By: Diane Benjamin
Last week the Redbirds played a home game. Fans park on the street when the games are played on the weekends.
This game was during the week. The street signs say no parking on weekdays, but lots of fans parked there anyway. I’m sure they assumed it was okay since school was not in session,
The Town of Normal ticketed them, I hear the cost is between $30 and $40. Lots of fans have vowed never to attend another game.
Congrats Normal, I hope the payday was worth it.
I’m sure ISU will appreciate a smaller fan base too.
So they knowingly broke the law and now it is Normals fault?
How many fans are boycotting because of this one parking ticket that was issued because they ignored the signs?
Maybe they need to stay at home.
They will from now on.
I fully support our officers, but this is the kind of thing that only serves to irritate people. Nothing is gained by this other than a few bucks for the city and ill-will towards the police department.
A few years ago we were at an event at the BCPA. We came out and our car (and others) were missing. Unbeknownst to us, there was a sign on a utility pole that said private lot. Our car had been towed from this lot to Joe’s (and damaged) and we had to find a ride on a cold winter night to go bail it out.
We have never been back to the BCPA and do not plan to go.
Hey Diane!
As a follow-up to this, before taking my daughters to the ISU game Tuesday, I also took them to the discovery museum for “Noon Year’s Eve” that they do every year. My girls really enjoy it, and it’s a fun way to celebrate the new year with the kids at a more appropriate time of day. I believe this is the biggest day of the year for museum attendance as well.
Anyway, as I was going to the museum, around 11:15, obviously parking in Normal is rough on a usual day. As I’m driving off the circle, the parking enforcement vehicle was parked giving tickets to people parked by the stoplight in the one-hour spaces. It caused me to pause and think twice about going. Being a single dad with two kids ages 5.5 and 4, I did not want to park a mile away and try to walk with them. I also didn’t want to pay the fine if I got a ticket. They were also writing tickets on cars parked in the heart of Uptown along Beaufort. Ticketing people for one of the busiest days of the year, especially when they are already bringing extra spending dollars to Uptown, is probably not the best way to excite people that may not normally go Uptown to continue to frequent there. But maybe that’s just me 🤷♂️ Typical government, short term money grab without thought about the long term effect.
Figured I’d pass along! Have a great 2020!
Derek
Derek Mead
Armstrong Burns & Company
RE/MAX Rising
309-532-5653
Sent from my iPhone
Everyone should have ridden a bus !
From what bus stop, when they have eliminated a lot of them?
It’s easy to take a swipe at the police for writing tickets to fill the quotas they say they don’t have. (Oh, right… “performance metrics”.) However, if the sign is posted and visible, it’s tough to defend the person who parked their car anyway. I hear parking in this neighborhood for ISU events/sports is a common occurrence, if so how many times has Normal PD let it go? At least they’re not staking it out during every weekday event. Taking a step back and looking at the big picture, I agree with Derek in that the Town has done a horrific job planning for, managing, and accommodating parking and vehicle traffic. It seems the Uptown area, including ISU, was designed with the belief that very few people (other than government employees) would travel there by car. I’m sure most people would prefer the inefficiency of taking (Dis)Connect Transit or the impracticality of riding their bike (in winter) to Uptown and/or an ISU event.
Hey Mike, our wonderful governor is in the process of expunging the records of 70,000 individuals arrested for breaking the law by being caught selling or using cannabis if Normal ever makes parking legal on the streets during activities at the arena those that got tickets in the past will be reimbursed and their records expunged. Just thinking
A friend of mine received a ticket. He assumed being a holiday that it was ok to park. Now, we all know the signs say not to park there on weekdays, but I don’t believe that is normally to prevent people from parking there on gamedays. You are right, it caused him to say it would be hard to come back for a game because the $10 paid parking on top of the ticket makes going to a game unaffordable for him.
In terms of those talking about trusting cops, unfortunately recent news about the arrest of a veteran Normal police officer does nothing to instill confidence in the Normal force.
Black Friday or New year’s eve are not legal holidays….The only day games so far this year during the week.
I am not saying it was a good idea to give these tickets but they did and it was following the law. One of the things we see a lot on this forum are the CORRECT questioning of our so called civic leaders and their failure to follow the law. The failure of Koos to follow the law on public comment in every council meeting comes to mind.
To be consistent there is no argument that makes it right to not give tickets, we should hold ourself to the same standard as we expect them to follow. Having said that it is unfortunate the fueler Koos has his gestapo that can hand out tickets/ Unfortunately we continue to have a piece of crap AG following in Lisa Madigan’s footsteps who refuses to do his job Kwame that would be you. So yes again we see the two true classes. The public continues to lose and be prosecuted while the politicians are never held responsiblw unless you are a real idiot like Blago.