Search Results for: parking authority

QUESTION THE PARKING AUTHORITY: Stop Piracy!

BY PATRICK KERKSTRA INQUIRER STAFF WRITER When it comes to ruthless efficiency in local government, the Philadelphia Parking Authority would seem peerless. With an army of blue-uniformed parking enforcers blanketing Philadelphia each day, the agency has become one of the nation’s most aggressive towing, booting and ticket-writing juggernauts since state Republicans took control of it in 2001. The authority slaps nearly 1.6 million violation notices on the windshields of Philadelphia drivers annually, a 35 percent increase over 2001. Nearly 50,000 vehicles are towed, more than double the old figure. Meters require more feeding, the hourly rate at authority garages is […]

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WORTH REPEATING: Question The Parking Authority

SIX YEARS after Republicans took control of the Philadelphia Parking Authority in a political coup d’etat, the number of people on its payroll has doubled and top salaries have soared, making the patronage haven one of the best-paid addresses in municipal government. In 2001, when House Republican leader John Perzel engineered the takeover, the Parking Authority had 512 full-time employees. Only two of them were making six-figure salaries. Six years later, the full-time payroll has grown to 1,051 people, including 20 who are making more than $100,000 a year. The authority’s top job now belongs to Vincent J. Fenerty Jr., […]

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MAILBAG: Question The Parking Authority

Folks, The Parking Authority never does anything for the benefit of drivers, businesses or even the city government. The PPA operates purely as a greedy, ever-expanding for-profit business. It primarily benefits them, period. And they are not even answerable to city government, so why should they consult with anyone about how to run their business? Their payroll is always growing; it seems they have a ticket-writer assigned to every block, and they continue to slap stickers over every parking sign, changing the hours on a daily basis. If left to their own devices there eventually will be 24 hour limits […]

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INTRODUCING: Question The Parking Authority

It is a sad state of affairs when the most effective government agency in this city is the Parking Authority. 911 is a joke. The cops are trigger-happy at the most inappropriate times and MIA at the most crucial. DHS actually kills children and the Housing Authority can barely keep a roof over its head. And good luck getting anywhere with City Hall if you don’t have a council person on your payroll. But, overstay your meter welcome by just one hot minute and you are fucked for $25 courtesy of the men (and women) in baby blue. God forbid […]

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Last Year The PPA Collected $233 Million In Parking Fees & Fines, Just $9 Million Of It Went To Schools

  REDDIT: In 2014, the PPA brought in a combined revenue of $233,708,372 from its On-Street & Off-Street parking operations. $121,531,303 was from On-Street parking enforcement (ticketing) alone. While, you’d think that numbers like this would be a boon for the city. After constant wasteful spending, hyper-inflated salaries/pensions, and uncontrolled budgets – the city only actually receives a small portion of this. At the end of the fiscal year, only $46.5 million of their $233 million in revenue ended up going to the the City general fund & the School district. A measly $9.7 million of this was reserved for […]

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WATCHING THE DETECTIVES: @PPAwatch Posting Photos Of PPA Vehicles Breaking Parking Laws

Photo via @PPAwatch NBC10: A van parked in front of a fire hydrant. A sedan parked in front of a handicapped spot. These are just a few of the many photos posted by a new Twitter account documenting illegal parking in Philadelphia. But here’s the twist. The pictures aren’t of normal vehicles but instead, those that belong to the Philadelphia Parking Authority.  The account, @PPAwatch, is cracking down on the PPA by posting driver-submitted photos of the parking authority violating their own rules. Yet just as the account was beginning to gain more followers, it was suddenly suspended over the […]

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THE MAN WHO OWED TOO MUCH: Top Parking Scofflaw Owes PPA $40,580 In Unpaid Tickets

Yesterday the Philadelphia Parking Authority released a list of the names of th top 25 scofflaws in the hopes of shaming them into coughing up the combined $308,000 they owe in unpaid parking tickets. They are as follows: Faraco Knife Grinding Services, Pennsburg, Pa., $40.580 Sergio M. Claudio, Philadelphia, $21,444 Sharwin L. Coates, Philadelphia, $18,812 Alberto Galue, Philadelphia $18,398 New Century Travel Inc., Philadelphia, $16,320 Sharonda Everett, Philadelphia, $15,972.70 Anthony G. Dowd, Philadelphia, $14,477.25 Willians Nafis, Philadelphia, $13,408.75 James P. Fiscaro, Philadelphia $12,972 Faith Brown, Philadelphia, $12,473 Kenneth Brockington, Philadelphia, $11,991.40 Lafayette Outen, Philadelphia, $11,149.20v Christopher Harden, Philadelphia, $11,106.65 Frederick […]

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NO PARKING: Aggravation Just Got More Expensive

ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Philadelphia Parking Authority says rising fuel costs are forcing it to increase the fee for towing your car away if it’s confiscated by police. Each day, about 100 vehicles are towed in Philadelphia under the city’s “Live Stop” program. That program targets drivers who don’t have proper registration, or who have invalid, suspended, or revoked driver’s licenses. Corinne O’Connor, the Parking Authority’s director of on-street operations, says a Live Stop job can take hours. She says tow trucks get stuck in traffic, just like everybody else, and the Parking Authority has to cover its costs. The Live […]

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STUDY: 85% Of Philly Parking Tickets Are Totally Bogus

CBS 3: Several years ago, [Philadelphia attorney] Pascal challenged hundreds of parking tickets issued in western Pennsylvania because the meters weren’t certified as required by state law. A judge agreed and threw the tickets out! “It’s a consumer protection issue that says that people are going to get what they paid for, just like they should get the amount of gasoline they pay for at the pump and the amount of meat they get at the grocery store,” said Pascal. In Philadelphia, while the Parking Authority collects the revenue and issues tickets, the City’s Licenses and Inspections Department is actually […]

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KID IN THE HALL: Like A $16 Million Parking Ticket

BY NICK POWELL CITY HALL CORRESPONDENT Starting next year parking will cost Philadelphians $16 million more than it did in 2008 if a new parking tax bill before City Council passes. The bill, sponsored by Council President Anna C. Verna and Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco, would call for a 33 percent hike in the current tax rate, which works out to be a whopping 20 percent of the cost of parking your car in a lot. The parking tax as it currently stands requires drivers to shoulder 15% of the tax on every parking transaction. Newly appointed Revenue Commissioner Keith […]

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ENDORSEMENT: N.A. Poe For City Council

Photo by LAUREN M. WAKSMAN Folks, we got trouble right here in Philadelphia. Trouble with a capital “T.” And that rhymes with “C” and that stands for CORRUPTION. All the major institutions in this city are wretched hives of patronage hires, hacks and shady backroom deals. There is zero accountability for the police, the unions, the politicians and don’t even get us started on the PPA. There is just one candidate running for City Council that aims to do something about it. His name is N. A. Poe and he is running on a platform of pulling back the curtains […]

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