Downtown Fort Myers paid parking confusion persists and aggravates people getting tickets

Reporter: Jolena Esperto Writer: Paul Dolan
Published: Updated:
parking ticket
New parking meters in downtown Fort Myers. CREDIT: WINK News

The days of free parking are officially over, with the new paid parking stations throughout downtown Fort Myers now online.

Monday is also the first day you could get a ticket, and it will cost you late into the night over the weekend.

People are saying they didn’t know or fully understand the changes, the price hike, the extended hours, and the new signs that add an important word, ‘paid.’

WINK News saw several people get a ticket who were understandably unhappy about the situation.

Two weeks before Christmas, and downtown Fort Myers is decorated in the holiday spirit. Even the parking signs have recently changed from “2-hour parking” to “2-hour paid parking,” but a lot of people haven’t gotten the memo.

“If you go to the bottom of the ticket, there’s a website you can go to. It’s 100% free to contest the ticket,” said a Fort Myers parking enforcement officer.

One woman got the unwanted ticket and unsuccessfully attempted to return it.

“Kind of just parked here, and everybody in this line just got a ticket for no reason. Because before it didn’t say paid – never. They never said anything. And not even that you can’t even see it,” said Paula Ponce.

Monday, the City of Fort Myers started to enforce its new downtown parking rules. The general manager of Denison Parking told WINK News the city issued warnings for about a week. On average about 100 tickets per day, but they have also seen 600 to 800 paid transactions.

“I’ve been here for so long. I’ve always come to downtown and I never got a ticket before. This is the first time I’ve ever got a ticket. And that’s the first time I see that parking little thing over there, too,” said Ponce.

The downtown parking confusion continues. Nevertheless, the changes are going to remain. And in the new year, Christmas decorations downtown will go away.

Some people complain the red bows are covering the word “paid” on some of the signs, thereby exacerbating the confusion.

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