Lexingtonians voice frustrations with LEXPARK

Lexington, Ky. (WTVQ) — A lot of people are talking about LEXPARK parking tickets on social media and how they think it is destroying downtown.

Downtown life is a huge part of Lexington. From the bars, to the restaurants and shops and to entertainment areas like Lexlive or the Lexington Opera House.

Laura Boison, with LEXPARK, spoke about the issue.

“First of all, I appreciate that they’re raising it,” said Boison. “We want to be aware, we want to be part of and we also want them to be aware of the choices downtown. We could help them. They can look at lexpark.org, our website. They could call us, because we can give them other choices in parking which might be a better choice for them.”

One college student spoke out about her frustrations with LEXPARK.

“One time I was towed three times in a week actually and I have had so many tickets wracked up and being a student at UK it’s really difficult to actually afford the tickets,” said UK student Kelly. “Their usually 15 or 30 dollars.”

And not just college students having these experiences.

“I came to a conference down here and parked downtown and was just a little over so I got the ticket,” said Sandy Adams. “The process to appeal was complicated, so my only option was to pay it online or through some app, which I think can be difficult for some people.”

“I left my car back in Chicago and didn’t bring it down this last semester, because of all the tickets,” said Kelly.

Boison, however, says it’s not exactly a rise in parking tickets.

“It’s not just meters that we’re managing. We’re managing the safety of our community, so if somebody is parking in a loading dock, somebody’s parking in front of a fire hydrant, things like that. That’s also what we’re responsible to manage.”

But could what the community views as a rise in tickets effect downtown life?

“I see the frustration with it, because downtown is such a big draw if it wasn’t for the parking issue,” said Adams. “So yeah, I think it will hurt people wanting to come down here if they are afraid of getting ticketed.”

Some suggestions people have to help with this problem are better signs or more free parking lots.