November 3, 2009

Suggestions for harsher penalties for repeat parking offenders in an effort to open more parking spaces for downtown Bend customers.

One of two proposed short term solutions for those who violate parking rules is to raise fines from $32 to possibly as much as $100 after the tenth ticket. This comes from a meeting Tuesday morning with downtown business owners and city councilor Mark Capell.
Another change could come as early as next week with 3 hours of free parking downtown during the holiday season.

Terri Cumbie owns Dudley's Bookshop and Cafe and co-chairs the parking committee. After hearing there were problems with employees abusing the free parking policy she did a walk around  downtown with diamond parking to see how many repeat offenders work downtown.

In just an hour Thursday there were 21 employees and Friday 29 employees who are considered repeat offenders by Diamond Parking continuing to park longer than allowed on the main streets of downtown Bend.
Out of over 15-hundred employees Diamond Parking has tracked over 70 repeat offenders.

Jim Peterson owns Mockingbird Gallery on Wall Street. This was his first look at the parking issues.

"There is definitely some frustration there and I think what really needs to happen is that the downtown merchants need to take responsibility for their employees.There arent enough parking spots for 73 offenders to be taking and then not effect our shoppers," said Peterson.

The next step is for the Bend City Council to approve the increased fines for multiple parking tickets.