Last night City Council hesitated to change the Parking Authority's diet, from its usual mix of mostly poorer residents, with just a sprinkle of westenders. Since at least three of the council members are on the Authority Board, this reluctance to change is of no surprise. They're scheduling another delay/meeting to further discuss the matter.
Candida Affa has been on the Authority Board for well over a decade, long before being elected to City Council. She expressed concern about fire engines operating in alleys. Not all alleys are the same in Allentown.... Downtown the alleys are narrow with row houses. In the west end the alley's are wider, with no houses.
A hard working center city restaurant owner explained to the City Council/Parking Authority Board members, (one and the same), how he and his customers are harassed with tickets. His plea fell on deaf ears.
ADDENDUM: Last night was the first council meeting I attended in a few years. Attendance is detrimental to everybody's blood pressure, both mine and councils. While some of the council members were new faces, the nonsense remained the same. The contention by the Authority, the administration and the council that the evening calls to the authority would overburden an already overburdened police department, were contrived. Eleven o'clock at night people call the police department, not the parking authority, if there is commotion or a situation.
Allentown must turn out in force for the next meeting, and let those council members, also on the parking authority, who happen to be running for re-election, know that they want reform, not just another meeting.
I agree with the representatives of the Police Department, that the APA performs a valuable service demanded by residents and allows the APD to focus on other important issues. If City Council wants to start watering down the parking regulations in Allentown, it going to be a free for all. Where I live, the rental units will have cars parked all over the place, blocking intersections, clogging up alleys and storing junked/unregistered/uninspected cars all over the place. People will then be calling APD and getting frustrated with the level of service. I prefer the high level of service currently provided to residents by the APA. Residents who dislike the City's parking regulations should learn to park their cars legally even if it means they have to walk a block or two.
ReplyDeleteanon@7:33: As I implied in the post the entire meeting was a contrived dog and pony show to keep the current regulations and revenue stream to the APA. While the APA bragged about their new mini lot on 7th, they omitted mentioning all the surface lots they sold to the "chosen" developers. Those lots provided the chosen developers cheap, easy, NIZ financed spots for their new half empty buildings, at the inconvenience of the residents. Generally speaking the police department needs to be doing much more...residents shouldn't have to die in gun battles with car thieves. The Parking Authority needs to restrained... all night patrolling is absurd. Tuerk needs to worry less about "inclusion" and more about that hapless restaurant owner (No NIZ financing helped him) get some reward for his 80 hr weeks, instead of one parking ticket after another.
ReplyDeleteMike, the Parking Authority was for many years the one city entity that operated efficiently. That was then, apparently it is now in debt and has become very aggressive to square these debts. How and how this happened needs to be explored, not sure it has been adequately. Sadly now we know that Allentown eventually rubs off on everyone and and everything in positions of power and ruins them.
ReplyDeletescott@8:25: Tuerk is fully on board with the APA and the APD support of it. That is why he slipped out of the meeting last night....to not be associated with the disappointment he knew was coming to those concerned about the APA abuses. To be touting "inclusion", and then allow the continued punishment of the poorest among us is hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteMatt is the hand puppet of those who really control the city. His job is to be cool and do as they say. He does both.
DeleteDouble Parking should be a 24 hour per day violation. Without that, residents will wake up to cars blocking them in. Double parked cars that weren’t there when the resident went to bed. I’d like to see all double-parked cars towed away after sitting double-parked for any amount longer that 15 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI have always said we need INTELLIGENT enforcement of ALL of our laws!!! This rarely happens... Example: when someone needs to lug bags of groceries, construction materials or a heavy appliance into his or her abode... 9 times out of 10, the police will be there and honk the"funny horn".
ReplyDeleteI and my neighbor have been personally rousted (by the police) trying to put stuff in our garages at 2/3/4 AM and told if we didn't move immediately a ticket would ensue... are you kidding me???? Maybe they should lend a hand and serve or give us a few moments to finish???
I go downtown all the time and I've never once been "harassed" by the parking authority with tickets. I pay to park or I park on the street over by 5th & Walnut or the 500 block of Turner Street or Union Street for free. My guess is that the people being "harassed" by the parking authority are parking illegally.
ReplyDeleteAnd your guess would be wrong. APA officers have no conception of ethics when it comes to ticketing a business owner unloading his produce who has to double park because there are supposedly no loading zone spaces allowed on Hamilton Mall (although I can't find that in any of the city ordinances). With no back door to his establishment and therefore no alley access, what is he to do? And if his truck is clearly marked with the restaurant name and he is parked in front of his clearly-marked business for less than 5 minutes why is he continually getting $100 tickets? What's your solution if you even have one? Should he park on the 500 block of Turner Street and lug his meat and produce from there? It's always easy to thumb your nose at the "other" than it is to help find solutions.
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