The city of Denver stands to receive a parking-ticket windfall after issuing citations downtown totaling at least an extra $34,700 during the week-long RTD strike.
The work stoppage earlier this month forced commuters who typically use mass transit to drive downtown, where they were greeted by increased prices in often-full private lots.
Those who parked at meters or in residential neighborhoods encountered the seasonal launch of the city street-sweeping program, which claimed parking spaces and resulted in citations for cars parked on blocks slated for sweeping.
“When parking lots charged in excess of $30 or $40 during the strike, clearly a $20 parking ticket looked like a bargain to many people,” said Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, spokeswoman for Mayor John Hickenlooper.
The city did not alter its street-sweeping or other parking-enforcement measures as a result of the strike.
“The city can’t change its enforcement policies designed to maximize a scarce resource like parking when there is a short- term disruption like the RTD strike,” Lent said.
Hickenlooper won the mayor’s office in 2003 on a platform that included reducing parking rates downtown. In early December 2003, he reduced the rate for downtown meters to $1 an hour from $1.50.
Data provided by the Department of Public Works show that 1,735 more parking tickets were issued downtown and in Capitol Hill during the workweek of April 3-7 than were written during the same week of 2005.
With most parking tickets carrying $20 fines, the extra tickets resulted in at least $34,700 in possible revenue for the city. Some tickets, including those for parking in handicapped spaces or tow-away zones, carry higher fines.
Patty Weiss, a spokeswoman for the Denver Department of Public Works, said some drivers’ unfamiliarity with downtown parking regulations and the launch of street sweeping probably contributed to the increase in citations.
“If you park in a neighborhood all day and are not aware of the signs or haven’t driven in the downtown area for a while, there may have been no knowledge of the street-sweeping program,” she said.
Weiss declined to attribute the spike in citations to the Regional Transportation District strike alone. She noted that this year’s reporting period included four days of street sweeping, compared with three days last year.
Additionally, the first week of the street-sweeping program typically catches people off guard, resulting in a spike in tickets, she said.
In Capitol Hill, 3,177 tickets were issued during the strike, compared with 1,740 the previous year.
A total of 3,360 tickets were issued downtown, compared with 3,062 a year ago.
“We did not do anything different this year than we do in any other year,” Weiss said. “The strike was not something that we took as a reason to enforce more stringently or anything. It was our normal course of business.”
Jamie Stone, a financial adviser with Wealth Strategies Group LLC of Centennial, was among those who received a ticket during the strike. Stone, who was downtown for a business meeting on Blake Street, overstayed the time on his meter, netting him a $20 ticket.
A second parking ticket the week after the strike ended persuaded Stone to purchase a scooter to cut down on his parking woes.
“It finally put me over the edge,” Stone said.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it gave the wrong title for Jamie Stone. He is a financial adviser with Wealth Strategies Group LLC.
