Intentionally Disabled Parking Meters Irk Businesses, Officials

Everybody hates parking tickets. And parking meters seem like silent snitches, just waiting to catch parkers lingering a minute too long in a hard-found space.

Yet, deep down inside, drivers know the meters free up spaces that simply would not be available otherwise. The meters do that unless they are rendered useless by people who seek unlimited parking by vandalizing the machines.

Alec Akopov, the owner of Central Liquors at 917 F St. NW, says he calls the police almost every morning. And each morning, his complaint is exactly the same: Parking meter problems are hurting his trade.

He blames workers from construction sites on his block for hogging spaces by parking their cars for hours with impunity at meters with a half-hour time limit. He complains that some people jam meters near his store with broken nails, paper clips or wrappers so they read "FAILED." Then they put a sign or a bag on the meters indicating the malfunction and park as long as they please, he added. On a daily basis, his customers are left hunting for parking that's often farther away, Akopov said.

"People say they love the store, the selection and the service, but they can't come," he said.

Meter-tampering is the most pressing challenge facing the D.C. Traffic Services Administration, according to D.C. Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Rice. The city, which reaps $13.5 million per year in parking meter revenues, loses approximately $400,000 annually because of broken meters, Rice said.

The problem is especially severe in Adams Morgan, downtown and along Georgia Avenue, he said. Of 32 failed meters along Georgia Avenue and H Street recently repaired by the city in response to complaints, all had been intentionally broken, according to a June 20 e-mail from Robert Marsili Jr., support manager for the Traffic Services Administration.

Broken meters are supposed to be repaired by the city within 72 hours, a deadline Rice said is usually met. However, store owners may not even realize repairs have been done because "people will repair a meter and in a couple hours it will be tampered with again," he said.

New, solar-powered meters installed on M Street in Georgetown last week are more tamper resistant, have fewer parts to break and send out a signal indicating when they are broken, Rice said.

The newer models stand one to a block. When parking customers feed the meter, it issues a receipt that customers display on their dashboards.

Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, said the older meters "are a very poor piece of equipment."