Roy, you hit it right on the nail.  I do not see why we should have to even pay to park on the street on the weekends.  That is when lots of visitors come into town, and you know they have no clue to what these {new parking police} are doing, so they may park for more than two hours, but to have to come back to your car with a huge ticket and not even live here, that would make me very upset too. 

And for a handicap person to have to pay to park at all is ridiculous.  And what was the parking patrol doing, just standing there and watching him get out of the car?  I wish we could go to town and enjoy the many things that are there and not have to worry about a ticket every time.   

Roy, I really enjoy reading your articles every day, so have a good day.

Sandy Cantrell

* * * 

I agree with Sandy and Roy.  This parking situation in Chattanooga is absurd. The city has given parking enforcement over to an outfit which makes its money in parking cars. The contract to allow Republic Parking to enforce the already unfair city parking regulations also allows them to force taxpaying citizens to use their garages.  This situation should be raising a lot of questions in people's minds. 

How come the city can't properly administer the city's own street park regulations efficiently? Republic Parking had to hire more employees, train them, and outfit them in order to perform the contract's duties. Republic Parking is a profit-making business, so it certainly isn't enforcing the city's parking regulation out of the goodness of its heart.  So it's actually making money doing what the city is taking tax dollars from us to do. 

Have the parking regulations been changed without input or notification to the public?  Persons with a valid handicap permits have always allowed to park in otherwise restricted zones, and are not required to pay.  Unless the regulations have been changed, the hired parking enforcers are evidently not lawfully ticketing handicapped motorists.  Parking after hours and on weekends has always been free.  Another instance where these hired parking enforcers are "encouraging" us to use Republic Parking's lots. 

Everett Kidder

* * * 

Interesting. A handicapped person parked briefly in a loading zone on a Sunday and got a parking ticket? Evidently I need a c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e copy of the new parking regulations for Chattanooga. 

I spent three years and $9,000 to get my handicapped tag. The money went to a local lawyer that I presume adds to the tax base of Chattanooga? I figure I have paid for a few parking privileges locally? I will definitely stay in the 'legal' parking zones and spaces 24/7/365 [since having a handicapped tag does not entitle anyone to park in "no parking" areas to begin with]. 

Thanks for the heads up.  

Ted Ladd
East Ridge

* * * 

It's a rare moment for me to feel qualified to comment on much of anything.  In this case, however, having the dubious honor of being the first person to have his car towed and auctioned for parking tickets gives me a unique perspective. Yeah, makes me proud.  

Actually I feel like the village idiot.  Anyway, why not pay for the right to park when we register our cars?  In Los Angeles we were sectioned by our home and work zip codes and given stickers for our license tag based on those zip codes.  If we wanted to legally park everywhere we simply purchased the "everywhere" sticker every time we registered our tags. It seems to be a very easy and cost effective way of managing the parking issue.   

As far as out-of-towners - make all of the meters 6-8 hours and make it a reasonable fee - maybe $0.25/hour.  We can reduce the cost of parking enforcement, generate revenue and to some degree give credit to those of us who work and/or live in the downtown area. It's just a thought. 

George Parker