Local panhandler Gertis McDowell sits in his wheelchair at the corner of University Avenue and Marshall Street shaking his tin of coins nearly every day. But on Saturdays as soon as someone is about to put money in a parking meter, he starts to yell. “Don’t do it! Don’t do it!” he shouts, as he wheels over to surprised parkers.
McDowell explains to parkers that on Saturdays no one from the city comes around to check if people have paid for parking. “I stop them…try to stop them and save them some money from parking” he says.
Parking meters all around the city list Monday through Saturdays as mandatory paid parking days. But McDowell knows, and the police confirm, that no one is employed to check for paid parking on weekends. “The traffic people that work the parking meters, maids and that kind of stuff that work Monday through Friday are out there Monday through Friday. They have Saturday and Sunday off”, confirms Undersheriff Warren Darby.
Why do city meters list mandatory paid parking for Saturdays if no one is out there checking? “They [the city] don’t want to pay anyone. The city hopes people will put money in meters….they want to make money” says Captain Shannon Trice of the Syracuse Police Department. Parkers shouldn’t get too confident about not paying on Saturdays, because regular police officers on duty can still issue tickets. But in this city, they are usually too busy to do so.
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