Bag a meter
Several weeks ago, there was a night-time running race in downtown Lexington on a Saturday. Do you have any idea why the City of Lexington bagged all the parking meters throughout several blocks of downtown beginning on Friday night, eliminating dozens of legal parking spots, when the event didn’t start until 24 hours later? This isn’t any way to get people into downtown.
According to Penny Ebel, special events coordinator for the city, 24 hour notice of limited parking is standard procedure for the city. Parking meters are covered 24 hours ahead of an event to give the car owners 24 hours notice to move their cars. The city charter , Chapter 18, Article III Parking Meters, ” empowers the police department to cover the meters, “with red plastic bags labeled ‘No Parking by Order of LFUCG Police - Tow Zone’ for impromptu or brief events such as parades, large funerals, emergencies and similar situations where the public safety and convenience require that the parking meter spaces be reserved..”
Filed under: Lexington info, Road Work
My mother was a public school librarian. I earned a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Kentucky. The Herald-Leader hired me as a news assistant 25 years ago; soon after, I moved to the news research department, where I’ve been ever since. We used to clip newspapers. Now, almost all of our research is online. We've come a long way.
24-hours notice for car owners to move their cars? The meters have a 2 hour limit during the week. Why wouldn’t the meter maids be able to bag the meters 8 hours before the event and have any remaining vehicles towed in the few hours preceeding the event? I can see that for a parade or street fair, but a foot race or a funeral should have absolutely no impact on legal street parking. Shutting down public parking on a street 24 hours before an event that passes through that area over the course of 10 minutes to an hour? Just seems a waste of police manpower and valuable street parking. I’m sure Central Parking loves it, though.