You may or may not have noticed that some changes happened for downtown parking this week.
An article in the LJW last week outlines all the changes.
As of Tuesday, your pocket change won't buy you quite as much time as it used to. Rates at the meters on Massachusetts Street doubled- now you get 30 minutes for your quarter, 12 minutes for a dime, and 6 minutes for a nickel. The meters should all be clearly marked with the new rates.
The other big change for many of you- and us- is the price of parking tickets. Those are going up to $3, from the previous $2.
But that's not all!
Enforcement of the parking rules used to end at 5 pm; now you have to feed your meter until 6 pm or risk getting a ticket. And, if you're one of those habitual violators (I'm looking at you, Dave), the city is going to start enforcing that ordinance. They've had something like this around before, because unfortunately we're familiar with it, but basically if you get five or more parking tickets in a 30 day period, you'll get a $50 fine and have to pay court costs.
So when you're coming out to have a drink or grab some dinner, or to just hang out on the patio afternoon while you're playing hooky from work, make sure to feed your meter!
(Frank, this might be a good time to start working on that parking meter app we talked about….)