Transportation Sue,
My wife and I parked just after 6 at one of your parking meters. I went to pay and it clearly said payment went up to 6 p.m. right on the machine.
Returning we found a ticket for 40 bucks and looking up we noticed a sign at the top of a pole saying payment until 10.
I videotaped the different information and went to the courthouse but the whole thing became such a hassle we just paid.
We would have had to plead not guilty, schedule a court date, etc...that's what they told us.
So here's my suggestion: Get your act together!
Have the information on the machines reflect reality. Just add a sticker if the times change. God knows you go to the machines enough when you collect the money.
Thanks. Spend the money wisely.

Bill, someone has to pay for that overtime. Thanks for stepping up.

I got snagged by the same trick, Bill. Tried to discuss it with the cretin who was writing the ticket, but he just smiled at me an turned up the volume on his earbuds.

Paid my $40 by mail and now I shop at Bridgeport Village and Washington Square: lots of FREE parking and cops who protect the cars from thieves, rather than ticket them.

See ya' later parking NAZIS!

"...the whole thing became such a hassle we just paid."

That's what they count on. Go to court and make them eeeeaaaaaarrrrrnnnnn that 40.00 by taking up their time. It's an interesting process especially if you have never appeared before a judge before and besides Mr. McDonald it might give you some material for your comic writing.

"...make them eeeeaaaaaarrrrrnnnnn that 40.00 by taking up their time."

Actually, Tom, that would be our time you'd be taking up, there bud. Surely the easiest solution would be to follow the rules. But if you simply must practice activism after you get caught breaking those rules, is there any way I could talk you into taking it easy with the taxes we all pay?

It's precisely because of parking hassles like the above that downtown Portland is slowly losing one business after another. Two weeks ago I drove up Broadway and was appalled at the large number of vacant storefronts. In my 21 years in Portland; I can't remember ever seeing so many empty storefronts.

Through these measures you will adapt and conform. If you were alread riding a bike you would not be getting tickets.

And besides there's too much consuming going on anyway.

I thought the signs were for use of SMART cards which the city sold. CoP paid something like $100K to enable the meters to take these things and then no one bought them.

SMART cards are generic chip-on-card that you charge up by putting money on them.

Ben,

I assume you're being facetious, but it's a lot more fun to read the first sentence of your comment with a Commandant Klink voice! Remember, substitute a "v" for the "w" in "will." (Sorry if you're too young to remember Hogan's Heroes.)

Steve,

Yes, I think you are right -- the city-issued cards are not credit cards, but smart cards with chips on them. There is still a spot on the website for them, but there isn't much information, so it would seem that maybe they are being phased out? Where is the press release? Was there a security problem? I smell a scandal.

http://www.portlandonline.com/TRANSPORTATION/INDEX.CFM?c=40551&

What makes you think they were getting paid OT? The City has crews working regular shifts 7 days a week, covering nearly 24 hours a day. Now they may not all be Sign crews, or Parking Enforcement, but I wouldn't be surprised if this "overtime" you think was going on, was actually someone doing work on their regular shift.

I don't think the City is all 9-5er's

Damn right, Portland should tear down its buildings and offer free parking everywhere!:

http://www.transitmiami.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/houston.jpg

Looks pretty good, hu? I guess that will reduce parking demand in more ways than one. More spaces + nothing to drive to in the first place.

Unfortunately, this was the course that most American cities have taken over the last 60 years and it has not paid off.

I actually had a more difficult time finding parking @ Washington Square this winter than I ever have downtown (anywhere from 5 - 10 minute delays finding a space).

And most of the land at Wash Square is devoted to parking...

Vance "Surely the easiest solution would be to follow the rules." You dissapoint me because you don't strike me as a rule following kind of guy. I am about as white bread, don't make a scene, bend over and assume the position type of person as you can get, but taking a few hours off work last Summer and going to traffic court and talking to a Judge was an education that simply writing a check and handing it to a bored clerk wouldn't have allowed me. It wasn't any more an act of social activism then voting.

ws,

Any idea how old that picture of downtown Houston is?

MJ:

I'm not sure, actually. It looks early 80s. Downtown Houston looks a lot nicer than this now. I'm going to take a wild guess and say because they got rid of the black hole surface parking lots that the suburbanites *love* so much.

It came from here:

http://theoverheadwire.blogspot.com/2010/02/parking-bombs.html