Jay, We will continue to make improvements to the parking system. I'm not sure anybody perceives a parking ticket as "fair". We are installing daily fee machines at Nokomis that will eliminate the need for the parking attendants. The parking attendants are there during peak periods to provide the convenience of a daily fee as opposed to the season pass. The lots are for season pass permit holders and we are accommodating daily users. If there are not attendants on duty - the lot is for permit holders only. The daily fee machines will be a great improvement for the daily users. We are also improving the signage to accommodate the visitors that do not know that we charge for parking (and have since the mid 90's).
Let me know if you have any other concerns, questions, Don Siggelkow - Assistant Superintendent. -----Original Message----- From: Annie Young [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2003 11:57 PM To: Jay Clark; Minneapolis Issues Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Siggelkow, Donald E.; Merrill Anderson, Mary E.; Merrifield, Norman C.; Schmidt, Michael P.; Hill, Dianne S.; Rietkerk, Judd H.; Ero-Phillips, Emily N. Subject: Re: [Mpls] Nokomis Ticketing and Permit Parking Thank you Jay for your comments on the parking problems. I have forwarded your message to staff and will get a clearer (I hope) explanation to you regarding the several issues you brought forward. I will also maybe attempt myself tomorrow when I am not so "ready for bed". Thanks for your comments, Annie Young citywide Park Commissioner At 07:20 PM 6/21/03 -0500, Jay Clark wrote: >In the past week or so, I have seen many people visiting Lake Nokomis >who are being unfairly ticketed. I want it to stop. I describe here >what I have seen at Nokomis, but I think there is a good chance this is >going on at Minnehaha, Harriet, Calhoun, and other popular park >destinations. > >The park system has instituted a new permit parking system at the main >Nokomis Beach that works something like this: > >You drive into the Nokomis parking lot. You see a blue sign with white >lettering telling you that you must purchase a permit to park in the >lot. An attendant comes to your car and sells you a permit for two >dollars. You put it on the dashboard, and you park legally. The park >service has picked up some extra revenue, and you are operating within >the law. > >However this tidy new revenue strategy has an ugly side. > >I do not know the hours of the permit sellers, but I know that there are >great chunks of time during the week when there are no permit sellers to >be found. I have been over there on weekday mornings as late as about >11:30 A.M., and saw no permit sellers. Today (Saturday) I was at >Nokomis at 9:30 A.M. and 1:00 P.M., and saw no permit sellers. There >are also no instructions on the sign on how to purchase permits when the >permit sellers are not there. This means that for many, many hours of >the week you pull into the Nokomis parking lot, see a sign saying you >must purchase a permit, and have no way of purchasing a permit. >Surprise surprise, many people park in the lot. > >But parking at the Nokomis parking lot is akin to swimming at Amity >Island when Jaws is loose. Because the park police are mounting the >most aggressive ticketing campaign at Nokomis I have ever seen. I am at >Nokomis about a half hour a day. In the past week, I have seen police >at Nokomis ticketing vehicles four times. Three times they were in the >Nokomis beach parking lot ticketing people for not having permits, when >there was nobody to sell permits and there was no way for the beachgoers >to purchase permits on site. > >The last two times I saw the police ticketing cars, I broke off my run >and walked onto the beach and told people that the police were ticketing >their cars. To a person, they were all furious that they were being >ticketed for not having permits when they were not able to buy the >permits. > >(For those who watch nature shows on T.V.: the great African Wildebeast >herds cannot hold a candle to the spectacular sight of a seething mass >of beachgoers rising in unison and thundering across the sand and into >the parking lot in a futile attempt to save their vehicles) > >I am particularly bothered by the idea that it might actually be in the >financial self-interest of the park system to make on-site purchase of >the permits impossible much of the time. Having it be impossible to >purchase permits and then writing a ticket for not having the permit >yields $30. Buying the permit yields $2. > >I have heard of speed traps before, but this is the first time I have >seen a parking trap. > >A park police officer justified ticketing people who could not purchase >permits by pointing out that people could park along the side of the >road for free. This morning at 10:30, every non-permit parking place on >the west side of Lake Nokomis was already taken. People with children >or handicapped or seniors simply cannot park halfway around the lake in >a an effort or dodge this parking trap. And regardless of the parking >situation along the road, it is wrong to require a permit, make it >impossible to get the permit, and then ticket the person for not having >the permit. > >An already bad situation is made even worse by this being the exact >opposite of park system policy in the past. > >In past years, people who used the Nokomis parking lot had to pay a >fee. they drove into the parking lot, and saw a blue sign with white >letters saying that they had to pay a fee to park. The parking slots >were numbered, and people stuffed a dollar into a fee box. > >During the off season, the park system put a tarp over the fee box, and >people could not pay the fee. But I remember that the signs announcing >a fee area were left up long after the tarp went over the fee box. This >meant that you drove into the Nokomis parking lot, saw a sign saying you >had to pay the fee, but could not pay the fee. In all the years that >the park system used this system, I never saw a police officer ticket a >car for not paying the fee when the driver could not pay the fee. In >practice, the park system ticketed people only when the park system >provided the means to pay the fee. > >Anybody acquainted with the old system - this means anybody who has ever >visited Nokomis beach before - would see the blue sign with white >lettering announcing that they had to buy a permit, not be able to buy >the permit, and assume that the park system would ticket them only when >the park system had also provided the means on site to buy the permit. >But in fact the park system is following the exact opposite policy of >the old system. I cannot help wondering if the park police are >systematically targeting those people who cannot purchase the permits on >site. It is like shooting fish in a barrel. And a great way to rake in >a lot of money fast. > >I know that the park system is desperate to bring in new revenue. But >this is not the way to do it. The park system should either find a way >to make permits available all the time on site, or they should not >ticket people for not having permits when the park system has failed to >provide those permits. This new revenue scheme will drive people away >from Nokomis and other parks and will damage the credibility of the park >system and the park police. > >This revenue scheme of ticketing people who cannot buy permits belongs >in the same dust bin as the strategy a few years ago of saving money by >allowing the grass to grow like weeds and then announcing that the park >system is restoring native prairie. > >Jay Clark >Cooper > >P.S. I abandoned the main lake parking lots years ago when far too >often I saw the colorful sparkling green piles of glass that indicated >yet more car break-ins. >TEMPORARY REMINDER: >1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. >2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change >the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) > >________________________________ > >Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy >Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls Annie Young East Phillips "So many people complain that life is unfair, but that very fact proves just how fair it can be. Life doesn't discriminate. Everyone's life contains difficulties." -- Bernie Siegel TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
