With the number of times these guys make me go back to take care of tickets I never should have gotten, it should be MULAS instead of multas!!
City Looking to Profit on Parking Meters.
Corpus Christi intends to use their money to revitalize their downtown… uh, what does Laredo do with theirs??
What still bothers me is why the city doesn’t consider resident permits for those who actually live downtown and have to park in front of their house and still pay?? What is worse is that I still have parking meters that block the sidewalks at my house and still violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. Even with my handicapped tag and the parking enforcement guys seeing me struggle during the months I used a walker, I have still gotten tickets that the city of Laredo’s parking division has told me at least 4 times that would be taken care of. Maybe that is why the city rakes in so much cash – they give tickets without merit. Maybe they are taking cues from AT&T and their extra charges – ha! Again, this past week I received a bill and again I will take it to the parking division to have them tell me again that they removed the ticket. Are they lazy or incompetent? Sigh.
But I am getting away from my point – what does Laredo do with what Corpus Christi considers high revenue for downtown parking meters?? Maybe some of that money should go to speed up the ADA compliance requirement for sidewalk access in the downtown areas that I had blogged about before. If it’s in the city’s plan… hijo’e’su, it’s extremely slow progress.
Que Fregados 
Good point by Roberto Reyes, but still…
Roberto Reyes Jr. – Corpus Christi’s downtown is practically dead when it comes to business such as you find in Laredo. In our city will you find the influx of visitors from Nvo Laredo and those who still go to Nvo Laredo which is one many factors which keeps people coming to downtown to shop which requires parking sites.
Que Fregados – I don’t visit, therefore I don’t know – but isn’t Laredo’s downtown much, much, much smaller than Corpus Christi’s? I think they also mentioned that we charge more so that is going to be their plan – increase prices in Corpus.
___not that it matters much to the safe drivers and the affluent that monitor their lifes via Laredo blogs but recently the affamed Texas DPS is conducting a “manhunt” (and women too) on the numerous highways exiting our fair city (north, east and south) as they are all over like Roaches picking up gigantic sums on traffic fines perhaps to help out our Gov. Perry’s financial crunch . . .
A lot of towns and cities in England went down the road of giving local residents permits. When I say giving I really mean they were charged around $120 a year for parking in their own street but if you think that’s bad wait until you hear this!
Say there were 20 houses in a street they would issue at least 40 permits so you still couldn’t park in your own street.
Its not uncommon for other cities wanting to “be like” – Laredo.
The scope of this picture is that we are on a border that is frontier to the largest city in the world – “Mexico D.F” and thats not to mention the close to six million in Monterrey, Mexico. If you add, the approximately 600k population in Nuevo Laredo alone, this will factor in some large numbers in all areas of industries for our local economy and city fines. Our local leaders and chamber of commerce should be marketing the profits in revenue our City brings in due to the proven influx of fines collected. This can only be attributed to the large population of visitors coming through our beautiful gateway city – Laredo, Texas.
Parking, parking, parking. When I lived in the city of Reading, it was in an area full of row homes, so parking was very, very scarce. I sometimes had to park several blocks away (in Reading blocks are 10 to a mile, not 16 like Laredo). Of course, Poncho’s law of Parking Spaces was always in force: The pressure in your bladder is inversely proportional to the availability of a parking space on your block.
In Philly, they have permit parking in some residential (again, row home) areas: 2-hour parking for non-residents at certain times of the day, no limits for those with permits. But where they have parking meters, forget it. You still have to pay, permit or no permit. Some people pay for space in a parking garage, but parking outside your house is an unaccustomed luxury in Philadelphia and practically every other older urban area.
Gotta love driveways.
Tru dat – but horses didn’t need driveways when my house was built in 1895 :).