Owen Advani, 15, of Yarmouth, talks about parking tickets in Portland after finding a spot on Commercial Street with his father, Ranjiv Advani. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Portland has seen a rebound in parking ticket revenue after a drop-off during the pandemic, and visitors to the city’s Old Port are footing a big piece of the bill.

The city brought in $2.1 million from parking enforcement in the last fiscal year, more than in any year since 2015. And it could make even more this year because fees for expired meters and most other parking violations just went up by $5, making an expired meter ticket $25.

The city’s latest parking ticket data also makes it clear that drivers coming to Portland should be most wary of getting a parking ticket in the Old Port. Of the top 10 streets for tickets, nearly all are in the retail and tourist district, with Commercial Street being the clear leader in expired meter fines.

Vehicles parked in expired spaces account for more than one in four parking tickets issued by the city. Of the expired meter tickets issued citywide during the first half of this calendar year, Commercial Street accounted for about 15%, or 2,000 out of 12,900 such tickets.

Over 900 expired meter tickets were given on Free Street during the first half of 2024 across 95 metered spots. Over 700 were given on Exchange Street across 60 metered spots. And over 4,000 other expired meter tickets have been given across Spring, Fore, Congress, State, Casco, Market, and Federal streets.

It’s no coincidence that the Old Port is also the most competitive place to park in Portland.

Yarmouth resident Ranjiv Advani, 53, has lived in the Portland area for more than two decades and said the hunt for parking, especially in the Old Port, is harder than it’s ever been. These days, he often opts for a ride-sharing service to avoid the parking problem altogether.

“Getting a spot on the street, down on Commercial Street, it’s almost impossible, whereas years ago, you could get one on the side streets,” he said.

Ranjiv Advani, of Yarmouth, said it has become much harder to park in Portland’s Old Port over the years. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Advani and his family recently lucked into a parking spot on Commercial, arriving just as another vehicle was moving out. “Had that not happened, and we’d driven around for a few minutes, we might have just given up” and gone home, he said.

Jennifer Andruzzi, who visits Portland from her home in the Conway, New Hampshire, area, remembered a recent visit when she drove around trying to find street parking in the Old Port and finally gave up. She opted to pay more to park in a private lot.

“I kept circling and circling and circling. I always end up in the DiMillo’s lot,” Andruzzi said.

The private lot adjacent to DiMillo’s On The Water restaurant is one of many around the city managed by Unified Parking Partners. It’s free for people eating at the restaurant, but for others the hourly rate for parking can cost $11, four times the cost of hourly street parking on Commercial Street.

Andruzzi, who has worked in the tourism industry, said she understands why parking has to be hard or expensive.

“I’m not against parking tickets. Cities have to raise money somehow,” Andruzzi said. “It’s tough but when you’re in a tourism spot you have to expect it.”

Parking in Portland has long been a contentious issue, with residents and downtown employees critical of the city’s fees and the two-hour limit on street parking as well as the steeper fees and fines charged by the commercial lot operations that manage private lots around the city.

The city charges $2.50 an hour for street parking between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and most spaces have two-hour limits. City-operated garages typically charge $3 to $4 an hour and $10 to $25 a day.

MAYOR: TURNOVER NECESSARY

Portland Mayor Mark Dion said parking in downtown Portland needs to accommodate a flourishing consumer market, so parking turnover is necessary.

“Parking tickets is a chronic source of complaints. What the city of Portland charges for on street parking is affordable and reasonable,” Dion said. “Parking is really related to successful markets. You got to turn over parking so customers can access the businesses of the city.”

John Peverada has been director of parking in Portland for 29 years and can remember when it was all single meters that took nickels, dimes and quarters. The city began adding “pay and display” meters where you could use credit cards to pay for parking in 2011, and launched its partnership with Passport, a mobile app to pay the parking meter, in 2018. The mobile app allots two hours of parking at one location, and alerts the customer when their time is almost up.

A vehicle parked on Commercial Street in Portland is booted for a parking violation. Staff photo by Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

The technology has actually reduced the number of tickets from the coin-meter days, he said.

“In the older days, we wrote more tickets because there was less compliance with the meters,” Peverada said. “There are only so many quarters you can carry in your pocket.”

But the city is clearly enjoying an increase in revenue over the past decade, and especially since the pandemic slowdown.

Dion pointed to the “economy” as a reason for the increased parking ticket revenues this year. “2015 is pre-COVID. Things here changed. Everything has gone up,” Dion said.

Dion also noted that during COVID, when people were rarely driving and Portland put a pause on ticketing cars at expired meters, the city had to receive federal funding to make up for the lack in parking ticket revenue.

Revenue from parking tickets allows the city to have a lower property tax, Dion said, because parking ticket revenue goes into a general pot of money that the City Council considers when it’s time to set a budget.

MOST COMPLAINTS ABOUT PRIVATE LOTS

Many of the complaints the city does get about parking these days is really about the private lots, the mayor said.

Unified Parking Partners, a private company that manages multiple parking lots in Portland, has been the focus of recurring complaints that its fees are excessive, that its lots aren’t clearly identified as privately operated and that the company has been too aggressive with its reliance on booting vehicles that overstay the paid time in their spaces.

Dion said he gets complaints about UPP “all the time,” and that they tend to focus on the company’s fees and signage, which features a big, blue P and sometimes says “public parking,” leading drivers to mistakenly take complaints up with the city.

Dion said the city can’t regulate the company because it is private and operates on private property, most of the time through a lease arrangement with businesses in Portland.

“I tell people to be really cautious,” Dion said. “We have no more jurisdiction than setting the price of a steak dinner at a restaurant. They’re not doing anything that enters the public arena.”

Dion also said UPP provides parking options for those who are willing to pay for the convenience. The mayor said he recently paid $22.50 for parking when he took his grandchildren out for pizza.

UPP’s chief operating officer, Derek Brandt, did not respond to interview requests for this story, but the company did provide basic information about its fees and penalties.

The company uses “dynamic pricing,” meaning the cost of parking fluctuates depending on the time of day or day of the week. The price to park at some UPP garages could be $45-55 for a day of parking, or $25 for two hours at some lots.

The cost of an expired meter ticket at a UPP location in Portland starts at $43 and could escalate to $63 in a matter of days.

Tina Quattrucci, of Saco, talks about parking tickets in Portland, where she sells her handcrafted wares on Commercial Street. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

LOOKING FOR SOME LENIENCY

Tina Quattrucci, of Saco, relies on pedestrians and tourists to purchase her artwork, painted seashells with sea glass, at her table on Commercial Street.

“It’s a great spot for my artwork. The tourists love it, we have the cruise ships come in,” Quattrucci said, while noting that it’s a challenge to move her car every two hours when parking on the street and the private lots nearby are too expensive.

“I get here super early to get a good parking spot. It’s nice to be able to have supplies in my van,” Quattrucci said. “In the middle of a busy day it’s difficult for me to just pick up and find another parking spot, and hope that I can get back to my table and none of my stuff is gone.”

So she sometimes gambles on not getting a ticket – and loses.

“Honestly, I’ve been parked right here and (the parking enforcement agent) will be right there and give me a ticket even though I’m standing here,” Quattrucci said. “I get it, they want the tourists to have an easy in-and-out, but I feel like the artists create a nice atmosphere for the tourists, so if they want to support that they could be a little bit more lenient with us.”

Staff Writer Daniel Kool contributed to this report.