Parking scofflaws, your free ride will soon be over

Are you sitting on a bunch of unpaid parking tickets? Do you hate being a meter-feeder? Have you gotten used to being able to park illegally with virtual impunity?

Well, soon it’s gonna suck to be you.

For more than a year now, there’s been almost no parking enforcement in Atlanta. There were only three meter maids patrolling the entire city.

How did that happen? As has become typical with Atlanta, it seems to have been a case of bad timing, poor planning and bureaucratic fumbling.

Last spring, when city officials realized thay were looking at a serious budget shortfall, they decided to privatize parking enforcement as a way to trim payroll. So, in May, during the first round of city layoffs, Mayor Franklin sacked the staff of meter-readers.

Soon after, however, new Public Works Commissioner Joe Basista broke it to the administration that the city couldn’t afford to replace its existing coin-operated meters with new-fangled multi-space meters that accept credit cards, as had been planned. Next, someone realized that the request for proposals that had been drawn up to solicit bids from contractors was flawed and needed to be rewritten. Apparently, each of these setbacks took months to iron out.