Year: 2005

I wrote the following for the December issue of PT. As you can see, it focuses on the automated parking industry and its issues. However

Ken Greenwood, formerly US Marketing Manager for Parkeon, has been made responsible for Global Sales and Marketing for Schweers Tecnologies based out of Germany. Schweers

Read this in the Honolulu Advertiser. In a nutshell, it says that an area of the city is suffering from lack of parking, that there

Parking is not a new issue for the Caltech community. A brief historical note regarding campus parking (circa 1960)–when cars were frequently reassembled in the

OK, I feel for handicapped persons as much as the next fellow. Frankly I can’t imagine the pain of being unable to simply get out

Boston is not going to attempt to renew the lease on the last "cheap" garage in the city. Its "cheap" because the city doesn’t charge

Here’s a commercial that has run. I have personally experienced this event, on airplanes and in airports. Its spontaneous and heartfelt. Download QuietCommercial.wmv JVH

What a great idea – GW University in DC and its Director of Parking, Larry Cohen, came up with a great idea — they took

I agree with the London Cabby who told me a couple of weeks ago that the best part of this time of year is the

I got into some great discussions with Andrew Scott and his crew at Digital Pioneer last week. Of course they are concerned with selling their

I’ve been traveling and getting out the January issue of PT, so blogging has been a bit slow. It will be intermittent over the holidays,

Can someone look at this for me and tell me what it means. Central Posts Profit for 4th quarter. I must be mistaken but as

Five deer (as in Bambi) leaped to their deaths from the fifth floor of a garage in Ranson West Virginia. Locals are puzzled but think

The Saga of Omar Shariff and  parking attendant Juan Anderson continues in Beverly Hills. The latest is that the Egyptian Stallion has pleaded not guilty

Read this one and weep — Its an editorial from the Boston Globe. If you can’t find it, basically it says that garage designers in

Washington DC has a parking problem, at least four of its churches do. Read about it here. The city doesn’t enforce parking regs on Sundays.

I got the following email: I was wanting to know if there are other cities out there that allows "free parking" at metered spaces during

As I was checking my post on UK Parking below, I noticed this article in the news feed to the right. University students at a

I caught this story in a UK paper. "Groan 6 for Town Car Parking."  Now I’ll bet you would guess that the article is about

This question was asked by a correspondent who obviously hasn’t been reading the blog for long. The answer: Soupista’s are followers of Don Shoup, the

The City of Marietta, W VA has a gift for its citizens. "Free" parking downtown during the holiday season. Read about it here. The city

The problem with collecting parking taxes has reared its head in Los Angeles, and politics may be the major reason. In the Byzantine workings of

I attended the ITS international trade show in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago and one exhibito stood out. It was the Toyota booth

I got this from a correspondent today: I moved to the Texas in March 2005 and started working in parking. Like you, I have a

I had a nice chat with the GM at the market. She was very kind and pointed out that not only were there signs where

Here’s the poop: Standard Parking Corporation announced today that it has terminated discussions to acquire the Illinois and Wisconsin parking operations of System Parking, Inc

Well, It may be news only to me, but I’m told by my spies in California’s Baghdad by the Bay that their experiment with collecting

I went back down and took some pictures.  Here’s what I mean about the importance of good signage.  I didn’t have my ticket validated because

For those of you  following my saga of "2 Hours Free with Validation" take heart — I was contacted by the head of the Farmer’s

The City of New Haven, Ct, decided to be kind to its residents and aren’t charging for parking on "Black Friday," the busiest shopping day

The City of Harvey, a Chicago Suburb, has a new arena, its near the local commuter train station. There’s a 1300 car lot at the

The weather here in Southern California has changed — Its cooler — a little overcast. It feels like fall, it feels like Thanksgiving. I am

This article caught my eye. The city of Des Moines, Iowa, is in debt, partly because they build a parking garage and don’t have the

An Aussie local council got itself in hot water when it posited that one reason that local Asians got alot of tickets was due to

I paid $2 to park, under protest, at a local shopping center. OK — lets get specific, it was the world famous Farmer’s Market near

Over the past few days I have spoken to the heads of a number of the largest parking equipment manufacturers in the US.  They have

Here’s a link to a Hoboken blog which pretty much parallels our comments earlier about the automated garage in their fair city. http://mistersnitch.blogspot.com/2005/11/politics-of-hobokens-automated-parking.html Its a

Shelly Mallah and his partner Goldman Sacks, have sold Icon Parking to a fund run by Australian Macquarie Bank. The 192 locations went for $634

Bradenton, FL city officials got nailed when they assigned 20 spaces in their garage to local judges. Read about it here. The city, county, and

The City of New Haven has instituted a smart card system. Read about it here. The idea is that participating merchants will issue cards and

The City of Malibu has OKed an ordinance which would prevent non residents from parking in a neighborhood near Pepperdine University from 2AM to 5:30

The pay and display meters in Manhattan’s theater district are being retrofitted to handle credit cards. Good for the Big Apple. More convenience for the

Phoenix Sky Harbor airport is raising parking prices about 60% on long term parking and $25% on short term parking. That from $5 to $8

It seems a parking operator has been nailed by the feds for tax evasion. He claimed in 2000 and 2001 to have a tax liability

Wow!!! Reino Enforcement Technologies has merged with Duncan. This makes Reino the largest company of its type in the industry. Reino has come a long

An old acquaintance of mine, Bruce LaPree, has been named Vice President – National Accounts at Central Parking. He reports directly to Central President Emmanuel

Once again, I am proved right right RIGHT.  New York city’s politicos went ahead an overroad the veto of Mayor Bloomberg and reinstituted "free" parking

The sports fans in Detroit do live within 50 miles of a major lake — see the post below…And they are trying to do anything

The sports fans in Detroit do live within 50 miles of a major lake — see the post below…And they are trying to do anything

Mesa Arizona is getting tough on parking violators.  They have hired full time parking officers. Read about it here. The Arizona city near Phoenix has

Well, not stolen, but certainly the owner of a 7 unit apartment building isn’t allowed to turn it into condos. Why — Not enough parking.

Standard has bought Sound Parking in Seattle. Read about it here.  Sound runs 55 locations in the Seattle area. Principals William Beattie and Brad Parrish

I asked Dale Denda to comment on the recent garage fire in Manhattan. He has studied fires in garages for a number of years and

Gainsville, FL has built a downtown garage and now it seems the garage isn’t generating enough money to keep the garage in the black. Read

First, I understand that Omar wasn’t in fact driving, so the valet is completely off the hook. In fact, his companion had the valet ticket

I’m not sure I understand this one.  I think it means that parking charges are proposed to be suspended on this Hindu holiday. The Mayor

I looked at the post below and then to the right (on the news feed, that has probably changed by the time you read this)

The City of Baltimore has decided to allow hybrid cars’ owners a $55 per month reduction in their contract parking charges. Now, except for the

We are in the middle of the annual rush for exhibitors to sign up for the IPI show. They have a very fancy system on

I find it hard to believe — but here we go. As mentioned in an earlier blog, the city of Paso Robles, CA is considering

This story in the Chicago Tribune says it all. Schools in the Chicago area are renting parking spaces to those living in surrounding areas who

OK, Everyone made some mistakes here, but I side with the valet, on points. Omar Sharif was drinking heavily at a restaurant in Los Angeles.

The Florida Parking Association is booming. Its Annual Meeting at the Sawgrass Marriott near Jacksonville was a grand success. What with over 40 exhibitors and

Standard Parking has announced that it has a letter of intent to purchase System parking of Chicago. System run 124 locations in Illinois and Wisconsin,

Its the Middle Atlantic Parking Assocaition/Parking Assoication of The Virginia’s annual meeting. The weather was great yesterday (Sunday) for the golf tournament but today the

With apologies to my friends in the automated parking industry, I bring this sad story to your attention. Well, I’m not alone, there have been

Funny about blogs, you read them in reverse order. If you read the one below, this one makes more sense. Granville, Ohio is considering a

A local authority in Wales, UK, is not going to spend $7500 on a parking survey. Read about it here. Someone thought it would be

A hospital in the UK had a huge parking problem — everyone was complaining, there weren’t enough spaces, patients were a tither, staff in revolt,

Tucson airport has added 300 or so covered parking spaces and is charging twice the regular parking rate ($8 vs$4) to park there.  The almost

The IPI has published a survey to its members asking what they think about the future and existing programs of the organization. I think its

To review a competitive trade show is difficult, as it is filtered through a lot of prejudices that I have. But I will give it

The Chambersburg, PA, School District has a problem. It wants to expand its stadium but zoning says that it must have one space for every

Vacation Destination Ocean City MD is building garages. They have determined that over the next 15 years they will be down 500 spaces so they

At Least in Portland — Not only did parking and the controversy over whether to buy Cale or Parkeon in Portland hit the front pages

Here’s the deal — the Dulles airport in DC charges Border and customs types upwards of $300 a month to park. Read about it here.

The City Council of the City of New York has overridden the Mayor’s veto and in a 40-2 decision, reinstated free parking on Sundays in

The Lewistown, PA City council has decided that the removal of a $3 reduction in parking fines for overstaying a meter won’t bring an end

The saga continues — Now the striking parking workers are picketing the homes of the Mayor and the owner of the largest operator in PIttsburgh.

I’m back in the blogging saddle and thinking about Philadelphia and its parking woes…Read about it here. It seems the state of PA took over

The Intertraffic NA/PIE Conference and exhibition is over. A total of 1505 attendees went through the doors over the three days of the event.  That’s

I was preparing the mailing list for the October issue and low and behold, my software told me that this is the 100th issue of

I am sitting here bemused.  My phone isn’t ringing, the fax is quite, I haven’t gotten an email in an hour. And the Intertraffic/PIE show

Typical UK headline (above). The emphasis is mine. The problem is that there is a parking shortage around a hospital and a lot of traffic,

Got a letter the other day from the IPI. It said that they were looking for new members. The current membership stands at 1274. Lets

A lot is happening in the next couple of weeks. We are up to our necks preparing for Intertraffic/PIE next week. Also this is the

The parking wizards at San Francisco International are at it again. They have a 3200 space garage that has been closed for three months (it

I am being proven right almost by the second. IN the very next article I read on our Yahoo news line, I found this gem:

Well, It took only a couple of weeks after the Israelis bailed on the Gaza Strip. A member of a Palestinian commando unit was told

Well, the national guard may not be able to contain the protests in Crawford, whether constitutional or not, but the local county commission certainly knows

The union has rejected the latest offer by the parking operators. An offer which would pay 92% of their medical insurance and raise their salaries

A senior at Purdue writes in to the local paper to complain about parking. Read it here.  Here’s the deal — as the university has

Pat sends word that the folks who have signed up for PIE seminars is nearing the 300 mark, that’s 50% ahead of the same date

Stan Cramer of Cramer airport parking reports that the state of PA is suing the Harrisburg International Airport to prevent it from taking his business

Got the following from Ed Urrutia of Denison Parking, Inc. Ed lives in the New Orleans Area I was actually trapped in Metairie, a suburb,

OK we are at day 10 from the hurricane and 9 from the flood in New Orleans. The naysayers and the hand ringers are hopefully

I just have to comment on this. The parking attendants union has gone out on strike in Pittsburgh. They want more money, and more flexibility

If you look to the right, you will see our live news parking feed. Its from Yahoo and will give you day to day updates

I have a reader in Santa Barbara who was commenting on my blog about San Luis Obispo’s new Parking Garage — and its $32,000 a

My blog about churches paying for onstreet parking in NYC drew this response from a reader: "As I have said before, the churches would line