This is how it works. Park at a meter on Washington Road. Put in eight quarters for a maximum of two hours of parking. Get your hair cut and colored, feed the meter another four quarters to have lunch, and come back to your car with a parking ticket and a $20 fine. While getting your haircut, a police officer chalks your tire. On their next round, regardless of the time remaining on the meter, you get a ticket. Crazy, right?
While the North Parking Garage was being renovated, parking was at a premium for the employees on Washington Road. Buying a monthly parking pass for approximately $80, permit holders were instructed to park in the Academy lot, if the North Garage was full. On a normal day, the Academy lot is full. Employees were forced to park and feed a meter, just to make it through their work day. Employees were routinely fined.
Shoppers and employees are forced to see the crazy guy who fines out of town guests $1100 if they want to fight it. There is something wrong with this scenario. There is no lost revenue if someone decides to support local businesses and feeds the meter in the process. Why do we have this? I can go to South Hills Village and park for free all day long, but to support small businesses in Mt. Lebanon, I run the risk of being cited for supporting the Mt. Lebanon Partnership. And for Heaven's sake, use a crosswalk so you have a better chance of getting hit by a car.
Update March 14, 2016 5:15 PM This photo was sent in by a Lebo Citizens reader with a note:
Regarding your post on parking, I’ve always wondered why teachers/admin staff from Washington and Mellon get a free pass. They are employees just like anyone else here in Mt. Lebanon.
I bet they don’t get their tires chalked.
10 comments:
I just came from my dentist on Washington Rd. This very topic came up while I was having my teeth cleaned. More later. I'm too numbed up now.
Didn't the teachers sue the admin in the 90s or so because they were losing parking spots for a playground behind Mellon?
The parking and ticketing issues are embarrassing for business owners. Once I had a customer get booted while she was at my business. After a big storm, she couldn't find any parking so she went to a residential street. She couldn't tell parking wasn't permitted there due to the storm snow covering up the usual markers. So when she went to get her car and it was gone. She had to get a ride to the place in CV where cars go and pay a hefty fine. Incidentally, she noticed a Lebo cop car parked there (at the land of booted cars) and learned that it is rented out for use in movies. I can probably think of some additional things to do with it. How about you?
So, while I was having my teeth cleaned yesterday, I heard a couple people in my dentist's office talking about a woman they know (maybe a patient) who fed the meter where she was parked on Washington Road in the biz district and when she returned to her car to leave, she had a ticket on her windshield. Her meter had not expired and she fed the meter a couple times because she has quite a bit to do Uptown that day. She couldn't figure out why she got the ticket so she challenged it before Blaise. Blaise's office told her that if she looked at the ticket carefully, she would see that it was NOT a meter violation. Rather, she was ticketed for parking for more than two hours at that meter---even though she continued to pump money into the meter.
Who ever heard of that? What will the Empire do next to make our lives miserable?
Last week, I received a NON-METER ticket for feeding almost $6.00 into the parking meter while I parked and spent about $150.00 in the business district. When I returned to my car, I spied the ticket on my front window. Hmmm. I was confused (like Timmy would be). I KNEW that I had fed the meter enough money. Well, well, well, it turns out that my transgression was non-meter related. In fact, I still had 28 minutes left on the meter. It took me until I arrived home to figure out that I had allegedly broken the law by parking for more than two hours in the Washington Road business district. I was going to appeal to The Crazy Man with No Brain, but I knew that would be futile. The fine is $20.00. Therefore, I paid $26.00 to park in Uptown Mt. Lebanon one morning and spend a bunch of money in the shops. Not exactly an incentive to shop in Mt. Lebanon.
On Smithfield Street in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, the signs at the meters say One-hour parking. However, as long as you keep that meter fed, they don't care if you stay all day.
WTF?
I stopped going uptown for coffee. There is a new place at Lebanon Shops where the parking is free.
The metered parking starts at 9:00 AM. So what if I go up there at 8 AM, get a coffee, then feed the meter at 8:58 so that I can get a haircut? If I park in the parking garage, I can get my ticket validated for one hour free parking where I get my haircut, but it would still be cheaper to park on the street. Where is the incentive?
Mt. Lebanon will be using a new system at the garages in April. I have asked the attendants if they will be losing their jobs since Lebo is going with an automated system. They don't know what is going to happen to them.
Elaine
You bet those attendants will be losing their jobs. What a shame.
I don't understand why there is all this confusion. This makes perfect sense if you just keep one thought in mind: THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM! See how easy that is? No other explanation is needed....
This three stooges movie accurately portrays Lebo parking enforcement at the 20:30 mark:
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v1009585N6heRjrE
How sad when we have to watch the Three Stooges to try to gain insight into the governance of our once-reasonable community!
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