Sometimes they go by bike, other times they go by car. They’re a familiar sight to students living and driving around East Lansing, and for those who get ticketed, they’re often a source of frustration.
They are East Lansing’s Parking and Code Enforcement, or PACE, and with many students voicing their opinions on them, we went on a ride-along with PACE officer Paul Weidner to take a look into his daily interactions with the community.
A morning in the life
PACE officer and East Lansing resident Paul Weidner headed out for a day of enforcing parking and code ordinances on July 10, the day of his 44th wedding anniversary.
Besides his current job, Weidner has prior ties to the area. His father attended MSU after WWII when the university was known as Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science.
Weidner started at the Lansing Police Department in 1972 as a homicide detective after serving in the Vietnam War. After the police department, Weidner worked for an audit company.
“The PACE job came along and I picked this up after retirement,” Weidner said. “I love when students are here, they keep me young. I enjoy being out and about.”
While driving his Harrison Road route, Weidner pointed out that a majority of streets in East Lansing are very narrow.
“When East Lansing was built it was not meant to handle this many people,” Weidner said.
To combat extended parking on the narrow streets, Weidner said PACE officers put chalk lines on tires to keep track of the two-hour time limits. If the chalk hasn’t moved after two hours then the vehicle is ticketed.
“Downtown meters and lots get the most tickets and usually fill up at lunch time,” Weidner said. “Certain days are busier than others and game days are the busiest. It’s just part of your day, I just write what I see.”
Weidner said parking near fire hydrants, on grass, driveways and sidewalks and wrong-way to the curb are common violations as well.
Weidner started the day with a complaint response report for grass and overgrowth of weeds on a sidewalk. The PACE office sent the homeowners a letter and deadline to have the sidewalk cleared.
“If I see something extreme while driving around, then I will stop. I live in East Lansing too, sometimes you forget to mow the lawn ... sometimes you miss a day. So I use discretion. You hope your team is accepted as a partner with the community since we are all trying to do the same thing — have a nice, clean environment. It makes a difference,” Weidner said. “Let’s say as I am writing someone a ticket they are coming up to the car, it is my discretion to give them a ticket or a warning.”
At 10:31 a.m., that very scenario happened.
As Weidner was ticketing a car, two women began swiftly walking over and voiced to him that he was ticketing their car.
“How about a warning,” Weidner said back to the women.
The two got into their car and Lindsay Johnson, a 23-year-old from Colorado, said, “It felt amazing. We are the luckiest girls.”
“Technically, could I have ticketed them? Yeah. But my job is not to come out here and be … well it is,” Weidner said before laughing out loud.
At 10:39 a.m., another ticket meter expired. The ticket was written and this time the person did not approach while we were on scene.
“I am old and seasoned enough where that doesn’t bother me,” Weidner said about dealing with angry vehicle owners. “If I get an irate individual I try to reason with them. In some situations, I may just give a warning. We have discretion in our job.”
Parking woes
Political science senior Veronica Stachurski said her frustration with parking in East Lansing is that there aren’t enough spots near popular destinations.
“(Parking is) really inconvenient. The spots are not strategically placed. My parents sometimes find it hard to park near where they need to be,” Stachurski said. “PACE is very efficient, overly efficient. It’s a college town so people don’t necessarily know where to go. They are not very gracious on appeals.”
MSU chemical engineering junior Ben Lambert said he once had his car towed for parking in someone’s spot and then got a ticket for it on top of that.
“So basically, PACE is just the worst,” he said. “I think they have hidden cameras that hunt you down and find you.”
Lambert also fought a ticket he received for parking at a friend’s house. Lambert had had back surgery and claimed he needed the spot due to handicap, although he did not have a permit. Lambert went to City Hall and turned in the ticket along with a written explanation. Within two months, City Hall dismissed the ticket.
Music education senior Jenny Chung said PACE hasn’t been lenient with her when she’s violated parking ordinances.
“The system is unfortunate,” Chung said. “There have been so many times where I’ve come up to my car while they’re writing the ticket and they say it is too late. I don’t know, I just don’t understand why they don’t look around for the person. It is not very judicious and I don’t understand why they are so ruthless.”
Tickets and meters
East Lansing parking administrator Caleb Sharrow said parking time limits on meters depend on the area, the needs of the businesses nearby and parking space demand.
To accommodate for those parking to shop and lunch, most meters allow for a maximum of 90 minutes, Sharrow said.
A parking ticket for an expired meter starts at $10 and increases if not paid within 24 hours, according to the City of East Lansing’s website.
Nameet Patel, who graduated in the spring with a degree in economics, said parking in East Lansing is too strict and that being able to park longer would decrease the number of tickets.
The number of parking tickets, though, has been steadily decreasing. The 54B District Court handled 46,694 parking tickets in 2014; 2,730 less than 2013. Over the past decade, the annual number of parking tickets has decreased at an average of 2,345 tickets per year, according to East Lansing’s comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014.
However, the city’s parking revenue has remained consistent over the same decade, according to the report.
East Lansing police Lt. Steve Gonzalez said revenue might have remained steady because of violation fee increases.
The annual financial report states parking revenue generated $3.79 million in 2014. Parking expenses were $3.47 million in 2014.
Sharrow said excess parking revenue, which was about $320,000 in 2014, goes toward infrastructure improvements and maintenance after the cost of service is covered.
Media and information senior Nick Hess said his parking concern has to do with parking permits. Hess lives in housing owned by Cron Management, LLC and said he is not provided free parking. Hess pays $80 a month for a parking permit, while other Cron Management properties are supplied with parking, he said.
Permits for the seven East Lansing parking garages and lots range in price from $65 per month to $85 per month, according to the City of East Lansing’s website.
Nick Waligora, a hospitality business junior, said his main parking complaint is not receiving any validation toward parking at his workplace.
If businesses wish to validate their customers and employees parking there’s a program through the city that offers a 40 percent discount off the standard rate, Sharrow said.
On the MSU side, expired meter fees are $15, according to the MSU Police Department’s website.
During the 2014-15 year, the MSU parking office collected $1.6 million in ordinance violation fees, office director Lynnette Forman said. The amount of money yielded from such fees has gone down over each of the past five years, she said.
Money collected from ordinance violation fees pays for campus green-light safety phones, crosswalks, speed bumps, turning traffic circles into four-way stops and any other safety needs, Forman said.
Economics senior XiXi Wu said parking on campus became more convenient when credit card meters were introduced.
The credit card meters were installed in the fall of 2013 and have increased meter usage and decreased the number of issued expire meter tickets, Forman said.
Meter fee rising
Downtown East Lansing’s parking fares increased by five cents July 1. They are now 70 cents per half hour in five attended garages and 75 cents per half hour in the two attended lots.
The five garage locations are Bailey Street, Division Street, Charles Street, Grove Street and The Marriott Hotel. The two lots are on Albert Avenue and Bailey Street.
The increase is due to PACE receiving a reduced allocation of ticket revenue from the city’s general fund and increases in supply, service and maintenance costs, Sharrow said.
The increase will help fund facility maintenance and improvement costs that include the new elevators in the Grove Street and Division Street garages and the completion of the LED lighting projects in the Division Street and Charles Street garages, Sharrow said.
East Lansing parking meters and pay stations will remain at 75 cents per half hour.
On-campus parking fares will not increase. Forman said campus meters, including those in garages, will remain $1.80 per hour and parking lots are $0.80 per half hour.
Forman said MSU parking lot fares have not increased since 2002, and meter rates last increased in 2013 from $1.50 to the current $1.80 per hour.
