Parking fines spike in Portland
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PORTLAND, Ore. - Being a parking scofflaw in Portland just got a lot more expensive.
Beginning Thursday, a ticket for "having no meter receipt" jumped to $60, according to Cheryl Kuck with the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
The cost of a citation for overtime parking - where you paid for your parking but stayed over the time limit - remains at $39, Kuck said.
Parking in a spot that requires a permit - assuming you don't have one - will set you back $80. Parking you car in a truck loading zone while you dash in for a coffee will cost $90 - even if you put on those hazard lights.
Make sure you have license plates on your vehicle. If you don't and you also don't have a temporary tag, it's $80 again.
Fines are also increasing for overtime parking in timed spots and for illegally parking in a carpool zone.
Portland transportation officials said the increases put Portland on par with parking fines in other cities of similar size.
Most of the increases take effect Thursday. The truck loading zone ticket increase will take effect in July, officials said.
Also there IS Transportation for the elderly and people with medical issues and usually it is free and they come right to the front door....I have been in the medical field for over fifteen years so clearly I know what I am talking about
People that will not ride public transportation because of possible BED BUGS......OMG.. Get over it...every time you walk outside and brush up against someone or something you could get something.....BTW. Even books have bugs....so if you have that many issues stay home cause it would not be the seats that would bother me but you....LIfes to short to worry about petty issues...really think about it....
There's nothing wrong with fines, but in this case it's more of another revenue gathering device than one to make people think twice about breaking a parking ordinance. Â Fines for parking (or traffic for that matter) shouldn't be an ATM for a government agency.
Here is a solution to.all of your comments...... TAKE A BUS OR MAX ... Save the environment and save some money by doing so! Have'nt you ever heard that we have the best public transportation around...? Or actually follow the law.. That means park legally,( and the right direction), and get out and walk!!! Is that so hard, or is it easier to be lazy?
 @Sammiey Some people are either disabled &/or very elderly and cannot really walk a few, let alone the usual several blocks to their destination, or cannot ride buses or MAX for other medical reasons. God forbid they also have to carry something that far on top of it too. Public transportation is useless for them. But as usual, so many people such as yourself don't even recognize these people exist, let alone they have physical needs that are different than able-bodied people.
Oh...and let's not forget this: Don't forget the BEDBUGS on the buses and MAX and streetcars!! You ride with them, they will most certainly ride home ON you. Surely you didn't think they were all coming from the hotels downtown alone?? Have you looked at some of your Tri-Met seatmates lately? Get up nice and close and sit right next to/across/in front of/behind them and their vermin-infested clothing and backpack to get a real learning experience in infestation. Sweet dreams... or not.
 @whirledworld Preach on WW!
People can't afford these high fines, esp. with no jobs here. What then? put them in overcrowded jails?
just how much money does a city want? Isnt the property taxes on all the buildings and houses in portland enough? ,you relize its a parking TAX right,on top of all the fees the city charges,bet they would charge one to drop a load without flushing>>>>
It's pretty simple. Â Look for the signs, pay for parking, make sure you don't go over your time or park where you aren't supposed to. Â Done. Â Never got a parking ticket.
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Of course all the complainers are just like the those on the show "Parking Wars". Â It's never their fault. Â Someone is out to get them. Â
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Hey if hundreds of thousands of us can park without incurring a ticket, then it must be your stupidity.Â
 @Benjamin Schniffle After 27 years of driving and zero parking tickets, I have to say... bullcrap. While I haven't had a ticket, I have seen those crappy machines used up there fail with almost clockwork frequency. Not all tickets are the fault of the driver. Most are, but not all.
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And as for stupidity, I will leave this gem of wisdom as an example of real stupidity, "Hey if hundreds of thousands of us can park without incurring a ticket, then it must be your stupidity."
 @Peregrine Uh, okay,  You make no sense but that's your entire post there.  You haven't had a ticket because you paid attention and yet you side with the idiots?  Typical liberal.
So lets just implement a "Death Penalty for parking violations policy " We would solve several issues here. Here's how it clould work: * Tax paying citizen violates the law by going over their alloted time limit *parking enforcement ob...serves the heinous crime committed *waits for criminal to return *notifes the public enemy/criminal of their crime *holds court right on the spot then executes sentence. DEATH PENALTY! The guilty party is given one minute to say their prayers and given a choice lethal injection or just shot in the back of head (execution style). If the guilty party resists, the officer has right to bludgeon them to death with a hatchet. The benefits of this new procedure are unmeaserable. Lets take a look at them: Parking enforement would not have to have expensive, unreliable technolgy with them, just the basics: badge, gun, with bullets, hatchet, safty glasses, radio and body bags. Once sentence is carried out, officer calls in the location and the city crew removes the vehicle, to be sold later at public auction, the body bag to be disposed of a green manner. The cost of this would surely be covered by the sale of the vehicles leaving a hefty profit. As a bonus we would be rid of these public enemies. Do the math, more money for the city, quick turnover of parking spaces for the business. I see this as a win win for all, except the offending party who might rather be subjected to the slow painful extortion we have now in Portland now. Portland needs to better then other cities and standout.
Simple solution. Don't go into town unless it's absolutely necessary. This scheme is just a way for the city to force you onto mass transit.
 @Razor1 Actually, there is a really simple solution - don't park where you shouldn't and don't overstay your time at your meter. In all the times I have parked in an area of Portland that has meters and such, I've only ever messed up one time - I was a couple minutes late back to my vehicle at a meter. I got lucky and beat any parking enforcement people to my car and I was ok. Now I'm sure to buy a little extra just in case - that extra quarter or whatever costs me a lot less than the ticket. I also put an alarm on my cell phone to warn me when I'm getting close to my time so I don't do it again. Even when I was new to town I understood that parking in a loading zone or an area that required permits was wrong and that I would definitely be setting myself up for an expensive ticket.
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I don't understand why people get so upset when fines go up for breaking the law. It's really easy to avoid it - follow the law. Had I gotten a ticket for overstaying my meter by 2 minutes, that would have been my fault and no one else's.
 @Jenni S. Um that is an ignorant take on the issue,havent you been reading or paying attention to the news,Portland is anti-cars,why else do they allow new apartments to be built with no spaces for the tenants to park,they will have to pay the city for permits to park their own damn car in front of their own damn apartment,go figure,and there is no price control on the parking structures downtown 160.00 and up to park down downtown are you nuts? Portland sucks I wish an earthquake hits it and take ALL the libs/dems with it
Who cares what "other cities" are doing? I thought Portland was supposed to set its own standards and not follow the pack. I guess Portland is the city that works at making sure its citizens pay through the nose.
 @NWGuy Only if you violate the law.  There is no problem other than ill awareness of well lit and posted signs.
crazy. got to pay these six figure salaries of the mayor and police chief who supports sexual harassment.Â
 @phyllis21 and the police chief who engages in sex crimes coverups
I like the mentality of: I can park illegally if I have my 'flashing lights' on.
Flashing lights or not, you're a violator.
Pay up.
Gotta pay for Sam Adams and Randy Leonard's retirement somehow.
portland needs one or more of them parking meter fairies. i implore to all husky, middle age dudes who are graceful on their feet to don pink tutus and take to the streets with all the loose change you've aggregated under your sofa cushions. let us patrol downtown portland for timed out meters and work our fabulous magic.Â
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dang i just remembered you have to place the parking stubs inside the windows. well we can always distract the meter maids with our rhythmic dancing and clouds of pixie dust (powdered sugar) thrown at them.Â
I worked downtown for 4 years not that long ago. It certainly is not special enough to risk an 80 dollar fine. If it is that much trouble to find an empty parking space that the city can justify 80 dollars for an expired meter, then I'll happily give downtown a wide berth.
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/The message from the city of Portland = The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Love it....our fines are not duly just...they're "just" on a par with other cities our size.....?
Current cities with populations about the size of Portland (about 600k):
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Milwaukee
Baltimore
Seattle
Las Vegas
Oklahoma City
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Parking rates per city (first hour - 2010):
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Milwaukee: $2.00 - $4.70
Okahoma CIty: $1.00 - $2.00
Las Vegas: $2.00 - $8.00
Seattle: $5.60 - $9.60
Baltimore: $5.80 - $8.40
Portland (2012): $1.60
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You know, Portland parking rates are nearly the lowest of other cities our size.
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Portland could either raise all the rates to $5.00 an hour to compete, or they can raise the fines.
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I think they're being pretty generous by raising the fines and not the rates.Â
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Fines can be avoided. Rates cannot.
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 @Improprietous If it's money the city wants, why not enforce the anti-littering law? Smokers continue to throw their poisonous butts, sometimes while still lit, on the ground as though they're not litter. There would be a major windfall to city coffers if this one law were enforced.
Thanks for all the research, but who cares? We live here, not there! There parking issues are theirs. All we get is bike lanes and city administrators who see dollar signs! And maybe a bike in every driveway! LOL
 @jpk How is the city making money if you just don't break the law?
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Don't be stupid and nobody gets to take your money. Duh.
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@JPK then when you get people out of their cars and ride bikes you have loons say they need to pay fees to use the road WTF
@JPK was going to say the same thing,why do people use dumbazzed comparisons that are irrelevent
 @Nuclear-X Whether it's relevant is relative. To you, it may not be important, but many posts are about other cities, including the main article. So let's expand on that. Comparatively, we're almost the cheapest of any city regarding rates, but yet we b!tch and moan.Â
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And what do we b!tch and moan about? Fines. Fines imposed for breaking the law. How about you just don't break the law? Nothing to complain about then, is there?
Portland's government employee's vacation beach & mountain homes ain't cheap....
Why would someone put themselves in a situation to where they have to even think about getting a parking ticket? You snooze you lose.  Go ahead, let's hear some of the classic "it wasn't my fault "excuses. And as others have stated...why would anyone want to go to the hellhole downtown? To waste money on booze? food? get drugs? hookers? It's a bonafided certified freak show which I guess is amusing. They can make the fine 2000 bucks as far as I give a rats.
 @Bill Preston Well, Bill - one reason to go downtown is if you work or go to school at PSU. And if you're the kind of instructor who takes the time to talk to a troubled student after class - which makes you leave later than you expected to - sometimes there's a ticket waiting for you.
 @gofigure PSU is nowhere near downtown.  Stop with the lies.  There are 3 parking structures and you can easily pay to park.
@Benjamin Schniffle @gofigure Ben must me drunk or high, pull your head from your arse, PSU is maybe 2-3 blocks from downtown...how is that nowhere near? Stay in Gresham please, your stupidity is welcomed there.
 @Benjamin Schniffle  @gofigure are you actually Sam Adams? Because your various posts have an uncanny resemblance to him thinking...
 @gofigure Why would anyone take a car to PSU? The street car, Max, and about 10 buses all go straight there, from 5am -midnight.
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Just go to your nearest park and ride and hop on. Save gay money.
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 @Improprietous  @gofigure Why would anyone want to go to PSU and be nickel and dimed for fees constantly. Sukkas...
"Gay money", is that some nuew form of currency?
How nice!! A fundraising event.
Parking tickets are just a way for cities to fund thier fu@@ ups.
Call it a fine, call it a fee. It really is just another tax to use a public area.
 @2012 Hope and Change What does really matter?
 @2012 Hope and Change Only taxes can't be avoided. Fines can.
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 @2012 Hope and Change One that's COMPLETELY avoidable.
Portland, the city that keeps on taking.Â
 @I812 Drivers, the people that keep on law breaking.
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Simply put:Â If you don't want to be fined, then park in the right spot for the allotted time. Duh.
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@Improprietous I haven't had a parking ticket for decades. That is not the point. Portland has made it both difficult and expensive to park downtown in their effort to socially engineer all of us toward mass transit. Using other cities as a basis for setting fines is neither appropriate nor good public policy. Fines should be set to discourage illegal parking but not be excessively punitive. In other words, fines should generate the revenue necessary to enforce parking laws. Anything beyond that is simply generating revenue for the city. Remember it is the citizens of Portland that pay the taxes to maintain the streets that the city charges people to park on.
 @I812 expensive to park downtown? I just looked up the rates for cities with populations around our size. The conclusion: We're the cheapest!
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And if you haven't had a parking ticket in decades, then why do you even care about the topic of fines? Fines are only for people that break the law.
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And yes, the citizens pay taxes. We are the same citizens that vote against every new measure that ups taxes in even the slightest amount. By that logic, the city finds it hard to bring in revenue. So they go about it by other means. If you don't want fines raised, then how about voting for measures that raise your taxes, so that money goes to all the places they need to be going?
 @Jenni S.  @I812  @Improprietous "...looking at other cities..." Hellloooo?
We are, in fact, talking about THIS city and it's history of fines and the huge unprecedented rise in them. This city is not another city.
 @I812  @Improprietous Actually, looking at other cities, it is still quite cheap to park downtown. I've never had that much trouble finding a parking spot whenever I've gone downtown.
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Your biggest headaches will be if you park somewhere you shouldn't have been parking in the first place. Spots with permits and loading zones are important to those businesses and such, and when they're blocked by other people, it causes a lot of problems. If you choose to park in one of those spots - which are typically pretty obvious - then you risk the ticket.Â