Today after 17 months without parking enforcement officers the city has four new part-time officers who will patrol more than 1000 spaces downtown and 18 municipal parking lots. The last time Brockton had Parking Meter patrols was in April of 2009 when they worked under the Brockton Police department and resigned in lieu of being laid off because of budget cuts. The new officers will work under the Brockton Parking Authority and work about 20 hours per week.
"People would just park here all day" said an anonymous business owner who did not want to be identified. "I think its great, now it will hopefully free up space for people to come down and actually shop and find a place in front of my store open".
The City Council during the summer session placed the Brockton Parking Authority in charge of parking enforcement. The police were issuing major ticket violations like parking in a handicapped zone but now the meter officers can target the areas from YMCA on Main Street to Pleasant Street, and Warren Avenue to Commercial Streets. There is a one-hour parking limit on Main Street and a two hour limit on American Legion Parkway and other streets have meters.
Hopefully this will have a positive impact on the business district in Brockton. Freeing up spaces for people to come and shop downtown and use the services and also recoup any lost money from people who violate the parking laws. "Everyday I see the same car parking in the same place and I feel the city has finally listened to me about how this affects my store, now I will have a free space opened up at least every hour now". said the anonymous business owner. BrocktonBeat asked why they wanted to remain anonymous and they told us "I like free advertising but feel this is an issue that the city has finally addressed and want to see how it affects my business, plus I don't know who you are".
Today enforcement starts and hopefully this will have a positive impact on downtown business and for now at least one more business owner knows who BrocktonBeat is but as far as parking in front of our business, the more the merrier.
