Wasn't there a big to-do a year or two ago about the fact that parking enforcement was going to start again on Saturdays? I wish they would just be consistent about it. And then make sure all the meter maids are aware of what the hell they're supposed to be doing and when.


I've successfully fought tickets again Detroit before, so I hope that those people who are pissed will do so, and the city will keep their word and forgive them.

Side note: what money is that interviewed woman referring to in Paragraph 2?



Jan. 16, 2011

Parking tickets on Saturday anger downtown Detroit visitors

BY ERIC D. LAWRENCE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Several visitors to downtown Detroit events Saturday were met with a surprise when they returned to their cars: parking tickets. Among them was Tabatha Johnson.

"We got a ticket? For what?" she said. "Downtown shouldn't do that. They're making enough money."

Johnson, 35, of Detroit parked on Fort Street alongside the Penobscot Building. Johnson's car and more than a dozen other vehicles near the building got slapped with $30 parking tickets. The city typically does not write parking tickets on weekends, though parking meters indicate there is enforcement from Monday through Saturday.

Mayoral spokeswoman Karen Dumas cited a mix-up, because city officials had decided that parking enforcement, aside from fire lanes and handicapped spots, would be relaxed on Saturday, the first public day of the North American International Auto Show.

After a call from the Free Press, Dumas said parking enforcement was suspended for the day.

"We don't normally write tickets on the weekends, and it's not in our best interest to do so when we have thousands of visitors" in the city, she said.

Dumas said that anyone who got a ticket Saturday can contest it.