Parking Tickets. The borough issues them at $15 each. The university issues them at $10 each. The Daily Local News did some research this week and dug up the total number of parking tickets issued by some Chester county municipalities.Oxford. 884 tickets
Malvern. 915 tickets
Downingtown. 2782 tickets
Kennet Square. 5515 tickets
Coatsville. 7321 tickets
West Chester. Say it with me folks. 76,995 tickets. Multiply that by 15 and the borough has made $1,154,925 from residents and commuters just on parking tickets. There is no doubt that the university only contributes to the massive increase as opposed to the other municipalities, but is the township taking advantage of the situation? And where does all that money go? It certainly is not implemented to providing more parking. It certainly is not implemented to road repair. Matlack Street has more potholes than all of Route 100.
Let’s not forget this does not even include parking meters. Oh yeah. What about those parking meters? It was nice of the university and the borough to inform all of its residents and commuters that the rates would be increasing to $1 per hour so they couldn’t walk up and down the street issuing tickets to every violation.
Jim Callahan, from the Local Daily News, claims the culprit is alternate side parking. He said, “In my block, you can’t park on one side on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and the other side on Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.” He goes on to say, “It’s real easy to forget which day is which if you are getting home late and are tired;” a situation many West Chester residents can relate to.