Business Owners Upset Over Weekend Parking Tickets

ATLANTA — Business owners on Mitchell Street in downtown Atlanta are upset over Saturday parking tickets.

Murray Teilhaber usually takes the bus to work at Friedman’s Shoes, but on Saturdays he has to drive his car. He wasn’t worried about paying the meters. He said business owners on the street were told by both PARKAtlanta and the city that he wouldn’t get a ticket.

“They said that there would be no charge for parking on the weekends, Saturday and Sunday,” said Teilhaber.

But he found out otherwise when he got a $25 ticket last Saturday. ” I would have paid for parking if I had known, but I didn’t know,” said Teilhaber. “And they didn’t tell anybody.”

City officials said tickets can be written whenever the signs say. On part of Mitchell Street the signs say two-hour parking from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., but they don’t say which days. But city council staff said they were told PARKAtlanta would not write tickets on Saturdays, and restaurant owner Dallas Benton said he was too.

“It’s not consistent,” said Benton.

Benton opened Nakoma’s Coney Island Restaurant six months ago and said he may not be open for long.

“We’re losing business because of this,” said Benton. “So we’re thinking about closing.”

And Teilhaber said he just wants the guessing game to come to an end.

“Anything’s better than what it is,” said Teilhaber. “There is no cohesion to anything here. You don’t know where to park, when to park, nothing.”

City officials are discussing a proposal that would end weekend tickets on Mitchell Street, but it still needs to be voted on by the entire council.