New Orleans city crews towed more than 200 cars in the first major weekend of Mardi Gras parades, a bid to boost revenue that irked some residents who said the parking rules weren’t advertised.
New Orleans Department of Public Works staffers towed vehicles illegally parked along Tchoupitoulas Street and within the stretch of neighborhoods from Napoleon Avenue to the French Quarter commonly known as “the box,” said a spokesperson for Mayor Helena Moreno’s administration.
The tows come a week after the department, at the request of the New Orleans Police Department, changed signage that restricted parking before and after parades from two hours to four hours, an effort to “support public safety and parade operations,” Moreno’s Press Secretary Jonah Gilmore said.
That prohibits parking between 1 p.m. Friday to 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
“The four-hour restriction is posted exclusively within the parade route formation and disbanding areas,” Gilmore said. “Outside of these designated areas, the remainder of the parade route remains subject to the standard two-hour parking restriction.”
But the change and the volume of cars towed set off a wave of frustration by those impacted, who said the move was excessive and lacked adequate notice. In total, 207 cars were towed under a provision in the city’s charter that makes parking during restricted hours and dates reflected on city signs a towable offense.
“No one told us anything. If we knew we could’ve planned accordingly,” said Tara Francolini, owner of Italian-style deli Francolini’s on Tchoupitoulas Street, who witnessed workers towing cars parked in front of her restaurant.
The heightened enforcement measures come as the city is seeking to stave off a projected $222 million budget deficit this year, and they are expected to recoup about $7 million. City officials are also going after drivers who owe unpaid parking fees and fines.
City officials previously announced plans to hire 50 new parking enforcement officers to handle violations and attack a $100 million backlog of unpaid fines and fees.
The additional manpower will also operate under the purview of NOPD, instead of the Public Works Department, which has its own parking enforcement division. An NOPD spokesperson said on Monday that they expect the change to take place in March.
At the end of January, the city changed signage near parade formation routes to warn drivers that they had four hours to clear out of the area, not two hours, as is normally the case before parades.
They were relying on a provision in city code that lets the city tow cars parked in areas where posted signs prohibit them. If drivers had any other unpaid fines or fees, they must pay those fees on top of the towing fee to retrieve their cars from the city’s lot.
A separate provision in city code mandates that drivers must leave a parade route two hours before a parade. Francolini said residents and businesses in the area are used to the two-hour timeframe that has been the norm for years, and that four hours before seems excessive.
She said it cuts into the deli’s lunch rush and that members of her staff and other businesses were hit, as well as a food delivery driver.
NOPD spokesperson Reese Harper said Tuesday that the four-hour restrictions apply only to parade formation areas, “which require additional time for float staging, safety preparations, and logistical support prior to the parade.”
