Parking tickets could soon turn into a big problem for Mobilians if they have multiple unpaid violations

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Parking tickets will soon turn into parking problems for drivers in Downtown Mobile, especially for repeat offenders.

“I paid my parking tickets why shouldn’t you pay yours, so why not,” said Craig Hall.

The City of Mobile announced this week that if you do not pay to park and you have five or more unpaid parking tickets you are going to get the boot.

“I’ve been booted in the private lots for zero parking tickets so five is more than enough, yeah pay your parking tickets,” Hall said.

“I at one time had quite a few tickets because I have a lot of clients downtown and the previous group would literally wait until the meter ran out,” said Dan Dickerson. “I guess that’s okay, but I just don’t agree with treating people that need to come downtown like that.”

The booting will start on June 1st. Until then the city says they will hand out warnings to create awareness about the change and give violators time to pay their fines.

Some frequent downtown visitors would like to see a change so visitors are not scared off.

“Personally, I carry a roll of quarters when the Senior Bowl is in town just so I can put a quarter in case someone accidentally goes over,” Dickerson said.

The city says this change is in response to the number of outstanding fines. They say some people have more than two dozen unpaid tickets.

“I understand what the city is trying to do and I like the way the new group runs the parking, they’re a lot nicer about it than the way they used to do it,” Dickerson said. “It’s a problem for every metropolitan city.

The city says its goal is to increase turnover so more people can get downtown.

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