes late outside a restaurant at Centennial Olympic Park -- Lynch
said PARKatlanta’s enforcement rules are clearer than the rules before them.
“I am not one of these people upset that it is there,” said Lynch, who came from Chicago six years ago. “But they are Johnny on the Spot. They offer no grace period at all.”
Freda Pryor, who has posted on an anti-PARKatlanta Facebook page in defense of the workers, said her interactions have been hit and miss. Once a PARKatlanta worker kindly helped her identify her parking space and pay. Another time, she found an attendant literally standing next to her car waiting for the clock to run out on her meter to ticket her.
In terms of aggression, Bell-Smith said in an e-mail that the organization "does not do anything the city has not authorized them to do."
But Bond has heard the complaints about the aggressive swarm of ticketers. It is no secret that after PARKatlanta pays its annual fees to Atlanta, it keeps all of the profit. PARKatlanta is on pace to make around $5 million on tickets alone this year.
City officials noted that Atlanta collected a total of about $2.1 million in the two years prior to contracting with PARKatlanta.
“Because we do have a private contractor, as altruistic as they may be, they are in business to make money,” Bond said.
But all in all, Bond said the city is satisfied, and PARKatlanta is here to stay. “We are starting to get more requests for PARKatlanta than against them. I don’t think I have gotten a complaint about PARKatlanta in several months, and I used to get them all the time," said Bond.
Bond said that a year ago, he would not have recommended ever renewing the PARKatlanta contract, but has since changed his mind.
“I would be open to that, but I think there is still some room for improvement,” Bond said. “We still have a parking problem in Atlanta.”
Bond said the council will continue to monitor PARKatlanta as well as the complaints on issues such as residential permitting, grace periods, signage and court follow-ups.
Of course, keeping an eye on your watch helps, too.
Recently, while Bond and his daughter were visiting Municipal Court for a meeting, the councilman came out to find a ticket on his windshield.
“When I saw it, I just kind of laughed," Bond said. "But I gotta pay that ticket.”
Parking zones
On-street parking in Atlanta is enforced according to the various zones. Signs and/or meters indicate the zone.
Business/government: High need for parking turnover. Enforced 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Two-hour limit.
Mixed use: Area has multiple uses, including residential and commercial, but not a lot of on-site parking. Enforced 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday. Three-hour limit.
School/university: Areas near colleges or universities. Enforced 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Three-hour limit.
Entertainment/restaurant/hospital: Parking is occupied by patrons of theaters, museums, restaurants, other entertainment venues or hospitals. 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Four-hour limit.
Source: PARKatlanta
Summertime tickets
With the summer heating up, parking officials are out in full force.
Here is how many tickets were written between Memorial Day and Labor Day since 2005, before PARKatlanta was contracted by the city.
2005 -- 41,389
2006 -- 53,096
2007 -- 56,940
2008 -- 30,385
2009 -- 26,954
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